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Dragonlance: The Warriors #7
The Wayward Knights
The heroic conclusion to the tale of Sir Pirvan the Wayward!
Despite his humble beginnings, Sir Pirvan has managed to ascend to the highest orders of the knights of Solamnia. Along the way, he has become known as the founder of an obscure group of knights whose own dubious pasts have helped to dub them the Wayward Knights. On the verge of a well-deserved retirement, Sir Pirvan once again answers the call of duty and the only allies he can rely on now are the Wayward Knights he himself recruited so many years ago.
Roland J. Green is the author of the Starcruiser Shenandoah and Wandor series and numerous Conan novels, and is coauthor (with Jerr Pournelle) of the Jannisaries series.
The Warriors series details the exploits of the heroes and villains of the War of the Lance.
Despite his humble beginnings, Sir Pirvan has managed to ascend to the highest orders of the knights of Solamnia. Along the way, he has become known as the founder of an obscure group of knights whose own dubious pasts have helped to dub them the Wayward Knights. On the verge of a well-deserved retirement, Sir Pirvan once again answers the call of duty and the only allies he can rely on now are the Wayward Knights he himself recruited so many years ago.
Roland J. Green is the author of the Starcruiser Shenandoah and Wandor series and numerous Conan novels, and is coauthor (with Jerr Pournelle) of the Jannisaries series.
The Warriors series details the exploits of the heroes and villains of the War of the Lance.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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657 people want to read
About the author
Roland J. Green
88 books28 followersRoland 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'.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 29, 2021
I have not much positive to say other than I’m glad I finally finished these Pirvan books. This one finds Pirvan and co. investigating a magical threat on a volcanic island, while his son defends their home against imminent attack. We’ve got knights, wizards, minotaur, elves, everything! Except the spirit of Dragonlance, which I have found sorely lacking in all four of Green’s books. Green enjoys weaving together many side stories, weaving a thousand threads together. Unfortunately, the threads are all similar shades of grey that, from afar, appear identical. He convolutes even the simplest, most straightforward plot points by breaking up chapters into small scenes that, to me, rarely advance any of the many narratives. And the characters! There were at least 200 named, main characters who had the same, interchangeable personality. Some even had the same names because Green had the characters name their children after already-existing characters. This wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t interact with their namesakes but no one got left behind in this story, so they’re all just there. I even forgot some characters were there until they popped up again. There were just too many! Also, were they all nymphomaniacs? Almost every chapter ended with too people falling into each other’s arms. I’m not opposed to romance in books, but these people never stopped! I’m a completionist, so I had to read this one (only 3 unread DL novels left!), but this was far from my favorite.
July 31, 2018
This is the conclusion of the Pirvan story arc, and while it is not any better or worse than the other books in the sequence, it felt largely unnecessary. It felt a bit like a manufactured story just for the sake of having another book about Pirvan and company, not because there was really anything more that needed to be said.
This book does spend some time on some couples other than Pirvan and his wife, but were it not for the names, you would never know it. What I mean is that every relationship dynamic in this series is virtually identical. All of their actions and everything they say could be used interchangeably with any of the couples.
The other gripe that I have is that there is a certain character in Knights of the Rose who uses a deus-ex-machina spell. Fair enough, but then that character is also in this book. Green probably realized that the same spell could be used as a solution for nearly any problem that came along, so in The Wayward Knights, he tried to use the spell but it was not effective because the recipient's spirit was too strong or something along those lines. Such details make it seem as if this book was more of an afterthought rather than a part of complete planned story arc.
I would consider The Wayward Knights, and really all of the Pirvan sequence books, to be non-essential in the Dragonlance universe. These books can be skipped by all but the most stalwart of Dragonlance readers.
This book does spend some time on some couples other than Pirvan and his wife, but were it not for the names, you would never know it. What I mean is that every relationship dynamic in this series is virtually identical. All of their actions and everything they say could be used interchangeably with any of the couples.
The other gripe that I have is that there is a certain character in Knights of the Rose who uses a deus-ex-machina spell. Fair enough, but then that character is also in this book. Green probably realized that the same spell could be used as a solution for nearly any problem that came along, so in The Wayward Knights, he tried to use the spell but it was not effective because the recipient's spirit was too strong or something along those lines. Such details make it seem as if this book was more of an afterthought rather than a part of complete planned story arc.
I would consider The Wayward Knights, and really all of the Pirvan sequence books, to be non-essential in the Dragonlance universe. These books can be skipped by all but the most stalwart of Dragonlance readers.
April 4, 2020
2.5 stars.
One thing that's been bothering me since the first book was why the minotaurs attacked The Golden Cup and the other hand merchant boats, especially when Green went out of his way to mention that minotaurs didn't regularly do that. In this book, I see the purpose of the attack was to give some pretext to a human-minotaur alliance. That still doesn't explain their notifications though.
Though notification seems to be something Green struggles with. He doesn't give a believable one for why House Dirivan attacked Tiabot manor either - some girl hiding sheep is not enough to hire a small army to attack your neighbours unlawfully, especially when Dirivan was never mentioned in any of the other books, especially not as a family that had some kind of feud with Pirvan.
