The Dark Queen Review

Join me as I review The Dark Queen by Michael Williams & Teri Williams, live! Share your thoughts on this sixth novel in the Dragonlance Villains series, released on January 1, 1994 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3rcSmsS

https://youtube.com/live/jE9s3hDArDA

About The Dark Queen

The story of Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, follows her as she is worshipped by legions of evil beings and spends her time plotting to escape from the Abyss

Review

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Majetag, Reapember the 19th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The Dark Queen by Michael Williams & Teri Williams. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this YouTube channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.

My expectations of this novel being the worst in the entire series of Dragonlance novels has been ruined by the first third of the novel. While the writing style of Michael and Teri Williams is more akin to poetry than fiction, the story itself isn’t bad. Takhisis is trying to recover and manifest on Krynn after being banished in the Third Dragon War by Huma. To do this, she had convinced the Kingpriest of Istar that he can marry an elusive red headed woman, if he procures a vast amount of sacred opals from beneath Istar. The Kingpriest being a piece of work himself, has enslaved the now extinct Lucanesti Elves who lived for millennia before Huma, and even made prophecies about the fall of Istar and the coming Cataclysm. These elves are known for being able to easily locate these opals, so they have been enslaved.

There is another prophecy about a band of nomads who can overthrow Istar and place their leader up as the new Kingpriest. This would spoil Takhisis’ plans, so she manifests as well as possible and tries to have him killed. This man is Fordus Firesoul, the Water and War Prophet of the Que-Nara plainsmen and other nomad tribes who have joined them in their war with Istar. Fordus is gifted, and has been touched by Sirrion, but I believe he is being protected by Sargonnas at the moment. Fordus has continually defeated the Istarian armies using guerilla tactics as he slowly makes his way to Istar. In truth, he is being aided by a druid in service to the Kingpriest named Vannanen. Vannanen came to be indentured to the Kingpriest as he was sent to copy all newly declared illegal tomes of knowledge by the kingpriest and spirit them away for future generations. He witnessed a man, enslaved as the Kingpriests weapons master/trainer, and upon his death, the Kingpriest was going to send his son to the mines to pay off the rest of his fathers debt. Vannanen stepped in to pay the remainder of his debt as the new trainer, and the son, Vincus was enslaved to a cleric instead.

Vannaned has been sending Fordus intel in the guise of visions, helping him with troop movements and tactics, even places in the desert to find water and such. Fordus has no idea who it is, assuming he is communing with the gods. That is the basic plot thus far, but there is more development within the rebel camp with personalities that may play larger roles, like the bard Larken or the elf monk Stormlight who Fordus travels with. I am a third of the way through, and it seems the setup is complete, and we will get into the consequences of the characters choices. Fordus travels the desert alone in a vision and is attacked ...