Customer Reviews

Darkness & Light: Preludes, Volume One

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

 

 

The first book of the "Preludes" trilogy, like the two that follow after it, should never have been allowed to be included in the Dragonlance Saga. I have read them all, and I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn't happening. Sturm and Kitiara get together to seek out Sturm's father.... a promising enough start, but before you can say "DUH" they've ended up on Lunitari with a bunch of goofy gnomes and a whiny dragon. There is no development of either the Sturm or Kitiara character, and for those hoping to see seeds of little Steele twinkling in their eyes will be sorely disappointed. This is a poorly written novel, with minimal plot, and little to reccomend it to any but the most hard-core of DL fans. Do yourself a favor and pass this one bye and pick up the "Preludes 2" trilogy, a much stronger and more interesting set.

This is about a mercenary named Kitiara and Sturm, a knight of Solamnia. They are going to Solamnia to find Sturm's father, when they lose their horses and come across gnomes with a flying machine. The gnomes promise the humans that if they get them unstuck, they with fly them anywhere they want to go. Sturm, being a knight, is all honorable etc., but Kitiara is quite the opposite. Gnomes are known for being inventors - although about only 10% of their inventions actually work. Kitiara is doubtful that the machine will fly, but they help the gnomes anyway. And the ship, the Cloudmaster, proves to work. All is going well, until something goes wrong, and they crash-land on the moon Lunitari. All red sand and rocks, as far as the eye can see. It's not that bad at first, but when they meet walking, talking (but not so intelligent), tree's, a crazy survivor from a strange incident, giant crystal ants, and when Kitiara grows as strong as ten men, Sturm has visions, and all the gnomes get better at what they were already good at (though they couldn't make it rain before...), they decided that they had better get off the moon - quickly.
Although Kitiara is not a character that I really like, I found the book funny and entertaining.

I was a somewhat disapointed that you did not find out how Sturm and Kit fall in love. The trip they take is an amazing jurney that takes them out of this world. The gnomes were very amusing to read about. There isn't much more to say except that I would have to say reea this book.

I tried to like this book, really I did. I went into it expecting a light read, not Shakespeare mind you. But light reads are supposed to be LIGHT! This book was either too conspicuously trying to take itself seriously or too conciously trying to be funny.

The main gist is that Sturm and Kitiara accidentally end up on another planet when the flying machine they are riding in with a band of gnomes breaks. Once on the planet it's a series of misadventures trying to get supplies to leave which eventually leads them to a brass dragon in an obelisk. When they finally get back to Krynn, Sturm inexplicably joins a group of herders to find his father, barely being saved by Kitiara before being done in by a magician warrior. Did I mention the deadend plot about a pirate ship? I won't even try to go into that.

The characters were strikingly bland. Sturm is such an over-pious, stuffy character it's hard to sympathize with him and Kitiara is just obnoxious, bemoaning how the world doesn't work out perfectly for her. The gnomes are interchangable and so annoying one wants to put them all in a box and sink them to the bottom of the ocean. The one chapter featuring Raistlin and Caramon was better than most of the other characterization put together. Raistlin is such a magnetic character it's hard to write him poorly.

Initially, if the authors had stuck to the later plot of the book, with Sturm looking for his father, this thing might have been a good read. But in the end, too much is attempted to be done and the book just runs out of gas. Oh, and where was the promised romance? I found none.

In the end, too many plot twists make an admirable rope to hang this story on.

This book was one the first Dragonlance novels starring the Companions that was not written by Weis and Hickman, and unfortunately it provides ample ammunition to the "If its not Weis and Hickman its [no good]!" (said in my best Mike Myers Scottish accent).

If you don't know, the 6 Preludes books follow the Companions in the time period leading up to the beginning of Chronicles. The first question is, do I need to read the Preludes first? The answer is pretty much a resounding no. Since they were written afterwards, you won't lose anything in the way of plot of character development. Also, they are generally inferior to Chronicles/Legends so they may get you started on a bad foot in exploring Krynn.

Now, as far as this book goes, you will find it lacking two major things. One is any meaningful character development. Sturm and Kitiara were both supporting cast members in Chronicles/Legends and were not drawn much past thier archetypal definitions. You might think that putting them as the stars of an entire novel would help explore these characters but you would unfortunately be wrong. At the beginning and end of them, Kitiara is the same headstrong selfish fascist, while Sturm is the self-righteous devotee of the Measure and Code (neither of which are given any treatment here).

The second is any meaningful exploration of Krynn or expansion of the core story. Most of the book takes place on Lunitari, a bleak empty world. True it is part of the DL universe, but the lack of other material on it makes it seem rather disassociated. Not that there is anything wrong with a bleak empty world, as many great science fiction/fantasy authors have used this setting before with great effect. However, it is almost always used to accenuate character development, conflict and/or relationships. Here is serves only to accenuate the lack of those same elements.

The saving grace of this story is that unlike the DL books release prior, it is not about beating some SuperBadGuy, people don't instantly fall in everlasting love (a Weis trademark), and its the first DL book where we get to meet gnomes in depth. If you consider books to be good or bad, you will probably lean towards thinking this one is bad. I you have a generous gray area in your evaluation scale, you will probably think it exists just a little bit on the wrong side of mediocre. Fortunately It reads fast, doesn't really drag its feet much so when I finished with I didn't feel like I had wasted much time on it. A rating of 2.5 stars would be accurate, but since it was a rather brave attempt at breaking into what was formerly a single author (technically a duo), I'll give it 3.

The adventure was ridiculously far-fetched. The basic idea: decribe Kitiara and Sturm's journey together, was good. It's just when the authors decided to put it into writing that it became terrible. Flying to the moon? Fantasy is supposed to be fantasy, but this takes it to it's awful extremes.
The writing style was horrible. I didn't feel that I could connect with any of the characters. The gnomes were just silly.
I felt this book was a disgrace to the entire DL series, and the publishers should think twice before putting one of the books by these authors out into the shops.

Before the war of the lance, when the companions split up, after a promise to meet in 5 years time, Sturm decides to head north to look for signs of his father. Kitiara decides to come along, and together they head north towards solomnia. But along the way they meet a rag-tag group of gnomes, all of whom man a very gnomish invention, a flying machine.

Sturm and Kitiara end up joining the gnomes on the flying ship, but something goes wrong and they end up flying all the way to the red moon lunitari. One the moon they meet a dragon, some weird talking trees, and an evil marrooned human..can they do to get home? their ship is broken!

This books bring together the adventure of sturm and kitiara in the years preceeding the war of the lance. They face many things during this book, i will not go about telling you what all the face, you will have to read and find out, but this book is a must needed addition to any dragonlance collection.

I am not the biggest fan of kitiara, but in this book she wasnt half bad, maybe it was because she wasnt hanging over every single guy that she saw, but this book definately shows you the relationship between sturm and kitiara, and brings to life the pain that kit might have felt, after she realized that she killed sturm (dragons of winter night). They face many things on their journey, as well as something that they never expected...love.

Kitiara goes her way, and sturm goes his. But this book is definately a good read. full of adventure, and humor (thanks to the gnomes) as well as a precurser to the troubles that a brewing on krynn, troubles that will eventually lead to the war of the lance.

While others have pointed out that there is a few inconsitencies in this book, like the parts with the dragon, and the draconions, who sturm was supposedly not supposed to know about until "dragons of autumn twilight" this is still a good read, and will definately keep you interested from cover to cover.

It's been a while since I've read this book, so fogrgive me if I'm a bit rusty. Kitiara, Sturm, and a bunch of gnomes.... What else could you ask for? Although we find in other books that Kitiara had Sturm's child, we certainly don't see anything going on in this book. Sure, Sturm has some mixed emotions about her, but nothing happens in this book. At the end, when they part, it's assumed they never see each other again until that fateful morning on the High Clerist's Tower battlements.

Back to the book.... It explains a very interesting adventure that Kitiara and Sturm had shortly after the companions broke up, intending to meet again in five years. These two travel together for a while, but then part ways after several adventures.

This book merely gives some information on Kitiara searching for her father and Strum searching for his father. Strum proves to be successful, but he is in for some surprises - one of which involves Kitiara.

This books flows pretty well, but some parts of it drag. I did enjoy the book, but not enough to give it more than four stars. I recommend this book for the true Dragonlance fan. However, for the occasional reader, I don't recommend starting with this book or even trying to read it until you're a fan.

I've got a bone to pick with the whole concept behind the Preludes series (and I've read a lot of Dragonlance). The whole thing has ridiculously fantastical adventures taking place (even for fantasy books) that then never get mentioned by the characters in Chronicles. Fair enough, Flint doesn't want to talk about falling in love and becoming King of the gully dwarves. But Tanis goes back in time and then carves Krynn's very own Mount Rushmore! This one is just as bad ... Sturm goes to the moon? Sounds like a Tin-Tin cartoon.

As other reviewers have pointed out, Sturm is aware of dragons but 'never mentions them' to any of the other companions. Worse, it specifically states in Dragons of the Winter Night, Sturm's surprise about a silver dragon when he journeys to Icewall (remember, Derek disagrees and says the night was a renegade?). So that is a big problem.

But what I see as the worst problem with this book (and this isn't really the authors fault, more Margaret and Tracey {:P )is that, according to the facts given with regards to Steele Brightblade's conception, it happens during the time described in this book. One of the greatest events in the history of Krynn, certainly in the lives of either Sturm or Kitiara, and it doesn't get mentioned in a book about those times!

TSR should never have published all these books ... they were just too wacked out, and to loose with the facts of the existing Dragonlance books at the time. Failing that, if you want to kill a few brain cells, read it.

The main reason for the 4 stars, is the fact that the synopsis of the book is somewhat misleading. The synopsis says that this story is about Sturm's search for his father and Kitiara's early merc. days. In fact, after reading this book, it seems that the search for his father was actually a sub-plot (with the majority of the adventure happening on the moon). As far fetched as it seems (and one wonders if Thompson and Carter have been into Otik's finest ale) for the happenings to take place on the moon, the overall story is really good. The gnomes (adding a sense of humor), a wise-cracking brass dragon, a mad man marooned and ruler of the tree-people on the moon, crystal ants, and magicians are present from page one. A really good read.