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Dragonships of Vindras #4
Doom of the Dragon
The climatic fourth and final novel in the Dragonships of Vindras series, Doom of the Dragon , by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
In three previous novels, Skylan Ivorson overcame obstacles that would have defeated a lesser man, rising from obscurity to become the Chief of Chiefs of the fearsome Vindrasi who sail their living dragonships far and wide to raid and plunder for the glory of the gods. However, a cruel twist of fate struck him down before he and his beloved could complete their quest for the five sacred dragonbones that would summon the great dragon Ilyrion and save their people from destruction at the hands of an evil god. But even true death is denied him, and his destiny is unfulfilled.
Caught between life and death, he must lead those who journeyed with him to battle the evil god and the vast army of the god and his human emperor. Skylan must fight as he never has before to win back his life and his love, while seeking the last Spiritbone--the key to summoning the ultimate victory--before it can be snatched away by the forces of evil.
With Doom of the Dragon, Weis and Hickman have crafted a pulse-pounding fantasy adventure that brings their great Dragonships of Vindras saga to a rousing, satisfying conclusion that will stir the passions of their legions of fans.
In three previous novels, Skylan Ivorson overcame obstacles that would have defeated a lesser man, rising from obscurity to become the Chief of Chiefs of the fearsome Vindrasi who sail their living dragonships far and wide to raid and plunder for the glory of the gods. However, a cruel twist of fate struck him down before he and his beloved could complete their quest for the five sacred dragonbones that would summon the great dragon Ilyrion and save their people from destruction at the hands of an evil god. But even true death is denied him, and his destiny is unfulfilled.
Caught between life and death, he must lead those who journeyed with him to battle the evil god and the vast army of the god and his human emperor. Skylan must fight as he never has before to win back his life and his love, while seeking the last Spiritbone--the key to summoning the ultimate victory--before it can be snatched away by the forces of evil.
With Doom of the Dragon, Weis and Hickman have crafted a pulse-pounding fantasy adventure that brings their great Dragonships of Vindras saga to a rousing, satisfying conclusion that will stir the passions of their legions of fans.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 5, 2016
19 people are currently reading
646 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Weis
678 books5,843 followersMargaret Edith Weis is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the Dragonlance role-playing game (RPG) world. She is founding CEO and owner of Sovereign Press, Inc and Margaret Weis Productions, licensing several popular television and movie franchises to make RPG series in addition to their own.
In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, saying she and Hickman are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". In 2002, she was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in part for Dragonlance.
In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, saying she and Hickman are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". In 2002, she was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in part for Dragonlance.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 17, 2018
Doom of the Dragon, the final book in the Dragonships of Vindras series, ends with a flourish of activity and excitement. I've read some other reviews that seemed a bit harsh from my point of view. Do I feel it could have been better? Yes. But did it have enough elements of high fantasy to enjoy? Yes.
Skylan Ivorson, Chief of chiefs, is dead - but not quite dead. His body lie in state on his ship, the Venejekar, while his soul wanders the cold mountainous air surrounding Torval's Hall of Heroes. All his life, Skylan had waited for this day, to be reunited with his people. The gods, however, warring against an upstart faceless god known as Aelon, won't allow him to enter. His wyrd hasn't been completely cut.
Skylan is stuck going with Joabis, God of the Revel, to his island, where some of Skylan's men have gone astray in death. Skylan discovers that Joabis has been collecting warriors from several races to help him defend his island from the faceless god. Skylan's men are trapped in a hall with ogres and cyclopes. They spend most of their waking time drinking, eating and fighting.
On the Venejkar, Skylan's people, including his wife, Aylean, the Bone Priestess, consider throwing Skylan's body to the sea but the fae prince, Wulfe, won't allow it, telling them repeatedly that Skylan is not dead.
The living have enough to deal with. Raeger, the King of Oran Empire and a priest of the faceless god, is waging war everywhere. He seeks the five spiritbones. Aylean has three. One is on Joabis' island. The fifth is hidden among the Stormlords in their city in the sky, Tsa Kerestra.
