Review: Bones of the Dragon: Dragonships of Vindras by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The dynamic duo of Dragonlance and the Death Gate cycle are back together again but with 50% more Vikings! Bones of the Dragon's cast of characters is obviously styled after the Nordic tradition which I find entertaining as who doesn't like a good Vikingish tale.

Publisher's Summary

Skylan Ivorson is a sea-raider of the Vindras, an undefeated champion of the Torgun clan, and eventually the Chief of Chiefs of all Vindras clans, an honor he truly feels he deserves as one who has been blessed by Skoval, the god of war. But sometimes a blessing is a curse in disguise.

Skoval and the other ancient gods are under siege from a new generation of gods who are challenging them for the powers of creation.... and the only way to stop these brash interlopers lies within the mysterious and hidden Five Bones of the Vektan Dragons.

It will be up to the Vindras, the dragon-goddess's champion, to undertake the quest to recover all Five. The fate of the Old Gods and the Vindras' people rests on their recovery, for this is not only a quest to save the world - it is also a quest for redemption.

Filled with heroes and heroines young and old (as well as human and non-human), spanning locales of exotic adventure in a magic-forged world, this is a series that fully illustrates the mastery of world-building and storytelling that has made Weis and Hickman into the best-selling fantasy co-authors of all time.

Thoughts...

Of the early reviews of this book most mixed to negative it seemed. In general I found the book pretty entertaining. I liked the setting and the Norsey feel of the place. My major complaint pertains to the main character Skylan. Now I know the big thing these days is to have a flawed hero and if the main hero of a fantasy novel is just a good guy fighting evil and triumphing over great odds the book will be ravaged by the vengence seeking fandom. But as written Skylan is both an idiot and an ass and the constant thought of "well now he can't be that stupid can he" kept pulling me out of my enjoyment of the story. That said it has the possiblity of going on to be a world(s) hopping adventure like Death Gate which I'd really like to see but unless the character of Skylan is given a mental upgrade I can't see wanting to follow too far.

6/10

Again since I listened to it on Audiobook I'll give a thought on that front. I thinkStefan Rudnicki does an above avarage job of reading this story. Doesn't make me like Skylan any more though.