Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating characters
Review: Having read Rabe's DRAGONS OF A NEW AGE trilogy and now this, I've come to the conclusion that she has a difficult time writing characters that act like actual people would. This tended to improve as the aforementioned trilogy progressed, but it was terrible in this book. What I mean by this is, if something strange or suspicious occurs, most people would stop and question it. However, Rabe's characters tend to blithely continue on with what they were doing and don't give it a second thought. Very very frustrating to read when you know that it needs to be questioned. It's as if Ms. Rabe just wants to get where she's going and she completely disregards the fact that she needs to make her characters act like normal people in order to make them believable. This makes it very difficult to become emotionally involved with either the characters or the story. I'm guessing that this is one of her early works because, by the third book of DRAGONS OF A NEW AGE, her characters were behaving more reasonably.The other thing about this book that caused me to dislike it so much was the fact that her main elf character, Gair, didn't act like an elf at all. He was impatient, impetuous, and, for someone who claimed to be a scholar in the field of magic, tended to jump right in to doing something without even considering the consequences. These characteristics are all the complete opposite of those describing an elf. They are more along the lines of a human. If you're going to create a character and assign them a race and you want them to be believable, they have to have at least some of the characteristics of that race. Gair seemed to have none. I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. I am sure this was not Rabe's intent, but she fell completely flat in attempting to make me connect with the character. Finally, since Gair was such an integral part of the plot and Ms. Rabe was forcing him into acting so unlike an elf, the whole story just seemed to contrived. It was simply a way of establishing Goldmoon's Citadel of Light for use in subsequent books. A story had to be created to put these pieces into place. The bad characterization just made it blatantly obvious to the reader that the whole point of the book was to get to the ending point. Unfortunately, Rabe's handling of the characters just made the journey unpleasant and unbelievable. It was a decent story, but nothing to get excited about. The execution could have been light years better. Unless you're a hardcore Dragonlance fan, you can probably skip this book and not miss much (if anything).
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating characters
Review: Having read Rabe's DRAGONS OF A NEW AGE trilogy and now this, I've come to the conclusion that she has a difficult time writing characters that act like actual people would. This tended to improve as the aforementioned trilogy progressed, but it was terrible in this book. What I mean by this is, if something strange or suspicious occurs, most people would stop and question it. However, Rabe's characters tend to blithely continue on with what they were doing and don't give it a second thought. Very very frustrating to read when you know that it needs to be questioned. It's as if Ms. Rabe just wants to get where she's going and she completely disregards the fact that she needs to make her characters act like normal people in order to make them believable. This makes it very difficult to become emotionally involved with either the characters or the story. I'm guessing that this is one of her early works because, by the third book of DRAGONS OF A NEW AGE, her characters were behaving more reasonably. The other thing about this book that caused me to dislike it so much was the fact that her main elf character, Gair, didn't act like an elf at all. He was impatient, impetuous, and, for someone who claimed to be a scholar in the field of magic, tended to jump right in to doing something without even considering the consequences. These characteristics are all the complete opposite of those describing an elf. They are more along the lines of a human. If you're going to create a character and assign them a race and you want them to be believable, they have to have at least some of the characteristics of that race. Gair seemed to have none. I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. I am sure this was not Rabe's intent, but she fell completely flat in attempting to make me connect with the character. Finally, since Gair was such an integral part of the plot and Ms. Rabe was forcing him into acting so unlike an elf, the whole story just seemed to contrived. It was simply a way of establishing Goldmoon's Citadel of Light for use in subsequent books. A story had to be created to put these pieces into place. The bad characterization just made it blatantly obvious to the reader that the whole point of the book was to get to the ending point. Unfortunately, Rabe's handling of the characters just made the journey unpleasant and unbelievable. It was a decent story, but nothing to get excited about. The execution could have been light years better. Unless you're a hardcore Dragonlance fan, you can probably skip this book and not miss much (if anything).
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good, with well-portrayed undead.
Review: I am not much of a DragonLance fan. I tend toward mainstream fantasy, such as Donaldson and Brooks, and a little bit of Salvatore. Still, I picked it up because of the cover and was happy that I did. I don't know much of the history of DragonLance, but I enjoyed reading about Schallsea Island, and I particularly liked the characters of the gnoll and the elf, Gair. It was a moody book, with a good dash of combat thrown in. I recommend this one!
Rating: 
Summary: The Silver Stair has some good and some bad qualities.
