Classic DragonLance: War Wizard – A Book Review

Introduction

Greetings, fellow nerds and fantasy-lovers! I have just finished the brand new novel, the first of a proposed trilogy, from prolific authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The pair have together authored over thirty fantasy novels in a variety of worlds and now return to the world they originated in 1984 with DragonLance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight. This new novel, under the “Classic” DragonLance moniker, is entitled War Wizard, and tells the backstory of legendary heroes Huma Dragonbane and Magius.

Full disclosure: I’ve never read a book in the Dungeons & Dragons series, nor a book written by both authors, or either author. Truth be told, I’ve never even played Dungeons & Dragons. Before I get blasted for being “too cool,” the sad and true reason is that, to play the game, one needs friends. That said, I read a lot of fantasy in my youth (mostly the Shannara series from Terry Brooks and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books) and have recently rediscovered my love for the genre after reading A Legionnaire’s Guide to Love & Peace. I say all this to say that there were a lot of aspects of War Wizard that I didn’t care for and I can’t, as I’d originally hoped, chalk it up to the genre.

Discussion

War Wizard is a prequel, something I didn’t know until after I’d read it. Weis and Hickman strove to create something that would interest longtime fans and ease new readers into the DragonLance world, but I feel in retrospect that knowing these characters’ futures would’ve helped me be more invested in their long and arduous youth. What I mean to say is that the book is titled War Wizard and the protagonists don’t even get into their first skirmish until 82% of the way into the novel. It is a doozy, though.

War Wizard tells the story of three youths: Huma and Greta, daring hopefuls of Louise and Richard, a Knight of the Sword, and their neighbor Devon, son of Jasper. Devon is a descendent of Adrian Ayrshire, named “Magius” in his time thanks to his innate ability to conjure and wield magic. Devon has this birthright in his blood, but Jasper demands a knight for a son as “The Measure” that rules the land decrees that magic-users are not to be trusted and barred from knighthood.

Devon feels magic calling to him from within his blood and is unable to stifle his passions. This leads to division between he and his father and, after an incident, he is adopted by Richard and Louise. He grows up alongside Huma and Greta, each of them learning their respective skills and supporting one another throughout. When war looms over the land of Krynn, the three children grow up faster than intended, each with a destiny to fulfill.

The sins of War Wizard are not with its story, which I overall enjoyed, but rather with the manner in which it is told. The beginning of the book uses far too much dramatic irony; we know way more than the people on the page and it’s too much agency for the reader to bear. We pity the ignorance of our heroes rather than fear or root for them. Secondly, the book very, very frequently suffers from “tell, don’t show,” in that every action by every character is subject to trial review by the bureaucracy of Solamnia, so that the reader is forced to hear the same tale twice. I could forgive this once but it happens so frequently throughout the novel that I lost count. The book does a great deal of world-building but the world wherein our three heroes discover themselves is tragically small. Devon falls in love with the only girl he’s ever known, if that’s any indication.

Additionally, the book is quite predictable. Not in the sense that I feel I could’ve envisioned this story personally, but once the ground rules and characteristics are established, everything happens according to forecast, so there’s rarely any real tension. Heroes emerge, villains are defeated, and dismissals are overturned. Lastly, the book ends in the wrong spot. I’ll admit that going into the reading, I wasn’t assured that there would be a direct continuation, but when I noticed I had very few pages left and a caterwaul of consequences left to explore, I knew another was on its way. Once I knew that, I was disappointed with where the book finally ended – or should I say, stopped? There’s a definitive moment after the climax that would’ve served as a conclusion and propelled readers to pick up the next book, yet the narrative continues for another several chapters of material that would be better suited as an introduction to book two.

Conclusion

With all that said, I did genuinely like War Wizard, which is perhaps why I’m so adamantly against its shortcomings. Will I pick up book two? Absolutely! In its defense, War Wizard has the thankless task of world-building, character introduction, and setting the stakes. It’s more A New Hope than Terminator, but both still had superior sequels. I am hoping the same can be said about the next chapter in this new DragonLance series.

Overall rating: 5/10

Classic DragonLance: War Wizard (A Dungeons & Dragons Novel) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman will be released by Random House Worlds on August 4, 2026.

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