I genuinely enjoyed the plot lines, the storytelling.
And while their is immaturity and impetuousness often driving several of the characters, I don't think it was anything not to be expected from warrior classes of people. Common enemies often result in foes finding friendship, or alliances.
My chief complaints would be firstly with the introduction of Wulfe's mother. Her part and the part of the fae folk in general around her seemed unnecessary. They describe this concept of worlds intersecting one another, the Realm of Fire and the Realm of Stone, but make it that those wanting to get to Tsa Kerestra from the Realm of Stone must pass through the Realm of Fire. And then while they are there, they too easily avoid some strange one-eyed flying things and kill a chimera. I believe that whole part could have been left out. It felt like unnecessary filler. And the relationship between Wulfe and his mother is weak and not believable.
Owl Mother, who reappears in this book, could have simply been the mediator to bridge the gap between the worlds, which she ultimately does anyway.
There were also several simple typos. I thought that very odd for a book written by such renown authors and surely edited by professionals.
In the end, I was satisfied where the book went and highly recommend it and the series to anyone who loves this genre.
Skylan Ivorson, Chief of chiefs, is dead - but not quite dead. His body lie in state on his ship, the Venejekar, while his soul wanders the cold mountainous air surrounding Torval's Hall of Heroes. All his life, Skylan had waited for this day, to be reunited with his people. The gods, however, warring against an upstart faceless god known as Aelon, won't allow him to enter. His wyrd hasn't been completely cut.
Skylan is stuck going with Joabis, God of the Revel, to his island, where some of Skylan's men have gone astray in death. Skylan discovers that Joabis has been collecting warriors from several races to help him defend his island from the faceless god. Skylan's men are trapped in a hall with ogres and cyclopes. They spend most of their waking time drinking, eating and fighting.
On the Venejkar, Skylan's people, including his wife, Aylean, the Bone Priestess, consider throwing Skylan's body to the sea but the fae prince, Wulfe, won't allow it, telling them repeatedly that Skylan is not dead.
The living have enough to deal with. Raeger, the King of Oran Empire and a priest of the faceless god, is waging war everywhere. He seeks the five spiritbones. Aylean has three. One is on Joabis' island. The fifth is hidden among the Stormlords in their city in the sky, Tsa Kerestra.
I genuinely enjoyed the plot lines, the storytelling.
And while their is immaturity and impetuousness often driving several of the characters, I don't think it was anything not to be expected from warrior classes of people. Common enemies often result in foes finding friendship, or alliances.
My chief complaints would be firstly with the introduction of Wulfe's mother. Her part and the part of the fae folk in general around her seemed unnecessary. They describe this concept of worlds intersecting one another, the Realm of Fire and the Realm of Stone, but make it that those wanting to get to Tsa Kerestra from the Realm of Stone must pass through the Realm of Fire. And then while they are there, they too easily avoid some strange one-eyed flying things and kill a chimera. I believe that whole part could have been left out. It felt like unnecessary filler. And the relationship between Wulfe and his mother is weak and not believable.
Owl Mother, who reappears in this book, could have simply been the mediator to bridge the gap between the worlds, which she ultimately does anyway.
There were also several simple typos. I thought that very odd for a book written by such renown authors and surely edited by professionals.
In the end, I was satisfied where the book went and highly recommend it and the series to anyone who loves this genre.
September 28, 2017
A fair amount of plot and worldbuilding is squeezed into this final Dragonships installment (the series was originally billed as a six-book epic back when the first installment was released in 2010; in the end it ran for four books), but there is not much in the way of character or substance on display except when it's required to make the plot work.
It's a bit of a pity, as I quite enjoyed the first two books in the Dragonships series and thought they were fun and full of promise. With this fourth book, Weis and Hickman have bounced back a bit from the tepid, forgettable third book; however, this book definitely doesn't read as something either of them were feeling very passionate about writing.
