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Dragonlance: Dhamon Saga #2

by Jean Rabe

Dhamon Fierolobo y su banda de mercenarios han fijado sus condiciosas miradas en el siguiente objetivo, un tesoro largo tiempo olvidado y oculto bajo una pradera. Las leyendas prometen incontables riquezas, una fortuna tan inmensa que resulta increíble.
Pero en el mundo de los ladrones, lleno de secretos y engaños, hay que pagar un alto precio por una fortuna semejante, un precio mayor que la insoportable agonía que Dhamon padece bajo la maldición de una escama de dragón. Un precio tan alto que puede costarle la vida a Dhamon.

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

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

When I am not writing, I toss tennis balls to my cadre of dogs. My house is filled with books and dogs, you can smell both when you walk in the front door. It's a good smell.

I have 36 published novels and am currently writing in the mystery genre. My latest mystery, The Dead of Winter, was a finalist for the Claymore Award and is the first in the Piper Blackwell series.

I live in a tiny town in the middle of Illinois that has a Dollar General, a pizza place with exceedingly slow service, a veterinarian (good thing, eh?), and train tracks...lots of train tracks.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rabe's books are so weird. I get into them, and then, they get really boring, and I have to force myself to read, but then, something really cool happens, and I get into them again. This book was slightly less episodic than Downfall, but it didn't pick up again the way Downfall does until the end. The end of Betrayal is strong enough to make me give this book three stars rather than two and a half, like I was anticipating. The ending has a surprising and unfortunate death, a character I really like, and a couple of twists that I was not expecting.

Again, I really enjoy Rabe's creativity, another reason I give this three stars. Because her plots aren't as continuous, it leaves room for her to be extremely inventive with scenes. What happens in her books are events I've never read anything like in any of the other fantasy books I've read, including Weiss and Hickman's own Dragonlance books. Seriously, Rabe is very talented with her imagination in a predetermined fantasy world as famous as Krynn. I'm fascinated by the events she envisions, like an underground world of ships, covered over during the Cataclysm, an ogre cloaking himself as a human, a naga, an old Black Robe sorceress who thinks her reflection in a mirror is her sister, a sivak draconian who stands with humans because he's bent on revenge...and that ending. I have to give it to Rabe with her endings. I have to also give it to Rabe once again for using underappreciated races and types in the Krynn world. No basic elf, dwarf, human, etc. for Rabe. Now, we have Ragh, a wingless sivak, as a semi-main character. I really like that Rabe gives a voice to a diverse cast of characters.

Dhamon isn't entirely unlikable in this book, and Riki wasn't in it much, which was a plus. When she was, though, she was actually tolerable, and a new character that travels around with her makes her even more so. I found a scene with multiple prostitutes to be a little gratuitous, but when you get to the ending, it comes together and actually makes a lot of sense. I have to say that I'm continuing on with the Dhamon Saga in full curiosity of what will happen next to this hero turned thief and miscreant who still has a heart. And a dragon scale still stuck to his leg(another incredibly inventive piece of the story, if you ask me).
On to Volume Three.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well...at least it's better than Downfall...

I don't even have anything interesting to say about the cover beyond "It's green" and "I think they messed up the position of the arm muscles on the guy on the left".

It's a shame that Goodreads doesn't have a half-star system in place because this improved-but-still-not-great sequel to Downfall falls squarely in the 2.5 star range for me. Giving it a mere two stars feels mean, but giving it the full three stars feels way too generous, and I'm not feeling very charitable today.

Jean Rabe is a mixed bag for me. I sometimes have fun reading her books, but it also takes me longer to read her books than the other Dragonlance writers since I eventually get bored halfway through her books and have to force myself to get to the end. When they're good, they're fun fantasy popcorn that you gulp down knowing that it contains no vitamins, a fitting match for the Dragonlance series. When they're not good, they're a miserable slog that doubles as a sleeping aid. This book in particular really illustrates her strengths and weaknesses in writing for the world of Krynn because, as previous reviews have said, this is a book where a bunch of really interesting setpieces and moments with some really vivid descriptions are strung together weakly by the thinnest of plot threads while our heroes range from emotionless hunks of meat to "interesting but also they're not the main character" to "Rikali (and therefore bad)".

In this book, Dhamon's leg scale is hurting him a lot and it's doing mysterious and bad dark magic stuff to his body! The problem has definitely evolved from bad to worse and he seems to be mutating on top of that. Luckily, his best friend/weird ogre companion Maldred has a magical treasure map borrowed from his dad (after Dhamon makes said dad shit his pants and yes, this happens), and now, like Dora the Explorer, they get to travel through several exciting locations before they find the magic healer that will surely cure Dhamon of his enchanted leg scale. Along the way, they pick up several new party members, stab some monsters with acid blood, and occasionally end up in prison. A plot point from Downfall actually returns in the form of Dhamon almost getting capital punishment for setting that hospital on fire in the last book. Rig and Fiona also show up and boy, you sure wish they didn't. This entire story is very episodic but at least Dhamon is closer to the final boss at the end of the second book.

It's your most bog-standard "fantasy novel where the heroes do some side quests before the big battle" book, but at the same time, it's Dragonlance. You get what you pay for.

Much like Fetch in Downfall, I was captivated by Ragh the wingless Sivak Draconian. Ragh is in the book for only the second half but he honestly does the whole "tortured but blackened soul who is willing to help just a little bit as he tries to get revenge" shtick better than Dhamon ever does after he's rescued from being trapped in bondage and forced to bleed for awful dark magic rituals. You even see him kill someone, hide their body, and then lie about it to Dhamon but the circumstances surrounding these actions just feels so much more satisfying than anything that's happened in Downfall. Ragh is just brimming with character and I'm delighted to know ahead of time that he actually has multiple book appearances I can look forward to.

Alas, Dhamon is the main protagonist, so we gotta stick with him for the full ride. Dhamon in this book is equal parts better than the first book (because this book is spending less time on his inner monologues and isn't nudging me in the ribs and going "oh man he's fallen so far from grace, look how evil he is!") and worse than the first book (because he somehow feels more one-dimensional in this book since his main role in this book is "oof ouch owwie my leg"). There's some interesting developments with the scale in his leg in his book, and the scale does end up as the main driving force moving the plot along, but Dhamon does kinda operate on autopilot most of the time. Dhamon looks at map, Dhamon travels to place, Dhamon stabs some monsters. It's your most basic SNES RPG main character motivations.

The plot at least has an overarching villain this time! Nura Bint-Drax, a shapeshifting naga, makes an appearance during some disconnected fights and she's pretty fun, if a little cliche since one of her main deals is "she takes the form of a little girl so that a creepy little girl can say sinister, awful things". She doesn't get defeated here, since this is the middle book of a trilogy and the middle book of a Dragonlance trilogy is always going to be chesspiece shuffling and party gathering with the occasional meaningful death (of which this book contains one) and show-stopping monster fight, but hey, props for giving us a villain this time.

The worst part of the book? Rikali shows up again - now with bonus pregnant belly - and she's just as bad as she was in Downfall. This time she has a Simp husband character and he's the most boring, one-dimensional character in the entire book since his entire character is "Rikali my beloved". Rikali found some random 18 year old boy off-screen, married him, and tricked him into thinking that he got her pregnant like the awful piece of shit person that she is, and Dhamon still has a moment where he confesses some feelings to her and the book tries to be vaguely sympathetic with her. Rikali sucks, and the worst part is, since she's pregnant with Dhamon's baby, she has plot immunity and is going to live through the entire trilogy.

The book Betrayal also contains a betrayal at the end, but I like to think the true Betrayal is that scene when Rikali stands up in a prison cell and says "Hello, guards! Let me tell you all the crimes that Dhamon did, for I am a sad, pathetic pregnant woman. No I won't mention the fact that I'm also a thieving waste of a human being, I want you all to compliment me and tell my just-turned-18 year old husband that he snagged the perfect wife". I want to read the version of this story where this immediately leads to her getting hanged.

I might finish this trilogy, but mostly because I'm stubborn rather than any excitement to see what happens to Dhamon. I don't think these books are really any good but, bless their hearts, they also gave me Fetch and Ragh.

PROS:
*Ragh is very cool and is the best character this trilogy has introduced so far.
*The graveyard of ships is one of the better locations introduced in this series and the magic spells that appear in this area (the book, the wraiths) are super imaginative.
*We get a scary old woman who eats rats, casts powerful black magic, and thinks her reflection is her sister. She's wonderful and also doesn't overstay her welcome.
*Dhamon and Maldred having less character in this book was an honest improvement since they sucked in the first book.
*The final battle at the end of this book was way more memorable than whatever the hell happened at the end of Downfall.

CONS:
*Rikali shows up and no one kills her.
*She brings a very boring character with her (I think his name is Vathek?) that the book constantly reminds us he just entered adulthood and is still kinda just a boy. Bad. Don't like a main character's love interest being described as "he's still just a boy". BAD.
*At two points the story grinds to a halt with no way out, so we get a really convenient party finding our heroes just to move the plot forward.
*The prostitute scene. It's gratuitous, but mostly, it's stupid.
*Just because Maldred and Dhamon have less character in this book doesn't mean they're written well...

[Kevin Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much like the previous book, while I enjoyed the story (and this one is a stronger story than the previous), I find the explanation for why Dhamon has become what he is to be very weak and not believable. I'm also not fond of most of the characters, Rikali in particular.

Also similar to the first (and the previous trilogy), the narrator is good, but the mispronounciation drives me crazy.

All in all, I do recommend this book to Dragonlance fans, though it is far from Jean Rabe's strongest entry.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just like Downfall, this book is side-quests upon side-quests. This would have been completely fine to me (because, honestly, any books in this series that aren’t the main storyline are side-quests), but for the fact that I didn’t care about most of the characters. We learn next to nothing about newcomer Varek and he was very bland. I didn’t like the implication that less makeup and more modest clothing was an “improvement” for Rikali, though I did like that she was less annoying than in the first book. Maldred barely does anything in this novel, and I dislike him anyway, and Dhamon is the same self-serving, asshole he was in book one.

YET, we have my boy Ragh. I knew there was a badass Draconian in the series and he finally arrives. Granted, the fact that he’s ten feet tall seems improbable to me. The ceiling of my main floor is only nine feet, so how Ragh later fits into certain places, his shoulders rubbing aside, seems unclear to me. Seriously, I love the Draconians, so I recall a lot about them. In my mind, I altered him to be seven feet instead, since that made more sense for most of the situations. Anyway, his height question aside, I liked Ragh because he had personality.

I also liked the villain, Nura Bint-Drax. The previous book didn’t have an antagonist, so it was nice in this one to have something to tie it all together. I wish we’d had more scenes with her, though the ones we get are interesting.

The writing in this one was less jumpy because we tended to stick to Dhamon’s third-person limited, and the fight scenes were well-described. It’s a more engaging novel than the previous, but there were some continuity questions I had, such as how (not why) the knights made it to the ships and how Ragh escaped one situation. Yet, Rabe has some really inventive and super cool locations and situations in this novel, which made it much better than the first.

The best part of the novel was the section with the sorceress, as it went a completely different direction than I expected and Dhamon was passed out for a lot of it.

I’ll read Redemption, but only for Ragh. I wish Dhamon would just die and the story was about our poor flightless draconian instead.

[Fco. Salvador · Rating 1 out of 5]

Creo que nunca he tenido tanto tiempo un libro en la pila de 'estoy leyendo'. Seis meses y medio con el volumen mirándome con ojos culpables, mientras yo adelantaba lectura de otras cosas.
Y es que sus trescientas páginas me han parecido una tortura, que solo he soportado porque no voy a empezar a estas alturas a tener libros en casa por leer. Cada libro de Jean Rabe que leo me parece peor.
En este caso no he encontrado una estructura clara, ni el objetivo de los personajes. Sí, está la búsqueda de Dhamon por una cura a su problema, pero antes de eso se encabezona en obtener otra cosa, y antes de eso deben rescatar a otra persona. Y sin desvelar ningún detalle: nada de eso importa para lo que al final sucede. Un final que se podría haber presentado en la primera página, y no hubiera pasado nada.
Además, el personaje es tan aséptico, tan poco carismático, que sus problemas no me atraen en absoluto.

[Christina Stind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I must say that Jean Rabe stepped up her game in this book - it's actually a lot better than the first book in this trilogy.
Things are definitely not what they seem in this book - and the betrayal in the title is so much bigger and completely different than I thought it would be. It completely blew me - I did not see that coming!
I like the character twists - you as a reader never fully understands what the characters are and what they are capable of doing before they do it - and the characters themselves don't know anything about their companions and friends for sure.
And poor Dhamon - he came so close ... and he never knew what happened...

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

well still not very convinced about this trilogy but I must admit it has some very creepy and scary characters in it!! Nura bint drax is the creepiest I have encountered yet and till the end of the book she is still going strong!! many of the characters we have lost on the way but dhamon is still fighting on or at times struggling on!! gets more weird as I read on!!!

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was surprisingly good, considering how terrible its prequel was, and how unlikeable its characters. The characters are still bad, mind, and the writer still has no idea what half-elves actually are, but they at least start to see some much needed character development in this one.. even if it's completely accidental and forced upon 'em

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Weiss and Hickman but still fun. The plot picks up. We learn more about our cast. There are the usual Dragonlance fights, adventures, magic, monsters, bad guys and maybe good guys? Looking forward to the 3rd part and finale. Would recommend.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than the last one

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed with the Dhamon Saga #1 and #3.

[Starsreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I really like the first book in the series, but this one was more a "random, cool, fantastic stories in a string" collection. Still fun, and I loved the setting, but not a really continuous story. And I still think they should have beaten those dread markers and dragon/guards of the markers.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought it was a good book.

[Sara Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by far my favorite book of Jean Rabe from Dragonlance series. She even made like a certain draconian

[Akselmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got kinda bored to this Dhamon saga thing during this book and dropped it.. :(

[Komble III · Rating 3 out of 5]

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