It's been years, but I really enjoyed reading the Dhamon Saga and seeing his character development. Plus, Jean Rabe has a real way with fight sequences.

Me aburrió pero está bueno

"Downfall" is a disappointing addition to the Dragonlance series. From the plot to the characters, everything in this book was either boring or poorly written. Despite my best efforts, I could only muster a 2-star rating for this book, and I almost gave it 1.

The story follows Dhamon Grimwulf, a former warrior turned monster, as he attempts to redeem himself by saving his former companions from a new threat. Unfortunately, the plot is incredibly predictable and lacks any real tension or excitement. The characters are equally lackluster, with none of them exhibiting any real depth or development throughout the story.

The writing in "Downfall" is also a major issue. Rabe's prose is flat and uninspired, with little attention paid to detail or description. Additionally, the dialogue often feels stilted and unnatural, making it difficult to connect with the characters on any level. I can't understand - how can fights be written in such a predictably and bland way? These books typically feel like someone is journaling their D&D campaign. If that's the case, I'd want to stay faaaar away from this campaign as a player, because the DM just isn't there sometimes.

Also, I HATED the progression of Rig, Fiona and Maldred's love "triangle". With a passion.

Perhaps the biggest problem with "Downfall" is that it feels like a cash grab rather than a genuine addition to the Dragonlance series. There is no real substance to the story or characters, and it seems like Rabe is simply trying to capitalize on the popularity of the world rather than contributing something meaningful.

"Rig glanced up, grateful for even a glimpse of the sky. It had been quite some time since he'd seen the stars. Fiona was right, he used them to "steer by", always had - steering each ship he was on to some new port of call. The mariner contended that he could never get lost, not so long as there were stars to guide him. He felt better, seeing them, felt like he was in the company of old friends - ones who wouldn't change and become thieves and who wouldn't stare wide-eyed at men named Maldred."

Just finished this, and I have to say... What a weird, and rough ride it has been.

I guess I should have expected some changes, seeing the setting of the book, but all in all, it's not the setting that bothered me: It's the characters.

They're all douchebags, particularly Rikali, whom I just had to have patience to read the book, only up until the end did I had some sort of redeeming qualities, but overall, she's just obnoxious. Dhamon, on the other hand, seemed less of a douche compared to her, but exemplifies was a Knight of Neraka is in my opinion. No matter how you slice it, he is what he is.

Maldred suprised me, somewhat. Started out as a decent guy (as decent as bandits can be), even with some cool skills, later he is just plain bad.

I will not speak more as I don't want to give spoilers, but, the book itself is not hard to digest because of the setting, but because of the character's personalities.

Libro aburrido, con una escasa trama que parece un mal adaptado guión de aventura de rol, incluidos encuentros aleatorios, y un par de elipsis temporales repentinas y muy mal llevadas.
No me gustó Jean Rabe en «Quinta era», y lo he aborrecido aquí.
Aún así, seguiré leyendo las otras dos entregas de la trilogía, pero solo por completar la lectura de todo lo que tengo en casa del universo «Dragonlance». Tampoco es cuestión ahora de dejarme libros por leer en casa.

