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Dragonlance: The Age of Mortals #6
The Lake of Death
Dhamon Grimwulf, cursed to live as a shadow dragon, yearns for his lost humanity. His quest for its recovery takes him from the depths of the dragon overlord Sable's swamp to the shores of ruined, flooded Qualinost. Along the way, he is reunited with Feril, a Kagonesti druid he once loved fiercely. The search becomes perilous for all involved, and the goal, if attainable, hinges on what lies at the very bottom of the massive, mysterious Lake of Death.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
520 people want to read
About the author
Jean Rabe
221 books156 followersWhen 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 18, 2020
*****3.5*****
Head rating: 3 stars
Heart rating: 4 stars
Hence, 3.5 stars
I really enjoyed this culmination of Dhamon Grimwulf's story. I didn't like Dhamon or Rabe's writing at first. I found the beginning of the New Age books very slow and almost boring. As the story moved forward, I grew to love Rabe's writing and the characters she created. I read the Dhamon Saga afterwards and had to read this single book, The Lake of Death, to find out how Rabe wrapped up Dhamon's story.
What I loved most about Rabe's writing is strong in this novel. For instance, Rabe uses different characters as major players other than the typical types Weis and Hickman use, i.e. Ragh, a draconian, is again a main character, and so is Feril, a Kagonesti elf. Also, Rabe's magic system, i.e. nature magic, which is highlighted again here via Feril, fascinates me. Also, Rabe's creativity in creating plot lines and conflict really engaged me in her two Dragonlance trilogies, and her creativity once again caught my interest in this single novel.
I really loved the story arc: Dhamon wants to know if he can become human again after being cursed into the form of a shadow dragon. Ragh agrees to go with him in search of Feril because Dhamon believes Feril can help him, using her magic. What ensues is a great adventure to the Lake of Death, the grave of Qualinost, the Qualinesti capital that sank with Beryl, the great green dragon, and more action in Sable's swamp. There's a side plot with some mountain dwarves, including a female nicknamed "Needle," who tattoos and cooks really well. I found that side plot and those characters very interesting and innovative in the DL world.
The ending of the story got me. I really expected something completely different, and the few twists that led up to the conclusion surprised me. Overall, the resolution makes sense, and I really liked the last lines of the book.
I highly recommend this book, but, even though it's a single book and not part of a DL trilogy, it does need to be read in order to have impact, especially because the Lake of Death would spoil some of the content otherwise.
Reading order: Dragons of a New Age trilogy by Rabe, The Dhamon Saga by Rabe, The War of Souls trilogy by Weis and Hickman, The Lake of Death by Rabe
I'm sad to have finished Dhamon's story. I don't know where I'll go next in the DL lexicon, but I'm thinking of reading Dark Disciple just to continue the trajectory I'm on... We shall see. Either way, I know I won't be able to leave Krynn for long!
Head rating: 3 stars
Heart rating: 4 stars
Hence, 3.5 stars
I really enjoyed this culmination of Dhamon Grimwulf's story. I didn't like Dhamon or Rabe's writing at first. I found the beginning of the New Age books very slow and almost boring. As the story moved forward, I grew to love Rabe's writing and the characters she created. I read the Dhamon Saga afterwards and had to read this single book, The Lake of Death, to find out how Rabe wrapped up Dhamon's story.
What I loved most about Rabe's writing is strong in this novel. For instance, Rabe uses different characters as major players other than the typical types Weis and Hickman use, i.e. Ragh, a draconian, is again a main character, and so is Feril, a Kagonesti elf. Also, Rabe's magic system, i.e. nature magic, which is highlighted again here via Feril, fascinates me. Also, Rabe's creativity in creating plot lines and conflict really engaged me in her two Dragonlance trilogies, and her creativity once again caught my interest in this single novel.
I really loved the story arc: Dhamon wants to know if he can become human again after being cursed into the form of a shadow dragon. Ragh agrees to go with him in search of Feril because Dhamon believes Feril can help him, using her magic. What ensues is a great adventure to the Lake of Death, the grave of Qualinost, the Qualinesti capital that sank with Beryl, the great green dragon, and more action in Sable's swamp. There's a side plot with some mountain dwarves, including a female nicknamed "Needle," who tattoos and cooks really well. I found that side plot and those characters very interesting and innovative in the DL world.
The ending of the story got me. I really expected something completely different, and the few twists that led up to the conclusion surprised me. Overall, the resolution makes sense, and I really liked the last lines of the book.
I highly recommend this book, but, even though it's a single book and not part of a DL trilogy, it does need to be read in order to have impact, especially because the Lake of Death would spoil some of the content otherwise.
Reading order: Dragons of a New Age trilogy by Rabe, The Dhamon Saga by Rabe, The War of Souls trilogy by Weis and Hickman, The Lake of Death by Rabe
I'm sad to have finished Dhamon's story. I don't know where I'll go next in the DL lexicon, but I'm thinking of reading Dark Disciple just to continue the trajectory I'm on... We shall see. Either way, I know I won't be able to leave Krynn for long!
December 10, 2024
Like many Jean Rabe Dragonlance books, this review would sorely benefited from a rating system that allowed half-stars because this one, like the Dhamon Saga's Betrayal, landed right in the 2.5 star range for me. This book is a solid 3/5 for a while! It's until they travel away from The Lake of Death about 190 pages in that everything starts to fall apart.
The Lake of Death is probably the best Dhamon Grimwulf book I've read so far which...isn't saying much, considering I've read five books starring this guy now and the highest rating I can give one of these books is a noncommittal "it's okay, I guess" and a 2 stars. Turns out I don't really think Dhamon is that exciting of a protagonist, and even turning him into a weird abomination dragon wasn't enough to make him likeable. But I'll get to that.
Our story begins with Dhamon, who is now a beautiful yet stinky shadow dragon living in the swamps of Sable, one of the last remaining Dragon Overlords. He's hanging out, killing things, and stealing Sable's treasure and territory with his heterosexual life partner Ragh the wingless Sivak while being pretty mopey about himself.
I say "beautiful yet stinky" because those are the two main descriptors that this book uses to describe Dhamon's dragon form. He is striking and gorgeous and beautiful, but you get too close to him and he smells like acid. And this is brought up constantly. Might as well draw stink lines on the cover just to get it over with.
Anyways, Dhamon The Foul-Odored is very sad. Sure, stealing treasure and eating mutated alligators is exciting, but he's not feeling it. He misses being human, and surprisingly, this book does not take the easy way out by giving Dhamon the ability to shapeshift into a human as a disguise form, a common trope of various dragons throughout the Dragonlance series. Instead, if Dhamon wants a human form, he's just gonna have to work for it by finding a cure, and he and Ragh go on a little road trip to find such a thing.
Enter Feril, one of his older companions from the Dawning of the New Age trilogy, and the Lake of Death, which is...a lake of death where Qualinost (important elf city) once stood before Beryl (scary big dragon) smashed into it after getting killed in an important battle in a previous book's climax.
The Lake of Death is equal parts the best part of the book and the millstone around the book's neck. For you see, Dhamon can't swim in his dragon form and neither can Ragh, so for a good portion of this book, Dhamon and Ragh just kinda wait by the lake's shore twiddling their claws while Feril does all the cool underwater exploring and ghost-encountering by herself. While this is fascinating and I love seeing Qualinost, a staple of this franchise, in this state, it's also incredibly lame that Dhamon has to just sit and wait (or sit in Feril's shadow and quietly observe) while Feril does all the fun stuff. It's not like Dhamon is a well-established type of dragon that can't breathe underwater; the whole jist of his existence is that he's an abomination of several different dragon types. Slap some gills on that dragon! A solution was right there!
Oh yes, I have to get to the ghosts. See, Qualinost is quite haunted (having an entire city get crushed under a dragon's ass will do that) and, after we hang out with some friendly elf spirits, we find out that a whole colony of ghosts of different races are guarding and worshiping Beryl's corpse, which is preserved by the frigid waters of the lake. Get too close to the dragon carcass and the ghosts will swarm like an protective beehive while urging their hapless victim to join them. Sounds spooky! Sounds like a threat that should get taken care of!
Now, think to yourself. There is a giant dragon corpse haunted by a legion of the undead in The Lake of Death, the title of the book. Feril has ties to Qualinost. Dhamon wants a solution to his dragon curse. Ragh...is there, I guess. Do they:
A) Find a way to destroy Beryl's corpse, freeing the souls of the dead and bringing some form of peace to the former city of Qualinost in a pretty bittersweet act of heroism since they're saving the ruins of a long dead city.
or
B) Take a ghost in a bottle, go on a hunch, and decide "actually, let's go on a small road trip and try to find some dragon scales" before having a really awful third act where another dragon shows up and is basically diet Maleficent for a while.
If you guessed A, you'll understand why I said that this book falls apart around the 190 page count where they just...leave, and have a rather disjointed adventure that has such plot points as "a dragon is following them and no one notices it even though this is a Dragon Overlord and they're supposed to be Pretty Damn Big", "these friendly dwarves we just met are actually secretly evil", and my personal favorite, "while your back is turned, I put a hypnosis spell on one of your companions so there can be a sudden betrayal".
There's also a dragon fight between Dhamon and Sable where both of them die of their wounds, with Feril going "gee, this has truly become a Lake of Death" near the end. ...yeah okay. Fine. I guess we're doing that now. Even though there was a Lake of Death earlier that was far more interesting.
And so ends the tale of Dhamon. He died the way he lived - by being incredibly mediocre.
Next time, actually do something about the Lake of Death!
PROS:
*They don't actually go for a cop-out and keep Dhamon in his cursed dragon form! My main fear was that I'd have to deal with "I'm no longer human" angst from someone wearing a human's skin and face, but nope. Dhamon just stays his horrid acid breath dragon self.
*No Rikali, thank god.
*The Lake of Death is a wonderful location, all things considered. Having Beryl's corpse still negatively effect the environment really does paint a vivid picture and helps the Dragon Overlords feel like the great alien threats from another world they're supposed to be.
*The elderly elf lake ghost, who gets to come along on the adventures by having one of his finger bones stuffed in a bottle, is fun and a delight and I kinda wish he had more scenes.
*I like that there's an elderly woman dwarf who is also a tattoo artist, even if the story pulls a Fiona from Dhamon Saga and ruins this character pretty thoroughly once you get attached.
*Ragh gets one effective line where he tells Dhamon that he can't even visit Rikali and hold his own baby in his arms.
CONS:
*I don't know how the writer did it, but they managed to take my favorite character from the Dhamon Saga (Ragh) and give him absolutely nothing to do. Ragh is absolutely squandered in this book and it feels like he knows it because 80% of his dialogue is complaining.
*This book pulls the "this character was secretly brainwashed the whole time" plot twist twice within 30 pages. None of the brainwashed characters benefit from being brainwashed and, in one case, makes an otherwise interesting character really boring.
*Sable is just not that interesting in this book and her personality is very flat and one-dimensional. She is one railroad track away from twirling her evil curly mustache as she's busy sticking her evil mind control scales on everybody.
*We have to deal with Dhamon saying "you know, Feril, you were the one I truly loved" for a bit, which kinda feels vaguely shitty considering the whole thing with Rikali in the last three books he was in.
*They just get up and leave The Lake of Death! Why do they just leave?
*There's a human commander loyal to Sable who shows up with a goblin army and I found him so boring that I don't even remember whether he lives or dies. He at least gave Ragh something to do while everyone else was exploring the lake...? Whatever, he's a crony for Sable and he does some stuff that ultimately doesn't matter at all.
*In the same book where Beryl is so awe-inspiring that her lifeless corpse has its own undead army, Sable the Black Dragon Overlord - an overarching threat in quite a few Dragonlance books - gets her shit utterly rocked and later killed by a single mutant dragon in a fight scene so pathetic that I almost felt sorry for her.
The Lake of Death is probably the best Dhamon Grimwulf book I've read so far which...isn't saying much, considering I've read five books starring this guy now and the highest rating I can give one of these books is a noncommittal "it's okay, I guess" and a 2 stars. Turns out I don't really think Dhamon is that exciting of a protagonist, and even turning him into a weird abomination dragon wasn't enough to make him likeable. But I'll get to that.
