The Kinslayer Wars

Dragonlance: Elven Nations #2

by Douglas Niles

The leader of the Wildrunners, Kith-Kanan, commits the ultimate heresy and falls in love with a human of intriguing background. His twin brother, the firstborn ruler of all the Silvanesti elves, Sithas, declares war on the Ergothians, and Kith-Kanan must choose sides. Nobly, he fights alongside his proud race in the terrible Kinslayer Wars. But when the historic Swordsheath Scroll is signed, Kith-Kanan and his followers are forced into a tragic exile.

Genres: Fantasy, Dragonlance, Fiction, High Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dragons

314 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game. He currently resides in Delavan, Wisconsin with his wife, Christine, and two Bouviets, Reggie and Stella. He enjoys playing his guitar, cooking, and visiting with family.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It built up the tension and developed the characters even further from Firstborn. I like the plot and the pacing and the conflicts. The only thing that really bothers me is that Kith slept with Hermathya. It's just not working with what happens in book one, where Kith sees Thya and realizes that he's not attracted to her anymore after his love story with Anaya and their unborn child, and he sees that Thya is the same and hasn't grown or changed at all, and he has zero interest in her. I also don't think that Kith, based on the first book, would have slept with his brother's wife. I think Niles brings it all together in the end, and the characters feel more like themselves again from Firstborn, but that really bothered me. Overall, though, I like that Niles' book is a bit more sweeping than the first. The first takes place mostly in Silvanesti and the surrounding areas, but this book takes us to more places in Ansalon, and it introduces other races and types. The battle descriptions are really strong and so are the scenes in the mountains.
I enjoyed reading this despite the glitches in Kith's character, and I'm looking forward to reading book 3, Qualinesti, written by the original two authors from book one.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the most regarded, yet the first Dragonlance series I've found too much of a slog to be entertaining. There's no narrative drive here, the characters motivations are purely in service of trying.to.make.this.a.trilogy when there's really nothing at its core, and Niles indulges his desire to describe long battles without any human weight behind them (as he did in Darkwalker On Moonshae) I read this a few months ago and forgot to review it, so I'll just say that I abandoned this trilogy at this point. This could have been great as it's the first opportunity for Dragonlance to really let go of its main story and conventions, but it feels somewhat squandered. Maybe part of me wants Dragonlance when I pick up one of these books, as opposed to cod-twin-psychology.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great book ruined by horrible editing

I'm not sure how or why it's like this, but the kindle version of the book was borderline ruined for me by all the errors. I've never written a review like this before. I'm not one to nitpick about a few errors here and there, but this was so terrible it actually distracted me from the enjoyment of one of my all time favorite series. It's pathetic really. Someone should take the time and initiative to clean up this classic so it's not such a freaking mess that it's practically intolerable. It's painful to leave such a bad review for such a great story, but damn...

[Christina Stind · Rating 4 out of 5]

The elves of Silvanesti is at war with humans from Ergoth - but the fight is at a stalemate. To change the outcome of the war, one of the twin brothers, Kith-Kanan, follows a dream and brings his twin brother, the Speaker of Silvanesti Sithas with him in search of griffons. This journey brings the two brothers back together as they fight to stay alive in a harsh mountain landscape.
But even this joined adventure is not enough to overcome the basic differences in opinion in regards to pureblood or not - and in the end, each one must follow his own path...
Just like the first volume, the text on the back cover is off. It gives away a lot of the book - and then it gets it wrong on top of that... And I have no idea why this middle book in the trilogy is written by Douglas Niles and not the same two authors who wrote vol. 1 and 3 - especially not since they are credited in book 3 for writing it...??? Guess it's another TSR mishap...

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought I was gonna like this book, but it never grabbed me. Fans of Dragonlance should probably give it a shot.

[Shaitarn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor two stars.

After the success of the original Dragonlance trilogies, TSR started letting other staff writers pen stories set in that world, sometimes background stories about the same characters, sometimes stories set in Krynn’s history. The big problem with this strategy is that these other writers produced books of varying quality. This one, I didn’t find as good.

Basic story: after the declaration of war in the last book, this novel jumps straight into the battles, with Kith-Kanan leading the brave and hopelessly outnumbered elves against the humans while twin brother Silthas is forced to endure the struggles of a ruler whose nation is at war.

A promising set up, but I’m afraid I found it all rather empty and dull. I just didn’t care about the characters at all so didn’t care about their plight. If Kith and Silthas had died during their griffin hunt, I wouldn’t have cared. And am I the only person who found that scene unpleasant? Using magic to force creatures as noble and magnificent as wild griffins to serve you as mounts is not cool.

So no, I didn’t really enjoy this one. The characters seemed less likeable in the novel than the previous one (Silthas starting coming across like a racist a’hole and Kith having sex with his brother’s wife - congratulations, Kith, that’s a bit of first class douchebag behaviour right there). Hermathya started having a bit of positive character development, acting as a supportive wife and mother only for it all to come undone and back to square one before the end of the book.

Whether all this was because we had a different author for this novel to the first I don’t know. It’s unclear why TSR stalwart Douglas Niles wrote this volume rather than the team of Paul B Thompson and Tonya R Carter who wrote the first, but presumably TSR had their reasons. Niles is a competent enough writer, with solid, workmanlike prose that moves the story on without dazzling you. And the ending felt decidedly rushed and the villain’s end signposted so painfully it felt like Niles was elbowing me in the ribs to be sure I wasn’t missing his oh so clever twist.

It was a fast read so there’s that, although I am still on my festive break, so that undoubtedly helped. I have the third book on my shelves, but am going to take a break from the elves and re-read some old favourites before I decide if I’m interested in reading about the founding of Qualinost.

