Dragonlance Dragonlance Author Tracy Hickman Has His DRAGONS OF DECEIT Advanced Copies!

With the launch of the new Dragonlance novel trilogy approaching in August of this year, co-author Tracy Hickman shared a photo of his advance copy!

Dragons of Deceit is the first book in the new trilogy, with an August 9th release date. Previous information indicates that the second book in the trilogy will be called Dragons of Fate.

D&D General - New Summary and Release Date for 'Dragons of Deceit'

There's a new Amazon Kindle page for Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's new Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Deceit with a release date of August 9, 2022. There has been an older Amazon page for the book for a while, with a now-expired release date of July 2021. The existence of the new trilogy...

www.enworld.org

The description (including typos) reads as follows:

The first new Dragonlance novel from Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman in over a decade, and featuring fan-favorite characters from the iconic first two trilogies, Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends--books that brought a generation of readers into the fantasy fold.

Destina Rosethorn--as her name implies--believes herself to be very much a favored child of destiny. But when her father dis in the War of the Lance, her carefully-constructed world comes crashing down. Not only does she lost her beloved father, but the legacy he has left her: a wealthy fiance, and rule over the family lands and castle. With nothing left in the world to support her but wits and determination, she hatches a bold plan: to secure the Device of Time Journeying she read about in one of her father's books and prevent her father's death.

The last known holder of the Device was one of the Heroes of the Lance: the free-spirited kender, Tasselhoff Burrfoot. BUt when Destina arrives in Solace--home not only to Tas, but to fellow heroes Caramon and Tika Majere--she sets into motion a chain of events more deadly than she had ever anticipated: one that could change not only her personal history, but the fate of the entire world, allowing a previously-defeated evil to once again gain ascendancy.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The blurb is basically "how to say that WotC is retconning all of Drangolance to better fit Current Year ideals without actually saying that".

That's an interesting way of saying, "WOTC is retconning Dragonlance since the War of Souls failed to fix the dumpster fire that was the Fifth Age. Which was, admittedly, because Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrote Dragons of Summer Flame to burn the franchise to the ground due to it being taken away from them."

 

[GreyLord]

That's an interesting way of saying, "WOTC is retconning Dragonlance since the War of Souls failed to fix the dumpster fire that was the Fifth Age. Which was, admittedly, because Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrote Dragons of Summer Flame to burn the franchise to the ground due to it being taken away from them."

Even with Dragons of Summer Flame, they didn't have to do the entire 5th age how they did it.

That wasn't all that great of an approach.

And, to be honest, the trilogy (Dragons of a New Age) they opened it with was one of the worst written pieces of (*insert whatever negative identifier you want here) I've ever read. That, in and of itself, lost my interest in it.

War of Souls brought me back somewhat, but killing Paladine and Takhasis really wasn't something that I really fancied. And Mina...that over powered munchkin piece of (insert whatever negative identifier that you want here) was definitely NOT a selling point for me. It wasn't just her (there were several really unlikeable characters in that trilogy, unlike the original chronicles where most of the characters were likeable) either, it just couldn't bring it back to where it was before the 5th age hit.

It's great to play all the way up until the 5th age...OR pretend it never happened (and that entire Dragon Overlord type of stuff was just a silly dream), but yeah...whoever visits Dragonlance as a full on realized campaign next (whether Hickman and Weis or WotC) has a lot of stuff to overcome to return it to where it was in the 80s and early 90s as a campaign world.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Even with Dragons of Summer Flame, they didn't have to do the entire 5th age how they did it.

That wasn't all that great of an approach.

And, to be honest, the trilogy (Dragons of a New Age) they opened it with was one of the worst written pieces of (*insert whatever negative identifier you want here) I've ever read. That, in and of itself, lost my interest in it.

War of Souls brought me back somewhat, but killing Paladine and Takhasis really wasn't something that I really fancied. And Mina...that over powered munchkin piece of (insert whatever negative identifier that you want here) was definitely NOT a selling point for me. It wasn't just her (there were several really unlikeable characters in that trilogy, unlike the original chronicles where most of the characters were likeable) either, it just couldn't bring it back to where it was before the 5th age hit.

It's great to play all the way up until the 5th age...OR pretend it never happened (and that entire Dragon Overlord type of stuff was just a silly dream), but yeah...whoever visits Dragonlance as a full on realized campaign next (whether Hickman and Weis or WotC) has a lot of stuff to overcome to return it to where it was in the 80s and early 90s as a campaign world.

I'm going to be honest, I'm like 90% sure this book will be retconning everything back to the War of the Lance period.

But I don't put any of the Fifth Age on Margaret Weis and Hickman. The Fifth Age was something like the Fourth Edition version of the Realms in that both authors had been made known they were going to massively change EVERYTHING in order to get people to buy new versions of the books. The giant dragons, wholly changed continents, and introduction of the card system (to sell more tools) were already known.

Summer Flame was basically meant as a way to give the fans a send off and protect their favorite characters.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

“For me there is a sense of ruining the end of Legends, and the "happily ever after" fate of Tanis and Laurana”

Im guessing you didn’t read the book that has Tanis’ death. What I consider one of the absolute dumbest things I’ve ever read.

Tanis fate SPOILERS




To be clear: He’s randomly stabbed in the back by a nameless basic enemy soldier on a battlefield.

At a GenCon I asked Hickman why he killed Tanis the way he did and the response was “It was my homage to the soldiers in Vietnam. Who could be there one second then shot dead the next.”

I like and respect that Hickman had an answer for that. And as far as being killed by a lowly nobody?

I would like to point you to the death of John Sedgwick in 1864.
To quote from the Wikipedia:
Sedgwick died at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864. His corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements. Confederate sharpshooters were about 1,000 yards (900 m) away, and their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line?" Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he said, "Why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."[6] Reports that he never finished the sentence are apocryphal, although the line was among his last words.[7] He was shot by a Whitworth rifle bullet moments later under the left eye and mortally wounded.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I like and respect that Hickman had an answer for that. And as far as being killed by a lowly nobody?

I would like to point you to the death of John Sedgwick in 1864.
To quote from the Wikipedia:
Sedgwick died at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864. His corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements. Confederate sharpshooters were about 1,000 yards (900 m) away, and their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line?" Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he said, "Why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."[6] Reports that he never finished the sentence are apocryphal, although the line was among his last words.[7] He was shot by a Whitworth rifle bullet moments later under the left eye and mortally wounded.

Difference is, one of those is/was a childhood hero of mine.

 

[darjr]

 

[Charles Phipps]

Weirdly, I don't actually think Tanis WAS killed by a random nobody. He was killed by Steel Brightblade in the craziness of the battle.

It's just Steel didn't want to admit it or claim credit while other Knights of Takhasis wanted to.