Dragons of Spring Dawning (Dragonlance Universe #3)

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Synopsis

The war against the DragonArmy of the Dark Queen wages on and the companions continue to fight for, not only their survival, but that of all Krynn. After leaving behind his lover, the treacherous Dark Lady, Kitiara, Tanis reunites with his friends who've been awaiting his fate. Together, they board a ship intending to sail to safer shores, but along the way, they're caught in a storm and end up shipwrecked in the underwater kingdom of the sea elves. Believing the ship to be doomed, the mage, Raistlin, uses his dragon orb to spirit himself away to safety before the boat sinks and ends up at the library in Palanthus, where he seeks out his true purpose. Meanwhile, elf-maid Laurana, dwarf Flint, and kender Tasselehoff lead an army using the dragonlances in an effort to turn the tide. Things are going well until Laurana receives word from Kitiara that she has Tanis who is mortally wounded and wants to see Laurana one more time. In spite of knowing that it's likely a trap, Laurana's love for Tanis drives her to answer the summons anyway. Once Tanis and the other companions who were with him are returned to dry land by their sea elf hosts and reunite with Flint and Tas, the group sets off on one last mission to find and save Laurana and attempt to defeat the Dark Queen.

Review

Dragons of Spring Dawning is the third and final book in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance: Chronicles, as well as the third book in the huge multi-author Dragonlance Universe. It picks up where the second book left off. Tanis loves Kitiara, but he cannot in good conscience take her offer to join her DragonArmy. Instead he chooses to leave her and return to his companions, after which they board a ship, hoping to eventually reunite with the others from whom they were separated at the beginning of book #2. Unfortunately they're caught in a storm and end up shipwrecked in the underwater kingdom of the sea elves. Before that happens, though, Raistlin uses the Dragon Orb to spirit himself away. Meanwhile, Laurana, Flint, and Tasslehoff are still grieving the loss of their good friend Sturm at the battle of the High Clerist's Tower. Everyone looks to Laurana for leadership, and after the return of her brother, Gilthanis, who arrives with the good dragons, she takes up the mantle of the Golden General, leading her troops to many victories over the Dark Queen's DragonArmies. Just as they seem to have gotten the upper hand, a message arrives from Kitiara who claims that Tanis is with her, that he's dying and his final wish is to see Laurana again. Even knowing that it may be a trap, Laurana's love for Tanis won't allow her to ignore the summons on the off chance that it is real, so using a captured Dragon Lord to guide her, she heads for the Dark Queen's realm, but is captured along the way. After the sea elves help Tanis and the others get back to dry land, they finally reunite with Flint and Tasslehoff, and learning of what happened to Laurana, Tanis and most of his companions embark on a final mission, trying to save her.

As with the first two books, we have an ensemble cast of main characters. Our principles include Tanis, a half-elf, half-human, who has been the defacto leader of the companions. He stepped back from that role somewhat in the second book, but here, he steps up again, when he decides that he cannot in good conscience follow Kitiara no matter how much he might love her. So he leads everyone as they board the ship to escape the DragonArmies and later in the quest to rescue Laurana. The mage Raistlin is with the companions until the ship founders. Then he escapes on his own using the Dragon Orb and ends up on the steps of a library in Palanthus at death's door. We don't see him again until the end, where he plays a pivotal role. His twin brother, Caramon, is still the brave warrior, loyally sticking by everyone throughout. Even though he feels betrayed by Raistlin, he still loves his brother very much. He also loves Tika, the barmaid from Solace, who has become a pretty good warrior in her own right, but he doesn't feel like he can make a commitment to her with his responsibilities to Raistlin hanging over his head. There's also the gruff dwarf, Flint, and the kender, Tasslehoff, who are the best of friends even though Flint always says that Tas drives him crazy. These two often provide some fun comic relief. Riverwind and Goldmoon are there during the first half of the book, but after they make it back to Kalaman, Tanis insists that they stay behind and not accompany the rest of them on their final mission. Raistlin and Caramon's sister, Kitiara is essentially one of the bad guys, having joined the Dark Queen and become the Dark Lady, one of the feared Dragon Highlords. She tried to use Tanis's love for her to manipulate him into joining her, but when he leaves, she goes after him and twists his arm by tricking Laurana and taking her hostage. There are also plenty of other supporting characters who play smaller roles.

Out of the three books in the Dragonlance: Chronicles trilogy, Dragons of Spring Dawning ended up being my favorite. There were less slow spots in the pacing and quite a bit more action. I also didn't have as much trouble keeping track of everyone since I'd already become very familiar with the core characters and there were few new ones being introduced. There was also some pretty good character development in this installment. I like that even the good guys like Tanis and Laurana sometimes have flaws. Love proves to be something of a weakness for both of them, given that Tanis allowed Kitiara to temporarily turn his head and Laurana went after Tanis out of love even though she knew it might be a trap. But love also proves to be a strength, in that Tanis's realized love for Laurana gives him the will to get out of a sticky situation and he is also willing to give up his life for her in the end. Kitiara may be a bad guy, but her assertions that she doesn't love Tanis beyond him being a means to an end are belied by a couple of her actions. Likewise Raistlin has always been a rather selfish character and the things he does in this book show that he would betray even those he cares for to gain power. However, he's not so thoroughly corrupted as to completely ignore his friends, even though arguably he might have if it hadn't benefited him as well. So I liked that some of the characters are more complicated and not pure good or evil. Unfortunately we do say another sad farewell to one of the main characters. Dragons of Spring Dawning has a very suspenseful denouement with our companions venturing into the dragon's lair, in an effort to save Laurana, and the ending provides a satisfactory wrap-up to the events that began months earlier in the first book. That said, though, it leaves just enough tantalizing loose threads to encourage the reader to continue with the Dragonlance: Legends, the next sub-series in the greater Dragonlance universe, which will feature Raistlin and Caramon. Since I do like Caramon and find Raistlin's mercurial nature intriguing, I'm definitely interested in reading those soon.

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Margaret Weis

Tracy Hickman