That all being said, they manage to deliver a very readable, fairly well-written finale that mostly does justice to the series main characters (despite having little time to give them any real development or growth). While Dragonships can't hold a candle to the OG Weis & Hickman series, Dragonlance, I would still overall rate the series and this final book as perfectly acceptable. I won't, however, ever reread any of them.
It's a bit of a pity, as I quite enjoyed the first two books in the Dragonships series and thought they were fun and full of promise. With this fourth book, Weis and Hickman have bounced back a bit from the tepid, forgettable third book; however, this book definitely doesn't read as something either of them were feeling very passionate about writing.
That all being said, they manage to deliver a very readable, fairly well-written finale that mostly does justice to the series main characters (despite having little time to give them any real development or growth). While Dragonships can't hold a candle to the OG Weis & Hickman series, Dragonlance, I would still overall rate the series and this final book as perfectly acceptable. I won't, however, ever reread any of them.
January 25, 2016
Although I would say I am satisfied overall with the ending, I feel like this is the most uneven book in the series. The book felt a bit rushed, and probably could have used more pages... or even another book to make it more satisfactory. Still, I did enjoy it, and at least the series has an end now.
July 24, 2016
This book was a nice quick mostly entertaining read. It just didn't have enough depth for me. Maybe it's my fault for not reading the first 3 dragonship books first. I just felt like everything was too simple. I still enjoyed the book, but it doesn't compare to many of the other fantasy books I love.
February 14, 2016
This was a 2.5-star end to a 4-star series. I had read the first two books twice when they came out, but skimmed them again anyway and re-read most of book 3 immediately before starting this one. I remember really liking the first 2 books, but I found myself skipping the parts about Raegar and Treia in book 3. This book (Book 4) had some good moments, but much of it barely held my interest.
Book 1 was dedicated to Weis and Hickman's long-time friend, editor, and mentor, Brian Thomsen, who died of heart failure as book 1 was going to press. Books 5 and 6 were subsequently canceled. Book 4 took several years longer to be released than the previous books in the series. I have to wonder if the authors lost some of their motivation?
I'm always disappointed when a series doesn't end as well as it started. Still, I quite enjoyed the first 2 books and I'm glad that they finished the series instead of leaving us hanging. This book wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as the previous three.
Book 1 was dedicated to Weis and Hickman's long-time friend, editor, and mentor, Brian Thomsen, who died of heart failure as book 1 was going to press. Books 5 and 6 were subsequently canceled. Book 4 took several years longer to be released than the previous books in the series. I have to wonder if the authors lost some of their motivation?
I'm always disappointed when a series doesn't end as well as it started. Still, I quite enjoyed the first 2 books and I'm glad that they finished the series instead of leaving us hanging. This book wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as the previous three.
March 16, 2018
Weis and Hickman still have the spark that has helped them sell so many of their books in a very saturated market.
I know I was hard on the previous books in the series, but I felt like the final book capped off the adventure well. There were still parts that were predictable, there were still characters that make you want to pull your hair out. But this is a story about good triumphing over evil and over all obstacles in the way, and I liked it. I liked how you feel for the characters and emphasize with their hardships and what they had to overcome and I liked how it all closed out. I can't say much more without spoiling it, but I'm glad I stumbled across it in the library, and I'm glad I decided to read all the way to the end. The final book made up for many of the shortfalls found in the previous books.
I know I was hard on the previous books in the series, but I felt like the final book capped off the adventure well. There were still parts that were predictable, there were still characters that make you want to pull your hair out. But this is a story about good triumphing over evil and over all obstacles in the way, and I liked it. I liked how you feel for the characters and emphasize with their hardships and what they had to overcome and I liked how it all closed out. I can't say much more without spoiling it, but I'm glad I stumbled across it in the library, and I'm glad I decided to read all the way to the end. The final book made up for many of the shortfalls found in the previous books.
January 13, 2016
I really liked the first three books in this series, so I was so excited that the final one was out.
