The Lioness: The Age of Mortals

Rating:
Summary: Another thrilling DL novel
Review: A very well-written novel. It was especially interesting how Kerianseray evolved from a pampered servant to an outlaw warrior. The standard for the Dragonlance series is in my opinion Weis and Hickman, and Berberick successfully follows in this tradition. The interplay between the elves who want to fight the dark knights and the elves who want to give up make for a story thread which holds your attention throughout the novel. I was unable to put this book down and lost a night's rest in the process. Good Work Nancy VB!--Kendergod son of mpruddy

Rating:
Summary: Terrific, fast paced action story
Review: I did really try to like this one, after all it has a really cool cover right? Those that know my DL reviews are aware that I don't think much of Nancy Varian Beberick's work in the shared fantasy world. But this time I thought I would let all the past over-descriptive romance-fantasies slide and begin anew. Like I said, really cool cover and all.

Well the Lioness was a better outing but sadly still was not a good novel. The writing as a whole has gotten a ton better, no two paragraphs spent on describing how an elf wears their hair in this one. But the plot and structure are still horrid in many regards. Speaking of the structure itself first, I must say it was badly designed. The beginning half is fine, but as the second half moves on it gets more and more rushed, and more and more unreadable. Characters are forgotten and then pop up only to die, plot points are rushed, the last fifty pages ends up being nothing more than a massacre and then no resolutions are made on some of the main character deaths during that massacre.

Next point, the villain. One Skull Knight named Eamutt Thagol. He's a wimp. Oh he's tough on the powerscale, he's got some freaky mentalist powers, but on the villain-o-meter he falls short. That's because he's really only got one thing going for him, wanton brutality. He's not really all that clever, and he just kind of popped up in the overall story line of dragonlance. Other than killing a ton of elves he didn't do a thing and because of that the only fear he gave to the protagonist was death. More so my personal dislike for the character comes from the fact that he was an easy out from having to deal with writing Marshall Medan.

Last, the editing in this novel was horrible. Grammatical errors all over the place, strange wording in parts, and almost no knowledge whatsoever of the overall plotline in dragonlance. The worst such discrepancy was that Senator Rashas, plainly dying in the Puppet King by Douglas Niles set thirty years before the Lioness and even thought of as dead in the War of Souls novels, is alive in this novel. It amazes me how the author, and all the editors could miss such a rather large inconsistency. Also Tanis Half-Elven is thought of as alive as far as ten years after the Chaos War and the Elven Prince Porthius is thought of as dying before his time as well.

FINAL THOUGHT: Some elves die, then some knights die, rinse and repeat for a lackluster novel.

Rating:
Summary: I REALLY tried this time but it was not to be
Review: I did really try to like this one, after all it has a really cool cover right? Those that know my DL reviews are aware that I don't think much of Nancy Varian Beberick's work in the shared fantasy world. But this time I thought I would let all the past over-descriptive romance-fantasies slide and begin anew. Like I said, really cool cover and all.

Well the Lioness was a better outing but sadly still was not a good novel. The writing as a whole has gotten a ton better, no two paragraphs spent on describing how an elf wears their hair in this one. But the plot and structure are still horrid in many regards. Speaking of the structure itself first, I must say it was badly designed. The beginning half is fine, but as the second half moves on it gets more and more rushed, and more and more unreadable. Characters are forgotten and then pop up only to die, plot points are rushed, the last fifty pages ends up being nothing more than a massacre and then no resolutions are made on some of the main character deaths during that massacre.

Next point, the villain. One Skull Knight named Eamutt Thagol. He's a wimp. Oh he's tough on the powerscale, he's got some freaky mentalist powers, but on the villain-o-meter he falls short. That's because he's really only got one thing going for him, wanton brutality. He's not really all that clever, and he just kind of popped up in the overall story line of dragonlance. Other than killing a ton of elves he didn't do a thing and because of that the only fear he gave to the protagonist was death. More so my personal dislike for the character comes from the fact that he was an easy out from having to deal with writing Marshall Medan.

Last, the editing in this novel was horrible. Grammatical errors all over the place, strange wording in parts, and almost no knowledge whatsoever of the overall plotline in dragonlance. The worst such discrepancy was that Senator Rashas, plainly dying in the Puppet King by Douglas Niles set thirty years before the Lioness and even thought of as dead in the War of Souls novels, is alive in this novel. It amazes me how the author, and all the editors could miss such a rather large inconsistency. Also Tanis Half-Elven is thought of as alive as far as ten years after the Chaos War and the Elven Prince Porthius is thought of as dying before his time as well.

FINAL THOUGHT: Some elves die, then some knights die, rinse and repeat for a lackluster novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another sure fire hit from a truly awesome author
Review: Set in the elven forrest of Qualinost's Nancy weaves a truly gripping tale as she tells the story of a servant turned rebel. Although the Lioness is set as a back drop to the best selling War of Souls trilogy Nancy's book easily stands on it's on merits. I hope wizards of the coast recognizees that all DL fans crave more of her writing

Long live the Lance

Joshua

Rating:
Summary: Terrific, fast paced action story
Review: This is a taut, thrilling story, full of action and adventure. It propels the reader along at an ever-intensifying pace to an all-out, satisfying resolution. Well plotted and keenly envisioned. I heartily recommend it for all fans of Dragonlance.