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Dragonlance: Defenders of Magic #2
The Medusa Plague
When the village of Thonville blames his missing uncle, a brave sorcerer and the High Defender of Bastion, for a strange plague that has afflicted the town, Bram sets out to discover the real source of the sickness
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
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901 people want to read
About the author
Mary L. Kirchoff
28 books46 followersMary L. Kirchoff (b. 1959) is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 23, 2011
This was a great sequel, although it pains me to see Lyim's downward spiral. We get to be inside Lyim's mind a lot more in this book, although we also have chapters from Guerrand and a new character, Bram. Like the previous one, the descriptions of magic (and the plague) are very vivid and enjoyable to read.
It is fascinating to see how Lyim manages to justify any and all of his actions. He is very devious, which makes for several unexpected twists throughout the story. He most definitely changes, although he was a likeable enough character in the previous book (if a bit cocky and vain).
I missed seeing Esme in this book. Her major appearance is one scene (excluding the exposition... I cannot remember if she is there) and is otherwise only mentioned a couple of times. She doesn't fit into this particular plot, so I am hoping she makes a comeback in the final book.
Bram is a nice addition. He is not another Guerrand, which is great - Bram certainly has more backbone. He's very likeable. He is always willing to help others, even if it risks his own well-being (unlike Geurrand, who is a bit more cautious). One of my favourite parts of the story follows Bram (but I won't spoil what it is).
Guerrand finds himself nominated for a position of power. This leads to all sorts of dilemmas later, but he becomes a bit more authoritative. He doesnt' seem to dwell on his (former) relationship with Esme a lot, although I suppose that's because he is kept too busy with his duties. Guerrand often finds himself in a moral pickle, and at the end of the book, something happens to him that better lead to some delicious plot device in the third book.
Overall, it was a satisfying sequel. It did not repeat the problems of the first book (thank goodness). If you liked the first one, you should like this one, too.
It is fascinating to see how Lyim manages to justify any and all of his actions. He is very devious, which makes for several unexpected twists throughout the story. He most definitely changes, although he was a likeable enough character in the previous book (if a bit cocky and vain).
I missed seeing Esme in this book. Her major appearance is one scene (excluding the exposition... I cannot remember if she is there) and is otherwise only mentioned a couple of times. She doesn't fit into this particular plot, so I am hoping she makes a comeback in the final book.
Bram is a nice addition. He is not another Guerrand, which is great - Bram certainly has more backbone. He's very likeable. He is always willing to help others, even if it risks his own well-being (unlike Geurrand, who is a bit more cautious). One of my favourite parts of the story follows Bram (but I won't spoil what it is).
Guerrand finds himself nominated for a position of power. This leads to all sorts of dilemmas later, but he becomes a bit more authoritative. He doesnt' seem to dwell on his (former) relationship with Esme a lot, although I suppose that's because he is kept too busy with his duties. Guerrand often finds himself in a moral pickle, and at the end of the book, something happens to him that better lead to some delicious plot device in the third book.
Overall, it was a satisfying sequel. It did not repeat the problems of the first book (thank goodness). If you liked the first one, you should like this one, too.
November 7, 2014
This takes place in the Dragonlance realm and is the second book of a trilogy. One must read the first novel to understand the events that take place in this book. This takes place five years after the first book. Guerrand lives in a small village and he is asked to become the mage in charge of Bastion which protects the Lost Citadel. Meanwhile, his friend Lyim searches for a cure from the problem that befell him from the first novel.
This is one of those books that must be completely read to enjoy. It starts off slow and does nothing to entice the reader. Most of the book was decent but I also thought it was somewhat anticlimactic. The last several chapters proved this to be wrong. It was a nice little twist that was well executed. And the ending makes me want to jump into the next book as it provided a nice cliffhanger for the premise of the third book of this trilogy. One of the aspects I am enjoying from this trilogy is examples of different spells and this book has more of that. Fans of magic and wizards will enjoy this.
There were two minor aspects that I did not enjoy in this novel. The first were some of the supporting cast from the first book had no or minor roles. I understand characters move on but this was a letdown. The second is a faerie creature is introduced and it fell flat. Maybe this creature has a more pivotal role in the finale and that is the reason behind the introduction.