Recommended for diehard Dragonlance fans, but not for anyone else.

[Austin E]

The main characters in this book are Sithas, Kith-Kanan, Hermaythea, General Giarna, and Tamanier Ambrodel. The elves are fighting the humans in a great war. The elves start to lose the battle so they try to use everything they have to defeat the humans. Sithas and Kith-Kanan set out into the wilderness to try to accomplish a risky mission to help them in battle. After they set off they almost immediately run into some really big problems.
In this book there are many different figurative devices, here are just a few of them. In one quote it shows imagery, saying, "Outside the walls, a vast sea of tents covered the fields around the fortress, and from these poured the men-at-arms..." In another quote it shows the figurative device of a simile, saying, "He knew one of them was all it would take to squash his skull like an eggshell." Another quote shows a hyperbole, saying, "...his beady eyes nearly bulged out of his skull as the huge load slid forward..." In yet another quote it shows another hyperbole, saying, "The world crashed and surged around Sithas for what seemed like hours,..." In one of the last pages of the book it shows personification by saying, "Lightning erupted, hurling crackling bolts to the ground. Great cyclones of wind, miles across, whirled and roared."
I really liked this book. It was pretty good because of the war. One thing I didn't like was most of the time in the city it wasn't very exciting it was just political arguing or something like that. That is why I give this book four stars. But overall it was a pretty good book.

[Kevin Wyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, this is a very good story that moves the trilogy along. That being said, this novel also has to be one of a very few novels that I’ve read in my lifetime that very much appears to have been published directly from a raw, unedited manuscript. Given the year that it was published, I’d go so far as to bet that it was a typed manuscript that the supposed editors just lightly scanned without putting any effort into the job.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Elven Nations trilogy. The editing was better this time. The story itself was ok. It dragged a bit at times and you could tell it was a different author writing the book. It’s still a pretty decent story and I like that they explore different themes such as racism and slavery in the book, as well as show how the original elven nation became split in two.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent addition to the trilogy. The second part of the book was way too long and very drawn out. The third part did a nice job of picking up the events from the first book of the trilogy and ending on a climatic note.

[John Teske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining read about background of Dragonlance Setting. I'm finally getting around ro reading these books given to me by my family some 30 years ago, and it is well worth it, full of nostalgia and memories.

Very enjoyable!

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great book. I get why the brothers have to have a rough relationship in the end. After the bonding they did while it the mountains it just seems forced.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the first one in the trilogy. Not sure where the story has to go after this however so we will see how the final book goes.

[Alexandre · Rating 1 out of 5]

not enjoying this trilogy at all ...

[Elaine Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome adventure fantasy book.

[Ryein Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book and a fun read. Lots of surprises.

[Kelly Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite trilogies from my younger days. Still love it. Who knows if it’s great or just nostalgia though?

[Gerhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, I just feel the end was rushed, and the demise of the main bad guy was slightly contrived, in my opinion...

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice enough, until the writer just gave up towards the end and abruptly ended it with a Deux Ex Machina

This is why you plan yer plot in advance, folks

[H. Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narra el conflicto entre el último imperio humano y los elfos, que se convertirían en Qualesnestis. Todo ello antes del cataclismo.

[Taylor Foxx · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope that Douglas Niles' writing continues to be this good. Compared to the first novel, I feel like the story beats are way better here. Excited to see the trilogies conclusion

[Diogo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is good overall, with some high and low points. What struck me negatively was the somewhat forced final act.

[Tom Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been 2-3 chapters. Feel like it was possibly forced to be a trilogy so they STRETCH the middle bit. Lol

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

copy-pasted from my Librarything account: Some editing errors like commas forgotten, no capital letters, ... Reads well, sometimes there's a slowdown, as in switching back to another scene (battle, non-battle, ...) that can annoy, yet also keeps the reader focused somehow. Comprehendible situations, though not always easy to 'connect' with characters. Some gaps in the story, some things untold and it's up to the reader to find out/use his/her imagination to fill the gaps. But overall, good follow-up to Firstborn.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

a brilliant rendition of the kinslayer wars, but such a shame that elf had to fight elf and dwarves and humans likewise and that the twins had to part ways in such a bad way but kith kanan always accepted differences and respected the wildrunner elves of the forest whilst his brother the speaker of the stars is too proud to do so!! I am sure people will follow kith kanan rather than sithas his brother and I do hope that we have seen enough of blood shed. The war fought on the back of the griffons must have been a marvel to see and they did save the day for the elves!!

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have read the first two Dragonlance trilogies (and even if you haven't), you have to pick up this second book of the Elven Nations Trilogy. One of the original species on the world of Krynn and also one of the longest living, the elves have a long and interesting history. Get carried into the world of the elves in this trilogy. It will be a journey well worth the time spent in the forest nation.

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book of a trilogy that is set in the realm of Dragonlance. This trilogy is about how the elven nation split. The author does a good job with the story and the characters. The story tells about an adventure of the two brothers on a quest that could lead to the end of the war. The book keeps you interested in the story and this trilogy is one of the better ones in this setting. The first book is a must read to understand this book.

[soda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the first, thought that was not bad. I've had these books for years and have re-read them several times. This book explores the twins separate lives, and how they deal with the the war. They both come into their own as men., and the story really shows how two people who were once so close-even though they are family- can grow so far apart.

[Kyle K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kith-Kanan is called to protect his homeland against the advancing humans of Ergoth, led by the Boy General Giarna. With the tides of the war turning fast Kith-Kanan and Sithas undertake a desperate mission.

[Emi G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things start shifting from what we "know" from other Dragonlance books (most notably the Chronicles).