Since this is just the first book in this series, I don't have too much to say yet.
First, I don't like that this book only has fifteen chapters--they're all long, and the book is very episodic at the beginning. It's like one fight happens, they win, they move on. Next chapter. New fight in a new location, etc. As the book moves forward, though, maybe about halfway through, the plot is much more continuous and flows from chapter to chapter much better.
Second, people on GR mention that none of the new characters is likable, but they're not supposed to be. Rabe does make some effort to humanize this band of thieves, but the point is that they're a band of thieves. Dhamon is different now that he's given up hope of defeating the dragon overlords, and he's not going to surround himself with people who will make him remember his heroic deeds. That's why he gets so upset when Rig and Fiona show up. That being said, I like Fetch, the kobold, and I like Maldred, the ringleader, really, of the band of thieves, but I don't like Rikali, the annoying half-elf who calls Dhamon "lover" and acts like a lovesick little girl around him but then tries to be so tough. I find her character extremely annoying, and I don't like the way she talks.
Third, I really like that Rabe centers major story lines around different types of characters. I like that Rig is a black Ergothian former pirate, Fiona is a woman and a Solamnic knight, Dhamon is a former Knight of Takhisis, Fetch is a kobold, Rikali is a half-elf, etc. There's a major plot line that centers around Bloten, the capital of the ogre kingdom, and ogres play a major role in this novel. I love that she doesn't stick the traditional elves, dwarves, humans, and kender of Krynn. I also enjoy her creativity. I love Weiss and Hickman, but their stories are much more high fantasy mixed with a little low humor. Rabe, however, includes such interesting concepts as the dragon overlords, the new magic, a little girl who talks with the voice of a woman and can turn leaves into stirges and vines into snakes, etc. And her fight scenes! Rabe is a master at writing action sequences, particularly fight scenes. Where she falls short is keeping the story moving all the way through and some awkwardness in her writing.
All in all, this book, like the first in Rabe's Dragons of a New Age trilogy, starts out slowly but gets better as it moves along. It's a great way to continue the saga from her first trilogy, using most of the remaining characters and adding more drama to the problem of the dragon overlords but also personal drama to the characters she created. The book ends on a cliffhanger after a pretty eerie and haunting scene, not to mention the big reveal at the end about one of the characters. I'm looking forward to the next book now that I have the last few pages stuck in my mind, and I'm curious about the way Rabe's characters will continue to develop but also about the bigger picture with the dragon overlords since this book has a much narrower focus than the books in Rabe's other trilogy.
I can definitely recommend this book to DL fans. Of course, it's not Hickman and Weiss, but I enjoy other DL books anyway, like Richard Knaak's, and I think other authors have interesting things to say in this world. If nothing else, Rabe's books will give you a wider glimpse of the possibilities of the DL world and its scope.

I must admit that I was very disappointed in this book!! it seems to be just a filler in between the great books in the series! did not particularly like the elf in this book, she is like a low life elf and nothing like the heroines we have met with before, also dhamon is a great disappointment in this book! a total let down to see a hero to fall so low and to be mixing in such company!! will go on reading this trilogy but am not expecting much from it!!

Reviewed with the Dhamon Saga #2 and #3.

I find it odd that, out of all the possible ideas for a book cover, they went with "Dhamon awkwardly grabbing his leg in agony while holding a necklace near a river". You don't see the dragon scale and the facial expression is subtle, so it looks more like Dhamon pulled a muscle whilst journeying through Ye Olde Fantasy Ruines and he's mildly annoyed. This book had so many interesting backdrops, like the valley of jewels or the ogre city or ancient dwarf caves. Why go with this idea to sell the book?

Why am I making such a big deal about the artwork of the book? Because, despite one of the oldest platitudes known to man, I didn't read this book for the longest time because I judged it by its cover. "Hmmm, do I want the book with the dragon on it or the constipated barbarian? Decisions, decisions."

Book art aside - delightfully cheesy as it is - I am really conflicted about this book. I blasted through it, reading large swaths of it in a single sitting, and yet I can't bring myself to actually recommend it. It was the fantasy novel equivalent of one of those two dollar sandwiches you find in the back of a 7-11 fridge that is just past its expiration date; it got the job done but it wasn't very tasty in the end and you've probably eaten thousands of meals just like it. And it might be slightly nauseating.

The big question this book asks - and pretty much the premise of the book - is just how bad a person can be before they cannot be redeemed, and how far a man can fall before he loses his soul.

