Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy #2) is a 1985 fantasy adventure novel written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, published by Random House. Set as the second entry in the Dragonlance Chronicles the story focuses on the Dark Queens Dragon army that have been unleashed on Krynn, but a group of heroes rise to the occasion to once again bind together to fight the tide of darkness.

There are some slow moments, but the story goes at a good pace.  The story has plenty of action and drama but it doesn’t take away from the large scale events. There’s complexity to it and it mostly comes from the motivations and relationships of the characters as well as this escalating war. There’s a bit of character development, some side stories and subplots (some which branch off into other novels), and interesting twists (some predictable) are woven into the story without compromising it.

There are a few interesting subplots such as the charges and trial against Sturm, the tension between Laurana and other elves, the tensions growing between the nations despite the Dragonarmies, and the love affair between Tanis and Kitiara. There’s character development centered on Sturm and Laurana. The story splits when the Companions are separated and it’s a great way of exploring more of the various areas of the world. The story’s tension just builds and builds, and the battle at the High Clerist’s Tower was just epic. Unfortunately, the battle claims the life of one of the better characters. The story’s good. Not great but satisfying and fun. (3 out of 5)

I can say that characters are a bit of a mixed bag. Some are more fleshed out than others, some get more of the spotlight than others. The main cast consist of half-elf Tanis, squire Sturm, brothers Caramon and Raistlin, a dwarf Flint, a kender Tasslehoff, a cleric Goldmoon, and the elven princess Laurana Kanan, look, there are a bunch of characters. I like Tanis Half-Elven, but I think he’s jackass. There’s a lot of back-and-forth with the character that comes off as tedious at times. In this Sturm comes off more brilliantly written and developed. The most standout of the cast is Raistlin. He’s sarcastic, he’s cynical, he’s straight up the asshole of the group. He’s like the Rumpelstiltskin of the crew. Although everyone’s got their motivation, Raistlin’s only doing this for himself. He’s power hungry, and when he gets his hands on the Dragon Orb it becomes more apparent.

Loved Kitiara Uth Matar who’s my favorite character. She’s smart, seductive, and ambitious which makes for an interesting villain. Hell, her back-and-forth with Tanis even gives her a bit of a personal stake in everything and shows that she’s not flat. She’s Tanis’ former beau who’s now risen to the rank of Dragon Highlord, leading the Blue Dragonarmy. If Tanis is Geralt of Rivia then Kitiara is Yennefer. There are a lot supporting characters than are introduced and of course, some were beneficial to the story others not so much. So the characters decent. (3 out of 5)

Loved the direction of the writing by authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman though I admit there are some flaws here and there. One such thing is the narration which is plot driven but has some moments where information feels missing. If you haven’t read the other books or played the games you might feel as if you’re missing something. Of course, there’s a bunch of fantasy cliches here with no deviation whatsoever. But is that necessarily a bad thing? The dialogue’s decent and the writing truly shines with the dialogue between the characters. Between the two authors, they do a great job of painting a picture of the locations, characters, and events that occur within the story. There’s definitely a dark tone cast over the characters who are at their lowest. It’s got a lot of ground to cover so the writing’s pretty face paced (although it has its slow moments). So the writing isn’t bad. (3 out of 5)

In the end, Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy #2) is a pretty solid read. It’s action packed, is entertaining, has character development, and an epic ending. Some of the negatives surround some of the characters, points of the narration, and some of the writing. Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy #2) gets 3 out of 5.