Dragons of Summer Flame: Dragonlance: Chronicles, Book 4

Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning and this one Dragons of Summer Flame are the best in the series. Though, if you like the genre, I recommend all of them until they start being written by authors other than Hickman and Weis. They suffer considerably once Hickman and Weis bow out. Great cast of characters, fabulous dragons, epic adventures, it's all there!Vendor delivered in a timely fashion and in good condition.

After the brief introductions of new characters in  The Second Generation , Dragons of Summer Flame unfolds into an epic conflict that rages across Kyrnn. This is tight story that does in one volume what is often broken up into two or three. Weis and Hickman follow the children of the heroes of the War of the Lance (it is now 20 years after the war), as they figure out who they are, which side the are on, and their role in the Chaos threatening to destroy their world. A transitional volume between the previous trilogies and the next, but also serves as a capstone to the adventures of the classic heroes. They have passed the baton and this book definitely will want you to see what comes next.

I recently finished this book after having read the first three in the Dragonlance Chronicles. Dragons of Summer Flame is the conclusion to the story established in the first three books and takes place about 25-30 years after the events of those books. It introduces a few new characters who are the sons and daughters of legacy characters from the first three books but also keeps the beloved legacy characters around.I liked the new characters pretty well but not as much as characters like Flint, Tanis, Tasslehoff and others from the original trilogy. That being said they are still likable and pretty well developed and fleshed out. I was a bit surprised at a couple deaths of legacy characters. Their deaths though fit the narrative and helped give weight to the story and the stakes within.So overall I thought this was a good conclusion to the series. I plan on reading more of the books within this series as there are numerous. I would recommend this series to any fantasy fan as I think Dragonlance Chronicles are a staple of fantasy literature.

This is the last book in the Dragonlance Chronicles, but in many ways it's really a book all by itself. It is now many years after the Dragonlance War and the heroes from that saga are older and retired or no longer living. The dark forces are on the rise again and now it is up to a new generation to fight this battle. Two cousins find themselves on opposite sides, a mage named Palin who is Caramon Majere's son and a dark knight, Steel Brightblade the son of Sturm and Kitiara.I read this book over 30 years ago and decided to see if I still found it as good, and found it just as good now as I did then. I highly recommend it.

It's been a while (1985) since the Dragons of Spring Dawning (Chronicles Vol. III) was written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. That book left the planet of Krynn and the land of Ansalon at peace. Now some ten years later comes "Dragons of Summer Flame (Chronicles Vol. IV)" in which of course the world of Krynn is at war again.The now fabled and much sung about War of the Lance is long over; some twenty-five years have passed since the last DragonLance was thrown, the last evil red dragon slain. The seasons on the planet of Krynn have come and gone and the people on the continent of Ansalon have known a lasting if not troubled peace.But now the drums of war beat once more, and a summer of uncharacteristic heat is roasting the land. It is a heat that has never been felt by the people of Krynn and it is unrelenting, foretelling more hard times for the populace. The uneasy peace and tenuous balance between light, and dark, good and evil, begins to shift in favor of darkness. But the people of Ansalon are pre-occupied by fractious in-fighting as old partners turn on one another; warnings go unheeded, disunity is the new enemy and into the breach comes war. But this war will be like no other because it will fundamentally change Krynn and usher in a new era, the so called Age of the Mortals in which all Gods have quit the planet, and abandon the world and races they created."Dragons of Summer Flame" starts with a visit to the island of an old race of people heretofore unknown to most on Krynn, called the Irda. The Irda have held themselves away from the other races on Krynn thinking themselves too beautiful to congregate with others outside their species. They are so introverted that they rarely congregate among themselves. And the Irda are the foremost practitioners of magic on the planet. Their world is shattered however by the chance visitation of the Dark Knights of Takhisis, mortal champions of her dark majesty the evil goddess Takhisis.Two days after the visitation of the Knights of Takhisis, the Irda send the human woman Usha--who they have been raising since she was a baby--away from the island for her own protection, but of she feels betrayed. And later that same night the Irda break open the Graygem, a stolen ancient artifact fashioned by the lesser god Reorx (Champion of the Dwarfs) in order to bring some neutrality to the world. The Irda were hoping that the magic contained in the GrayGem would help them fashion a way to forestall another visit by the Dark Knights; what they did instead was release Chaos, the Father of Everything and Nothing. Chaos is the father of the three principle gods of Krynn; they being Paladine (God of Light and goodness), Gilean (God of neutrality), and Takhisis (Goddess of Dark and Evil). After Chaos destroys the Irda, he sets about marshalling his forces to destroy the world. Thus begins the War of Chaos.Meanwhile, elsewhere on Ansalon the young mage Palin Majere is distressed by a grievous loss of his two brothers Tanin and Strum Majere, Knights of Solamnia, at the hands of the invading Knights of Takhisis. Now a prisoner, the young white robed mage seeks to enter the Abyss, realm of the Gods, in search of his lost uncle, the infamous archmage Raistlin Majere, who wore the robes of black, but long thought dead. He is given into the care of a dark paladin, his cousin Steel Brightblade with instruction to ransom the young white robe.The Dark Queen Takhisis having lost the War of The Lance has now won new champion to her cause; the Knights of Takhisis modeled after Knights of Solamnia, are wholly devoted followers of Takhisis and are governed by the Vision. Following the Vision the Knights bring Takhisis the victory she seeks, but it is short lived.Checking in at 608 pages, "Dragons of Summer Flame" is a long book, certainly longer than any other DragonLance book to date. The book is the fourth in the Chronicles series and continues the DragonLance series of fantasy based book most of which were written by Weis and Hickman."Dragons of Summer Flame" has many, many references to books in the series that came before it, not only the other books in the Chronicles series, but those in the DragonLance Legends series as well, in which Raistlin enters the Abyss in a failed attempt to become a god. I highly recommend reading the Legends series--all three books--before reading this book. Also, you might want to read The Second Generation in which the children of the Heroes of the Lance are introduced.Weis and Hickman once again offer up a gem of a book with detailed characters descriptions--though they are not as well developed as in last offerings. At times I felt as though the book was rushed; e.g. the relationship between Usha and Palin was certainly hastened, and there were a few loose ends that needed more development. Despite the lack of in-depth character development I thoroughly enjoyed "Dragons of Summer Flame"; in fact I found it hard to put the book down. The formula is an old one, the oldest in fact, good vs. evil, but the outcome is surprising.ConclusionIf you enjoyed the other books in the DragonLance series (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning) "Dragons of Summer Flame" is a must read. It introduces the next generation of heroes and ushers in a new era on Krynn, setting up a whole new raft of stories. Check out the following books, part of the DragonLance War of the Souls series: Dragons of a Fallen Sun; Dragons of a Lost Star, and; Dragons of a Vanished Moon.Other Books in the Series:Dragons of Autumn Twilight (DragonLance Chronicles, Vol. I)Dragons of Winter Night (DragonLance Chronicles, Vol. II)Dragons of Spring Dawning (DragonLance Chronicles, Vol. III)

I grew up with Dragonlance novels. They were my Tolkien and I have read every book they have written and re-read many times. So I think I'm pretty well placed to say - this is an appalling book.Saddens me to say so but I'm SO incredulous that I have to write a review.If this really IS Weis and Hickman writing as others have questioned then what has happened to their writing?The premise is weak - the Father of the Gods idea - has been done elsewhere and better. The reappearance of original characters and their subsequent exit is poorly developed and clumsily concluded. So much of the characters situations read like 'they do this, then they do this, oh what do we do now? - let's kill someone off' - it's nonsensical and jarringly to the narrative.The writing is weirdly repetitive and the same events are described almost word for word across chapters and the familiar steady development of character and morals that I loved about the original series is lacking throughout.The thread of 'Raistlins Daughter' which runs through two thirds of the book yet is not only turned on its head it is done in a way which contradicts and negates another authors storytelling. Bewildering..Personally I didn't mind bringing Raistlin back because it was always left open anyway whether he was alive or not. But bringing back other original character in such a random way was no way to celebrate them one last time.To be honest it feels like everyone in it seems so 'throwaway' and the end concept of uniting against a common enemy lasts only about a page before dissolving into an anti-climatic ending.The Father of the Gods story is wrapped up in just a couple of pages after lingering for the entire book as a background presence of 'glowing skies' and 'Unbearable heat'. Huh?And then to finish they leave you with such a downbeat 'after it's all over' moment which is unsatisfying and rushed.As the 'final' book in a much loved series I'm disappointed for all the wrong reasons.At least Frodo got to sail off into the sunset..

After about 20 years (posted abroad and armed with a Kindle), I have gone back and reread the first 6 (the three Dragons of.... and the three Twins books) one after the other, I then ploughed straight on to reread this one....and it is feeble in comparison. Primitive writing and leaden story-telling, packed with characters who either really annoy or simply fail to make you care whether they live or die. You wouldn't get the impression that it was written by the same people as the first 6 books (which I absolutely loved). I seem to recall that the later trilogy (Dragon's of a Lost Star etc) was actually rather enjoyable, so not quite sure what happened to this one. Only reason it doesn't get one star is that there are just enough of the old characters scattered around that you keep on reading.

Nowhere near as good as the first 3. Actually a very poorly written book. Couldn't get into it didn't enjoy it. No character definition. Not a good addition to the Dragonlance series.

I'd read these some years ago bought them for my 12 year old nephew, he loved them. Definitely a great gift or to read yourself

excellent