Saving Solace: Champions Volume One

I came to this novel not as a fan of Dragonlance, but as a fan of Douglas W. Clark. I knew nothing of Solace or Gerrard uth Mondar before opening this book. By the end, I was fond of both. Clark's seminal series, Alchemy Unlimited, introduced him to readers as a sharp satirist with an imagination suitable for epic fantasy. In Saving Solace, Clark bites his satirist's tongue while still giving us a generous dose of his skills at human observation. Every character in Saving Solace is grounded in the motivations of real people dealing with real problems, making this a fresh novel in a crowded genre. I love that Clark's characters prove their mettle not by lopping off heads or defeating fierce monsters, but by doing the right things according to the dictates of their own consciences. I also love that Clark's Solace captures the feel of every small town, where folks say hi as they pass one another, then gossip after they pass. It's a town full of characters with turbulent pasts, complicated family lives, and other details that might be left out of a lesser novel. Some might not like the elegance and maturity of this book, and to them I recommend grabbing most anything else off the fantasy shelf. Nine out of ten random picks from this section of the bookstore yield epic battles, dragons and ogres, sexy elven princesses blah blah blah. But for readers who find the best escape is the one most believable, Saving Solace is a great pick.

Great book and well done storyline. Humor in fantasy seems a rare commodity these days. Some books have it but only in small amounts. Thank you for the laughs. If you like books like this one, might I suggest another I've recently come across. The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. It's another fantasy adventure sure to please. I highly recommend it.

I very rarely read fantasy novels, mostly because I find a lot of fantasy novels (and, in fact, all genre fiction) to be horribly written. Every now and then, though, I will page through a Dragonlance book at the bookstore and wonder if I really want to get myself all tied up in this world. I'd managed to resist, but I was compelled to pick this book up when I saw the author's name. Since I had taken a creative writing class from Douglas Clark at UNM, I knew I had to give it a spin, and I found the first few pages well-written and interesting enough to fork over $7 (and change). I was pleasantly surprised by this book, but I fear that part of that might have to do with the fact that this wasn't really the type of fantasy novel I've dreaded in the past. In fact, reading this novel, it's almost like a Western thrown into a land where humans happen to co-exist with dragons and other strange beasts. The story of the new sheriff arriving in town to investigate the murder of the former sheriff has to have been done a few times in Western and mystery stories, but Clark writes with what appears to the reader to be outright enjoyment, and it carries over to the reading of the book. My only minor complaint is that at some points I felt lost. This, however, can't be blamed on the author so much as it's just impossible to define everything just for the handful of new Dragonlance readers without boring the crap out of the legions of faithful readers. I did wonder just what the hell a kender was for a while, but alas, I think I understood everything just fine. Congrats on the first book. I'll look forward to reading more.

I got this book and left it on my desk for a few days (was finishing a different book series). Once I started reading this I couldnt put it down, read through it in less than a day. The story centers itself around Gerard uth Mondar who was one of the main characters in the Weis/Hickman War of the Souls trilogy. Here we find Gerard has just quit the Knighthood and has a falling out with his father over it. At the same Palin Majere summons him to Solace to be the new sheriff, the old one had recently been murdered. So Gerard has to deal with the normal day to day job of Sherrifing Solace while trying to figure out who murdered the previous sheriff as well as a mysterious accident that happens at the new temple to Mishakel. All in all a very enjoyable dragonlance novel with Kender, Gnomish inventions (and explosions!). But of course no novel based in Solace would be complete without Otik's Spiced Potato's (they make quite a few appearences). Get this book today! 5*****

This book is terrific, absolutely hilarious, the best book I've ever . . . hey, wait a minute, I'm not supposed to say that. I wrote the book!