Our story begins with Dhamon, who is now a beautiful yet stinky shadow dragon living in the swamps of Sable, one of the last remaining Dragon Overlords. He's hanging out, killing things, and stealing Sable's treasure and territory with his heterosexual life partner Ragh the wingless Sivak while being pretty mopey about himself.
I say "beautiful yet stinky" because those are the two main descriptors that this book uses to describe Dhamon's dragon form. He is striking and gorgeous and beautiful, but you get too close to him and he smells like acid. And this is brought up constantly. Might as well draw stink lines on the cover just to get it over with.
Anyways, Dhamon The Foul-Odored is very sad. Sure, stealing treasure and eating mutated alligators is exciting, but he's not feeling it. He misses being human, and surprisingly, this book does not take the easy way out by giving Dhamon the ability to shapeshift into a human as a disguise form, a common trope of various dragons throughout the Dragonlance series. Instead, if Dhamon wants a human form, he's just gonna have to work for it by finding a cure, and he and Ragh go on a little road trip to find such a thing.
Enter Feril, one of his older companions from the Dawning of the New Age trilogy, and the Lake of Death, which is...a lake of death where Qualinost (important elf city) once stood before Beryl (scary big dragon) smashed into it after getting killed in an important battle in a previous book's climax.
The Lake of Death is equal parts the best part of the book and the millstone around the book's neck. For you see, Dhamon can't swim in his dragon form and neither can Ragh, so for a good portion of this book, Dhamon and Ragh just kinda wait by the lake's shore twiddling their claws while Feril does all the cool underwater exploring and ghost-encountering by herself. While this is fascinating and I love seeing Qualinost, a staple of this franchise, in this state, it's also incredibly lame that Dhamon has to just sit and wait (or sit in Feril's shadow and quietly observe) while Feril does all the fun stuff. It's not like Dhamon is a well-established type of dragon that can't breathe underwater; the whole jist of his existence is that he's an abomination of several different dragon types. Slap some gills on that dragon! A solution was right there!
Oh yes, I have to get to the ghosts. See, Qualinost is quite haunted (having an entire city get crushed under a dragon's ass will do that) and, after we hang out with some friendly elf spirits, we find out that a whole colony of ghosts of different races are guarding and worshiping Beryl's corpse, which is preserved by the frigid waters of the lake. Get too close to the dragon carcass and the ghosts will swarm like an protective beehive while urging their hapless victim to join them. Sounds spooky! Sounds like a threat that should get taken care of!
Now, think to yourself. There is a giant dragon corpse haunted by a legion of the undead in The Lake of Death, the title of the book. Feril has ties to Qualinost. Dhamon wants a solution to his dragon curse. Ragh...is there, I guess. Do they:
A) Find a way to destroy Beryl's corpse, freeing the souls of the dead and bringing some form of peace to the former city of Qualinost in a pretty bittersweet act of heroism since they're saving the ruins of a long dead city.
or
B) Take a ghost in a bottle, go on a hunch, and decide "actually, let's go on a small road trip and try to find some dragon scales" before having a really awful third act where another dragon shows up and is basically diet Maleficent for a while.
If you guessed A, you'll understand why I said that this book falls apart around the 190 page count where they just...leave, and have a rather disjointed adventure that has such plot points as "a dragon is following them and no one notices it even though this is a Dragon Overlord and they're supposed to be Pretty Damn Big", "these friendly dwarves we just met are actually secretly evil", and my personal favorite, "while your back is turned, I put a hypnosis spell on one of your companions so there can be a sudden betrayal".
There's also a dragon fight between Dhamon and Sable where both of them die of their wounds, with Feril going "gee, this has truly become a Lake of Death" near the end. ...yeah okay. Fine. I guess we're doing that now. Even though there was a Lake of Death earlier that was far more interesting.
And so ends the tale of Dhamon. He died the way he lived - by being incredibly mediocre.
Next time, actually do something about the Lake of Death!