Well, within the first 50 pages of this book, we see our "heroes" rob a hospital, set an entire town on fire, kill dozens of people, rob a merchant wagon and cripple someone, and steal someone's family pet and then just eat it because they couldn't sell it on the market with no show of remorse. These guys are some of the biggest literary assholes I've seen in my life. I was half-expecting them to eat a baby or set an orphanage on fire considering how over-the-top a lot of their villainy was.

And that's my biggest problem with this book. If you want to read a book with protagonists that you actually want to make it to the end of the novel and succeed...you're probably better off picking up literally any other book than this one. None of these characters, Dhamon included, improved over the course of the book and I stopped caring if they made it through their adventure alive. And they never had any grace or level of sophistication to their villainy to make them entertaining. It's probably not a good thing that I spent most of this book going "Gee, they're having a near death experience. Sure would be nice if they actually died."

This especially applies to Rikali, the half-elf thief and Dhamon's one-dimensional "love interest" (in that she fawns over him, he's just in it for sex and doesn't care if she lives or dies). I have to agree with pretty much every review both here and on Amazon that mentions her; Rikali is an obnoxious, screeching headache that adds nothing to the book. She's like a half-elf version of Willie from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, only even less charming. Ewwwww, Dhamon! This ogre city smeeeeeellls! Does she get better? Of course not, because she's comic relief. Ain't it funny how she keeps complaining in this harsh fantasy setting?

I did like one member of the band though. Ilbreth, the kobold nicknamed Fetch because his companions constantly tell him to go fetch things, was a lot of fun and it was great to have a kobold be a lead in a Dragonlance novel. While hating all the other leads, I found myself eagerly awaiting any time Ilbreth got a speaking role. But unfortunately this book is not titled "Ilbreth and The Old Man Pipe" so his scenes are frustratingly few and far in-between scenes where Rikali is whining for entire paragraphs, Maldred is being gross for reasons I will not give away, or Dhamon being all "I care not for people besides myself and I shall repeat this fact constantly" and never changing, never growing as a character. Ilbreth, you were wasted.

In terms of plot, the book kind of meanders a bit because everyone has their own agenda and they all tug the story along. Dhamon wants both an enchanted sword and some cure for the dragon scale embedded in his leg, and his fellow members of decadent sentient filth (along with two knights who end up being useless baggage for most of the novel) are just along for the ride. Rig wants Dhamon to redeem himself and to stop being human scum. Fiona wants to save her brother from one of the dragon overlords hiding out in the southern swamps while being really bad at her job. Rikali wants gems and to get laid. Maldred is a creep with an agenda. Ilbreth wants to just hang out and smoke his pipe and bless his kobold heart for it.

There isn't so much of a climax so much as the book bumbles into some situations DnD style and then abruptly stops when it could've gone on for another 50-100 pages. It's almost like the GM suddenly had to go to a family barbecue one session and just left the other players hanging.

There are some positives in this book though. The author knows how to write good fight scenes and action-filled set pieces, even if every character seemed to make a big deal about how they fought better than ten men. The book also seems to become a lot funner to read when they enter the ogre capital of Bloten and we deal with the ogre king and an ogre doctor. This author sure knew how to write some cool ogres and, since ogres are typically cannon fodder in the side novels, this was a nice thing to see.

The other big positive, which also ties into the ogre capital, is that the choice of settings are all really cool. Sure, you end up having to deal with the lackluster leads as you're in these locations, but they had an ancient dwarf ruin dedicated to Reorx, a swirling magic pool, an ogre's medical ward, and the amazing should-have-been-the-cover valley of jewels.

I just feel that the biggest problem is that Dhamon as a main character is just a very unlikeable lead, to the point where I don't feel compelled to care when he suffers through his painful episodes caused by the dragon scale. There is a way to write interesting villainous leads; hell, Dragonlance has Raistlin, one of the better fantasy novel literary characters. Dhamon, on the other hand, feels like he has the least personality of the group, and even when we hear his reason for turning to the dark side, it's less "oh, I see what he's going through" and more "Wow, he murdered some person's pet for THAT?".

