The Legend of Huma: Dragonlance Heroes, Vol. 1 By Richard Knaak

The Legend of Huma: Dragonlance Heroes, Vol. 1
By Richard Knaak
Copyright 1987

From Wikipedia:

The book narrates the adventures of Huma Dragonbane, a Knight of the Crown, his meeting with Kaz the Minotaur, the discovering of the dragonlances, and the defeat of Takhisis during the Third Dragon Wars.

Huma and the rest of his unit patrol through a desolate village. Huma's commander, Rennard, orders the investigation of the nearby woods due to a rumor of goblin activity. During the ensuing confrontation Huma is separated from his unit. While searching for his comrades he comes across goblins tormenting a captive, the minotaur Kaz. After saving Kaz, Huma strikes up an unlikely friendship with the minotaur and later with a silver dragon before being reunited with the Knights.

Once back at headquarters, they encounter a battle between the forces of Paladine and the forces of Takhisis. Huma is struck in the battle and loses consciousness. He awakens in an infirmary being tended by a woman who introduces herself as Gwyneth. Huma is appointed captain of the watch, and encounters his old friend, Magius, a powerful magic user.

Magius tells Huma to trust him, but has to leave while Huma returns to the knights' encampment. The knights are engulfed in a battle with the forces of Takhisis and Huma and Kaz are thrown into a magical darkness. Magius leads Huma and Kaz through the battle to his Citadel, but later prevents them from leaving. Magius tells Huma that he is a renegade mage that took the test in the Tower of High Sorcery.

The Citadel is discovered by Galan Dracos and comes under attack by the forces of Takhisis. Magius tells Huma that a mountain represented by a tapestry in the Citadel is important and that Huma should journey into Ergoth toward this mountain. Huma and Kaz flee the Citadel.

Huma and Kaz are separated. Huma fights off dreadwolves and warriors and becomes lost in the forests of Ergoth. He is helped by an Ergothian commander who brings him to the Ergothian camp. The Ergothians tell Huma that the lands around Ergoth have been ravaged by the plague. While the camp is traveling Huma comes upon a ruins of a town and is captured by servants of Morgion. The Ergothians rescue Huma who then encounters Magius, and the two escape into the night.

Magius and Huma come across the knight Bouron who is attached to an outpost of the Knights of Solamnia. Bouron and his commander Taggin welcome Huma. Taggin captures Kaz and puts him on trial. Taggin releases Kaz to Huma and allows Huma to continue on his journey to the mountains accompanied by a retinue of knights.

Magius, Kaz and Huma traverse the paths in the mountains and Huma is separated from the others. Huma is led to a temple built into the side of the mountain and encounters Gwyeneth. Gwyeneth tells Huma that he will face challenges before he can claim the prize that he has come for. Huma enters the mountain and faces Wyrmfather, an ancient, serpentine dragon. Huma hides in Wyrmfather's treasure room, discovering an evil magical sword called the Sword of Tears. Huma kills Wyrmfather with the Sword of Tears and is teleported through a magical mirror in the treasure room to Solomnia.

Huma returns to Vingaard Keep to find that the head of the knights, Grand Master Trake, has died. Huma is to attend a meeting that will determine whether Bennett, Trake's nephew or Lord Oswald, the High Warrior and Huma's mentor, will become the next Grand Master. During the meeting Rennard tells everyone that Oswald has become mysteriously ill. At night Huma discovers the guards near Lord Oswald have been put into a magical sleep, then encounters Rennard dressed as a servant of Morgion, trying to poison Lord Oswald. Huma and Rennard fight, but Rennard escapes. Lord Oswald thanks Huma for his help and sends him back to the mountains of Ergoth. Huma encounters Rennard inciting villagers to violence. The two fight until Rennard is mortally wounded. Huma is then teleported back to Wyrmfather's treasure room.

Huma finds the Sword of Tears, lying among the treasure. He takes it with him and looks for an exit from the mountain. Huma encounters Gilean, a grey clad mystic, who tells him to leave the sword behind. Huma struggles for control as the sword tries to control his mind, eventually prevailing, discarding the sword. Huma is granted access to the workshop of Duncan Ironweaver.

Duncan tells Huma that he is the creator of the Dragonlance and allows him to pass into a room where Huma has a vision of the knightly, benevolent god Paladine, on a platinum dragon. Paladine hands Huma the Dragonlance.

Huma exits the chamber and finds Gwyeneth, who tells him that Kaz and Magius are nearby. Huma finds Kaz and Magius and with the help of a silver dragon that Gwyeneth sent for, they are able to prepare the lances for transport to Vingaard Keep.

En route to Vingaard the group is attacked by Crynus and Char. Huma and the silver dragon kill Char and Crynus is defeated with the help of Kaz and the silver dragon. Warriors of Takhisis attempt to steal the lances, but are prevented from doing so by Kaz. Magius is captured and taken back to Galan Dracos.

Huma rejoins the knights to find that there are many Dragonlances already there. He finds Duncan Ironweaver, who tells him he had many. Many good dragons show up and are fitted with the new lances, and go into battle against the evil dragons of Takhisis.

This entry in the Dragonlance canon is held in high regard by fans of the series. I enjoyed reading it. But I thought the characters were flat and the plot somewhat episodic.

There were many exciting scenes and the battle scenes were well written and fun to read. But between the battles, there were few revelations, few insights, and little introspection on the part of Huma. This is when character development happens. This is where you make the character interesting, sympathetic, and compelling. Knaak fell a little short of that. Huma was thin.

He had honor. He was all about the honor. Why? Just because he was a Knight of Solomnia? As Knaak reveals, knights are capable of scheming and duplicity. What set Huma apart? What made his honor flawless? We never learn.

Huma’s friendship with Magius is another undeveloped aspect of the character development. Were they just kids who were close friends? Did they face adversity together as children? Did one help the other as children? What forged this bond that led to Huma’s trust in Magius who seemingly had gray morals? Again, that was left on the table.

I loved Kaz the Minotaur. This character will appear again in the Dragonlance saga and have his own novel. Kaz defines what it is to be a minotaur. He’s warlike, aggressive, and hot tempered. But minotaurs are also about honor, like the Knights. Knaak’s treatment of Kaz and the minotaur race was fantastic.

Overall, Knaak’s development of the Knights of Solomnia of old – those knights so revered by Sturm in the Chronicles – was also masterful. This is their first appearance in novelization and given Weis and Hickman’s background on them, had to be handled carefully, lest they become a caricature of moral perfection, or worse, a politically scheming group of soldiers that was less than the honorable warriors of legend.

The dragons in The Legend of Huma were charming and again, handled well by Knaak based on the legend developed by Weis and Hickman. Gwyneth is a charming, but tragic creature. She is a true dragon in her fierceness in battle. She is a kind, loving woman in human form and Huma’s legend is defined by her.

Finally, I give credit to Knaak for an ending fitting for a legend. Huma’s death was masterfully crafted. Not lugubrious, not melodramatic, but heroic and sad. This is the easiest point for an author to trip up, getting caught up in his need to flex his writing chops. It’s also the easiest way to ruin a good story, making the reader gag on drama. Huma’s end was a fitting end to a knight whose legend would survive the cataclysm.

My evaluation is based on a comparison to the Chronicles and Legends written by Weis and Hickman. Perhaps that is an unfair standard, given that Weis and Hickman were the creators of the Dragonlance world and were allowed to make their own rules, set their own parameters, and define the world. Knaak works within those definitions. But with the thin characters, it falls short of the tales of the earlier novels who had fantastic, well developed characters who made the stories work.

Dragonlance Tales, Volume I The Magic of Krynn

Dragonlance Tales, Volume I
The Magic of Krynn
Edited by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
Copyright 1987

Riverwind and the Crystal Staff
By Michael Williams

This is a narrative poem telling the life story of Riverwind up until he found the magical blue crystal staff that restored the power of clerics in Krynn.

I don’t evaluate poetry because I have not read enough poetry to know good from bad. I’d rather have read this as a story.

The Blood Sea Monster
By Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel

An outcast elf flees from a baker from whom he stole a loaf of bread. He hides in a fishing boat and ends up accompanying the fisherman to sea. The fisherman’s goal: to catch the monster that lurks at the center of the maelstrom in the Blood Sea.

This story is so atrociously bad because it breaks a fundamental rule of fictional writing that even high school students know: you can’t write a first person narrative if the narrator dies at the ending. It just doesn’t work. You may think I threw you a spoiler, but I didn’t spoil anything for you. This would be a B- paper for a high school fiction writer.

A Stone’s Throw Away
By Roger E. Moore

Tasslehoff Burrfoot acquires a magic ring that transports him to a citadel of a powerful magician. The magic user imprisons Tasslehoff, determined to acquire the ring, but neither he nor Tasslehoff can remove it from his finger. So the magician summons a demon whom he has enslaved to learn what the ring does and how it can be removed. The demon provides the answer, much to the chagrin of the magic user.

I liked the premise of this tale a lot. The story is well told and true to the Tasslehoff Burrfoot character. However, this guy writes some of the most stilted, silliest dialogue I’ve ever read in print and it hurts the story a great deal.

Dreams of Darkness, Dreams of Light
By Warren B. Smith
William Sweetwater is a short, pig faced man who runs a tavern in a port city occupied by the Draconian army. (in the Dragonlance Chroncles, it is at Pig and Whistle that Raistlin and his troop perform for patrons to raise money). William has heroic dreams of adventure. Real adventure comes his way when his friend, Tom the tailor is capture by the Dragonians. He combines forces with a Minotaur that owns another tavern in town to rescue Tom.

This was a mildly engaging tale with a fair amount of action. I liked the character of William Sweetwater in the Chronicles, so it was pleasant to visit with him again.

Love and Ale
By Nick O’Donohoe
Before the war against the Draconians, the Inn of the Last Home was just another inn in a remote town. Its owner, Otik and his barmaid Tika, brew their own ale, of which Otik is quite proud. But when a kender stops by and spills a little magical dust into the brewing process, the patrons of the Inn of the Last Home become more aggressive and more amorous. . .

This 40 page story was about 20 pages too long. Credit the author for a decent story. Criticize the editors for not lopping 8,000 extraneous words from the text.

Wayward Children
By Richard Knaak

A patrol of Draconians wanders into an uncharted village of elves. They brutalize the town and are determined to occupy it. But they soon find that the town is actually inhabited by their cousins – the dragons, whose eggs were stolen and used to create the Draconian race. The dragons get their revenge for the loss of their children.

This story was well crafted and is the best of the stand alone stories in this collection (not being linked directly to any characters or actions in the original Chronicles). It reveals the origins of the Draconians.

The Test of the Twins
By Margaret Weiss

This tale recounts Raistlin’s test at the Towers of High Sorcery and how he was made to kill his own twin and loving brother to pass that test. Raistlin’s trial and how it left him a physical wreck is frequently mentioned in the Chronicles, but never fully told. Here it is, wonderfully told by one of the architects of the series.

This is one of the stories left untold in the Chronicles that begged for at least a novella, if not a full blown novel. So much more could have been done with it, but credit Weiss for honing it down and still making it worthwhile reading.

Harvests
By Nancy Varian Berberick

This story is set before the Chronicles takes place. Tanis and Flint are journeying in the mountains when they encounter a young woman determined to find her brother and boyfriend who have been whisked away to the castle of an evil magician determine to harvest the essence of their life to prolong a life. Tanis and Flint risk life and limb to help her find her missing men.

It relies on the handsome heroes helping the distressed maiden cliché, but is a well crafted story nonetheless with a halfway decent twist at the end.

Finding the Faith
Mary Kirchoff

Another of the untold tales of the Chronicles was the journey to Ice Wall to recover the Dragon Orb and Dragonlance. The elf princess, Laurana lead the party that includes Sturm Brightblade and his rival knight, Derek; the cleric of Paladine, Elistan, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot to a remote glacial region. There, they find a false cleric who is willing to aid them in crossing a glacier and entering a cave that is a portal to the home of a magician who keeps the two artifacts. In the end, the party recovers the powerful, magical artifacts to aid in the war against the dragon armies.

I never knew if it was laziness on the writers’ part or bad editing that omitted this story from the chronicles, for it should have been included. I like the narrative device of the old cleric, recounting the tale of how he discovered the true god, Paladine and telling the tale to youngsters. Still, the story comes up short because Tasslehoff Burrfoot appears near the end with the Dragon Orb with no telling of how he acquired it. It seems we’ll never get the full story.

The Legacy
By Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

This novella by the creators of the Dragonlance saga serves as a capstone to the Dragonlance Tales trilogy which I have not yet reviewed. It chronicles the evolution of Raistlin from a great magician of the red robes to a powerful mage of the black robes aspiring to dethrone the Dark Queen herself and take her place as a god.

Raistlin’s twin and his wife Tika have settled down, own and inn, and have raised three boys. Two, Tanin and Sturm, are young warriors with growing reputations. The third, Palin, is a magician. Cameron and the three boys are summoned to the Tower of High Sorcery to learn that there is evidence that Raistlin, supposedly dead in the Abyss, is still alive and searching for a way out. The only person, according to the mages, that can find out for sure, is young Palin. Cameron fights hard to avoid having his son get involved with the tower’s lords and his wayward twin.
Perhaps it is because they are the creators of the world that is Dragonlance that Weiss and Hickman authored what is, by far the best tale in this book. I regret having read it before having reread the Legends series because the Legends Trilogy is as good, if not better than the chronicles and I had forgotten its story and how it ended.

Nonetheless, Weiss and Hickman bring out the best in the characters and the world they created and in the end, provide a twist that the reader doesn’t see coming. For all the fun that Dragonlance is, it contained no clever twists. In this novella, we see Weiss and Hickman have developed their story telling ability even more after the publication of their second trilogy.

In reading this anthology, it is clear that Weiss and Hickman are masters of their domain and others are just pretenders. The Chronicles and the Legends lend themselves to so many tales that could be told and told well. Unfortunately, few of them are told well here.