The final volume of another Dragonlance series has at last arrived, and I am forced to admit to a lack of objectivity about Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. Because, as the cover and unwieldy title alike imply, it is mostly about Raistlin Majere, and I don’t really get tired of that guy, at least not when written by Weis and Hickman.
Pretty much, the book details the lost month in the original Chronicles between when Raistlin left his companions to die in the Blood Sea of Istar[1] and when he reappeared at the series climax to tilt the balance against the Queen of Darkness[1], in order to further his own ambitions via a freer world. It may contradict some of the other main sequence canon, but never in very noticeable ways. Plus, since the character study continues to fulfill everything I’ve sought out of the series in the past twenty years, I don’t really care. Things in the story include a secret resistance in the heart of evil’s lair, an assassin kender, a plot against the gods of magic, and perennial Dragonlance favorite Lord Soth, the death knight. Unless you also really like the psychology of Raistlin Majere, though, it’s okay at best.
[1] Sometimes, when I have not typed the words out in a while, I forget just how standard-fantasy these books can get.
The sad/awesome thing is, I’d kind of like to read these later books, but I only read the first six (well, and like a dozen non-Weis/Hickman ones) in like junior high, and I really don’t remember the plots, 20 years later. And I don’t want to read them so bad that I’m going to sit down and read the first six again, you know?
Well, these new in particular are in the same span as the first three anyway, and they seem to be entirely inclusive of new readers. So if you did pick them up, it would be friendly to you, and possibly cut the aggravation of what rehashing occurs.
All that said, I also think that the Legends trilogy still stands up in its own right and would be pleasant to reread. The Chronicles are okay, but definitely less good than the Legends. (The first book, of course, reads like a campaign notebook. But *after* that, pretty okay.)