Dragons of the Dwarven Depths (Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles, Book 1)

Excellent book and the narration on the audio version is perfect IMO. I wish the Chronicles and Legends were also available in audio. I travel a lot and could listen to these books over-and-over.

The book is fantastic, it reminds me of my times of RPG, when me and my fellows were lost or imprisioned by some orcs.

Between Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Dragons of Winter Night, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman left a huge gap in the story line, with only a poem or such to give us a hint to what the heck happened between the two Chronicles. But now we are fortunate enough to have Dragons of Dwarven Depths, which tells us of the companions' adventures between Autumn Twilight and Winter Night. But Dragons of Dwarven Depths is much different than the Chronicles... In the Beginning it tells how the refugees from Pax Tharkas cannot spend the winter in the valley they currently occupy for various reasons, one of which is that their enemies have found the valley. In hopes to find shelter for the refugees, the companions journey to find the lost underground city of Thorbardin, all except for Sturm, Raistlin, and Caramon who head for Skullcap in search for a secret way into Thorbardin. Later on Tika and Tas join Sturm, Raistlin and Caramon. At Skullcap Sturm puts on a cursed helm and is convinced he is a former prince of Thorbardin, with the help of the former prince (Sturm), the adventurers meet up with their companions, and find their way in (at the expense of losing the "Gate" which is actually a huge door, off the side of the mountain). When in the mountain, Flint Fireforge meets with the god Reorx and learns he is destined to find the famed Hammer of Karas, which had been lost to the dwarven thanes for many, many, many years. Unfortunately the current prince of Thorbardin, Arman Karas, thinks himself the one chosen to find the hammer. Who will get the hammer in the end? I certainly can't tell you! But this is only half the story. Dray-yan, a draconian magic-user, has an idea, what if he pretended to be the Dragon Highlord Verminarrd? No one but him and a fellow draconian know the real Dragon Highlord is dead. He plans to be triumphant in what Verminarrd failed at. Winning the world for the Dark Queen. Through this plot he plans to win the favor of the Queen of Darkness, Takhisis', for his race. And that is all I can tell you with a summary. But what I can tell you is that this book is different from any of the Chronicles. For one, the Chronicles always focus on all the characters. And although I did not mention him much in the earlier summary paragraph, Flint Fireforge is probably the main character of this book. It is because the whole outcome of the story is up to flint that I think this book focuses on mainly one character. Something that never happened in a single Chronicles book. One of my favorite parts in this book is when Raistlin's questioning and study of the mushrooms of Thorbardin pays off when the Thanes of Thorbardin attempt to poison the companions' dinner by putting mushrooms only safe in ale in soup. Raistlin managed to tell the companions in time, but if he hadn't...let's just say that Dragons of Winter Night would be rather confusing. This part is a favorite because it shows that smarts can save your life where brute strength cannot. This boo

Another great story in the world of Dragonlance! I was so sad at the end of the War of Souls trilogy, as I thought it meant the end of the world of Krynn for me... I was wrong, and I celebrated the day I found out that Margaret and Tracy were writing prequels. However, after the Star Wars debacle, I was slightly concerned that this was going to be a "Phantom Menace". I am glad to say it is not. This book takes place between Autumn Twilight and Winters Night, and revolves around Riverwind's evacuation of the Slave of Pax Tharkas after the rebellion, and Tanis, Raistlin, Sturm Caramon, Flint, and Tas's search for the Hammer of Kharas - used to make the Dragonlances. This book focuses largely on Flint, which awesome considering that he played a much diminished role for the majority of the series. Flint leads the companions in the search and has to deal with the dwarven bureaucracy and xenophobia in Thorbardin. Compounding the difficulty is an especially clever and ambitious draconian who has fooled the world into thinking Lord Verminard still lives. I swear, fans of Tas will love this book - as always he has some of the best lines and gets himself into the strangest situations. My only criticism, [which is not aimed at the authors] and one shared by many reviewers, is the abysmal editing. There were missing words, spelling errors, type-o's and so forth. While this does not detract from the well-conceived plot, it does slow the natural flow of the read. Hopefully the publishers will take an extra week for editing on the next instalment. Anyhow, this was a great read for fans of the series! Relic113

If you loved the original Chronicles, you will love this too. It reads and feels like it was written at the same time as the originals. All your favorite characters are true. The plot is new and fills in the gaps between the first 2 books of the older trilogy. I am overjoyed that Weis and Hickman are doing this type of work and I look forward to the rest of the series. On the other hand, if you are new to Dragonlance, pick up the Chronicles Series first. In my oipinion, it is the pinnacle derivative acheivement of basic fantasy writing that began with Tolkien. That is not meant as a negative comment. Rather, since all fantasy is basically derived from Tolkien, the Chronicles ranks as the best series based upon his concepts. Certainly Jordan and Goodkind are great also, but their work is a little too far removed from basic fantasy to compare with Dragnolance. Dragonlance is simpler, yet often more poignant, and all-in-all way fun and much more accessible for the times when you need something a little easier to read (in between a mammoth Wheel of Time or Sword of Truth epic).