Douglas NilesRecensioni

F/SF

F/SF

En un rincón del mundo muy alejado de los Reinos Olvidados, se encuentra el exótico continente de Maztica. Allí, Erixitl, la muchacha esclava, descubre que los dioses la han escogido para una tarea que puede cambiar el destino del Mundo Verdadero. Al mismo tiempo, desde la Costa de la Espada parte una expedición con el propósito de alcanzar las tierras de Kara-Tur, situadas al este de los Reinos , y de donde llegan el té, las especias, los rubíes y la seda, pero navegando hacia el oeste. Los exploradores, una legión formada por curtidos mercenarios, parten hacia poniente, sin saber que en su camino encontrarán un nuevo continente donde el salvajismo más primitivo se mezcla con una gran cultura, y reclamarán las nuevas tierras como propias. Sólo Erixitl, con la ayuda del Caballero Águila y el capitán Halloran, tiene una posibilidad de evitar que Maztica sea víctima inocente de la destrucción total.

Nexal, la ciudad mas poderosa de Maztica, esta en ruinas. Una plaga de monstruos siniestros se extiende sobre la faz de la tierra, y, desde los cimientos de la Gran Pirámide de Zaltec, se eleva un coloso de piedra, la encarnación del sangriento dios de la guerra. Para oponerse a los designios de Zaltec, los guerreros nativos y los conquistadores del Mundo Verdadero forman una alianza y luchan, desesperados por contener el avance del caos. Pero la única posibilidad de salir airosos de la terrible batalla es conseguir la ayuda de Qotal, el dragón emplumado. La profecía transmitida a Erixtil de Palul dice que Qotal regresara a la tierra en la pirámide de los Rostros Gemelos. Sin embargo, las fuerzas del mal, conocedoras de la profecía, avanzan hacia el lugar señalado, dispuestas a impedir que el dios plumífero abandone el plano etéreo y acuda a la llamada de sus fieles.

Erix, la ex muchacha esclava, y Halloran, el legionario, huyen de la catástrofe que barre Maztica. El Dios de la guerra se ceba en el caos, y reclama el sacrificio de mas corazones para favorecer la suerte de los guerreros nativos en su lucha contra el invasor proveniente de los Reinos Olvidados, mientras la pareja de amantes, desesperados, intenta eludir el acoso de sus muchos enemigos.

Grandes ejércitos recorren Krynn, extendiendo las sombras de maléficos reptiles por la tierra, y todas estas horribles huestes cumplen las órdenes de un hombre: Ariakas, el Emperador de Ansalon. Guerrero, mago, noble, rey... ha obtenido la gloria y el poder por encima de los cadáveres de sus enemigos y en su ascensión cuenta con la ayuda de Takhisis, su poderosa señora. Sin embargo, cuando la victoria definitiva del Mal está a punto de producirse, Ariakas deberá controlar su ambición o enfrentarse en persona a la Reina de la Oscuridad.

La diosa Tierra lloró; su herida era un tajo abierto en la carne. El corte era profundo, tal vez mortal, pero nadie conocía su sufrimiento.La diosa lloraba por sus siervas, las devotas druidas, convertidas en estatuas de piedra para escapar de la muerte, y de las que sólo una se había librado de la petrificación.Y la diosa lloraba también por los ffolk, su pueblo. La guerra asolaba su hermosa tierra y muchos morían resistiendo el ataque del hombre del norte o el de la Bestia, pero la paz los continuaba esquivando.

Bhaal era un dios colérico que se regocijaba con los actos sanguinarios y violentos. Cada vez que sus seguidores mataban invocando su nombre, él se sentía más y más fuerte, más y más satisfecho. Era el terrible dios de la Muerte. Su dominio se extendía por el llano de Gehenna, un reino desolado y opresivo, construido sobre una vasta e interminable ladera de montaña. Chorros de vapor surgían de la vertiente y ríos de lava la recorrían, chisporroteando en grandes cataratas, y se depositaban en borboteantes charcas.