My excitement quickly turned to disappointment. I couldn't connect with the characters like I did in the last books. The writing was slow and, to be honest, it felt like a book that "had" to be written.
All in all, I'm so sad that, after a long wait, I'm left empty and let down.
My excitement quickly turned to disappointment. I couldn't connect with the characters like I did in the last books. The writing was slow and, to be honest, it felt like a book that "had" to be written.
All in all, I'm so sad that, after a long wait, I'm left empty and let down.
March 5, 2018
Great book!!
Hated the fact the authors had to cut the series short. Would have loved to read a few more. Great adventure, nice character building, and an awesome ending. Very bittersweet. I did not want this to end.
Buy the whole series and take your time reading it. It will be hard to put it down but make this your summer read. An Excellent choice.
Hated the fact the authors had to cut the series short. Would have loved to read a few more. Great adventure, nice character building, and an awesome ending. Very bittersweet. I did not want this to end.
Buy the whole series and take your time reading it. It will be hard to put it down but make this your summer read. An Excellent choice.
September 28, 2017
Ok. So this is the final chapter of the Dragonships saga. It continues the plot from the earlier books in the series and comes to a decent conclusion. The book is a easy red. But that's about it. In the thrid book I was annoyed by the romantic twist and somehow that twist has repercussions in this book too. And then there is the thing that the writers do not dare to go through with some of the logical consequences of some plots.
Maybe that is the biggest problem with the series. Many readers didn't like the first book because the main character, Skylan, was so immature and annoying. It seems the writers somehow overcompensated for this by making every character likeable in the follow up books. Everybody becomes friends etc.
Another problem that concerned especially this last book was the need to retrack past hapenings constantly. Come on! We have the usual "happened so far" at the beginning when the bard guy tells us what has happened thus far. That would be enough for any intelligent reader. But the writers have decided that because we have something like 900 pages before this book we need to constantly be reminded what has happened before. At times it felt like half of the text just told us what we already knew because we had read the earlier books. For the first time I found myself skipping paragraphs. Why would I want to read the same thing again?
Anyway, this was a nice series, even though some of the decisions of the writers watered down the quite interesting setting of the first book. At least I do not regret reading this.
Maybe that is the biggest problem with the series. Many readers didn't like the first book because the main character, Skylan, was so immature and annoying. It seems the writers somehow overcompensated for this by making every character likeable in the follow up books. Everybody becomes friends etc.
Another problem that concerned especially this last book was the need to retrack past hapenings constantly. Come on! We have the usual "happened so far" at the beginning when the bard guy tells us what has happened thus far. That would be enough for any intelligent reader. But the writers have decided that because we have something like 900 pages before this book we need to constantly be reminded what has happened before. At times it felt like half of the text just told us what we already knew because we had read the earlier books. For the first time I found myself skipping paragraphs. Why would I want to read the same thing again?
Anyway, this was a nice series, even though some of the decisions of the writers watered down the quite interesting setting of the first book. At least I do not regret reading this.
July 18, 2018
This concludes the Dragonships of Vindras series. The story starts immediately where the last book ended. Skylan was struck down by his cousin Raegar when Skylan and Aylean, with their companions escaped from Raegar's pursuit.
I felt this book was hurried. The good things about it, include, but not limited to: Introduction to the fire plane, history about the Gods, background information about the world.
The bad things, I felt was
the lack of character development among the protagonists.
The book is filled with stories of action, warfare, betrayal, revenge, love and sacrifice. I felt it was rushed and parts of it could have been expanded to one more book.
However, it provides a satisfactory conclusion to the series.
I felt this book was hurried. The good things about it, include, but not limited to: Introduction to the fire plane, history about the Gods, background information about the world.
The bad things, I felt was
the lack of character development among the protagonists.
The book is filled with stories of action, warfare, betrayal, revenge, love and sacrifice. I felt it was rushed and parts of it could have been expanded to one more book.
However, it provides a satisfactory conclusion to the series.
