Tanis: The Shadow Years

Dragonlance: Preludes, Book 6

By: Scott Siegel, Barbara Siegel

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

The sixth and final title in a series of recovers of the classic Preludes series. First launched over a decade ago, the Preludes series has continued to prove popular with Dragonlance fans. This rerelease of Tanis: The Shadow Years showcases a new look that is also reflected in the other recovers of this series. The title features cover art from lead Dragonlance saga artist Matt Stawicki.

©1990 TSR, Inc., Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast LLC. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

awesome

I loved this book, from the performance, to the authors attention to the nuances of Tanis' personality, to the vivid storytelling. I'm just sad that it ended.

Tanis the Shadow Years.

I actually really enjoyed this book. When I first read it decades ago, it surprised me because it was a tale I was not expecting. Time travel and magic are involved, however Tanis is captured perfectly and this is a great Kender Tale.

Such a different portrayal

I always forget how elves are portrayed in Dragonlance as opposed to their behavior in other sources. We get so accustomed to highly organized elves who live in beautiful woodland cities while being protected by lithe cunning warriors who spend centuries training to be master swordsmen, etc. Here, the elves are fairly clueless and helpless, they don't know how to protect themselves, their soldiers abandon the town and run away as the enemy approaches, and they barely make the most basic plans for the defense of their homes. Someone else must come in to save the day and then they hero worship their somewhat inept rescuer to the point of building a statue in his honor. It just felt silly. That said, I really enjoyed a certain character in this story... you'll know him when you meet him. His jokes need work and the bandages covering his head could use some TLC, but he added a nice bit of levity to every scene he was a part of, and I was glad to see things work out for him in the end.

One thing that really bothered me about this book: a character is badly burned in a forest fire, and his (eventually fatal) wounds are described in more detail than I was ready to hear.

This doesn’t have the “feel” of other DL stories

Felt different than other DL stories. Also names of places and people make it hard to follow. Also the memory/time continuum thing seemed confusing.

Epic!

I absolutely loved this book. Paul is an expert narrator and did a wonderful job with this book.

That was a weird book

This isn’t really a Dragonlance story, but more of a strange fantasy that happens to use Dragonlance characters. Not awful, but not something I wanted ever consider re-reading.

I was really hoping this was a story about what happened to Tanis during his five years before the chronicles, but it really isn’t much of that.

Sigh

The narration is amazing, the story is horrible. Commits the cardinal sin of going against the lore of the original trilogy by negating that Tanis only ever loved 2 women to now loving some completely random woman who has no baring to the series as a whole except this story. the overall story would be fine enough if it was not dragonlance but since it breaks several of the plots in various other books I cannot in good faith regard this book as anything other than terrible.

The worst Dragonlance novel

While the narration is fine or even good, this is by far the worst novel in the entire Dragonlance realm. The author was clearly trying desperately hard to leave their own mark on the genre and epically failed. They simply have no clue. I struggled to the end, hoping against Hope that it would get better. It didn’t. And for the Completionist, who might listen to it just to get one more nugget of information about Tanis - there is in one. Save yourself the pain. I wish I had.

Completely Unrelated

What disappointed you about Tanis: The Shadow Years?
The story seems like it was written for a completely different series and shoe-horned into Dragonlance. It makes absolutely no sense for Tanis, fills in no background about him, doesn't fit with the Chronicles, and only explains a few days out of the 5 year period it is supposed to explain.

What could Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
The authors apparently never read any of the material surrounding Dragonlance before launching into this book. Tanis's father is never explain in any detail, the whole premise of the book. Tanis was in love with Kit, and suddenly starts falling in love with the total stranger he just met, out of the clear blue sky. Tanis's personality is just... off, the whole way through the book.

Some other issues: A half-elven Red-robe not driven out of town. Fire breathing Silver dragon (Silver breath ice/cold). In the beginning of the Chronicles Tanis has a beard because he's been in lands not friendly to Elves, this is an Elven village. The whole story takes place of the course of a week - but then the next year is filled in with Tanis carving stone monuments. As is par for the course, D&D magic doesn't work the way it's described in the book, none of the spells. There's many points where characters make inane decisions, or suddenly change their minds, with no better reasoning than to advance the plot.

The whole "death" thing is just horrible on every level. Dragonlance afterlife is well described in many other DL books, but these authors have never read any of those. Fisty isn't dead, or in the afterlife, etc.

Which character – as performed by Paul Boehmer – was your favorite?
Boehmer sounds like a William Shatner Robot trying to do different voices. You get used it him. I did not care for him until I heard the true horror of Ax Norman (who voices the Legends and other series).

What character would you cut from Tanis: The Shadow Years?
All of them. The characters are all terrible.

Any additional comments?
There are enough authors of Dragonlance novels that you get used to conflicts and deviations. This book is so beyond "deviation" that it should never have been published. Compound that with unlikable characters, a plot that comes absolutely off the rails half-way through, and I have no idea how it ever got published. Skip skip skip.