Join me as I review Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson, live! Share your thoughts on this final novel in the Taladas Trilogy set after the War of Souls. You can pick up Shadow of the Flame here: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Flame-Dragonlance-Taladas-Trilogy/dp/0786942541

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About Shadow of the Flame

Explore the far-off continent of Taladas in the exciting conclusion to The Taladas Chronicles!

As war and devastation spread across the continent of Taladas, a small band of heroes has just suffered a devastating loss in a fight to determine the world's fate. Barreth Forlo, their leader, has been possessed by the spirit of Maladar the Faceless, a sorcerer-king who seeks to return to power, by whatever means necessary. Now Shedara and Hult, Forlo's companions, must push on without him, bound for the safety of the distant Rainward Isles. Pitted against their friend, they must find a way to stop Maladar from raising his ancient empire from the ashes of history --and the answer may well lie in Forlo's own son, who carries a secret even he doesn't understand.

Review

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Holmswelth the 3rd, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson. I will be spoiling the story, so if you don’t want to know it, stop watching now! I would like to take a moment to remind you that you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.

Once again we begin with a fantastic first chapter. This is a trend in this trilogy. It starts with Maladar as Emperor, thousands of years before, in the height of the greatest civilization on Krynn, Aurim. He has extended his life for over two hundred years, and is building a secret army. His generals, the Seven Swords, learn of this and confront him about it, when Maladar kills them all. He is convinced he will die from them as he saw it in a vision, and makes plans to survive even as he knows he will be betrayed and die. It ended up being his 8 year old Uigan slave who kills him with poison for having decimated his tribe.

Then we flash forward to the end of the last novel. Maladar is crossing the burning plains to raise Chaldar, the tower of flame at the center of Hith’s Cauldron, only he is stopped by fire minions and an ancient fire dragon. They tell him that if he is the prophesied one, he needs an army. Angry Maladar leaves to raise his army. Forlo realizes that he is alive and trapped in his body under Maladar’s control, but he can share Maladar’s thoughts. Maladar ignores the pain that Forlo is feeling and approaches the city in Old Aurim called Sha Moku. This area has been claimed by hobgoblins and it is here Maladar begins raising his massive Hobgoblin army.

Shadara, Hult, Essana and Azar are leaving the ruins of the Ilithid temple, on their way to the Rainward Isles to warn the nine kings there about Maladar’s return. They are attacked by trolls and only survive because Azar called down lightning. Something he shouldn’t be able to do, and he doesn’t even know how he did it. They drop down into a rift to avoid the majority of monsters and beasts between them and the coast only to be attacked by many mutant scorpions. Again, Azar destroys them all with powerful magic. Shedara and Hult demand answers and Shedara casts a spell to enter Azar’s mind. They go back to when he was  a child,