New Dragonlance Novel by Margaret Weis

[Precure]

https://twitter.com/WeisMargaret/sta...74774824353793

The official release date: August 2, 2022.

I can't wait!

[Dragonus45]

Heck yea, for some reason I thought we weren’t getting a release till 2023z

[warty goblin]

I have been checking Margaret Weis' Twitter for months now following this, and excitement remains high. In a couple interviews she's given, it appears that the book is set post War if the Twins, and involves Tas to a large degree. I'm very relieved by this, as I was somewhat worried, based on the Classic Dragonlance branding, that this was going to go try to cram more stuff into the Chronicles period. Turns out Classic DL is just Wizards firewalling the, well, classic stuff off from whatever they're doing in the long-rumored DL 5th edition content.

Also I'm very happy that they went with a nice painting of people in a landscape for the cover. Obviously I'd have preferred if they'd gotten Elmore or Stawicki to do it, based on their history with DL, but the new artist did a great job. Definitely looks like a Dragonlance novel should look.

[KorvinStarmast]

and involves Tas to a large degree.

Looks like I'll be giving this a hard pass.

[Precure]

Looks like I'll be giving this a hard pass.

It's no Dragonlance without Tas. He was there for every important event.

[Dragonus45]

It's no Dragonlance without Tas. He was there for every important event.

Yea knowing he will be back in the story has me much more excited really.

[Mallbod]

Wow! It's cool!

[warty goblin]

Yea knowing he will be back in the story has me much more excited really.

I've listened to a couple interviews Margaret has given in the last couple months, and from the minimal things she's said about the plot,, I'm pretty stoked. I've always liked Tas, and the immediate post-Legends timeline seems like a good spot for a fun kenderventure. Something with some stakes, but (probably) no returning evil deities kinda thing.

Still a pity they aren't advancing the timeline from the end of the Dark Disciple trilogy, but any new primary author DL is good DL. Maybe we'll get lucky and see that someday.

Honestly it's just weird to be excited about a new book coming out. I find most new fantasy so uninteresting I hardly read anything published after like 2008.

[Precure]

Spoiler

Show

Destina Rosethorn—as her name implies—believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. Not only does she lose her beloved father but the legacy he has left her: the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan—to go back in time and prevent his death.

First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying, last known to be in the possession of the spirited kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot. But to change time, she needs another magical artifact—the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest takes her from the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin to the town of Solace and beyond, setting in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past, and forever change the future.

An alternate timeline to Age of Mortals?

[JadedDM]

Possibly. You'll note on that cover art that the book is labeled 'Classic Dragonlance.' This is because WotC intends to have two separate universes, the gaming one and the novel one. I'm guessing the time travel shenanigans that are undoubtedly going to occur are meant to explain the timeline split.

[Sholos]

But humans can't change the time-line...

[JadedDM]

Correct, but note that there are a kender (Tasslehoff, presumably) and a dwarf on the cover, and both are Greygem races and therefore are capable of changing time. Second, the description that Precure posts mentions a 'powerful artifact' that may be able to allow humans to change time, as well.

[Sholos]

Correct, but note that there are a kender (Tasslehoff, presumably) and a dwarf on the cover, and both are Greygem races and therefore are capable of changing time. Second, the description that Precure posts mentions a 'powerful artifact' that may be able to allow humans to change time, as well.

Fair point about the Graygem races, but I find the idea of Raistlin having missed an artifact that would have allowed him to change time a little funny. 😆

[Keltest]

Fair point about the Graygem races, but I find the idea of Raistlin having missed an artifact that would have allowed him to change time a little funny. 😆

As I recall, Raist didnt want to change time. He needed events to play out in a specific, predictable way when he did it so that he didn't, among other things, get killed by the cataclysm.

[Sholos]

As I recall, Raist didnt want to change time. He needed events to play out in a specific, predictable way when he did it so that he didn't, among other things, get killed by the cataclysm.

He intended for most of what happened to be the same but planned on changing the ultimate ending quite significantly from what I recall.

[Keltest]

He intended for most of what happened to be the same but planned on changing the ultimate ending quite significantly from what I recall.

Only once he got back to the abyss in the present time.

[warty goblin]

I haven't read Legends in a while, but as I recall the sequence was something like this.

Fistandantilus tries to open the portal to the Abyss and fails, because at that exact moment Gnosh the gnome, cursed to only invent things that work, activates the Device of Time Journeying. Fistandantilus is mostly obliterated, but hangs around in spirit form until he can glom onto Raistlin during his Test.

Raistlin, who partially is Fistandantilus, goes back to before the Cataclysm, and destroys Fistandantilus in the past, essentially becoming him. He sets Tass up to be killed in the Cataclysm, but Takhisis yoinks the Kingpriest's temple into the Abyss, which saves Tass. Tass ad Gnosh escape the Abyss, and Raistlin kills Gnosh to prevent him from messing up his own journey into the Abyss. This is the part of time that Raistlin needed to change. But Tass activates the Device, which still disrupts Raistlin's spell, so Raistlin failed to meaningfully change time.

Here things get weird, because humans cannot change time, but Raistlin succeeds in casting his spell, which is flat out impossible. IIRC the novel very much supports a reading where Raistlin doesn't even expect to succeed for most of the story, he keeps having dreams about footsteps in the sand leading to his execution, but he continues on anyway. You can read this as him just being that ambitious and in denial, or that because he is (or is acting in the role of) Fistandantilus, he can't not proceed. One of the tenants of time travel in Dragonlance seems to be that details change but the non-Greygem races can't alter the big picture, even with foreknowledge. Lord Soth considers going back to undo his many mistakes and prevent the Cataclysm, but decides there's no point because put in the same position he would do the same thing.

So humans can't change time. Except that one time where Raistlin does exactly that. But Raistlin is very much a special case, given his odd relationship with things like dying.