Shirak

 And we finish the Lost Chronicles with Dragons of The Hourglass Mage, again written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. This one concerns Raistlin, the Mage twin of Caramon, whom in the context of this story was last seen in Palanthus prior to appearing in Neraka during the finale. As such, there's a large gap they're covering here. 

Given these were written in the late 00's, Raistlin's fate was well known prior to this, thanks to the trilogy set after the original Chronicles, as well as the War of Souls trilogy. (As I recall, Raistlin didn't play much of a part in the Chaos War that came between Legends and War of Souls. I only ever read that one volume once, and had to remind myself that I think book burning is an abhorrent practice. Maybe I'll try reading it again eventually, since I know they went and fixed the worst of it.)

Anyway, here we have the Gold skinned Mage with pupils like hourglasses changing from Red Robes of Neutrality to the Black Robes of Evil not long after leaving his companions to drown in the Blood Sea. From here, he discovers the endless scheming among the forces of Darkness, including his half-sister Kitiara; Emperor Arakis's witch, Iolanthe; The Nightlord; the Council of Mages, et cetera. As such, most of what Raitlin does in here is to do as a Kender tells him early on, "Change the Darkness". Raistlin knows if Tahkisis wins, he'll have to beg her for scraps, instead of being able to live independently, which is, at this point in the chronology, his entire goal. (That his goal becomes to depose the Gods themselves and take over is a story for the next blog entry, as I'll be starting Legends next.)

On one hand, this gets interesting, since it does a deep dive into Raistlin's pact with Fistandantilus, which becomes a major focus of the second book of Legends, pretty much solving a riddle that pops up in that volume. (Sort of. We'll return here next time.) On the other hand, it's still fun in its own right, trying to shed light on characters introduced wholesale into the plot that weren't part of the original story. This volume, moreso than it's immediate predecessor, also feels much more like part of the original, as we follow events we know part of from a different viewpoint, showing us how certain events came to happen. 

I am concerned for my memory though, since I thought this book dived in to the whole "Black Robes restoring the Tower of High Sorcery of Ishtar", but that may be The Dark Disciple trilogy. (It's been years.)

At any rate, it's a good finish to the trilogy that fills in many gaps left by the original trilogy, and really helps express the odd nature of it's main character.