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.

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.

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.

Epic!

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