Stormblade (Dragonlance: Heroes)
Stormblade (Dragonlance: Heroes)
The second in a series of recovers of classic Dragonlance novel tales. This attractive new re-release of Stormblade showcases a new look for the Heroes series. Each title in the series will reflect the new series design and feature entirely new cover art.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars I’ve Read Better
Being a true DL fan, This book basicly [stunk].
I have a tendency to Compare all DL Books to “The Legend of Huma” and when done so, this book is lacking.
The begining is slow, the write had no idea how to shape a book based on a dwarf. Don’t get me wrong, I like Dwarves, they are one of the better races of krynn, but this one was just, bleh.
I continually wanted to find another book. I made myself read it all the way through, and about the middle of the book, it gets pretty good, but the action can’t hold this one above water. The rest of the storyline and character descriptions are just way to gone to call it good.
This book [stunk]. If you have nothing else to read, then, by all means this one is for you, but if you can scrape up the $10.00 for a new one, do it! Save this one for when you are ready for bed, because it will put you to sleep!
2 Stars This blade is dull
Blah. Weak. Flat. Boring. These are just a few of the words that describe this book. As with the other Heroes books it’s not really part of the Dragonlance canon, so there isn’t much to miss if you decide to skip it. There is a bit about the Companions, but it is brief and actually doesn’t fit well with the Chronicles (this book takes place between books 1 and 2 of that series). Supposedly the Companions “fought to recover the Hammer of Kharas” but in this book it seems like the fighting was for something else and the Hammer gets found later. I won’t dwell on these issues though, let’s break the book down a little:
Writing: Its fine, I’m not expecting classical literature in a pulp fantasy novel, and I’m not going to mark a book down for lacking something I didn’t hope it would have. The action scenes and dialog were good, but not enough to carry the book.
Story: Except for the fact that it relies on a rather irrational event (A ranger’s gifting of a priceless sword to a barmaid he never met before), the rest is borderline. Political events often serve as a good backdrop to stories of love and hate, but this one doesn’t really pull it off. The love is contrived, the hate/revenge is simplistic, and the politics are downplayed to be predictable to make room for the action.
Characters: Here is where the book really stumbles. The characters are so predictable and stereotypical (even for fantasy) that you really don’t care who lives or dies. The stoic good-hearted elf, the lovesick young human woman, the stubborn honor-bound dwarf, the evil one-eyed henchmen, etc. At the end an important character dies and I really wasn’t moved at all.
About halfway through this book I found myself eyeing my shelf for what I wanted to read next, which is not a good sign. Considering how many other (better) Dragonlance books are out there, I would save this one until the end, or just skip it entirely.
2 Stars Yet another attempt to cash in on the saga
Like most of the “Dragonlance” books not authored by Weis and Hickman, this novel gives us characters that we never really warm up to and a storyline that doesn’t really fall into place with the rest of the series. A total downer and a waste of good wood pulp.
3 Stars Interesting if not good…
This was the first book I read not directly inovlving the companions. At first, I couldn’t get into it, because the setting of the scene was rather mundane. But as the story heats up a bit, it makes a yarn well worth reading. There were a couple of holes (didn’t the companions kill Verminaard before they came to Thorbardin?), but they are mainly minor.
The characters are fairly simplistic, without much detail into their personalities, apart from the dwarf Stanach, and that infuriating kender Lavim. Piper’s flute and Hauk giving the sword away are a bit ridiculous.
This author’s work may not quite compare to the Chronicles and Legends series, but is still worth a quick scan. Stormblade is OK.
3 Stars Slow at the beginnig, but greater going ahead
Thi is a strange book to describe: I’ve read lots of dragonlance books and several times the first 50-100 pages were a little booring because the writer was setting up the situation.
This is one of those…in the first part (120-150)I spent months…I wasn’t cought from the story! But Later on it becomes very dinamic, funny and intriguingand I couldn’t stop reading. It has an explosive end, but at the very end it introduces something else: the mith of the “Hammer”…and that’s, unfortunally, another story!
A story about relation between Halflings, Half Elves, Uman an Dwarves.
Averall it’s good book.
Filed under: Dragonlance Reviews
