The Heir of Kayolin

by Douglas Niles

If they can stay alive long enough, they can find the way to a new future. Thorbardin remains closed against the world as two violent factions of dwarves clash in a brutal civil war. Neither side can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078695003X
• ISBN13: 9780786950034
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Great beginning, not so good middle, decent conclusion

The Heir of Kayolin by Douglas Niles is the second book in the Dwarf Home trilogy set in the DragonLance universe. The first book is titled The Secret of Pax Tharkas (Dragonlance: Dwarf Home, Vol. 1) and the third book is titled The Fate of Thorbardin which is set to be released in September, 2009. This trilogy focuses exclusively on the dwarven nation and the political climate within that nation. Fans of dwarfs, particularly Krynn dwarves, have been waiting for a trilogy like this for a long time now. The first novel in this trilogy, in my opinion was average - some things I liked and some things I could have done without. Here are my thoughts on this particular volume. The plot of this novel is actually a couple larger plots combined, but both leading to a larger climax. The first section of the book focuses on a civil war that is occurring in Thorbardin. Who is leading the coup; I will leave the reader to discover. I will say the person who is the mastermind behind it, is ruthless and has little concern for those around him. This section of the book actually surprised me, not for what was occurring but how it was written. It was much darker and grittier than the vast majority of the DragonLance novels out there. The second section of the novel focuses on another semi-coup, but this one is occurring in Kayolin which is another dwarven settlement. This one is more of a political, backstabbing, type of story arc. The third section of the novel is basically bringing together the above two story lines into one interlinked thread. Personally, I really enjoyed the first section of the book, if the entire book had been like that (and followed that story arc) this would have easily been a five star novel. The second section of the book seemed really slow and longer then necessary. The third section was slightly redeeming, but no where near the level of the first section. As a whole, the plot was inconsistent and felt like a roller coaster with great ups and down. A decent overall story, but a little more consistency would have been nice. The majority of the characters in this novel appeared, in some part, in the first novel. Brandon, Gretchan, Gus, and William to name a few. One thing I like about continuing series, is the author does not need to focus on explaining everything to the reader. Instead they can focus on plot elements and character development. That holds true with this novel. The opening pages immediately thrust the reader into the story. For the most part I enjoyed the characters and thought they were well written. However, a couple things stuck out to me. In the beginning of what I call the second section the dialogue between Brandon and Gretchen is so contrived it literally made me groan several times. It did not feel natural in anyway. It was really frustrating to me, partly because these are two characters from the first book that I had trouble connecting with, so I felt like this made it even more difficult. One of my criticisms a