If your fantasy reading lean towards magic this book has plenty of that and would be enjoyable for you. If you are looking for knights and battles this book lacks these aspects of fantasy writing.
This is one of those books that must be completely read to enjoy. It starts off slow and does nothing to entice the reader. Most of the book was decent but I also thought it was somewhat anticlimactic. The last several chapters proved this to be wrong. It was a nice little twist that was well executed. And the ending makes me want to jump into the next book as it provided a nice cliffhanger for the premise of the third book of this trilogy. One of the aspects I am enjoying from this trilogy is examples of different spells and this book has more of that. Fans of magic and wizards will enjoy this.
There were two minor aspects that I did not enjoy in this novel. The first were some of the supporting cast from the first book had no or minor roles. I understand characters move on but this was a letdown. The second is a faerie creature is introduced and it fell flat. Maybe this creature has a more pivotal role in the finale and that is the reason behind the introduction.
If your fantasy reading lean towards magic this book has plenty of that and would be enjoyable for you. If you are looking for knights and battles this book lacks these aspects of fantasy writing.
January 2, 2022
I've been carrying these books around since they first came out. I read book 1 back in '94, and I bought 2 and 3 when they came out in '95, but for some reason I didn't get around to reading them then. No doubt if I had, my reaction to them would have been different - maybe more generous, certainly less cynical.
I hesitate to accuse Ms. Kirchoff of anything - history has afforded her successes and rewards in the fantasy realms of what we once called TSR - but she doesn't seem to like females too much in this series. I will address that more after volume 3 (if I remember), but one of the main disappointments of this book is the rapid elimination of Esme from the story. When we first meet her in book 1, she is a smarter, more skilled mage than Guerrand or Lyim, like Agent 99. But, also like Agent 99, after a time, she devolves into a helpless, dependent screamer, waiting for the males to rescue her. At the end of book 1, she trips and falls and breaks her leg and is useless at the end, an agonizingly stereotypical damsel in distress. Here, in book 2, she is the neglected girlfriend who, incapable of persevering when times get monotonous or difficult, splits for greener pastures ... returning home to her family and staying there. And she's done with the series. Book 1 gives us the impression she is going to be a major character, but she's done within a dozen or so pages in to book 1. She does make a brief appearance toward the middle, and maybe this is where you tell me Lyim offs her, but I don't buy that. Sure, he is on his way to becoming a heartless killing machine, but I don't think he offs Esme. She just disappears from the series after being given nothing of substance to do. Yuck.
Similarly, the once proud and spunky Kirah has become a shell of herself, having pined away for Lyim for years ... really, Ms. Kirchoff? Women are so wholly dependent on men, even in a world of magical skills and abilities, accustomed to heartbreak and loss and difficulties, they wither into nothingness all alone?
Perhaps worst of all (well, second-to-worst), book 2 here falls into the now-common video game trope (maybe Ms. Kirchoff is to be credited with starting this trend?) of taking the lovely community of people we met at the beginning of the game (or here, book 1), and then wiping them all out before the end. Maybe it's just the times (reading this and writing this review in the midst of coronavirus pandemonium), but I'm pretty tired of spending a lot of time with a community only to have these innocents all wiped out before the end - give it a rest, "creative people." Leave the innocent slaughters to Herod and Shakespeare. Get better at telling interesting stories.
Probably the real worst of all is Lyim's descent into the villain of the series. He was much more interesting as a friendly rival of Guerrand with a flamboyant personality (or, compared to Guerrand, a personality). This would have been a much better story if the Medusa Plague came from a new villain. (Again, reading about that during the 2020s was possibly just bad timing.) Lyim is now solely interested in getting his hand back, which makes sense, sure, but years later he somehow is still having trouble using his one hand. This series depends a great deal on time jumps, but the characters don't grow or develop at all during the large-scale passages of time - the inconsistencies and logical flaws of all that are rather troubling. Would I have noticed those had I read this back in '95? Possibly not - but they would have still been there.
Lyim is pretty mean here, but he does have some fair points. Unfortunately, the book doesn't really go into how he has a decent case for the things he wants. The "good guys" just do mindless "because we said so" things throughout, including the 3 mega-moon-magicians who are fine with letting people use magic but don't want anyone visiting their magic moon house. Or something.
The good guys, especially Guerrand, make no intelligent decisions in the book. They fight for vague principles for no reason, bringing a good deal of discomfort on themselves, but since they are "defending magic" it's okay. Or something.
Oh, and Bram is back for more than the three sentences he was in book 1. And now he's older and stronger and ... nope, he can't really do anything yet, just snatch cookies and deliver messages and trim bushes and banter with fairies.
That's right - moments after a horrific scene of familiar supporting characters dying in excruciatingly painful and heartbreaking ways, we get a hilarious scene of comic relief mimicking Willow's hilarious conversations with the brownies in his movie. Assuming the word "hilarious" meant "what in the world is this garbage?!" The tone shift from heartbreak to comic relief is so poorly handled, the book suffers tremendously for that, for before the nonsensical "cure" for the plague itself (along with the "oh, yeah, it's magic, so it reverses everything right away, cuz, you know, majick").
This book is rough. 1 wasn't the best, but at least it had a direction, eventually. This one just sort of loops back around in a much darker, sadder way, proving our hero Guerrand has learned nothing about anything. Oh, and let's not forget the homecoming scene, in which the local bully of the village, seen in the opening moments of book 1, has grown up and had a son of his own, yet he is still a bully. Our hero, Guerrand, get this, turns this bully into a rat ... in front of his son. No, I'm not kidding. Our hero, to prove to this bully that his distrust of magic is bigotry and that he is scum, dehumanizes him in front of his son, destroying his family's chance for any hope of sustenance. Nice one, hero. Way to show him magic is a noble thing.
I've been carrying this around with me through several moves, some across the country. I wanted it to be good, I really did - but it is disappointing in so many ways. The established characters go nowhere meaningful from book 1, the great sources of magic simply prove to us magic is not really worth defending after all, and the comic relief scenes are so bad and so out of place, and the ending is such balderdash, it's hard to enjoy this. But I really wanted to.
I hesitate to accuse Ms. Kirchoff of anything - history has afforded her successes and rewards in the fantasy realms of what we once called TSR - but she doesn't seem to like females too much in this series. I will address that more after volume 3 (if I remember), but one of the main disappointments of this book is the rapid elimination of Esme from the story. When we first meet her in book 1, she is a smarter, more skilled mage than Guerrand or Lyim, like Agent 99. But, also like Agent 99, after a time, she devolves into a helpless, dependent screamer, waiting for the males to rescue her. At the end of book 1, she trips and falls and breaks her leg and is useless at the end, an agonizingly stereotypical damsel in distress. Here, in book 2, she is the neglected girlfriend who, incapable of persevering when times get monotonous or difficult, splits for greener pastures ... returning home to her family and staying there. And she's done with the series. Book 1 gives us the impression she is going to be a major character, but she's done within a dozen or so pages in to book 1. She does make a brief appearance toward the middle, and maybe this is where you tell me Lyim offs her, but I don't buy that. Sure, he is on his way to becoming a heartless killing machine, but I don't think he offs Esme. She just disappears from the series after being given nothing of substance to do. Yuck.
Similarly, the once proud and spunky Kirah has become a shell of herself, having pined away for Lyim for years ... really, Ms. Kirchoff? Women are so wholly dependent on men, even in a world of magical skills and abilities, accustomed to heartbreak and loss and difficulties, they wither into nothingness all alone?
Perhaps worst of all (well, second-to-worst), book 2 here falls into the now-common video game trope (maybe Ms. Kirchoff is to be credited with starting this trend?) of taking the lovely community of people we met at the beginning of the game (or here, book 1), and then wiping them all out before the end. Maybe it's just the times (reading this and writing this review in the midst of coronavirus pandemonium), but I'm pretty tired of spending a lot of time with a community only to have these innocents all wiped out before the end - give it a rest, "creative people." Leave the innocent slaughters to Herod and Shakespeare. Get better at telling interesting stories.
Probably the real worst of all is Lyim's descent into the villain of the series. He was much more interesting as a friendly rival of Guerrand with a flamboyant personality (or, compared to Guerrand, a personality). This would have been a much better story if the Medusa Plague came from a new villain. (Again, reading about that during the 2020s was possibly just bad timing.) Lyim is now solely interested in getting his hand back, which makes sense, sure, but years later he somehow is still having trouble using his one hand. This series depends a great deal on time jumps, but the characters don't grow or develop at all during the large-scale passages of time - the inconsistencies and logical flaws of all that are rather troubling. Would I have noticed those had I read this back in '95? Possibly not - but they would have still been there.
Lyim is pretty mean here, but he does have some fair points. Unfortunately, the book doesn't really go into how he has a decent case for the things he wants. The "good guys" just do mindless "because we said so" things throughout, including the 3 mega-moon-magicians who are fine with letting people use magic but don't want anyone visiting their magic moon house. Or something.
The good guys, especially Guerrand, make no intelligent decisions in the book. They fight for vague principles for no reason, bringing a good deal of discomfort on themselves, but since they are "defending magic" it's okay. Or something.
Oh, and Bram is back for more than the three sentences he was in book 1. And now he's older and stronger and ... nope, he can't really do anything yet, just snatch cookies and deliver messages and trim bushes and banter with fairies.
That's right - moments after a horrific scene of familiar supporting characters dying in excruciatingly painful and heartbreaking ways, we get a hilarious scene of comic relief mimicking Willow's hilarious conversations with the brownies in his movie. Assuming the word "hilarious" meant "what in the world is this garbage?!" The tone shift from heartbreak to comic relief is so poorly handled, the book suffers tremendously for that, for before the nonsensical "cure" for the plague itself (along with the "oh, yeah, it's magic, so it reverses everything right away, cuz, you know, majick").
This book is rough. 1 wasn't the best, but at least it had a direction, eventually. This one just sort of loops back around in a much darker, sadder way, proving our hero Guerrand has learned nothing about anything. Oh, and let's not forget the homecoming scene, in which the local bully of the village, seen in the opening moments of book 1, has grown up and had a son of his own, yet he is still a bully. Our hero, Guerrand, get this, turns this bully into a rat ... in front of his son. No, I'm not kidding. Our hero, to prove to this bully that his distrust of magic is bigotry and that he is scum, dehumanizes him in front of his son, destroying his family's chance for any hope of sustenance. Nice one, hero. Way to show him magic is a noble thing.
I've been carrying this around with me through several moves, some across the country. I wanted it to be good, I really did - but it is disappointing in so many ways. The established characters go nowhere meaningful from book 1, the great sources of magic simply prove to us magic is not really worth defending after all, and the comic relief scenes are so bad and so out of place, and the ending is such balderdash, it's hard to enjoy this. But I really wanted to.
September 24, 2014
After enjoying the first in this trilogy I was sad when the story skipped around and didn't really make sense. The entire plague itself I felt was far fetched. I think a much better conflict could have been chosen, or at least a different disease.
Without placing any spoilers it is difficult to say how the plot line became disjointed, but suffice to say that I didn't really understand the entire last section of the book. The Gods of magic confused me with their way of dealing with the situation presented to them, and I still have no clue why fairies were brought into this. Is there really a point to knowing about the Tuatha? I admit I was interested at first but then they just seemed like filler.
I was happy to see a variety of creatures from the magical realms that normally do not get recognition and it's nice to pick through the spells and see ones from the D&D world. Guerrand is still an interesting character to read about, though I missed the commentary from Zag, it just wasn't included much this time.
I do hope the next book makes up for this one and can somehow tie together the confusing bits.
Without placing any spoilers it is difficult to say how the plot line became disjointed, but suffice to say that I didn't really understand the entire last section of the book. The Gods of magic confused me with their way of dealing with the situation presented to them, and I still have no clue why fairies were brought into this. Is there really a point to knowing about the Tuatha? I admit I was interested at first but then they just seemed like filler.
I was happy to see a variety of creatures from the magical realms that normally do not get recognition and it's nice to pick through the spells and see ones from the D&D world. Guerrand is still an interesting character to read about, though I missed the commentary from Zag, it just wasn't included much this time.
I do hope the next book makes up for this one and can somehow tie together the confusing bits.
June 6, 2016
another great read, poor guerrand being blamed for the horrors inflicted on his hometown and family because of his past friend who has a real chip on his shoulder because of his mentor's vile mistreatment of him!! the plague that hit the town was way out evil and pure magic!! but in the end with the help of his nephew rand manages to help some of the people and return just in time to bastion!!
March 28, 2014
Excelente historia, aunque predecible..
January 29, 2015
Very good read
The story is wonderful even with the bad guys.
I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves a great read.
The story is wonderful even with the bad guys.
I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves a great read.
December 25, 2023
A little uneven, but still a good read overall. I was a bit frustrated, since I honestly did empathize with Lyim. But he slides to evil so quickly that I guess that's done.
While we get a lot of fun stuff happening here (we get to see the Lost Citadel! and Lyim travels to some great set pieces), I think what this novel does best is set up the final part of the trilogy. How will Rand's interaction with Nuitari (sp?) affect him? What will come of the revelations about Bram's origins? Did any of the rest of their family survive?
Also, just, seriously. Hats off to the cover artist. Talk about going for broke. That cover is so damn memorable. It doesn't exactly match up to anything in the book, but it's close enough & just so bizarre it really makes you wonder what the hell is going on here.
While we get a lot of fun stuff happening here (we get to see the Lost Citadel! and Lyim travels to some great set pieces), I think what this novel does best is set up the final part of the trilogy. How will Rand's interaction with Nuitari (sp?) affect him? What will come of the revelations about Bram's origins? Did any of the rest of their family survive?
Also, just, seriously. Hats off to the cover artist. Talk about going for broke. That cover is so damn memorable. It doesn't exactly match up to anything in the book, but it's close enough & just so bizarre it really makes you wonder what the hell is going on here.
June 4, 2021
My rating for this book is deceptive. While I acknowledge that qualities of The Medusa Plague are a little lacking, I really enjoyed this book.
The characters don’t feel unique in personality. Any given dialogue could have come from any of the characters and made sense to me. The story is fun, and the order that governs the magic of the world is interesting as well.
I took a break from the series before coming back to this book, and I suspect I will take a break before reading the concluding book to this trilogy. Despite the few minor negatives, I do truly like this series.
I would recommend this series for anyone looking for a good series that focuses on mages and magic.
The characters don’t feel unique in personality. Any given dialogue could have come from any of the characters and made sense to me. The story is fun, and the order that governs the magic of the world is interesting as well.
I took a break from the series before coming back to this book, and I suspect I will take a break before reading the concluding book to this trilogy. Despite the few minor negatives, I do truly like this series.
I would recommend this series for anyone looking for a good series that focuses on mages and magic.
February 25, 2025
Two books into the trilogy and I still really want to like Guerrand, but I don't. Bram is likeable. I'll echo the poor Lyim sentiment from another review. Would have been nice for Kirah to have a bigger role. Not sure how I feel about Bastion. Overall, some good ideas that further the lore of Krynn, however the book feels like it needs to start and end at different spots than it does. Pacing is meh.
January 2, 2021
Continuing the story from the first book in the series "Night of the Eye" this book follows some of the characters from the first book. While I liked the first book better I still enjoyed reading this book.
June 14, 2019
Very enchanting. I lost myself within the pages of this fantasy tale. =)
October 7, 2022
Excellent read
A partial open door showing the reader some of the workings of the mages of Krynn and the balance of good and evil that must be maintain in that world.
A partial open door showing the reader some of the workings of the mages of Krynn and the balance of good and evil that must be maintain in that world.
September 5, 2023
Decent progress after the first book.
March 8, 2025
More character development.
March 22, 2025
Move over Raistlin, Guerrand is the real powerhouse
March 14, 2022
My favourite of the trilogy. Great fun read, expands from the first book of the Defenders of Magic, introduces more of Thonville, and describes Bastion really well.
May 16, 2025
Elska þessar bækur
Minor spoiler:
Zagarus :( my shalaila, my beautiful boy, i miss you soo
Minor spoiler:
Zagarus :( my shalaila, my beautiful boy, i miss you soo
April 22, 2017
It is a unique twist on the Medusa fable.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews