Getting Down With It! Part One

What Ho, my Two-Fisted Adventure Seekers!

You know, one of the basic pieces of advice "they" like to give about writing is to read.  A LOT!

I'll admit that I don't read as much as I should...but I have read a fair bit, and I'm pretty good at retaining the stuff that I read.  I read a lot of cheesy stuff, cuz I LIKE the cheesy stuff.

What kind of stuff?  Well, I read those old pulp magazine reprints, and I love those short little fantasy and sci-fi novels from the sixties and seventies.  

But I've read some more modern stuff, too.  And I'm usually pretty detatched, observing the story and making snide MST3K-style comments as I go through the book.  But there were two times when I got embroiled so much that I got mad when characters died.

The first time this happened was when I read the Dragonlance Chronicles Book 1 Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weiss and Tray Hickman.  This series is sometimes called "the poor man's Lord of the Rings", which seems like a left-handed compliment, to me.  

Anyway, this story kicked off the Dungeons and Dragons world of Dragonlance, and is beloved by many, including me.  So it starts off with a group of adventurer friends meeting back up after five years of each one exploring on their own.  They run into these two outcast plainsmen with a magic staff that is a holy relic from ages past.  The magic staff is the Healing Staff of Mishakal, and the girl carrying it is named Goldmoon.

So, after various adventures, the group is taking her to the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth where they're supposed to find more clues on how to awaken and re-connect with the Old Gods and learn about the evil Goddess Takhisis, the Queen of Dragons, who is trying to take over the world because that's what bad guys do in these things.

Anyway, our heroes get to Xak Tsaroth and we find this black dragon who kills Goldmoon!  Boy did that tick me off!  I don't really know why, but it did!  Fortunately the Goddess Mishakal brought her back to life in the very next chapter, so it was okay.  I honestly don't know if I would have finished the trilogy if that hadn't happened.

The second time, however, didn't go so well...
But that's a Tale for Another Session, so I'll tell ya about it next week...
Until then...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell