Summer means it’s time for a new Dragonlance novel. This time it’s Dragonlance: War Wizard, the first book of a new trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

If one of your favorite parts of the last trilogy, Dragonlance: Destinies, was Huma during the various time travel adventures, you might already be inclined to like this book, though the lead character is not Huma, but Magius, the friend he fought side by side with to save Krynn from Takhisis during the Third Dragon War.

The book begins with Magius’ father and grandfather. Both were harsh men, focused on money and influence. They had wealth but influence in Solamnia required being a member of the Knight’s Council, which, obviously, required knighthood. As such, Emil Ayershire wanted his son Jasper to become a knight, but Jasper wasn’t interested in the physical work that would require. Jasper did, however, try to force his own son, Devon, to fulfill that goal.

The problem is that Devon has a natural talent for magic, just like their ancestor, Adrian Ayershire, also known as Magius. He was the best friend of Vinas Solamnus, founder of the Knights of Solamnia. Jasper prefers to lie and say that their ancestor was a knight since magic is viewed with suspicion in Solamnia.

But to cultivate friends in the knighthood so they can eventually vote in favor of Devon becoming a knight—and save money on tutors—Devon trains with Huma, the son of Sir Richard and Lady Louise Feigaard, and later, Huma’s sister Greta. The Feigaards live in the estate next to Jasper’s, and Sir Richard’s even temperment allows him to tolerate Jasper’s behavior better than most.

Huma wants to be a knight like his father, and Greta wants to become the first woman knighted in Solamnia. Meanwhile, Devon pursues magic, especially after he learns that Adrian was a mage, not a knight, though he largely has to do it in hiding.

Circumstances eventually shift so that instead of just being friends and neighbors, Sir Richard and Lady Louise adopt Devon, and he renames himself Magius. The book focuses on their early lives, Huma getting his spurs, and Magius passing the test in the Tower of High Sorcery (that’s not exactly a spoiler, considering what’s any Dragonlance fan knows known about them.)

While not labeled as such, War Wizard often feels like a YA fantasy novel. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s perfectly understandable considering the period of their lives this book covers. I’m sure the other two parts of the trilogy will have a different feel by default.

What is odd is how this book contradicts what we learned of Huma’s early life in Dragonlance: Heroes Volume One – The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak. That book says Huma’s parents are are Durac of Eldor and Karina of Eldor. Rather than being raised by and having a close relationship with his father, Legend of Huma says that Durac was killed in battle not long after becoming a knight, and so Lord Oswal of Baxtrey ended up mentoring Huma.

Considering the title of the earlier book, it’s easy to dismiss it, or at least assume it was embellished and had mistakes in comparison to other Dragonlance stories. And since it wasn’t written by Weis and Hickman, it’s also not surprising that they might want to "set the story right," so to speak. Still, I mention it so that long-time Dragonlance fans don’t assume their memories are faulty.

The Details

As with other Dragonlance novels, this one is releasing initially as a hardcover of 368 pages. It’s also available as an ebook and audiobook. The audiobook’s duration is 12 hours and 36 minutes.

Neil Shah narrates the audiobook, and he does a respectable job, but he doesn’t have the broad voice and accent range that a Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes) or Kristen Sieh (This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me) have, which allows them to practically do one-person full cast narration. Shah is versatile enough for the male voices, but more limited when handling dialogue from Lady Louise, Greta, or Clara, Magius’ mother. Still, the narration is respectable and better than many I’ve heard.

In Summary

I enjoyed Dragonlance: War Wizard better than I did the Dragonlance: Destinies trilogy. Destina in that one was so whiny and for a supposedly smart young woman, often did stupid things. I can’t say Magius is immune to the latter tendency, and he goes through his share of teenage angst, but the shift in premise helps a lot. Destina decided to time travel to solve her problems, and then was surprised when that didn’t turn out to be easy.

Still, War Wizard suffers a bit, for me at least, in feeling like a setup for what will come in books two and three. It ends in a logical spot, but I can’t help feeling that under different circumstances, the events of this novel could have been condensed to shorten it by at least a quarter, if not a third, and then include something more dramatic that would better whet the appetite for book two.

I also suspect that opinions on this book may change after the entire trilogy is complete. By then we’ll know how crucial all of these details are to the rest of the story, and how much is just interesting background material.

My rating: Dragonlance: War Wizard gets a solid B. If you’re a big Dragonlance fan, you’ll probably upgrade it to a B+ or an A, unless you’re unhappy that it contradicts Legend of Huma.