Prisoner of Haven

Dragonlance: The Age of Mortals #4

by Nancy Varian Berberick

The latest title in a series based on characters from the best-selling War of Souls trilogy.
This title is the next in a series that explores the lives of key characters from Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's New York Times best-selling War of Souls trilogy. Prisoner of Haven describes events that directly overlap events during the War of Souls, and it features a character originally introduced in Dragons of Summer Flame. Author Berberick also wrote The Lioness, a previous title in this same series.

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

309 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Nancy Varian Berberick is an American fantasy author well known for her work in the Dragonlance series. She has written 12 fantasy novels, eight of which have been in the Dragonlance saga, and numerous short stories. Her Wizards of the Coast biography mentions that she is fond of going through a thesaurus. She enjoys Beowulf, Norse mythology, and Orlando Innamorato.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book set in the world of Dragonlance. This is a tale about two women who are caught in a seized city of Haven. One woman finds companionship while the other helps people flee the city. The problem I had with this book is that it spent too much time on the companionship story and not enough on people trying to escape. If the stories were reversed, this could have been a welcome addition to Dragonlance. To me, this novel was geared more towards romance than fantasy. Not the best Dragonlance book.

[Rob Frazier · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quasi romance novel with little to no point. Infidelity from time to time is assumed even in the fantasy worlds... I however don't feel that we need to have the hero shove it in our faces. Seriously disappointing.

[Kevin Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this was a decent story, but yet another case of Nancy Varian Berberick blatantly ignoring established Dragonlance facts.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This only got 2 stars due to being Dragonlance. In the over 100 Dragonlance books I've read, this is easily the worst. Not only the worst Dragonlance book but the worst book I will probably read all year. This book was boring, had nothing to bring me in, and felt like it went on forever. Let's start with how the author absolutely destroyed Usha as a character. Made her horrible. Broke from who she was. Having an affair, being sad, her art supplies were ruined. People are dead, and you are worried about art supplies. Does not seem like the woman who was there for the fall of Chaos. Back to the art supplies. The story takes place in an occupied town where its stated supplies and rooms are very expensive. Let's not stay with a friend, but let's support ourselves by selling portraits. People are jacking prices up on food and rent. Who has the money for high-end commissions? It's absurd. Let's focus on Usha banging another dude and selling paintings not on Dezra fighting dark knights and escorting refugees out of occupied territory. It's just a horrible story that focused on all the wrong things. I hated every second of this book and would not recommend this book or author.

[Christina Stind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dezra and Usha Majere are in Haven when dark knights takes control of the city and are forced to stay much longer than planned because the conquering force closes the gates. This forces the women to act in two different ways: Dezra joins an underground society trying to help people leave Haven and Usha settles down as a painter to earn her own living and because of this, she meets up with one of the city's leading men, both in regards to power and money. But even though the two paths seems very distant from each other, it turns out that they are very close indeed and suddenly, danger lures everywhere and nobody knows who to trust.
Although I enjoyed my stay in the Dragonlance world as always, this book was a little disappointing to me. Nancy Varian Berberick is another of my favourite Dragonlance authors but this book didn't quite do it for me. I only felt it really picked up the pace in the last 100 pages - and those pages were good, but that's not enough... - but they did change the book's score from 2 to 3 stars.