Reviews

Trail of the Black Wyrm by Chris Pierson

behindthepages's review

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1.0

After finishing the first book I was excited to start this one. A new prespective on Dragonlance, who wouldn't be excited? Yup this book ruined it. It has taken me what seems like forever to finish. The plot was dull, the storyline carried pointless travel/encounters and the relationships between characters made a stunted attempt at progress. The main group travels for chapters, but never stays in one place long enough for you to glean meaning from the new people and cultures. In fact they don't mean anything more to the plot than stepping stones. Now if they were to come back at a later time, then yes give us the low down on traditions, abilties, etc.
It also seemed as though the author made an effort to show developing relationships, but it was too little of the subtle things you need from characters; certain spoken words or gestures, or hell even enough time between the characters to bond! Without this the dynamics were stiff and lacking. I didn't even care about the main group, I was more interested in Essana and the child.
Lastly, there were too many viewpoints incorporated into the story and pointless backstory. For example, I dont need to read about Hult's memories to understand him, this was established in the first book and felt like filler. I also don't want to bounce between four main characters view points when I have Essana's part to read as well, ecspecially when the author switches in the middle of chapters with no warning! Focus on a few and understand that there needs to be secondary characters even in the main group, or split them up by chapter.
Lastly, don't use the word stupider! While this might seem a bit nit picky, this word annoys me to no end! It's, in my opinion, a word children use when they are learning suffixes. Terrible writing, I hate to even call this Dragonlance and I will not be reading the conclusion.
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