September 2, 2018
A series that began so promisingly meets the literary equivalent of a TV show that gets cancelled mid-season and is left with 5-6 episodes yet to be taped to tie up 18 different storylines so the loyal viewers can have "closure".
I think there are plenty of good ideas that end up getting short shrift, such as the interdimensional bridge to the Realm of Fire, the Kingdom of the Fae, the culture of the Cyclopes (who turn out to be humans?) and Raegar and Treia's child.
But still, DRAGONS!
I think there are plenty of good ideas that end up getting short shrift, such as the interdimensional bridge to the Realm of Fire, the Kingdom of the Fae, the culture of the Cyclopes (who turn out to be humans?) and Raegar and Treia's child.
But still, DRAGONS!
December 19, 2017
great fun
June 4, 2018
This was a great ending to this series.
November 22, 2020
I would have never finished this series if there wasn't a pandemic going on.
October 11, 2022
Heavily enjoyed this. Fantastic ending to this series. The growth of the characters from the first book to this one was so amazing.. Just loved the telling of this and even cried once or twice.
May 7, 2023
The map is useful for once and the ending is bittersweet. But the amateurish writing continues and the introduction of so many new characters and places makes the book seem like it should have been longer.
December 4, 2015
Doom of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman- This is a swords and sorcery fantasy adventure in the traditional sense with colorful characters and a quest to save the world. It is the fourth book in a series and continues the story of Skylan Ivorson, Chief of Chiefs and a Vindarsi, who sail ships made of living dragons on the storm-tossed seas. He is on a quest to retrieve the four "Spirit-bones" which will enable him to defeat forces of evil decimating his land. But a strange thing happens. Skylan is struck in the back with a spear and finds himself in the land of the gods and the dead. Somehow, he is not dead but not wholly alive. Trapped between two worlds, Skylan must deal with treacherous gods to regain his life and then finish his quest before it is too late. I was only allowed a small excerpt from the book, but found the background and characters easy to understand as I have never read the other three boos in the series. The story starts off well and moves along at a good pace. If you appreciate a good old-fashion fantasy, this story is well done, but I would start with book one for a complete telling.
March 29, 2016
Oh dear, I didn't know this was a Norseman book, and the last one in a series. Would I read the previous ones? Not likely. I read the prologue and nearly quit. Then I read thru Book One. How I don't know. By the time I got to Book Two I had so much time invested, but then it was making sense, and I liked it a little better. But still.
I felt sorry for Treia and her baby . . . intrigued by Skylan being dead and not dead . . . the "dragon bones" quest throughout . . . pissed that Wulfe didn't mature AT ALL . . . that his mother was such a silly, stupid creature . . . that the good guys were SO good and the bad guys are SO bad . . . that there was so little homebuilding or househunting, or planting or crops and nothing but fighting and winning by various good guys who always won. Well, almost always, until the end. Which was the same as in the prologue . . . Maybe if I'd read the previous books --- nah.
I felt sorry for Treia and her baby . . . intrigued by Skylan being dead and not dead . . . the "dragon bones" quest throughout . . . pissed that Wulfe didn't mature AT ALL . . . that his mother was such a silly, stupid creature . . . that the good guys were SO good and the bad guys are SO bad . . . that there was so little homebuilding or househunting, or planting or crops and nothing but fighting and winning by various good guys who always won. Well, almost always, until the end. Which was the same as in the prologue . . . Maybe if I'd read the previous books --- nah.
December 5, 2016
Excellent conclusion by Margaret Weis. It is a shame this saga did not go to 6 books as was originally planned. The conclusion keeps you in suspense throughout the story line. You are never sure if it will be a happy ending or not. I highly recommend this book but only after you read the previous books in sequence.
July 3, 2016
Loved it but cried that this is the end of the series.
April 25, 2016
Meh - fantasy drivel. I started the series and as a completionist, needed to finish it.
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July 12, 2016Not the best finish from MW and TH. The ending feels contrived and forced.
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