Join me as I review The Dragon Isles by Stephen D. Sullivan live! Share your thoughts on this fourth novel in the Dragonlance Crossroads series, released by Wizards of the Coast on December 1, 2002. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4k9Vsow 

The Dragon Isles: abandoned home of the good dragons, land of amazing adventure and legendary treasure. The trouble is, no one knows how to get there.

Now Mikal Vardan and his crew have found the hidden route, but they’re not the only ones interested in the isles. A beautiful sea elf scavenger thinks the wealth of a lost civilization might be worth killing for, and a menacing sea dragon is determined to bring a reign of terror to the peaceful archipelago.

Part one of this novel deals with Lady Karista Meinor and her bodyguard Bok hiring a ship to take them to the Dragon Isles where they want to open a trade route. They are using an old poem that is thought to be a prophecy about how to find the mysterious dragon isles. The novel opens with the ship’s captain, Mikal Verdan rescuing one of his sailors, a kender named Tripleknot Shellcracker from a sea monster. THey narrowly escape and are pulled on deck just in time for the crew to near mutiny. THey have not been informed about the point of this excursion and they have been sailing the northern Courrain ocean for longer than anticipated with no end in sight. 

They are told they are headed to the Dragon Isles where everyone will get their share of the spoils, and this pacifies them. Then they see floating wreckage which the kender claims has someone on top. It takes a while to intercept but there is a Dargonesti elf chained and unconscious on the wreckage. They bring her aboard and nurse her. It is revealed that she was believed to be cursed by her former shipmates and left to die, because there is  a sea dragon named Tempest trying to enter the Dragon Isles with her dragonspawn Mog. If they can’t get through the veil which protects the isles, no one will. She has been attacking all ships that dare to get near.

It is also revealed that the captain, Mik, is having visions of treasure and the dargonesti named Ula, is willing to help him locate the isles and treasure for a percentage. He agrees, but Karista doesn’t. Then Tempest attacks. She capsizes the ship and kills most of the crew. Mik and Trip use the failing magical items to breathe under water but are captured by other Dargonesti and brought to their underwater town. There they will be sold off into slavery or fight. However, Tempest and Mog followed. Once imprisoned they see that Ula and Karista were there and the only other survivors. Then Tempest attacks. They escape together with the help of one of the elves that captured them named Shimmer. He leads them to the Veil and with the aid of a black gem Mik has, they all pass through. Mog follows and narrowly passes through as well. Though Tempest is left on the other side still.

Tempest charges at the barrier using all her might and magic and is repelled again and again. She must be content that her spawn is on the other side, following the mortals, waiting to spring a trap and drop the veil once and for all. On the other side, the party comes ashore and is seen by a massive dragon, then a ship rolls up under order of the Brass taking them captive. Ula demands honor by combat rather than them being taken to their lord, and she fights Misa Kell, defeating her. Her brother is furious but honors the bargain. Ula is to take them to the dargonesti kingdom, but Benthor Kell, Misa’s brother, holds to the law of shipping the kender to an island where they all dwell. Karista Meinor decides to stay with Kell to have the Order of the Brass negotiate shipping routes with her.

The kender is tied up in a cabin, and Ula, Mik and Shimmer are dropped into a boat and leave to the dargonesti home. Once they arrive they see some of the people from the ruined sea elf town outside the veil, and they make their pleas to the lord of this realm. He allows them freedom and Ula, mik and shimmer decide to look for the next key to their treasure by visiting the sea sage. When they arrive it ends up attacking them and they temporarily defeat it, taking its key. Next they head to the gold dragons libraries. There Ula stays at the ship while shimmer and Mik head up, only to be stopped by a copper dragon guard who knows shimmer and lets them pass. 

Back on Kell’s boat, Trip escapes and jumps overboard, swimming from the pursuing ship. He hides in a cave and finds  a secret entrance to a pirates hide where he takes a sea dragon cloak that allows him free movement and breathing underwater. He escapes his pursuers and gets passage from the pirate Jerrick the Red, an old acquaintance of Miki’s. Very convenient. He takes the kender to the same island as his companions, conveniently, and meets Ula there. Mik and shimmer enter the library and mik climbs to the peak and has a vision of the island chain being formed and populated, then gets the next key piece. They come to shore to see Ula, Trip and Jerrick where they bargain for his ship to take them to the final key location.

Kell meets with the order of the Bronze and is told to stop Ula and shimmer, retrieving the treasure themselves as payment for the future shipping agreement with Karista. They pursue Jerrick’s ship and their dragon emissary abducts Ula. Shimmer transforms into a bronze dragon, his true form, and attacks the bronze holding Ula. He recovers her as krell seizes control of Jerricks ship with his own. Shimmer crashed on deck with Ula and both sides nearly come to blows when Jerrick speaks up, on working together to split t he treasure. The interjection actually works and they all get together to find the last piece ofthe key. 

They find the location and dive under the water, locating the temple where they find the key, but Mog is waiting and attacks a guard, changing into his appearance. He joins the crew and as Mik assembles the key with thenew piece, a stairway appears and ascends into the sky. They begin to go up and swarms of crabs attack, then Karista steals the key from Mik and reveals she is working for Tempest, this stuns Mog and they both race to the temple fighting the heroes all the way. Tempest breaks through the barrier when the group arrives at the temple and the now fully assembled key is a lightning weapon that is turned against the heroes.

Factions are blurred and everyone seems to survive incredible wounds but the fight is truly epic. Karista is defeated and the heroes reclaim the key only to have tempest arrive and fight them, killing many people, including Karista, and the all scatter trying to defeat the sea dragon. Eventually Mik faces off against it and it plumets into a volcano, which then erupts and the key seems to offer Mik treasure at the sacrifice of the Dragon Isles. He refuses and throws the key into the volcano as well. The temple of the sky begins to fade and he leaps in to the ocean, sure to drown.

He is saved by Ula and they return to the ship, when Trip arrives with a miraculously still alive Shimmer. They all decide to continue searching for treasure in the Dragon Isles together and the novel ends abruptly. There were so many moments where characters should have died over and over again, but I forgive it for the epic scope of that final battle. The author isn’t great, but I did find myself enjoying this novel more than I anticipated, even if the story itself was seemingly rushed. I also think it was more epic than the Dawning of a New Age final novel, which while not saying a lot since it want good, does say that this one novel was superior to a trilogy.

If you are a fan of the Dragon Isles, and water based adventures, this is a must read. For fans of Dragonlance, it is fun, but not required reading.