Customer Reviews

The Eve of the Maelstrom: Dragons of a New Age, Volume Three

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

All in all this book was decent. Certainly was not one of the best Dragonlance books I have read. Some parts of it kind of dragged along without a whole lot of suspense to the point that I nearly put it down. It ended very blandly without a true and proper conclusion. As this book was the third and last of three books in a set it would have been better to end the whole adventure. Instead Jean Rabe pushes it even further to three more books in which after this one I truthfully am not looking forward to. This is still a good book to read I enjoyed many parts of it though so it is still worth a look.

This is likely one of the greatest dragonlance books ever written. Any one who misses this great addition to the dragon lance seris will be truely sorry. READ THIS BOOK!

As the trilogy progressed, Rabe's writing just got better and better. It went from being awkward and stilted in the first book to very smooth flowing in this last book. It actually felt like a true Dragonlance book and made for some very enjoyable reading. Yes, some of the characters needed to be fleshed out more and they seemed to get mortally wounded and overcome unbeatable odds more than they should have, but those seemed like minor things.

The last half of the book seemed like fight scene after fight scene with minimal rest in between. Rabe has a knack for writing suspenseful battles, despite the fact that they can be a little unbelievable at times (5 people taking on 3 dozen Knights of Takhisis and winning). Her handling of the dragons and the intrigue among them in this book was very well done. I especially enjoyed the introduction of the shadow dragon. There was also an interesting exploration of the undersea kingdome of the sea elves, Dimernesti.

The conclusion, however, seemed a little flat. It seems as if the author wanted to set up another book, be it one of hers or some other author's in the Dragonlance saga. Maybe it continues almost directly into Weis & Hickman's War of Souls or into her own Dhamon Saga. Guess I'll find out when I get to those books.

My only complaint was the need for some serious proofreading. Typos, missing words, incorrect words ("to" instead of "too"), and missing punctuation got to be really excessive. I was surprised at how bad it was. There were pages where I found three or four of these. Of course, this was the previous edition that I read, so maybe they fixed these in this new release.

All in all, a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Even if you hated the first book, I think you'll like this one (just make sure you read the second installment as well).

The Eve of the Maelstrom, by Jean Rabe is a fine conlusion to an otherwise intresting series. Rabe does a great job bringing the heros together to fight against something that has been a problem throughout the whole trilogy: The Overlords.

I happened to find this trilogy exciting and worth the read. It definately leads nicely into Wies and Hickman's War of Souls Trilogy. Granted, Krynn is different in these books. But that doesn't make it any less interesting. In fact, I found these books just as interesting as the Chronicles trilogy that started the Dragonlance world. While these aren't AS good as previous Dragonlance books, they are still quite entertaining.

If you pass up these books cause of the poor reviews that it gets, then you are going to miss an exciting series. The adventure and action seems to never stop in these books. New mysteries are revealed, while others are solved. Finally the heros strike back against the massive Overlords. This book is definately worth the read. Don't pass it up. It sheds light onto the new face of Krynn. A Krynn without the gods.

After reading most of the Dragonlance books, I finally bought this trilogy. I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't get it. It's a bad sign when your book has 15 pages left with no resolution in sight. Or when you have a "slideshow" telling what happened to the characters because you ran out of space. How many times did these paperdoll characters get burned, scarred, run through and mortally wounded just to get revived by the healer? How many times did we get detailed descriptions of their new outfits but not real personalities? Despite the good idea of dragon overlords, how come no one deals with the problem of food? At the rate they eat, Ansalon should have no people or livestock left. But that, along with so many plot points, is just part of the mystery. Maybe that mystery is why five dragons let a band of humanoids poke, prod and wound them, then let them leave. It's too bad Jean Rabe had to introduce unbeatable, unkillable monsters and found them more fascinating than the characters we had to read about for three books.

what was the purpose of this trilogy? The only thing it did was introduce the dragon overlords and the rest of the story is [...] and doesn't matter. All you need to know is that there are 5 big dragons that rule Ansalon and you can go on to read the new books on the 5th age by Weis and Hickman. So if you are planning to get this book DONT!

When I read this I was obsessed with Jean Rabe. Not as good as some authors but still amazing. Her writing style is a lot more catching than many books I've read. It's not for the people who have been reading Dragonlace for a long time, but it's stil very good. I recommend it for those who have never read Dragonlance books before. Nice one Rabe!!!

An open ended ending for sure...It seems as if poor Rabe was atad rushed with the space given to her by her editors.

I have readall the reviews and the bashing is ...

The woman wrote a darn good book under her editorial guidelines. Perosnally I wish certain aspects of the Fifth Age were given more detail. Rabe's writing made the characters come to life... I must say that I even like ... hugging Feril...

The plot was fast paced, the dragonlord characterizations, FLAWLESS... I really really feel as if I should be an advocate for The Storm Over Krynn.

Thank you Jean rabe for a good story that has fresh characters and a new perspective on Krynn. I feel as though I should apologize that some ... ... in the back of the classroom will tantrum until they get their Weis Hickman fixes and will continue tomark your books as anathema.

Then they can go turn around in time out and enjoy the corner because I'm not letting anything stop me from becoming engrossed in the 5th Age.

Thank you

5 stars!

I am suprised that Jean Rabe made it this far. Yes she had a lot to live up to (any one of Margaret Weis' & Tracy Hickman's books) but still..... after the first two you'd think she would go hide in a cave in tibet and ponder her wrong doings but nooooooo. The 3rd installment to her trilogy is yet another failure. Ripping of the heros and heroins we know so well from the Dargons/Twins Trilogies is clearly evident. NOt only does the plot suck, but he characters are not ones you can identfy with, nor are they well developed (even though she had 3 books to do it). I'm sure on of the other reviews will summarise the book for you so I wont *spoil* the ending for you. Anyways, the book sucks, and Rabe has ruined the world of Krynn. The challenge Raistlin faced in becoming a God pales in comparison to the challenge Weis and Hickman are presented with (fixing Krynn from Rabe's reign of terror)

... ,Although I agree that taking magic away from Krynn was not a very cool thing to do. I must step to the plate in Jean Rabe's defense that it wasn't her fault. When the gods abandoned Krynn, (Dragons of Summer Flame) the magic that they provided to the Mage's of Krynn had no choice but to follow. Also, there is a sort of magic still there. It's different, but there all the same. Anyways, off my soapbox.

I liked the series. This book in particular. I do not however, like most people I talk to, like it as much as the older books. I guess it's kinda like moving to a new school. Sure the people are cool, but they aren't your old friends. Also, they seem to have given too much leeway in the writing of these stories. The strict rules that have kept Dragonlance interesting for many years seem to be all but abandoned. Next thing you know, they will be writing about Kenders who dont Steal....errrr find things.

That's my 2 cents..hope it helps