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The Kinslayer Wars, Douglas Niles
The tale of the grandsons of Silvanos, twin
brothers Sithas, Speaker of the Stars and
Kith-kanan, commander of the elite fighting force
the Wildrunners. Deep into a tragic war that begins
between humans and elves but becomes a bitter civil
uprising that destroys the unified elven nation,
the brothers face their own battle and struggle
with betrayal and jealousy. Not only is this book
full of action and drama, but it also demonstrates
the real life tragedies that can happen when those
who have power and influence fail to keep a check
on their personal choices.
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Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Margaret Weis
and Tracy Hickman
The original trilogy of the Dragonlance Saga,
The Chronicles Trilogy, begins with this book,
where we meet the Companions, led by Tanis
Halfelven. Dragons, long gone from the face of
Krynn and believed to just be stories to frighten
children, have reappeared, along with a new kind of
monster, draconians, vicious dragon like humanoids
that menace nations all over the continent of
Ansalon. Tanis and his friends must find a way to
stop the destruction of their world. Among the
characters introduced here are Gilthanas, the much
maligned and prone to arrogance and error elflord,
Tika Waylan, shield basher extrordinaire, and
Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the kender you can actually
like.
Gilthanas head wound count: 2. One
imprisonment.
Check out the autograph
my good friend and roleplaying buddy Nicole got
from Margaret Weis!
Click on image to see it full sized.
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Dragons of Winter Night, Margaret Weis
and Tracy Hickman
The Chronicles continues with Winter Night, with
the Companions having conquered their initial foe
in Autumn Twilight, but still far from acheiving
any safety from the dragon threat. Travelling in
search of the legendary dragonlance that can be
used to vanquish the evil dragons they are
separated into two groups by a draconian attack,
Tanis and those with him joining Alhana Starbreeze,
elven princess, in trying to free her land from a
terrible curse and retrieve the dragon orb they
hope will provide some protection, and valiant
knight Sturm Brightblade, along with the others,
venturing south to the Icewall Glacier, where they
find an ancient knight frozen atop his good dragon
mount, his broken dragonlance still in his hand.
With the lance and a dragon orb they won in battle,
Sturm and his group head for the refuge of the
elves that fled from the dragon threat. Here one of
Gilthanas' timely head injuries initiates the
meeting of the Companions and Silvara, a silver
dragon posing as a wilder elf servant. Seeing the
lance and the orb, Silvara takes it as a sign to
break the oath treacherously hung on the good
dragons not to get involved in the war. She leads
the small group to the tomb of legendary knight
Huma Dragonsbane and shows Gilthanas' friend Theros
Ironfeld how to forge the magical weapons. Like all
second act books, this one is full of despair, with
only the briefest glimmer of hope at the end. Here
we also get to see that Gilthanas is not completely
a hopeless goof, since with one smile he is able to
make Silvara fall in love with him, but his
arrogance still remains as he is unable to accept
the fact that she is a dragon and has a true
princely foot-stomping fit over it.
Gilthanas head wound count: 2, plus a few
sprains.
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Dragons of Spring Dawning, Margaret Weis
and Tracy Hickman
The final book of the Chronicles trilogy starts
with the Companions holding two of the three keys
they will need to fight the dragon armies, the
dragonlances and the dragon orb. Although Silvara
has broken the oath that keeps the good dragons
from joining the war, the other good dragons have
not, so she and Gilthanas have disappeared to try
and persuade them. The others, still in two groups,
continue to work their way towards victory, Tanis'
group struggling with difficulty as they meet
disaster after disaster, culminating in Tanis being
taken prisoner by the Blue Dragon Highlord, none
other than his former love, Kitiara, half-sister to
two other companions, Raistlin and Caramon Majere.
Meanwhile Sturm's group, including Gilthanas'
younger sister and Tanis' other former love,
Laurana, make their way towards Solamnia, Laurana
having been sent to lead the troops in spite of her
young age and inexperience in battle. In Kalaman
Laurana rallies the knights and wins their loyalty,
but they are still without much hope and beseiged
within their walls without dragons fighting on
their side. Just when things seem their bleakest,
Silvara and Gilthanas finally return, along with a
huge army of gold, silver, bronze, and copper
dragons. As for the final battle and what becomes
of Tanis and his choices, I will leave that to you
to find out. Although Gilthanas is not prominent in
this book, we do get to see him finally mature when
he does come in, losing his arrogance after
undergoing horrendous suffering.
Gilthanas head wound count: No head injuries
mentioned directly in this one, but I am sure there
were a few he incurred on his voyage. Perhaps if
they ever write that story in detail we can add a
few more. One imprisonment alluded to.
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Kindred Spirits, Mark Anthony and Ellen
Porath
An earlier accounting of Tanis Halfelven and
Flint Fireforge, this one tells the tale of how the
two solved murders that Tanis himself stood accused
of and saved his adopted uncle Solostaran, Speaker
of the Suns, and his cousins Porthios, Gilthanas,
and Laurana from the murderer. I'm not going to
give much away here because this is a mystery. What
I can say is that the younger Gilthanas doesn't
seem to have been much better at withstanding
injury, and it is a miracle he survived without
being an idiot.
Gilthanas head wound count: 1, inflicted by
Tanis himself this time (no wonder their
relationship went sour, here's proof that it was
not just because Tanis was in love with his little
sister), plus a couple of other good Gilthanas
accidents.
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The Odyssey of Gilthanas, Douglas Niles,
Steve Miller, and
Stan!
Gilthanas stood Silvara up on an important date
and now realizes his life is empty without her. Off
he goes to hunt down his silver dragon lover,
traipsing across all of Ansalon in the process,
hunted by assassins, learning new magic,
discovering strange and fascinating places, and
going mad for a while. A collection of short
stories surrounding Gilthanas' journey with an
appendix of 5th Age playing notes on the places he
travels to, I found this to be entertaining and a
great resource, and the three collaborators provide
us with some of the greatest Dragonlance writing
ever. (Oooooh, I hate the cover art on this one,
but it's an example of 'Don't judge a book by its
cover.')
Gilthanas head wound count: 3, plus a poisoning.
Two imprisonments.
Check out a TROF exclusive interview with
Steve Miller, one of the
authors of The Odyssey of Gilthanas!
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Also check out a great little Krynn fanfic Father
by Nicole Halpin, and the poem The
Golden Prince by Lyssa.
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