This book is one that is technically a continuation of a series that I had previously thought only had three books and I had finished. It turns out that Dragons of Summer Flame is the fourth book in the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. However, it does not pick up after the events of the first three books and instead picks up probably about thirty years later. The story primarily focuses on three people: Steel Brightblade, the son of Sturm Brightblade and Kitiara, Palin Majere, the son of Caramon Majere and Tika, and Usha, who is believed to be the daughter of Raistlin Majere. It opens with the graygem, a magical gem that was made to hold part of the soul or spirit of the god Chaos. When the race known as the Irda are trying to break the gem they send the human orphan, Usha, who had been living with them away for her own safety. Soon after, the full might of the god Chaos is released from the gem vowing revenge on his children for imprisoning him. Meanwhile, Steel Brightblade is in charge of ransoming Palin Majere after his capture by forcing him to enter the abyss to release Takhisis. They quickly discover that their fates are intertwined and that they may form the only source of hope to end the conflict between Chaos and the other deities and save all of Krynn from destruction.
I have to admit that I honestly hadn’t realized that this book was part of the same series as the other three. This is primarily because there is such a long time gap and there is a change in the characters that serve as the focus of the story. That being said, in terms of action and plot I can see where it is a continuation. The first three books in the Dragonlance Chronicles cover the events of the War of the Lance which started in the first book and ended in the third. However, the forces of Takhisis were not completely beaten and wiped out even though Takhisis suffered a major defeat. In this book, those forces reappear in the form of the Knights of Takhisis, one of whom is Steel Brightblade. A secondary plot line of the book is the war against these forces as people try and stop their continuing conquest of different regions. At the same time, there is also a drastic change in that as eventually the two sides have to team up in order to fight against Chaos with the Knights of Takhisis and the Knights of Solamnia fighting together just as Steel and Palin fight together, with Usha in the background. There were a few things that I found confusing though. Throughout the book there were references to events that seemed to take place after the first three books and before this book. However, these references felt like they were not telling the story but referencing a story that the readers should be familiar with. I have a feeling that there is another series that covers these events and is in the middle of this timeline. Sometimes, I really feel like I should do more research before randomly reading books but most of the time I think that kind of takes the element of surprise out of the book. Either way, this book definitely provided a great addition to the continuing saga of Krynn and the heroes who inhabit the realm. I am giving it a four out of five stars.
As you have probably gathered, I really enjoyed this book and am definitely willing to recommend it to other readers. If you enjoy a good fantasy novel than you should probably try this series, even more so if you like books that are based in D&D realms like this one. I will admit that I am not sure how well this book or this series would appeal to people who don’t enjoy reading fantasy novels though I think you should at least consider it anyway. This book is a little weird as well as it is part of a series, book four to be exact, but it could potentially be read as a stand-alone with some minor confusion about the backgrounds of some of the characters. However, to get the full story you probably should read the whole series. I would also recommend that this book be mostly for adults and young adults, older teenagers at best. There is a full-fledged war that takes place in this book so there is a considerable amount of violence that may not be suitable for younger readers. Otherwise, it is a great book. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.