PROS:
*They don't actually go for a cop-out and keep Dhamon in his cursed dragon form! My main fear was that I'd have to deal with "I'm no longer human" angst from someone wearing a human's skin and face, but nope. Dhamon just stays his horrid acid breath dragon self.
*No Rikali, thank god.
*The Lake of Death is a wonderful location, all things considered. Having Beryl's corpse still negatively effect the environment really does paint a vivid picture and helps the Dragon Overlords feel like the great alien threats from another world they're supposed to be.
*The elderly elf lake ghost, who gets to come along on the adventures by having one of his finger bones stuffed in a bottle, is fun and a delight and I kinda wish he had more scenes.
*I like that there's an elderly woman dwarf who is also a tattoo artist, even if the story pulls a Fiona from Dhamon Saga and ruins this character pretty thoroughly once you get attached.
*Ragh gets one effective line where he tells Dhamon that he can't even visit Rikali and hold his own baby in his arms.
CONS:
*I don't know how the writer did it, but they managed to take my favorite character from the Dhamon Saga (Ragh) and give him absolutely nothing to do. Ragh is absolutely squandered in this book and it feels like he knows it because 80% of his dialogue is complaining.
*This book pulls the "this character was secretly brainwashed the whole time" plot twist twice within 30 pages. None of the brainwashed characters benefit from being brainwashed and, in one case, makes an otherwise interesting character really boring.
*Sable is just not that interesting in this book and her personality is very flat and one-dimensional. She is one railroad track away from twirling her evil curly mustache as she's busy sticking her evil mind control scales on everybody.
*We have to deal with Dhamon saying "you know, Feril, you were the one I truly loved" for a bit, which kinda feels vaguely shitty considering the whole thing with Rikali in the last three books he was in.
*They just get up and leave The Lake of Death! Why do they just leave?
*There's a human commander loyal to Sable who shows up with a goblin army and I found him so boring that I don't even remember whether he lives or dies. He at least gave Ragh something to do while everyone else was exploring the lake...? Whatever, he's a crony for Sable and he does some stuff that ultimately doesn't matter at all.
*In the same book where Beryl is so awe-inspiring that her lifeless corpse has its own undead army, Sable the Black Dragon Overlord - an overarching threat in quite a few Dragonlance books - gets her shit utterly rocked and later killed by a single mutant dragon in a fight scene so pathetic that I almost felt sorry for her.
October 5, 2024
The end of the "Dhamon saga".
Jean Rabe is not writing for those who like easy ends.
I like her style
Jean Rabe is not writing for those who like easy ends.
I like her style
November 11, 2017
The Lake of Death by Jean Rabe is apparently the sixth and final novel in the Dragonlance: Age of Mortals series. Despite the fact that I read none of the other books, The Lake of Death is a fully engaging and compelling story in its own right. Rabe fills in enough backstory along the way that at no point did I feel that anything was lacking from my enjoyment of the tale, which is the story of Dhamon Grimwulf, once a human, now a shadow dragon, and the endeavors of his friends, an elvish druidess and a draconian lizardman, to help him find the magic materials that might make him human again. Jean Rabe employs a particularly appealing, 'tactile' style of writing in this story; she is excellent in describing the sights, sounds, and smells of the swamps, mountains, and forests in which her tale takes place, to the point I was thoroughly immersed in the imaginary world I was reading about. The Lake of Death is filled with dragons, dwarves, spirits, magic, a lost city, and many other elements that make this a fine and first-rate fantasy novel.
August 3, 2024
Over twenty years since I first read about Dhamon Grimwolf, I finally read the final chapter in his tragic story. I struggle to imagine The Lake of Death being even readable if you haven't read the other books, but I found myself actually enjoying it and the closure it brought. Feril returns, a welcome decision on Rabe's part because in the Dhamon trilogy I missed her and the tone of the books reflected her absence. Dhamon has been transformed into a shadow dragon, accompanied only by a draconian of suspect trustworthiness, Ragh. He seeks out his former elven lover with the vague hope of recovering his humanity, and with it the only real love of his life. Their search leads them to the Lake of Death, grave of the city of Qualinost. The setting is bizarre but it does provide readers of the War of the Souls with an unsettling epilogue to the disturbing (and best) moments of that trilogy. Feril befriends a dubious ghost who suggests the recovery of an Overlord's scale to reverse the enchantment on Dhamon, which of course leads him back, inevitably, to a final confrontation with the Overlords that he once dared to challenge. It's not Malys (her fate has already been sealed in the War of Souls) but Sable, a sinister, swampy black dragon. The ending is not exactly surprising (although there are some daring twists along the way) but it is cathartic and succeeds in returning to Dhamon some of the nobility that he lost in the previous three books.
