“He never wore his white robes while traveling.”
Yesterday in class one of my students was teasing his friend who was telling me about a YA Fantasy series he was reading. He was only laughing (in a mostly good-natured way) at how silly any series sounds when you’re the one to describe it, especially to someone who’s not very interested in fantasy novels. In order to deflect, or more so absorb the laughing before anyone’s feelings were hurt I said: “If you promise not to laugh, I will tell you the title of the fantasy novel I am reading” He said ok. “The Soulforge.”
Here’s an approximation of his face:
The Soulforge is a prequel novel to the Dragonlance Chronicles, and I think specifically to the Dragonlance Legends books. I haven’t read those yet, so I don’t know how exactly certain parts of it link up, and don’t want to know until I do read them, but the epilogue of this book does make a little reference at the end to those books by way of a chapter narrated by Astinus of Palanthas, who pops up at the end of the Dragonlance Chronicles.
Like a lot of books about children, this book has a hard time showing that characters are actually children, made especially difficult with such well-known characters, or well-trodden at the very least. What we get answered in this book is what did Raistlin’s early magic using and magic learning days look like, and then from then through the actual Wizards’ trial. We also get yet another, but perhaps more detailed forging of the pact to return to Solace in five years. Having read all six of the preludes book at least twice, this is well-worn territory.
I don’t really know what a Soulforge is.
