Not bad, but more of the same. Pretty much same story, different places.

The cover looks great. A dragon in a lake of fire, confronted by a couple of formidable adventurers. They should have put a dog on the cover. Out of the 400, or so pages, the dragon's on page 375 and last for just a few pages. This is a book about a dog. It barks, howls, runs, bites, growls, licks, and bores the snot out of the reader. The dog is everywhere. No matter what happens? The dog reacts in some way. Then there's Alfred. An old geezer who chants all day. He never sees any action, because violence, or stress, causes him to pass out. His companion, Haplo, hates his guts. Haplo is a wizard of some sort as well. So, you have two wizards wandering around who hate each other, followed by a dog that won't shut up. You know when your neighbors dog won't shut up, and just keeps barking at two in the morning. That's what this book is like. A barking dog that won't quit. The first two books in this series were decent but this one awful. I'm a fan of the authors and like some of their books, this one gets a very generous 2 stars!

This was firmly heading for two stars. Never my favourite of the cycle, it suffers from being too bleak, having too few well-drawn characters (Edmund and Jonathan for example are, except for their fates, interchangeable), and a world that, though conceptually interesting, is never convincingly brought to (ha) life.
However, the conflict between the living and the dead, the hints and reveals at the larger story, the shift in Haplo and Alfred's relationship and the peril evoked in the last few chapters does redeem it somewhat. Perhaps better than I recall, though it takes most of the page count to get there.

After reading this volume, I definitely can understand why some feel underwhelmed by Elven Star. The story is much bigger in scale and definitely makes things feel more at risk for the main characters than the last. Plus, the setting of Abarrach is much darker and sets the tone perfectly for the conflict you'll meet. If you felt like Elven Star didn't quite meet expectations, be sure to follow up here first before giving up on the series!

Dynamic of this book is very good in addition to all the favorite monsters and thrilling adventure there is also moral dilemma between "good" and "bad" characters. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

The dead world of Abbarach, murder, undead, lava and mystery! What a ride we get, creepy at times but mostly just exciting! I love the deeper insight we get to the magics of this world. Haplo is quickly becoming a favourite.

Most enjoyable book in the series so far.

Alfred and Haplo are easily my new favorite fictional characters. This book goes much deeper into their relationship, and we learn much more about this universe.

I also think the premise and the magic systems are really unique, thought provoking, and well done.

Some sophisticated and intriguing moral and ethical themes are introduced as well.

The ending was satisfying. It left you with the desire to read the next book, but it wasn’t a total cliff hanger.

I highly recommend this series and this book.

On tape.

Hrmmm...well, I did finish it, despite the comical voices of the narrator and the two-dimensional characters.

It does add to the list of post-nuclear-apocalypse books I've now read.

Makes me a bit hesitant to ever revisit the Dragonlance books (written by the same authors) that were so important to me in middle school.

n  3/5n

El tercer libro de la heptalogía de este dúo de autores está notablemente mejor que su antecesor. Se recupera parcialmente el tono de la primera entrega, aunque persisten ciertos episodios de humor que te sacan de la historia, restando en lugar de sumar.
El libro gira en torno al mundo de la nigromancia, su concepción y práctica por un determinado grupo que se creía extinto. Presenta mucha más acción que el anterior y en general es una lectura satisfactoria, pero sin resultar demasiado convincente, lo suficiente como para continuar con la lectura de la saga.

This entry in the series has always stuck out in my mind and, upon re-reading, for good reason. This is miles away an improvement on the previous two novels, thrilling from start to finish. The reason is obvious - unlike the previous entries which introduce a world and characters and observe them through the relatively blank slate of Haplo, this puts Haplo and the core story front and center and lets the world revolve around that. Add to that the reintroduction of Alfred as Haplo's foil, handled much more interestingly than in the first book, and you have a story that is focused, fast-paced, grows our main protagonists, and builds the lore of the series. It helps, of course, that the world of Abarrach and the focus on the dark themes of death, necromancy, and the plight of the dead, are significantly more interesting than the tired shallow racism and forced love plotlines from the previous two. All in all, an enjoyable read, and well worth the time - for those who stopped at book 1 or 2 I would recommend reading a summary of those novels and starting here.

The 2 main characters continue to develop in this 3rd installment. I'm becoming very curious about the dog. Looking forward to the next installment.

While I still object to not reserving the word "fire" for the title of the book dealing with the Realm of Fire, this was a vast improvement over Elven Star. It had all the things that made Dragon Wing so enjoyable: a plot that gets going reasonably quickly and is full of intrigue and twistiness, interesting characters with some depth, and a setting that was actually relevant to the plot.

There was some dragginess in the middle, but generally, I enjoyed this one, and breezed through it pretty quickly. One more world, and we'll get to the part where it all comes together. That should be interesting.