The most disappointing piece of the Dragonlance mythos, and I didn't think it was possible for something to be worse than Summer Flame.

had no clue that this was basically just an additional chronicles book! loved having the gang back together, there’s some really great stuff with both kitiara and tasslehoff specifically. and that final moment in the inn of the last home?? goosebumps. fist pumps. teardrops.

raistlin’s story is definitely the main focus though and it’s pretty astounding how much weis lets you get into his head this time around. everything about his personal story and advancement through the mages of high sorcery was perfect… up until the actual test which was a huge anticlimactic bummer. throughout the whole dragonlance series you’re told how harrowing and soul-destroying and physically devastating it was for raist, which i felt nothing of here.

perfect little book outside that ending though!

Il primo amore non si scorda mai. Questo vale sia per Dragonlance che per Raistlin (la mia prima e unica cotta letteraria).

Trama. La storia inizia quando Raistlin, a 6 anni, incontra il mago Antimodes e viene inquadrato come il figlio di una famiglia disastrata. La sorellastra medita di partire, la madre è mentalmente instabile e il padre non c'è mai perché lavora a lungo e lontano. Lui e il suo gemello crescono trascurati. Quando, in adolescenza, finalmente tutti i tasselli vanno al proprio posto, Raistlin si riscopre estraneo in casa propria: l'intimità con la madre viene meno; il padre non lo capisce (né ci tiene a farlo); Kitiara è partita; Caramon rincorre le ragazze e lavora stagionalmente. Raistlin in ogni momento studia sodo per sottoporsi alla Prova che lo abiliterà come mago o lo ucciderà, ricevendo in anteprima il supporto di Lunitari.

La trama in realtà funge da contorno per la definizione del carattere di Raistlin. Molte caratteristiche erano già nell'aria (per esempio, essere taciturno lo porta a pensare cose più negative che positive; a fissarsi sulle ansie; a non capire o ignorare le emozioni altrui).

Io capisco che questo è un fantasy e che la trama sembra riciclata, però un'analisi sociale e psicologica come quella qui contenuta è ormai cosa rara. Mi sono goduta ogni capitolo. "The Soulforge" ha, al contempo, il difetto di non avere troppe pretese e il pregio di avermi comunque rapita laddove nessun'altra saga lo ha fatto. Raistlin è uno dei personaggi più genuini che io abbia mai incontrato. Raistlin è un antieroe col quale è difficile non sentire affinità. I mille difetti - canonicamente parlando - della sua personalità lo rendono, paradossalmente, flawless. Impeccabile.
Il libro termina in maniera sbrigativa ma d'altronde Le Cronache di Raistlin prevedono un seguito, quindi per ora me lo faccio andar bene finché non leggo anche "Brothers in Arms".

The Test itself shattered his health, left him with weakness in his heart and lungs that will plague him the remainder of his life. He attributes that to the battle with the dark elf...
He has to confront and admit the darkness within and I have given him the eyes to see with, if he will: the hourglass eyes of the sorceress Raelana. Thus he will view time's passing in all he looks upon. Youth withers before those eyes, beauty fades, mountains crumble to dust.
I hope to pierce his arrogance, to teach him patience and to give him the ability to see inside himself, should he turn his gaze inward. There will be little joy in his life.

I liked the twins in the original trilogy. These two brothers are crazily dependent on each other. One brother is willing to lay his life on the line and even put his life on hold just to protect his younger brother. While the other is selfish and self serving and it seems only using his brother until he can fully recover and become all powerful. Love these two brothers. And I was always interested in learning their backstory.

I absolutely adored this book because Raistlin is one of my favorite characters. I will have to say that this book made me hate Kitiara's character even more than I did before... what a cold heartless bitch of a whore... really let them burn your baby brother whom you nursed to health when he's younger for a crime you committed. This book also made me have major sympathy for him which I'm sure he would've hated if he was real lol. This book also makes you realize that Caramon is not the bumbling baffoon we think he is and he's a lot more intelligent than we give him credit for... I cant' wait to dive into more books.... curse you Ashley for giving me another addiction...

So I’m going to try very hard to not let the narration get in the way of the book.. And likewise I have had a hard time getting into this book as it’s a prequel to the Chronicles and Legends series... Given how that series ends and that we know the fates, I’m not too thrilled honestly to jump back. I like the character of Raistlin but I feel like I should have read these books in chronological order... It would have made the pay off that much better for me. The problem with the Chronicles and Legends books is that they give us great characters but it’s at the end of their road. All of the great stories, and character building is done after..So as an aside, I highly recommend Chronological vs publication order during a read thru.

Anyway the book starts with Raist, Caramon and their now more present sister Kitiara’s relationship. Their father killed in an accident leaves them with their mother who’s a seer, also not long for this world.

Raistlin is co-opted in a murder of a woman who was taking advantage of locals and basically performing fake communing with the dead to get money. Well this is also the same woman who years prior may have had a helping hand in their father’s death. She wanted him moved to a temple of her god which may have put more strain on him. Jury’s still out on that..but either way the twins look for revenge. She ends up dead but not at their hands.

What I do enjoy about the book is that it sets the stage for the brutal rupture that the twins will eventually fall into. Like I said...seriously recommend reading the series in chronological order. Seeing Raistlin’s younger life, being passed over by girls, teased and mocked and Caramon the loveable and charismatic young lad really builds up the relationship. Caramon’s earnest and love for his brother despite his constant jabs is well written to a fault maybe. It becomes so frequent and predictable, it’s almost unbelievable how one young boy can take that much verbal abuse and still be so attached to his brother... It is however well written and I buy it.

It’s also at this point where we probably should know that Raistlin is the center and focus of the books. Despite the story trying to keep them both in the centerfold, it’s clear (from the name of the Chronicles...) that this is Raistlin’s story.

It’s a good origins story, and involves some of the main cast. Not mandatory reading but very much needed if you want the emotional payoff by the end of the Chronicles books.

This is one of those books that just makes me happy every time I read it. I adore Raistlin Magere: he is the perfect fantasy world realization of the misfit kid who nobody likes who the average fantasy reader--myself included, of course--can identify with. The childhood story of Raistlin thus offers much satisfaction for the once picked upon kid. Raistlin gets to slowly learn to draw upon the strength that will one day even the playing field between himself and his tormenters--so that one day, as Raistlin dreams, even "fat inkeepers" will bow to him.

One of my favorite books in the Dragonlance series . . . the "choose-your-own-adventure-style" book of the same name by Terry Phillips, borrowed from the Woonsocket Public Library, was a big part of my original introduction to D&D. So in a way, an incomplete version of this story truly set my life on the path I have followed ever since, and this book is a more complete version of that story . . . . The story of how Raistlin Majere, arguably one of the most compelling characters in Dragonlance, was set upon the path of learning magic, and took the Test of High Sorcery at a younger age than most . . . because Par-Salian, the head of the Conclave of wizards, foresees the coming troubles of the War of the Lance and puts Raistlin "through the forge" to make a "sword" to fight the coming troubles. Had Raistlin not been pushed so hard, would he have turned to his eventual dark path? Had he not been pushed, would the world of Krynn have survived at all? Almost an "anti-Savior" figure, the sacrifice of Raistlin and Raistlin's own sacrifices both nearly doom Krynn and arguably save it . . .

Raistlin on minulle tämän maailman kiehtovin ja ristiriitaisin hahmo, mustan haltijan ohella. Yksi tähti lisää nostalgiasta, roolipelifantasiaa tuli aikoinaan ahmittua. Hyvin kestänyt aikaa.