The Seventh Sentinel

Dragonlance: Defenders of Magic #3

by Mary L. Kirchoff

When disharmony between the forces of good and evil once again threaten the survival of magic on Krynn, young Lord Guerrand DiThon is pitted against his former friend, the renegade wizard Lyim. Original. 75,000 first printing.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Young Adult, Adventure

306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Mary L. Kirchoff (b. 1959) is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fair ending to an OK Drangonlance trilogy. The element of returning characters was the most intriguing thing about it, as the plot was kinda dull.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, this was bad. I've carried this book with me since it came out; I've transported it through several moves, even halfway across the country and back. I hesitate to use the word "betrayal," but it's sitting close by in case I need it.

This doesn't read like the first two, almost as if Ms. Kirchoff didn't write it. It's like the author hadn't even read the first two. It's bad.

Please allow me to spoil it for you so as to prevent you from wasting your life.

Whoever wrote this must truly despise women. Esme isn't even in this one (whether Lyim offed her in #2 isn't addressed, not even mentioned). Dagamier, who is like 40 years older than he is, purportedly falls in love with Bram after knowing him for just under four minutes. Kirah, instead of growing into a mature, independent woman, falls further into self-destructive behavior even at the cost of family members to spend time with a despicable man she knows is truly vile, whom she knows actually tried to kill her in the previous book. She knows all this, but she is willing to ignore it for physical pleasure (and torture). And there's a magic gauntlet that pretends to be a woman to seduce everyone. It's bad.

Our hero-like person, Rand, the one who the series is purportedly about, well ... he dead. And not even at the end, doing something heroic or meaningful. He just jumps off a building and dies because someone left a post-it note somewhere on the editor's desk about a dream from book 2, so it got crammed in for no reason or resolution. And the book still has a third of it to go. It's bad. Plus the whole dark side creeping into his nature is left unexplained or anything - it's bad.

Bram finds out he's a fairy prince but still can't get over a stolen-not-stolen cookie, ignores his fake family who all wither away, and inexplicably falls in love with Dagamier, doesn't seem too upset about the deaths of Rand and Kirah, and pretty much fails to stop Lyim in any permanent way.

Lyim is stopped by the power of love ... or something like that. It's really bad. Everyone knows throughout the book he's the villain and tried to kill literally all magicians and magic itself, but they leave him alone because of some by-law about not going to war until the last four chapters of a trilogy.

You know how at the end of Othello you're like, wait, what? Iago just gets away with it? That's pretty much what happens here. We don't get a reformed Lyim, we get just more of what made book 2 so disappointing, but now every character acts contrary to who they should be if this book were written by someone who had at least read books 1-2, if not actually wrote them. And Lyim will be punished someday, maybe, if we can get around to it.

Oh, and there's a long section toward the beginning where it turns into a D+D: Bookkeeping and City Management expansion, which no one wanted or needed.

This was at best a missed opportunity. It's really bad, and it hurts me deeply to say that.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good series of books. Fast paced with and excellent story line. Great addition to the Dragonlance world.

[Ragnar Númi Gunnarsson Breidfjord · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guerrand my boy

[Mikaël · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, what a dumb ending to what was so far the best Dragonlance trilogy. Plot points that have been building up since the first book never get resolved, lore-irrelevant nonsense like druids and sentient items are back, characters don't act as they usually would, and just get killed off half-assedly, like the writer just didn't want to write another book or something. What a flop

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good book, I was a little disappointed in how some of the character arcs ended, and how we didn’t see previous characters appear, like they just been forgotten rather than written out. But that’s a small thing, the story was good, and kept up the pace well.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good solid fantasy. Very enjoyable. =)

[Mark Adkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Defenders of Magic series following the events of the prior two books. I was a bit disappointed with this book and did not enjoy it as much as the previous books.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow way to spoil a series. Rand should have stayed the main character but alas...

[Tom Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ending is so so

[D M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok end to the trilogy. Kirah has a bigger albeit still weak supporting role. It was really the Bram show. The book still suffered from where to end. I feel like Ms Kirchoff had material for tetralogy, but after volume 1 had to stuff it into these last 2 volumes.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book of a trilogy that is set in the Dragonlance world. The first two must be read to understand what is going on in this book. In this novel Bram and Guerrand are ruling over their village and the village is thriving. Meanwhile Lyim is regrouping as he puts forth a plan to gain power.

I enjoyed the first two book of this trilogy but this one fell flat. I did not care for the direction of this book. It felt like the author had an original idea for all three books but in this one she explored a different avenue. I understand what the author was attempting but it didn't work for me. I think part of the problem was with the character Bram. His character has a major development that affects the whole story but this development was not explored and developed. It just happened and the reader was meant to accept it. Also, characters that I have grown to like just irritated me more than anything as their actions and thoughts were senseless.

I do have to give the author credit as she does take chances with her characters and she doesn't follow the traditional road with them. Also the battle scene at the end was terrific as she brought it to life.

I think this is one example of a trilogy that should have been a duology. She could have tweaked the ending of the second book to have a definitive ending and all would be satisfied.

[Tabitha Tomala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was much better than the previous, but it still lacked an in depth plot. I thought the connections made with Guerrand's dream were weak at best and his sister just annoyed the hell out of me. She was weak, desperate and an awful person towards the end. I wish she had died in book two.
Bram intrigues me. I wish I knew more about his time away, it seems such an important part of his character yet it's glossed over. I want to know how he developed his abilities! What training did he have to do?
The end of the book was dragged out and it should have just ended fifty pages before it actually did. This trilogy was not a great addition to Dragonlance.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, even if it turned out nothing like I expected it to (or even started the way I expected it to!) Without spoiling, I will say that some things were shocking, although I can see why it needed to be done that way instead of another way. We are cleverly shifted more and more to Bram's perspective, and we also get plenty of Lyim, and his rise in power (which is very fun to read, let me tell you!)

[Curtis Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third installment of this series justifies the first two. Plot twists are interesting, and unresolved questions are answered. I was worried after the second book "the Medusa Plague", but this volume made it worth my while.

[Devi]

good

[Alexander Faria · Rating 3 out of 5]

En si fue un buen cierre , pero quedaron algunas cosas como en el aire.. no se si habra otra hisdtoria que la continue, pero en ningun libro que he leido mencionan ni por asomo a los protagonistas

[MEG Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice ending, but sad too

Ms kickoff certainly does it again!! She describes the surroundings with so many wonderful adjectives and makes them tell a beautiful story.