Strangely, the pace in completely different to the Dhamon trilogy which was action packed and full of constant battling and blood. The majority of this book is slow paced and often frustratingly repetitive. Without the desire to discover Dhamon's fate, the plot is surely quite dull. Still, the tension is there and Rabe, as she always did, does a good job of not boxing in her characters and their intentions. Dhamon is genuinely a fascinating troubled soul. Feril has a wild side that also takes her away from the stereotypical elven role one might expect her to play. All told, Dhamon's story is a strange and unconventional fantasy progression. It's a grim and bloody path he leads, defined by the utter impotence that sends him spiraling from hero of the New Age to degenerate thief and immoral rogue. At the end he is human again, despite his dragon-form. The previous book was called Redemption but I don't think he gains it until the end of the Lake of Death. I'm glad I finally closed the book on this poor, tortured soul and I'm happy to gift him his rest.
Strangely, the pace in completely different to the Dhamon trilogy which was action packed and full of constant battling and blood. The majority of this book is slow paced and often frustratingly repetitive. Without the desire to discover Dhamon's fate, the plot is surely quite dull. Still, the tension is there and Rabe, as she always did, does a good job of not boxing in her characters and their intentions. Dhamon is genuinely a fascinating troubled soul. Feril has a wild side that also takes her away from the stereotypical elven role one might expect her to play. All told, Dhamon's story is a strange and unconventional fantasy progression. It's a grim and bloody path he leads, defined by the utter impotence that sends him spiraling from hero of the New Age to degenerate thief and immoral rogue. At the end he is human again, despite his dragon-form. The previous book was called Redemption but I don't think he gains it until the end of the Lake of Death. I'm glad I finally closed the book on this poor, tortured soul and I'm happy to gift him his rest.
December 21, 2025
A solid conclusion to Dhamon Grimwulf. If you followed his journey up till now you get a satisfying ending a few questions answered and some loose ends tied up. More fo Rabes Dragonlance. You get some good lore, development, action, adventure, might, magic, monsters and heroes. I would recommend.
March 30, 2012
Well, clearly much has happened since I last visited Krynn. The end of a series was probably not the best place to start, either. However, I've been a guest in Jean Rabe's house and she's offered to feed me a couple of times, so the least I could do would be to finally getting around to reading a novel written by her.
Personally, I think this would have been a stronger story if Rabe didn't have to work in as much of the expanded backstory and world setting as a Dragonlance book is apt to require. It would have allowed for a slightly smoother transition from place to place and a better examination of the characters. I liked it, though. For licensed fantasy adventure fiction, it was better than solid. There only complaint I would have is the somewhat formulaic twist at the end, but that has more to do with how briefly it matters at all.
Personally, I think this would have been a stronger story if Rabe didn't have to work in as much of the expanded backstory and world setting as a Dragonlance book is apt to require. It would have allowed for a slightly smoother transition from place to place and a better examination of the characters. I liked it, though. For licensed fantasy adventure fiction, it was better than solid. There only complaint I would have is the somewhat formulaic twist at the end, but that has more to do with how briefly it matters at all.
May 27, 2009
The final installment in the saga about Dhamon. Fighting to become human again after being turned into a shadown dragon in Redemption, Dhamon teams up with Ragh, the sivak, and reunites with Feril, his former Kagonesti lover. Together they explore the Lake of Death that now covers the former capital of Qualinesti, to try and find a cure. One last stand against Sable, the black dragon overlord, is necessary,however, to obtain the last part of the cure for Dhamon's problems.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews