Sacred Fire

This book occurs 20 years after the Divine Hammer, and picks up where Cathan is "welcomed" back to the empire and the side of the Kingpriest. However, Cathan is shocked at the things he sees. The empire, and the Kingpriest, have both changed radically since he was banished. Fear, insecurity, and unbridled self-righteousness have taken over, poisoning the Kingpriest and Istar. After a botched attempt to usurp the Kingpriest, the cataclysm can no longer be avoided. Cathan's final quest is to take the disks of Mishakal to a safe place. This was an awesome book, and an awesome series. It's too bad more DL books weren't along this vein - the characters are interesting and strong, and the writing is superb. This is my third favorite DL trilogy, after Chronicles and Legends.

Can't say a whole lot the people under me haven't. After being extremely disappointed with the Crossroads & Icereach series, I too was down on DL(a first for me)but this trilogy was as engrossing as those named above were boring.I did find myself screaming at the characters to choose differently & thinking 'maybe it'll end differently, maybe the Cataclysm won't strike.' but it did. Of course, evil, as it usually does in the DL novels, stole the show. I found myself in awe & laughing at Fistandantilus's evilness & how like Raistlin he was.One small disappointment. I thought there'd be a tad more dialogue between the Kingpriest & Paladine after Beldinas realized his fatal mistake. I also would've liked to have known what Beldinas's afterlife was like. Paladine said the Kingpriest was a good man in the Chronicles. So, did he not go to the Abyss for what he did? I find it hard to believe the gods' let him off with nothing.

Outside of the initial Wies/Hickman trilogy, this is easily the best set of books in the series. Having read just over 90% of the DL books (including all tier 1 & 2 stories), I don't say this lightly. Two main points on why specifically it was so well written: First he obviously researched the genre & tied his stories together beautifully with the known facts, unlike a lot of the author's who just write whatever they feel. Why this isn't always a bad thing it does distract from the overall product. Secondly, again unlike a lot of the DL writers, he doesn't paint a picture of insurmountable odds only for the hero's to miraculously pull it out in the last couple pages. This seems to be the trend and frankly it sucks (Outside of Mr. Knaak, you see this often). Mr. Pierson does a stupendous job of writing on a story touched upon often, but never explored in great depth. The hero in the story goes through his trials & tribulations as a man with no faith, to one with blind faith, losing his faith & ultimately finding true faith at the end. In the process he is part of a nation the rises to top of the world stage to its ultimate & total annihilation. Whether you've read many books in this series or not, this trilogy is a great read.

What a great way of writing about the downfall of Ishtar! I definatly recomend reading the War of the Souls Trilogy before this one. It makes it that much more exciting because you will kind of know what is going to happen in a round about way, but the events still take you totally by suprise and the great details really bring you into the plot and setting. The ending was unexspected, but exspected also in a way, and great! You can finish the book, and not feel like you were cheated at the end. I have to say, that by far this is the best DragonLance trilogy I have read! And I have over 45 of the DL books total.

Having chewed this book up in a day and a half, which is a real rarity for me these days, I have to recommend it to everyone if they love DL. I am a bit biased mind you, as an anthropology/ancient studies grad and sometimes dragonlance author too.If you really want to get a sense of what was lost in the first Cataclysm, learn more about the culture and heights that were attained, the psychology of the kingpriest and his followers, this is the series for you.The story itself is great as well- the characters are compelling, they age and change over the series' forty year span, and the story is a very well thought out example of the Campbell mythic structure.Congrats to Chris Pierson from a fellow Canuck and fantasy fan. Can't wait to see whats next from him!