Knights of the Crown

Dragonlance: The Warriors #1

by Roland J. Green

Los Caballeros de Solamnia constituyeron la Orden de Caballería más grande de la historia de Krynn. Todos los que deseaban convertirse en caballeros solámnicos debían ingresar primero como escuderos de los Caballeros de la Corona, con quienes iniciaban su formación en las bondades de la lealtad.

Ésta es la historia de sir Pirvan Wayward, cuyos inicios poco auspiciosos como Pirvan el Ladrón del Conjuro ofrecían pocas pistas sobre su potencial como Caballero de la Corona..

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, High Fantasy, Romance

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Roland James Green is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and editor. He has written as Roland Green and Roland J. Green; and had 28 books in the Richard Blade series published under the pen name 'Jeffrey Lord'.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before we commence, I have one question: Why is the knight on the cover wielding a lightsaber?

Well, of course it isn't a lightsaber. There is nary a Jedi in sight in this book. The only knights you'll find here are Solamnic knights, and not a great many of them either. I must admit, if there is one reading weakness I do possess, it is a lingering affinity for shared universe fiction. It's a guilty pleasure, but sometimes these novels are pretty entertaining. They also serve as a neat distraction between more, um, "intellectual" books.

So, this is a Dragonlance novel, and it is a pretty contained story; nothing as grandiose as saving the world from the marching hordes of evil or any such. It's really just the story of how one man becomes recruited into the Knights of Solamnia. That's all. Oh, and there are Sea Barbarians and Minotaurs, which is always nice. Of course there are dragons too. And an evil mage. Oh bosh, we all know what these stories are like. What I will say is this: Knights of the Crown is written quite well and is really not too bad at all. Except, perhaps, for one thing: the author takes the alignment rule (good / neutral / evil) very, very literally. The story of Sir Pirvan the Wayward is continued in Knights of the Sword.

The book is part of the Dragonlance Warriors sequence.

[Gabriel Vidrine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Either this book was badly written or badly edited. Some of the sentences made no sense whatsoever. In once instance, the author stated that a ship had no neighbors, and none of them were lit up. What? Many sentences had to be read two or three times before I gave up trying to figure out what he was saying. Other times, the way the author put things was just purely bizarre. In some cases, I guess it would considered artistic, or poetic, but it was so out of place, it was distracting.

I didn't finish the book. A book that is titled Knights of the Crown, I expect to be about the Knights of Solamnia. They are mentioned in the book. In the first three pages, and the last three pages. Otherwise, it's a rather dull and derivative pirate and thief story. Yawn. And it seemed as though the author knew next to nothing about the world of Dragonlance.

It's unfortunate that there are three more books about this character. However, it does look as though they might actually be about the Knights, so I'll hopefully have more luck reading them than I did with this one.

[Irma-The Book&Coffee Addict · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF.
It was okay, it wasn’t necessarily bad.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

All in all, this is a pretty forgettable book in the Dragonlance universe. The title, Knights of the Crown, also implies to me that the book would have at least some focus on the Knights of Solamnia, of which the title refers to their lowest order. However, the book has virtually nothing to do with the knights. The ending implies that subsequent books in this series will center more around the Knights of Solamnia, but I felt that this title really set the wrong expectations.

The story itself was about Pirvan, the "honorable theif", which begins with an interesting premise, but then turns into the usual "band of unlikely adventurers" with a common goal type of story. It feels a bit too dragged out as well, which is a shame for a book that is only 300 pages. Later on in the book we have a long sequence where the party is split up into two different groups doing different things simultaneously, and Green jumps back and forth between the two literally every page. That just got to be annoying. Cutting back and forth so frequently really only works on the screen, and then only sparingly to establish dramatic effect or irony, such as that baptism scene toward the end of The Godfather. And a Godfather caliber story, this is not.

[Joel Norden · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid read overall. Unique characters and a rather interesting plot. The only problem I honestly had with the book was the Cover which had nothing to do with the book and the name of the book which didn't make sense really since the main character was a knight until the next book.
A good story about a man's journey to knighthood though.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

TSR fantasy is or was always a cut over usual fantasy fare. I enjoyed this tale and cannot wait to dig up the rest of this series.

[Erick Mertz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laughably bad.

First off, what the hell kind of sword is the knight on the cover wielding? Is it a purple glowing light-saber from Star Wars?

Second, the dragon on the cover doesn't even match the dragon from the book. The dragon in the book is a black dragon, so the red one makes no sense whatsoever.

Recently, I was gifted a massive box of fantasy books, mostly D&D and other gaming manuals. I found this book in the box and thought I would read it, seeing what fate had in store for me. Wow, was I disappointed. There wasn't much to like in this. The writing seemed almost amateur. There were a lot of sentences that made me feel like the writer was a Freshman creative writing student.

You have limited time on earth. You have limited time to read. Pick up something better.

[Ronnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could sum up this book with one quote, it would be this: "That awkward phrasing killed deader than Vinas Solamnus any hope of concealing his unease."

This book is full of awkward quotes, not least among them being "Then her jaw set. It was a well-shaped jaw, in which were set two rows of even, white teeth." I'm not sure if it was the awkwardness of the phrasing or something else, but the story of this book is incredibly hard to follow.

It's also over encumbered with a lot of clumsy analogies and similes. Way, way too many bad, bad analogies and similes.

Also, why is the main character always getting naked? Like, constantly. He stripped down no less than four times in the first 50 pages of the book. I don't understand why this is. Or why he thinks that covering his naked body with animal fat is going to help him slip through a rocky cave-in as if rocks are something smooth to slide over. Or why there's a blacksmith forge on a wooden boat. The last isn't related to the first two, but definitely something that gave me pause.

I will say that the book got noticeably better in the last third of the story. That still doesn't mean I'm looking forward to reading the next three books in this series. Which I have to do, after vowing to read every Dragonlance book ever written.


As a side note, I am positive that it has been made clear in the lore of Dragonlance that there is no healing magic outside of clerical magic from the gods, and I am wondering why this is the second book in a row where random mages are able to perform spells of healing.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book called Knights of the Crown, there sure is not one single knight in the entire story, outside of the short epilogue and unrelated prologue (and even then, they're not Knights of the Crown)

Still, it's a decent enough read, except for that one chapter around the 40% mark where the writer has a stroke, forgets all grammar and syntax, and just writes absolute nonsense for an entire chapter, before then returning to normal the next chapter, albeit with a completely different direction from before his stroke

[Sunknight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might have been entertaining if not for the author's very annoying habit of not only turning a phrase but twisting it to the point of having to read it 2-3 times to make sure one understood what was trying to be conveyed. Also there are several instances where major plot points are explained to another character but not to the reader, including the major point of why the quest is undertaken! This authors writing style is too distracting to be enjoyable.

[E.R. Mixon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an example of bait and switch. It has not one thing to do with the Knights of Solamnia. The entire story is about thieves and pirates and only ever even mentions the knights at the very end. The cover is a complete misdirect and even the blurb fails to be honest. This is not the book it claims to be and even if the story it does tell is solid enough the fact that it isn't honest with the reader about what it is made me pretty mad.

[Sean Helms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book to escape everyday reality. The story follows some of the adventures of an honorable and good-hearted night thief until he surprisingly ends up leaving the thieving life behind to become one among the distinguished ranks of the Knights of Solamnia.

[Dantegideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start but worth persevering.

[Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Tom Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn’t keep who was talking straight. Almost brought it to a 3… but I liked the characters when I could tell them apart.

[Kereesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knights of the Crown is the story of very noble thief by the name of Pirvan who robs part of the dowery of Eskaia of House Encuintras, a path that puts him on the path to knighthood. Little does he know, however, that the dowery he believes Lady Eskaia doesn't need is actually part of the ransom money for the betrothed of her bodyguard and friend Haimya. When he tries to amend things, he finds himself hired instead to save the betrothed of the woman he is rapidly falling in love with.
When I first started to read Knights of the Crown, I wasn't very interested. The plot was a bit overdone: noble thief rising to greatness. The romance a tad obvious, not too mention the multitude of sex/sexual jokes throughout that turned me off greatly. And Pirvan's character? A 'noble' thief was not only stereotypical, but was talked about throughout the novel as absolutely amazing and a wondrous thing.
*Gag*
Yeah, so after suffering through that, I picked up like 3 other books and read them instead. But I still gave this book a chance, and I'm pretty glad I did.
See the book picks up once the set-up's gone, and things actually start to get really going. There's fighting, action, and lots of surprisingly decent character interaction. A few more characters also get introduced who are pretty interesting, and the author thankfully turns down the knob on the sexual jokes and focuses more on the developing romance between Pirvan and his lucky lady. The romance for the most part is pretty well done and enjoyable, except maybe for the end, and I really liked the development between the two characters.
The writing is decent enough, it's Dragonlance so I don't expect stellar results, but it gets the job done, and the story flows along nicely.
The one thing that really bugged me about this book, though, was the absence of any mention of the Knights of Solamnia. At the beginning we are told in advance that Pirvan ends up rising up from his noble thief background *more gagging* to become a great Knight of Solamnia, but throughout the book there is no mention of the order except near the very end. In all honesty, the author could've cut those parts out and the book would've made perfect sense. Probably better sense than Pirvan suddenly becoming a Knight. But the series must continue somehow I suppose.
3.5-4/5

[Kyle K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the tale of a thief named Pirvan and the deeds he accomplishes which have him elevated into the Knights of Solamnia. (Just to be clear, it doesn't seem Pirvan is the rank of the book title throughout the story, but attains it by the next book). This adventure takes place after Huma had expelled dragons from the world of Krynn, but the authors have allowed a situation in which they can still be present (this has happened in at least one other story) if there is a metallic good dragon still on Ansalon, then for balance an evil chromatic dragon will also be allowed to remain.)
So Pirvan and his compatriots undergo many tasks in order to remove a black dragon and the evil wizard that houses it.
I read for an audience and there was lots of parenthetical inner monologue by Pirvan which was very difficult for the audience to differentiate from speech, this is the first Dragonlance book where I had to stop and explain that "he was just thinking that." It really harmed the flow of the narrative and understanding of the story and have decided not to read Dragonlance to my audience until I am through with "the Pirvan Books" of which there are three more.
My last quibble with the story is the name of the hero. This book has many good, solid fantasy names, (Jemar the Fair, Eskaia and so on) but Pirvan just isn't a nice name to say. The first couple times you say it, pervert comes to mind, and that just makes it sometimes hard to cheer for him.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very interesting to me as it didn’t really feel like a Dragonlance book. Green’s writing reminded me quite a lot of Fritz Leiber and Pirvan the thief was very much like Leiber’s Gray Mouser. An interesting story from before the Cataclysm, though Knights of Solamnia only appeared in the Prologue and very, very end of the story, so not exactly what I expected from a book titled Knights of the Crown. Also, this cover art . . . two dragons appear in the story, one black and one copper, so why is the cover dragon red? Regardless, I’m intrigued to find out what else happens to Pirvan and how Green handles more adventures with the Solamnic Knights.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of fantasy-themed stories, but I found many things to enjoy about this book. I enjoyed picking up on some literature that is a bit more advanced than I'm used to dealing with, even so I didn't have to use the dictionary often at all (unlike many recent books I've read). The characters all seemed to be very interesting and somewhat larger than life in their composure, which is something I like to see.
Although I thought the story took a while to build-up, the pay-off later on in the book was awesome and made going through some of the more drab parts worth reading through.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel that takes place in the realm of Dragonlance. It is about a story about a honorable thief who assists on a rescue mission. I enjoyed this story and I liked the characters. I enjoyed the ending to this story alot. The problem with this book and the reason I gave it a three star rating is the author's writing style. The book is done in a style of old English. One would expect this is how actual knights talked back in the day. This way of writing was distracting and took away from my enjoyment of the book. That being said, it was a good story and I will continue with this series.

[Robert Kuszpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second time reading this book as I just recently found it packed away. The first time I read it was easily 10-15 years ago, but I still found it an engaging and enjoyable read. The writing is surprisingly sophisticated for a book in this genre, but I found that it added to the experience rather than slowing down my enjoyment. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy stories.

[Philana Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Knights of Solamnia- greatest order of knights ever. This story follows the trials of one unlikely soul who might just be worthy enough to bear the honor or the order.

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story about a thief with honor getting caught up in a quest that changes his profession from a thief to a knight.

[Big Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.