Dragons of the Hourglass Mage by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the third and final volume of The Lost Chronicles. It focuses almost exclusively on the story of Raistlin Majere during the final days of the War of the Lance. Opening shortly after Raistlin left the ship and abandoned the rest of his group, it follows him as he struggles with his conscious about leaving his brother to die and finally deciding to take the black robes instead of the red. He also works on maintaining his control over the dragon orb and struggling against Finstandantilus as he tries to leach Raistlin’s soul and thus his life. Ultimately, Raistlin decides to go Neraka and work on gaining the confidence of Takhisis as he works on deciding to either join her or betray her. By doing so he comes to the attention of Iolanthe as well and they end up becoming reluctant allies as they work on sowing discord where possible and never revealing their actual plans, even to each other. He also discovers the fate of the friends he thought he had abandoned as he tries to figure out what his goal actually is.
This book was intriguing as it helped to fill in a lot of gaps in the overall storyline, specifically in regards to Raistlin. In the original Dragonlance Chronicles he went from friend and ally, even if reluctant at times, to mysterious unknown figure who seems to both help and hinder and no one actually knows what his goal was. There also was extremely little explanation for the shift in that character as it happened so far in the background it was barely even referenced. Here we actually got to see how that shift occurred from his perspective so we saw his thought process as it happened which was extremely revealing. It also was one of the few times for the series where we see his perspective so it also filled in a lot of blanks about his character in general and his background and motivation. I rather appreciate having a more complete picture as I remember being slightly confused about what was going on with him originally. The story was really good actually and I rather enjoyed reading it even I ended up not agreeing with some of Raistlin’s decisions. He was humanized a lot though which did allow me to sympathize with him. As always for this series, the character development was incredible and I loved getting to see new angles and viewpoints of characters I thought I had already known pretty well. The story wasn’t necessarily new as it more of an addendum or side story to what was already told but it did fill in a lot of gaps like I said before. One of the only things I didn’t necessarily like too much was the lack of humor that was present. Reading the series I have rather enjoyed the humor in it, specifically in the form of Tas. With Tas being predominantly absent from this book there was nearly as much humor to help break up the seriousness of the war which I was a little disappointed by even if I can understand why that was the case. Overall another great book in the series and world which I am greatly enjoying. It definitely earns four out of five stars from me.
This book is a great example of the fantasy genre, more specifically the sword and sorcery type of fantasy so if you happen to enjoy that you should consider trying this series out. Just remember to read them in order so you don’t get too confused. If you don’t enjoy that type of story than this probably is not for you. While the intended age of the audience is adults I see no reason why teens or young adults can’t read this. Outside of some minor violence it should be fine as there wasn’t any adult content that would be a problem. Readers older than about fourteen should be fine with this series. It is a pretty good series that I hope you will consider trying. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.