El pozo de las tinieblas emanaba muerte; era un negro agujero bajo la luz del sol. En su interior, la Bestia, Kazgoroth, iba alimentándose de esa luz. Por su parte, la Madre Tierra trataba de ejercer toda su fuerza, pero la Bestia se estaba volviendo muy poderosa. Solamente Tristán Kendrich será capaz de defender la paz de los ffolk y mantener el equilibrio entre la Madre y las Tinieblas. Para ello, reúne a las criaturas de las islas Moonshaes que le ayudarán en su propósito.

Porthios está a punto de acabar con los seres malignos que se instalaron en Silvanesti. Sólo queda la isla del delta de Thon-Thalas, una campaña aparentemente sencilla. Pero sus tropas caen en una emboscada mortal y tras el fracaso, los senadores reaccionarios de las dos naciones élficas le acusan de traidor. Es proscrito y se convierte en un elfo oscuro que regresará a su país natal para organizar una rebelión contra el Thalas-Enthia y el nuevo Orador de los Soles, su joven sobrino Gilthas. Gilthas se enfrenta a múltiples problemas: los senadores elfos pretenden manejarlo como una marioneta, los Dragones Azules y los Caballeros de Thakhisis se proponen invadir Qualinesti, y ahora tiene además Porthios en su contra

Lost interest fast.

I liked this book. It was a fun and quick fantasy read. As other reviewers have noted, it is the first book written in the Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons & Dragons. There were lots of good fight scenes and some pretty good action throughout the story. I'll say that if you are a fan of firbolgs, you won't be disappointed. The story and characters were interesting and there was also a good mix of different races, creatures and personalities.

Nº 26 de la edición original de "Endless Quest" basado en el personaje de Tarzan

Part 2 of the Icewall trilogy picks up a couple of years after the previous book, The Messenger. The humans and ogres of Icereach have kept an uneasy truce for the last few years while the humans recover. Now, the ogres, with the help of The Alchemist have discovered a new extremely powerful magical weapon. Stariz, the High Priestess, forces the King into an all-out attack on the humans. Kerrick, Moreen and Strongwind must find a way to survive and neutralize this wonder-weapon. They also pick up where they left off in their very slow burning romantic triangle.
Compared to the previous book, the plot here is a little rushed and obvious. There's also what feels like an extremely contrived appearance by two of Krynn's more annoying races, tinker gnomes and gully dwarves, almost as if the author was forced to include them. Still, this was faced paced, well written and fun. The other problem with this one is the wonder-weapon, it is very much off of the top end of the scale for Dungeons and Dragons weapons of any kind.

A really fun read, especially for fans of the Dragonlance world. This book takes place almost entirely in the south pole region of Icereach, though there is a brief interlude in Silvanesti. The heroes are a young Arktos warrior woman and her friends, an elf Mariner and an ogre prince. Dragonlance style, the ogres are quite civilized, though still warlike.

I enjoy Nile's writing. He does a good job of pitting the various factions and tribes against each other, creating distinct personalities and cultures. Well done and nice to read a Dragonlance story again. For those who've read his Forgotten Realms novels, this might feel a bit similar, but not too bad.½

Still high quality, unlike many series the quality didn't drop off with book two or three. I thought this was a good conclusion to the series, I didn't feel like anything was missing, though I really do wish there were more books.½

An excellent continuation of the series.½

These came out back when there wasn't nearly as much epic fantasy and they were quite good. The characters, world, magic system and plot are quite interesting. This is a well-written, enjoyable fantasy series that is very underrated.

I read this in preparation for leading a group though this adventure. We have already started, and there are many possibilities going on. I am excited to see how this all plays out. I have always loved the artwork in this module, and I think that it is well planned out.

Nope, not good. The best things it has going for it is that Niles didn't feel compelled to write any D&D rules into his story. It's just a straight fantasy epic that happens to be set in a D&D world. But if it wasn't being published by TSR to pimp their product, I don't think anyone would have bought the hackneyed plot.

I read the three books seperately, but as I saw this omnibus, I decided to buy it as well as a sort of backup. Anyway, see my respective reviews of the trilogy at the following locations:

Firstborn - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/191106156
The Kinslayer Wars - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/191106157
The Qualinesti - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/191106158

copy-pasted from my Librarything account: the book itself wasn't always good enough to allow fast reading. When there was no action, reading was slow. Overall, good book, yet Flint is shown differently than in Chronicles. Stronger, fiercer and that's a bit strange.

FTK is op zich geen slecht boek, maar verwacht geen Flint zoals in de core-boeken à la Chronicles. Hier wordt hij sterker afgebeeld, stoerder, als een leider. Maar da's een "foutje" dat bij de meeste verhalen in de Preludes voorkomt, wellicht omdat het telkens een andere auteur is en die zijn/haar impressie van het desbetreffende personage wil doordrukken.

Het wordt soms lastig om lezen als er niet veel gebeurt, maar eens de actie er is, wordt het bladdraaien makkelijker. Vooral de laatste paar hoofdstukken vallen daaronder. FTK toont eens een ander beeld van Flint en in het kader van variatie is het leuk om lezen, maar echt belangrijk voor de main storyline van Dragonlance is het niet.

Of the "Chaos War" novels, I find this one the best one so far. Douglas Niles did a better job here than in "The Last Thane" at making it an exciting story, full of political intrigues, and family ties and so on.

What's also a nice change in style, in my opinion, is telling the story as a flashback. At the end of each chapter there's the three characters - Samar, warrior-mage and assistant of Alhana (exiled queen of Qualinesti), Silvanoshei (son of exiled Speaker Of The Sun Porthios and Alhana), and the green dragon Aerensianic, who gives his account of what happened - discussing things.

It also seems the Dark Knights aren't that cruel after all, or rather, the Chaos War doesn't really allow for the classic conquering and ruling. All have to join forces to avoid being killed themselves by Chaos's evil creatures(fire dragons, shadow wights, shape-shifting creatures, ...).

The only way to destroy them is by using weapons blessed by the gods (or with dragon magic), and those weapons are few in number compared to the masses of elves.

Again, "The Puppet King" is the best one so far, also in that it somehow rekindles my reading interest in Dragonlance novels, whereas the previous reads were rather mediocre.

copy-pasted from my Librarything account: Some editing errors like commas forgotten, no capital letters, ... Reads well, sometimes there's a slowdown, as in switching back to another scene (battle, non-battle, ...) that can annoy, yet also keeps the reader focused somehow. Comprehendible situations, though not always easy to 'connect' with characters. Some gaps in the story, some things untold and it's up to the reader to find out/use his/her imagination to fill the gaps. But overall, good follow-up to Firstborn.

Coming back to the world of Dragonlance (Krynn, Ansalon, ...) is always great. It's been, however, several months since I was last there (with "Kang's Regiment", as the Chaos War had commenced). Instead of going back on the timeline, I decided it is best to carry on and head into the future, since the Chaos War is going on, hence The "Chaos War" Series.

"The Last Thane" is book 1 in the quintet. Douglas Niles takes us to the world of Thorbardin and its various cities and dwarven clans (Hylar, Daergar, Theiwar, Klar, ...). The Hylar's thane, the cousin of Baker Whitegranite, is out with several of his troops to fight against the forces of the dark queen Takhisis, so he leaves Hybardin in charge of Baker, who's actually more interested in decoding ancient writings (by the hand of Chisel Loremaster) and knows close to nothing about ruling a city. But he gets help from a.o. a veteran military commander.

Baker is married to a Daergar female dwarf, who after several marital struggles, decides to return to her native home, to her brother, Darkend. He has conquered the throne in an unfair series of battle (as the tradition has it), making sure the outcome would be positive for him. As Garimeth, Baker's wife, informs Darkend about the Hylar being without thane and thus proper ruling, Darkend sees an opportunity to expand his territory (for which he set up an alliance with the Theiwar and Klar).

Little do they, and the Hylar, know that the forces of darkness, led by Zarak Thuul and his dragon, Primus. As you can imagine, there's lots of bloodshed, killing, destroying and what not. But also the Hylar were surprised of the betrayal by their dark brothers. So, yes, things get messy in the dwarven kingdom.

"The Last Thane" contains elements of friendship, love, betrayal, ... And certainly this: what goes around, comes around.

The writing is ok, the events are well described (though I had trouble picturing the environment - either a fault in my imagination or the writing style), but some happenings did leave me frowning. But hey, it remains Fantasy and Dragonlance, in which case it's normal certain logic cannot be applied here and there. All in all, a nice read, yet not among the best DL-novels.