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The Wizards Conclave: The Age of Mortals ReviewReally, I'd give negative stars if it was possible. Before I get going, I'd like to point out that I've always liked Douglas Niles's DL works, The Last Thane aside. In particular, I'd recommend Fistandantilus Reborn, The Kinslayer Wars, and Emperor of Ansalon as excellent examples of how good a writer her can be in this setting...even if each has slight flaws, they don't add up enough to detract from the book.
In Wizard's Conclave, it seems like all there are, are flaws. As far as the issue of Dalamar the Dark's hair color, he WAS killed and resurrected. The shock of that COULD have bleached his hair - it happens in real life sometimes when people experience a severe trauma. That was the least of it in my mind.
For starters, the heroine (Coryn) was far too naive and STUPID throughout the book. The idea that a kender could just show up (in Icereach, of all places, without being a god, as in The Icewall Trilogy) at Scharon's door and guide a 15-year old girl to Palanthas WITHOUT INCIDENT is ludicrous. Plain and simple. Any ship they took would have had to pass close enough to the Gale off the coast of Southern Ergoth to experience negative weather patterns from its fallout, yet we hear nothing of a storm-tossed ship or anything. Just smooth sailing!
Secondly, the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth has a whole big piece of source material on it (Raistlin's Legacy: The Tower of High Sorcery) that was readily available to Mr. Niles that he apparently didn't look at once. Wayreth Forest is just that, a forest. No caves, no mountains, NO SECRET TUNNELS! It is guarded by a COPPER dragon, not some massive green holdover from the Third Dragon War. It is also a structure that CANNOT be harmed. Raistlin, in Test of the Twins, was a god in an alternate future and even his DIVINE power couldn't harm it, never mind some wild magic.
The villain was, in a word, boring. The writing was kiddie (he should have named Coryn Harriet Potter and just have been done with it) and there were so many problems that they got in the way of telling a good story. Not the least of which is the idea that every wizard had the "fly" spell memorized for every day use or that they suddenly had a full compliment of spells after years of having no access to them. Oh, and lest I forget, they made good time from all corners of the continent, all arriving at the SAME EXACT TIME the day AFTER the Night of the Eye. I wasn't aware Ansalon had Leer jets.
The Master of the Tower has his own form, but it was not once used, and is more powerful than just about any wizard because he IS the Tower. Why he didn't lock the villain and his toadying sidekick in a room and allow them to suffocate is beyond me. The Tower's physical layout was incorrectly described, or should I say incompletely described. No mention was made of where the fence went from the foretower.
And for all of Coryn's unbelievable (literally) powers, she HAD to use her little copycat spell on that arrow to win? What about, oh, I dunno, casting a haste spell on the arrow so it would get there before Kalwhatshisname had time to turn around?
Was there anything about this book I liked? Yes, actually. I liked that Jenna became the Head of the Conclave, even if she's far too old to have withstood the punishment she took. She was no spring chicken in Dragons of Summer Flame as it was, yet here she is 40+ years later and still running around like she was in the prime of her life. Even Elminster would have a problem bouncing back from the kind of injuries she sustained!
The best part, though, was the scene with Palin and Dalamar. I felt that it was an excellent closing of the book on the Majere family (Linsha aside) and their involvement with the future of Krynn. Palin sacrificed magic at the end of the War of Souls trilogy and in this book - released shortly after Prisoner of Haven and, thus, a great piece of loose-end-tying - we see him happy for the first time in years. A family that rose from peaceful common stock returns to peaceful common stock...a great way to bring their saga full circle.
In short, though, Mr. Niles took far too many liberties with the story, not the least of which was betraying the tone of DL with a kiddie fantasy story, dialogue sequences, and pace. As I said, though, I like Doug Niles's DL stuff, by and large, and will just be forced to file this in the Miss category for him...which is still far outnumberd by his Hits. I really hope that he phoned this in due to personal feelings towards the story idea and the supposed story arc that is supposed to come with it. Coryn is rumored to feature prominently in his upcoming trilogy...I can only hope he doesn't continue the trend established in this book, but rather takes the story seriously and attempts to make the read not only fun, but worthwhile as well.
The Wizards Conclave: The Age of Mortals OverviewThe latest title in a series based on characters from the best-selling War of Souls trilogy.This title is the next in a series that explores the lives of key characters from Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's New York Times best-selling War of Souls trilogy. Wizards Conclave describes events that directly overlap events during the War of Souls, and it features two lead characters familiar to any fan of the Dragonlance world. Author Douglas Niles is well-known to and popular with both recent and long-term Dragonlance novel fans.
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