And with this plot, there are large sections of the novel where Dhamon is just...there. Not really contributing to anything. Ilbreth ultimately comes off as more sympathetic just from the way he's treated and what happens to him at the end of the novel.

Ah well, I was compelled enough to finish it and I have read worse fantasy novels. If you can handle one of the most unlikable cast of characters, it's a fantasy popcorn book that's good for wasting time and not much else.

It was ok as a dagonlance book. Not the best one.

A group of unlikely heroes get together to strive towards a common goal - nothing extraordinary about that, in fact, unlikely heroes seem to be more the rule than the exception these days.
However, some things make Downfall different. For starters, I think it's the first book I've read starring a kobold as one of the heroes - and I like Ilbreth (nicknamed Fetch) a lot. Second, I like the concept of the dragon scale basically melted into the leg of the book's main character, Dhamon Grimwulf - now how to get it off? And Dhamon is an interesting character - once dark knight, then hero and the chosen one of Goldmoon and Palin Majere - and now, well, scum. He has lost all hope and all faith in anything besides himself and is purely living life to achieve his own goals.
Now this is the first volume in a trilogy, with the second titled Betrayal and third Redemption so things will probably change for Dhamon. I'm looking forward to see how the plot twists.

When I was in high school I was obsessed with DragonLance. I must have read the original trilogy dozens of times and I also read and owned thirty+ of the spin-off books. I got rid of most of them, but I kept about 15 (the main trilogy, my absolute favourites, and any that feature those Draconian bridge builders - love those guys). A few years ago I re-read the original trilogy and I enjoyed it for nostalgic purposes mainly. I’m not saying they aren’t good books, but I associate them with my teenage years (and, given how many spin-offs there are, it’s a quantity vs quality series now). Will I read the new one coming out? Of course.

I am not a mood reader, but for some reason the three moons aligned and I was compelled by sorcery to read this Dhamon trilogy again. I only read these once - I’m not sure why they merited keeping in my collection, in truth - and that was when they came out in 2000.

Twenty-one years later, what do I think?

One of the issues with DragonLance is that to read any of these spin-off volumes you need to have read the main books. That being said, Rabe did a good job providing a refresher without a huge info-dump. And little things came back to me as I read, such as the mythology. They must have a huge file somewhere for continuity at Wizards of the Coast (or whoever publishes these now).

The story is alright - it’s more so side-quests on top of side-quests rather than a direct plot, but I was fine with that. A lot of the (minimal) tension in the novel is from the reader knowing a secret that only one or two characters are keeping from the others.

Rabe writes with a pretty engaging, quick-to-digest style, but the switches between characters were often precipitated by nothing at all, meaning I was like, “oh we’re following him now”? The POV is rotating third-person limited, but we’re never given a limited view to the women, just the men. That was kind of odd to me. The fight scenes are great though.

This book is filled with the most unlikeable characters I’ve ever come across. Worse than The Goldfinch even! Dhamon is a selfish, unconscionable, murdery bastard. Whenever his dragon scale acted up I hoped he would just die. The way he treated his girlfriend, Rikali, was abhorrent and manipulative, and his self-serving decisions were painful to read. Then we have Maldred, who was a hypocritical jerk that deserved his fate in the end. The twist is actually good, but it doesn't add too much to the outcome of the story. Rikali was intentionally annoying, always whining and shrieking and saying “lover”. I didn’t dislike her as much as the other two, given her lot in life, but it seemed she was made to be unlikable only so she could "grow" for the second novel. Rig was a moody complainer, Fiona was a cardboard cutout, and Fetch was the only one who had any sort of redeemable qualities (in that he was the comic relief).

In truth, the only reason I kept reading this book was because I thought there was a badass draconian character in the trilogy. I guess he shows up in the later books.

Overall, in terms of a spin-off novel, I’d only recommend this to hardcore DragonLance fans.