After mucking up the past in an attempt to stop her father from dying during the battle at the High Clerist’s Tower during the War of The Lance, Destina Rosethorn is tasked with going back in time again to set things right before her life and the lives of all those in her proper time are altered by the river of time catching up and changing things over to the new timeline where Takhisis won the Third Dragon War and the War of The Lance, thus ruling the world. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman did a wonderful job wrapping up this story and keeping me wondering who would remember what and if anything would be different in the final timeline once(if) it was restored.

Astinus tasked Destina and Kairn with going back in time to the Third Dragon War to make sure Huma and Gwyneth prevail against Takhisis, and Tanis was sent back to the start of the War of The Lance to assist Raistlin, Sturm, Tas, Caramon, and Flint with keeping Takhisis focused on them so Destina and Kairn could fix the past without her stepping in to stop them. This book was basically an alternate timeline version of Dragons of an Autumn Twilight, with a few divestitures into the past to appraise us of Destina’s progress restoring the timeline.

One thing that always bothered me back in the first Dragonlance Chronicle books I ever read (the War of The Lance trilogy), was how much distrust and hate Sturm had for Raistlin. As a result of the timeline meddling up to this point in the past two books, Raistlin, Sturm, Tas, and Tanis all had their memories through the War of the Lance and so Sturm had grown to trust Raistlin (mostly). During this alternate history in the writing, Caramon and Flint were their normal selves so any time anyone spoke of things to be, like Tas mentioning the past that wasn’t and the past future that wouldn’t be as a result of the past that was. If you’re lost don’t worry, so were Flint and Caramon, but it all makes sense. If you read the first two books in this trilogy, I think you’ll agree with me that this book wraps everything up well. I won’t lie at times I was hoping for Destina to fail, and for the group to prevail in their new past so that Flint and Sturm could live through the war, and so that Raistlin may not turn evil. Whether Destina fails, succeeds, or does either with a big ol’ asterisk afterword, I WON’T TELL YOU!

If you haven’t read the books in this trilogy, or the books in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, I highly recommend you do so. You won’t be disappointed. There’s so much more I want to write about this book but wont because I don’t want to spoil anything. This book, and the trilogy as a whole is deserving of a Gold star, so that’s what I’m giving it. Read it and weep. Then read it again.