While the fight scenes are generally well written, then always seem to end in an unsatisfactory manner (this is true throughout all four books), where some minor character does all the major work and our heroes just watch with slack jaws. Likewise, this book is again filled with deaths and not one of them seems to have any purpose or punch.
One thing that's been bothering me since the first book was why the minotaurs attacked The Golden Cup and the other hand merchant boats, especially when Green went out of his way to mention that minotaurs didn't regularly do that. In this book, I see the purpose of the attack was to give some pretext to a human-minotaur alliance. That still doesn't explain their notifications though.
Though notification seems to be something Green struggles with. He doesn't give a believable one for why House Dirivan attacked Tiabot manor either - some girl hiding sheep is not enough to hire a small army to attack your neighbours unlawfully, especially when Dirivan was never mentioned in any of the other books, especially not as a family that had some kind of feud with Pirvan.
While the fight scenes are generally well written, then always seem to end in an unsatisfactory manner (this is true throughout all four books), where some minor character does all the major work and our heroes just watch with slack jaws. Likewise, this book is again filled with deaths and not one of them seems to have any purpose or punch.
September 13, 2024
Man, what a dogshit end to an already mediocre serie. The inconsistencies continue, with Tiradot still being Tirabot and the kids now being much older'n they should be, but this time important characters also die offscreen without any explanations, and gamechanging events happen suddenly inbetween chapters. Oh and as is tradition with those books, the title has nothing to do with the book but this time, it somehow goes a step further and the freakin' back cover and plot synopsis itself is completely inaccurate; that's a first as far as I know
Not only is this an insult to DnD, this is an insult to literature in general; the senile writer shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near pen and paper in the first place
Not only is this an insult to DnD, this is an insult to literature in general; the senile writer shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near pen and paper in the first place
November 15, 2024
I like these mage stronghold books. Keep them coming.
August 9, 2014
My actual rating is 1.5 stars.
A novel that takes place in the realm of Dragonlance. This is supposedly the fourth book of Sir Pirvan but to me he was more of a minor character than the main character. It is not necessary to read the first three novels to enjoy this novel but it does help. In this novel there are two separate storylines. The first is Pirvan battles an evil wizard to take back an island. Meanwhile, his son is trying to stave off an attack on Pirvan's manor.
I did not enjoy this book and I did not enjoy this whole series (I have to see a series to the end. The only reason I read this entire series). I thought the author did a good job with his characters and I enjoyed his action scenes. The problem was getting to these scenes. I did not like his path to these scenes and at times I would roll my eyes because of his description. I also thought the final battle scene was anticlimactic and was a letdown.
I believe this book would have been a decent fantasy read if it wasn't in the Dragonlance setting. I never received the Dragonlance vibe from this book and that could be why my rating is low.
A novel that takes place in the realm of Dragonlance. This is supposedly the fourth book of Sir Pirvan but to me he was more of a minor character than the main character. It is not necessary to read the first three novels to enjoy this novel but it does help. In this novel there are two separate storylines. The first is Pirvan battles an evil wizard to take back an island. Meanwhile, his son is trying to stave off an attack on Pirvan's manor.
I did not enjoy this book and I did not enjoy this whole series (I have to see a series to the end. The only reason I read this entire series). I thought the author did a good job with his characters and I enjoyed his action scenes. The problem was getting to these scenes. I did not like his path to these scenes and at times I would roll my eyes because of his description. I also thought the final battle scene was anticlimactic and was a letdown.
I believe this book would have been a decent fantasy read if it wasn't in the Dragonlance setting. I never received the Dragonlance vibe from this book and that could be why my rating is low.
June 27, 2016
This is not the worst Dragonlance book I have ever read, but it's close.
This book takes place in Krynn, the realm of Dragonlance. In this novel, there are two separate storylines--the first is Pirvan's plotline as he battles the evil wizard to reclaim the island, and the other is his son's plotline as he defends Pirvan's manor.
The characters were great and the action scenes had be on the edge of my seat, but everything between those action scenes was a muddled mess. So many strange things and odd decisions lead up to action scenes that it was hard to even believe any of it.
All in all, I believe that this could have been a great fantasy book if the author had not tried to shove it into the Dragonlance world. it did not fit well, and it was a quite a letdown.
This book takes place in Krynn, the realm of Dragonlance. In this novel, there are two separate storylines--the first is Pirvan's plotline as he battles the evil wizard to reclaim the island, and the other is his son's plotline as he defends Pirvan's manor.
The characters were great and the action scenes had be on the edge of my seat, but everything between those action scenes was a muddled mess. So many strange things and odd decisions lead up to action scenes that it was hard to even believe any of it.
All in all, I believe that this could have been a great fantasy book if the author had not tried to shove it into the Dragonlance world. it did not fit well, and it was a quite a letdown.
June 10, 2011
This is perhaps the worst Dragonlance book I've ever read, and there are 7 books in the series! It's badly written and strange things happens all the time, that I have no explanation for.
Avoid this book at all cost!
Avoid this book at all cost!
April 29, 2024
Great read filled with adventure, a colorful world filled with great characters, and moving dialogue.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews