I don't think it's a big deal that dragons are heavily featured in Dragons of Spring Dawning. The War of the Lance was chronicled in these books, as well as the introduction of the dragon-filled world of Krynn. The series is called Dragonlance. Spring Dawning is mostly dragonlance-free.
It is not the only disappointment to be found in the final volume of the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy. Spring Dawning reads if it was a rush job, where the duo didn't have time to fully think out the plot and was forced to use a variety of deus ex machinas to keep the story going. Spring Dawning was published in September of 1985 just two months after the previous novel, Dragons of Winter Night. The book came out in November of 1984.
Let me explain. Tanis and his friends are trying to bring Berem to the Temple of Takhisis at Neraka so they can seal the goddess away again. Takhisis knows Berem and sends her armies and dragons to find him, so she will be free and unbeatable. It's hard to get invested in Berem as a character because he was barely in the first two books and never spoke a line of dialogue, so the discovery that he's the McGuffin that's It is less satisfying when you learn that he and his sister spotted a jeweled column hundreds of years ago. Berem accidentally killed his sister when he tried to grab a jewel, and he was consumed by greed. Takhisis was imprisoned by the column and the removal of the gem allowed the goddess a bit of freedom, which is why she is causing trouble in the present. It will take a bit of glue and a gem to save the world. Throwing the most powerful item on the planet into an open volcano feels banal.
In one of his attempts to stay out of the clutches of Takhisis, Berem sails his ship with Tanis, Raistlin, Caramon, Tika, Riverwind, and Goodmoon, directly into a deadly maelstrom in the middle of the ocean. The way the authors write themselves out of the corner stinks because they take their time returning to their storyline as if anyone reading would believe they killed more than half of the main characters in the first few chapters of the book. Sea elves sometimes rescue people who are drowned by taking them to an ancient city full of air on the bottom of the sea. The heroes don't remember what happened to Tanis and the others when the sea elves return. The deus ex machina robs the ship of its power and the memory wipe makes it a waste of time.
Kitiara sending a message to Laurana is my least favorite moment in Spring Dawning. She is a tactical genius, all the disparate groups under her control believe in her, and she is known as the "Golden General" to her troops and the townsfolk. The only battles in which people actually ride on good dragons while wielding dragonlances are only in the book by proxy, and they are the only ones where a hapless Tasslehoff andFlint get drawn into. The War of the Lance is a short film.
I was talking about the message Kitiara sent to Laurana, which said Tanis is dying and wants to see the general before he dies. Laurana needs to bring an evil commander she captured for a hostage exchange and come alone. Laurana doesn't have any proof that she has Tanis, and Tas andFlint don't know that Kitiara is lying, but they do know that she plays a crucial role in the war, and the troops that need her in command. She was captured instantly. Weis and Hickman were given 10 minutes to come up with a narratively satisfying way to make Laurana at the Temple of Takhisis happen, and this is the best they could come up with. Kitiara tells all the forces of good that they have three weeks to surrender and that the embodiment of evil rule over Laurana will be killed. Laurana was very good at her job, but why would they choose eternal darkness over a single person? Why would the forces of evil think so? It is dumb.
There are several things that work in Spring Dawning. I think Tanis is more comfortable with his self-loathing when he has a reason for it, such as the fact that he starts the novel sleeping with the enemy. He uses his toxic relationship to rejoin the forces of evil in order to free Laurana in the final act of the story.
Raistlin goes full black robes in this book, first by abandoning everyone else, including his devastated twin brother Caramon, and then by going off the maelstrom-bound ship. The new black mage shades of gray were given by Weis and Hickman when they had him join the forces of Takhisis and help Tanis kill Emperor Ariakis. Raistlin allows Berem to return the gem to the column. He makes it clear that he has done all of this because it has made him the most powerful force of evil on the planet. He is evil but still has a soft side, which has made him one of the most beloved characters in the game.
The final act of the book is great. Once you get past the nonsense of Laurana's capture, Tanis, Caramon, Tika, and Tasslehoff's three-pronged assault is wonderfully plotted and edited together for maximum energy. I don't know if Tanis and Kitiara's plan would make sense under close scrutiny, but it was exciting enough that I didn't care. The heartbreaking plea for Raistlin to take him on his new journey towards evil is one of the wonderful character beats.
Dragons of Spring Dawning is a disappointment even though it is a good book and a conclusion to the series. The first Dragonlance trilogy is better than any other D&D trilogy I have read so far. I can understand why Spring Dawning is beloved, but I can not call it better than its predecessors. It rolls a 14 on its 1d20, below Winter Night's 17 and Autumn Twilight's 16, and the same as the novel Shadowdale. Spring Dawning is a mostly good book that has a lot of bad plot.
I don't want to try another Gary Gygax/Greyhawk joint after reading three good Dragonlance novels in a row. Let's finish out R.A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale trilogy and look back at The Halfling's Gem. Next month, see you!
There are various musings.
Raistlin made a deal to defeat the green dragon in Winter Night, and it turns out to be an ancient evil wizard. Raistlin has two deals with Fistandantilus that allow him to live after nearly dying using the Dragon Orb. The partnership makes the mage powerful enough to be used to defeat Takhisis. I believe this gets explored a lot more in the Dragonlance Legends trilogy.
The good dragons were keeping out of the fight because the evil dragons had taken the good dragons eggs and were holding them hostage. Gilthanas discovered that the eggs were being turned into the half-dragon, half-man draconians that made up Takhisis' army. I was a kid and it was weird because there were dragons on both sides, but the evil humanoids seemed to number in the tens of thousands, if not more. The bad guys got a lot of eggs from the good dragons. Do dragons lay eggs? How does this work?
The man died of a heart attack on the way to Neraka. If he fell in battle against a dragon, it would have less power than it does now. Fizban has an excuse not to take part in the final fight because the wizard takes him to Dragonlance heaven. He is the god of good that stands in opposition to Takhisis. It's not known why he allows himself to be in situations where he dies terribly, like when he falls dozens of feet and smashes into the ground while trying to cast feather fall back in Autumn twilight.
The most messed-up thing in the book is a rant about the importance of keeping the balance between good and evil. Spring Dawning takes it a step further, by saying that good breeds rigidity and a belief that because I am right, those who don't believe as I do are wrong. The world was at risk of being brought upon by this carelessness. The good was being destroyed because it wasn't understood. I am not going to unpack that.
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