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Michael A. Stackpole Message Board


Bryan Davis posts on 2/20/2006 5:34:11 PM Naysmith comes back with his son to present gifts and services to the heroes in the (last?) book. And he's awesome, I might add.
theONE posts on 8/3/2005 2:15:32 AM Is the issue of Nay ever addressed again after DGW? We know of the other3 heroes, but nothing of Naysmith Carver after the first book, at least unless i skipped over it, which could be possible... any ideas?
Craig posts on 5/9/2005 12:47:14 PM How do you find out Kenwick and Tarrant are half-brothers? Read the last book. He tells Alexia at some point, I think. It's been a while.



Joe Martin posts on 5/3/2005 4:53:01 PM how do you find out that kenwick and Tarrant are half brothers???
Craig posts on 5/2/2005 2:32:54 PM I am re-reading the DGW for the first time in a very long time. After a little nostalgia, I decided to check the message board. I said in my last message I wouldn't write anymore, but it appears no one checks or writes to this board anymore either so I figure I can enter my two cents on the book and series, and no one will know. Just a little something off my chest, that is all. 1- I won't dismiss Orla as being the mother of Kerrigan since his parents are supposed to be very powerful magickers. She is modest and says that she was just a battle mage, but Crow states that she was the crafter of the dagger from Temmer's shards. After re-reading the DGW, when Tarrant, Leigh, and Nay go hunting the temeryx(spelling?) with Kenwick, Heslin states that he was unable to craft a magic weapon capable of just killing the beasts for the hunting party. Later there was some text on how much more powerful elf, dragon, etc., magic were than human magic because of the shortness of human lives. I got the impression from this text and what Heslin said that humans were incapable of gaining enough expertise to create magical weapons. After all Temmer wasn't forged by a human, nor was the sword Nay got from the bridge (Kedyn's Crow's sword at the beginning of the Dragon Crown War). So I believe that Orla crafting the dagger showed that she was very powerful and not "just" a battle mage. So it may be possible for her to be Kerrigan's Mom. I'm only saying it is a possibility. 2 - Like all fantasy books I was a little dissappointed with the final installment of the Dragon Crown War Cycle. (This hit me especially hard with this series, since I had read the DGW right after its release, and had to wait forever to finally read what happened to Tarrant) Two things always irk me with fantasy novels: 1)for some reason most authors like to avoid the "pinnacle" battles, and 2) they always pull off some sort of "cheating" for the good guys to win. The first point I noticed in the very first fantasy book I read (The Lord of the Rings) and has continued since then. I was very upset in the LOTR with the almost battle of Gandalf versus the Witch King. They stood 20 feet from each other, the two most powerful wizards in all of middle-earth, supreme purified good versus supreme corrupted evil. I was salivating when Tolkin set this battle up, but did I get to read it? No! Because Pippin comes runnig up whining about Faramir being burned, and the bloody horn of Rohan is blown. And in book three of the Dragon Crown Cycle we have the setup again, Kerrigan greatest human magicker, pupil of the dragons, and Chrytine, greatest non-human magicker, pupil of the sworn enemies of the dragons. Do they fight? No! Instead, we get a superhuman, black statue that is a killing machine juggernaut that comes out of left field since the author never establishes that something like this is possible. One of the main characters is killed off who is the stuff of prophecy that was laid down in the prequel and he is replaced by a piece of obsidian. The piece of obsidian then fulfills the prophecy in one of the most anti-climatic battles of all time. Chrytine: "Cough, Cough, I'm dead." I loved Tarrant and the whole series right up until the point that they reach Vorquellyn in the third book. I am now into the first book of the DCC, and I am going to stop after the second. This also covers the second point I had above, about the good guys "cheating" to win. Often times in fantasy books the authors do not allow the good guys to win using their own skills. The authors seem to break the rules they have already established or write a hundred additional rules to enable the good guys to win. I would like to read (it seemed like Stackpole was setting this up with Kerrigan) a hero taking on the ultimate villain after suffering and enduring horrible trials to attain skills, have an epic battle and either by skill or luck, kill the bad guy. The good guy doesn't even have to live for all I care. Just keep the playing field level. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid playing tag and there was that kid who hated to lose, and so he kept moving the "base" whenever he was about to be tagged.


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the posters.
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