Customer Reviews

Riverwind the Plainsman: Preludes, Volume Four

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This starts when Riverwind is still in the village, and he is trying to win the hand of the Chieftains Daughter, Goldmoon, in marriage. But as Riverwind believes in the old gods, and that religion is frowned upon, Riverwind is sent on a quest to find proof of the old gods so he can marry Goldmoon.
On this quest Riverwind finds an underground city of elves, ruled by a powerful female elf. He spends much of his adventure here, and learns much about the secrets and plots of the city.
The authors did a good job in this book, though Riverwind isn't a very likeable character. The story is good, and if you have read other Dragonlance books involving Riverwind, it's nice to know what's happened to him in the beginning.

Riverwind the Plainsman was an ok book. The biginning was somewhat dull but the ending made up for it. The prediction at the begining at the beginnig made you gess the whole time when and who it would happen to. Like some of the other readers have stated there is a slight confliction with the other books.

Your beloved needs you to go on a quest to claim her. You take the village idiot. You fall down a big hole into an underground kingdom of elves. You have an elf fall in love with you and you eventually take on a black dragon. All in a days work for Riverwind.

Riverwind is forced to go on a courting quest to claim Goldmoon. The quest involves finding proof of the old gods. Catchflea, the town idiot, joins Riverwind and they end up falling down the entrance to a city of underground elves. After an epic battle to free them from their oppressive ruler, the companions blunder into a city of draconians and a cleric making horrible lizard warriors. Only one person makes it out of this whole mess alive and sane.

The plot is implausible so it's up to the characters to make the read interesting. And they do. Riverwind is an interesting very sweet character. Catchflea gets annoying, but Di An is a nice character and Li El is truly creepy.

If you're looking for a good, light read from Dragonlance, you might want to check out this book.

There are quite a few mistakes in this book, the big one being the Chronicles said Riverwind's quest took years not 8 months.

The 1st big sequence was very boring too. The writers did make up for their flaws afterwards though. Catchflea was very memorable character & the 2nd half of the book made up for the lackluster 1st half.

In all, a good book.

This was much better than I expected! While this book had a great plot and really filled in some details about Que-Shu customs, and Riverwind and Goldmoon's relationship, the authors really screwed up some details. Hollow Sky was NOT Loreman's eldest child, Hawker was. Also, Wanderer was not supposed to be Riverwinds father, he was actually his 'adoptive grandfather' as explained in the book 'Love and War'. Also, while 'Dragons of Autumn twilight' states that Goldmoon and Riverwind are in their late twenties, in this book it says that Riverwind is barely 20 years (Goldmoon is younger than Riverwind) and was gone 11 months before he returned to Que-shu, making him at most 21, so unless they traveled to the inn of the last home over a span of 9 years (which I doubt) There are some problems here. These details probably won't bother anyone, but just in case...

Although this book was well-written, I did not particularyly enjoy it. It does tell the story about Riverwind's quest for the true gods - the time inbetween falling in love with Goldmoon and meeting up with the companions in Solace. The story is interesting, but it becomes too complicated at times. The storyline is easy to follow, but too many details and side issues complicate the story.

I believe this book will make a good addition to any Dragonlance fan's collection. However, for the casual reader, this isn't a good book with which to start. Begin with the Chronicles trilogy. A good prequel to this book is the shirt story in the 3rd volume of the Tales trilogy - it sets the stage for this entire book.

I've read a lot of books in my life and this is one of the worst.The Dragonlance novels tend to vary a lot in quality depending on which author it is, but this one is terrible.I tried and tried to finish it but I couldn't do it because the combination of the writing and the pacing of the plot conspired to put me in a coma. If you're looking for lots of action or interesting characters, read something else. I hate this book!

This book is a continuation of the short "Heart of Goldmoon" in 'Love and War (Tales III) by Laura Hickman and Kate Novak. Not only did the novel stay true to the outline of Goldmoon and Riverwind, but continued smoothly and correctly from the short mentioned above. The novel explains further the trials of the two Que-Shu, and leads their relationship to what it is in 'Chronicles', very well written, and very well thought out. To be this continuous in the story line must have been hard to do, but do it the authors do. Gully dwarves, draconians, ophidian dragon-men, clerics, a banish tribe (city) of elves (the Hestites)and their story, and of course the black dragon Khisanth. This book has a lot of different storylines wrapped up into one, but fear not... the story line always flows smooth. A little time consuming, yes... but hey, why do you want to rush a good thing? This explains also how together, Goldmoon and Riverwind can bring back the Goddess Mishakal's word, as well as her healing. The descriptions of Xak Tsaroth are even as described in 'Chronicles'... obviously tedious homework was done to keep this novel true to form.

This is one of the worst book that I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Not only was it poorly written (and proofread--as many TSR novels seem to be) from a technical aspect, but the characters and events were poorly thought out. This book shames (as can be expected) the Weis & Hickman books.

It doesn't quite tie in exactly with the Chronicles, but it stands fairly well on its own two feet(like Lyrexis). It is not really an important book, though, and better unbought.