Review: I bought this book mainly because I had some money left over from buying other Dragonlance novels, and because I thought I should know a little something about the Silver Stair before I read the Fifth Age trilogy also by Jean Rabe. First off, the storyline begins as a boring story with just dialogue and a few incidents which are an ambush, a blizzard, and a fire. Not very exciting. But it does pick up toward the end and has an exciting battle at the end. The characters are also pretty modern. Goldmoon is practically the same, Jasper is just another dwarf, and Camilla is a common Knight of Solamnia. But Gair, I hated him. Even before he became evil he was an annoying, childish, and foolish character which I though was strange for an elf! I have to say that I liked the gnoll Orvago. The gnoll was probably one of the best aspects of the book. Jean Rabe made some mistakes though, like Goldmoon having the Blue Crystal staff even though it is really sitting in the Tomb of the Last heroes. The book also begins with the gnolls escaping captivity and reaching the island, but once Orvago joins the story, Jean Rabe forgets totally about the rest of the gnolls. What happened to them? Plus I thought the idea of the Silver Stair was a little silly, especially since this is the first I'm hearing of it in the Dragonlance series. But all in all it was an interesting, (bearable) book to read. Pick it up if you feel the need to know a little of the Silver Stair. P.S. I started reading the Fifth Age series, and believe me, you should read this book or you won't know what any of the characters are talking about when they mention the Silver Stair.
Rating: 
Summary: Another disppointment in Rabe
Review: I had bought The Silver Stair because I wanted to know more about Goldmoon and the Citadel of Light. However, the book is a disappointment; it lacks a plot and there is no flow. There are many loose ends that Rabe did not tie up. The fall of Gair to the dark side of mysticism was just to fast! One minute we have Gair telling himself that he needed to have Goldmoon cleanse him of the darkness in him. The next minute...surprise! We have a mega evil Silvanesti elf creating a wraith army for himself. How about the gnolls that was first mentioned in the beginning of the book? All we have is Orvago, and we don't even know much about him. Camilla, the Solamnic Knight had opposed vehemently of Goldmoon's idea of mysticism and the Citadel of Light. Just a word from Goldmoon and she finds everything ok? Not convincing enough. This is a bad read. I found myself skipping parts of the story to get to the end (something which I have never done in all the Dragonlance books I have read). The book did nothing to capture my interest and hold my attention. Even Rabe's Dragons of a New Age trilogy was not as bad as this one.
Rating:
Summary: Another disppointment in Rabe
Review: I had bought The Silver Stair because I wanted to know more about Goldmoon and the Citadel of Light. However, the book is a disappointment; it lacks a plot and there is no flow. There are many loose ends that Rabe did not tie up. The fall of Gair to the dark side of mysticism was just to fast! One minute we have Gair telling himself that he needed to have Goldmoon cleanse him of the darkness in him. The next minute...surprise! We have a mega evil Silvanesti elf creating a wraith army for himself. How about the gnolls that was first mentioned in the beginning of the book? All we have is Orvago, and we don't even know much about him. Camilla, the Solamnic Knight had opposed vehemently of Goldmoon's idea of mysticism and the Citadel of Light. Just a word from Goldmoon and she finds everything ok? Not convincing enough. This is a bad read. I found myself skipping parts of the story to get to the end (something which I have never done in all the Dragonlance books I have read). The book did nothing to capture my interest and hold my attention. Even Rabe's Dragons of a New Age trilogy was not as bad as this one.
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly entertaining book
Review: I never even finished Jean Rabe's Fifth Age Trilogy, and after all the bad comments this book got, I must say I was pretty hesitant to get it. But I did, and after a slow start, I finished the book in one night. I guess it's pretty obvious that I enjoyed it a lot, don't let the sappy cover fool you, this was one of the darker Dragonlance books I've come upon. Gair has got to be one of the more interesting characters ever created. If you can just look past all the historical inacuracies mentioned, blasphemies actually, I think you'd really enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Neat characters, cool undead!
Review: I read Forgotten Realms, usually, but I picked up this one 'cause a friend recommended it. I enjoyed it immensely. I especially liked the portrayal of the Solamnic Knight and the gnoll. I hope she puts the gnoll in another book!
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read
Review: I thought this was a "dark" book, with the undead and such, and a good character becoming a bad-guy. Still, I found myself really getting into the characters. It moved quickly after the first couple of chapters. I wished it had been longer.
Rating:
Summary: It was great
Review: Jean - I just finished your book and I have to say it was FANTASTIC. I have a thing about books, there are some books that are blah (I start reading them and put them down and never finish), then there are the books that are okay (I can read several of them at a time - they only interest me a little bit). Next we have the good ones (they're the ones I leave on my night stand and I read those at night if I'm not too tired). Finally we have the OH MY GOD THIS IS SO GOOD I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN (these are the books that I carry in my purse. The books that I read every chance I get. These are the books with the potential of getting me fired because I'm reading them instead of the reports - you know the comic book in the history book routine). Seriously Jean, this is a great story. You are a very gifted writer and I enjoyed your book immensely. I felt like I was there seeing it all.
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