Reading the list of authors that have contrbuted to this book is like reading a Who's Who in the world of fantasy fiction. In "Treasures of Fantasy" you will find stories that make you shiver, cry, or laugh, stories that open new doors of imagination.

While one or two of the authors' styles can be confusing within the context of the others (and boy! do some of these stories make a person really think!), on the whole this is a wonderfully diverse collection of adventures for the reader to join.

From a magic valley that seems to alter the fabric of space, to a child who can do anything simply because no-one's told him he can't, to the rediscovery of mankind's ancient "little people" on a planet far from Earth, this book captured my imagination and my heart.

A must-read for all fantasy/sci-fi fans!

Since I read the sneak preview in "The Second Generation" I have been waiting for this book. But I got really disappointed when I finally read it, the sole purpose of the book seems to be making room for the 5th age by killing the old characters as well ending the world of Krynn as we know it. Killing the old characters may have been unavoidable but the drastic changes to whole Dragonlance universe destroys the whole balance in the previous books. If TSR wanted a new world why couldn't they have made a new one instead of destroying a old one?

The whole book have a "rushed" feeling about it and the character development is very weak. The old characters seems to be missing some of their charisma, especially Raistlin which return but without his magic which was very much a part of him and without it he's only half the man he used to be. Even the villian, Chaos seems very flat and boring so if you liked the other books in the DL series DON'T buy this book.

I think I know what bothers most of the people who gave this book low rating, especially the ones who have been long time fans. for us geeks and dragonlance lovers the ending is quite upsetting, silly as it may sound. We feel like everything we know and love in/about Krynn was was taken away from us and it's hard to judge the book objectively after that.

Like many here said, this book is enjoyable but not as enjoyable as the earlier Dragonlance books like Chronicles and Legends. It's sort of an anemic version of them, it's a bit lacking.

some things I found unconvincing- like Palin and Usha falling in love after spending about 5 minutes together. I guess it's convincing if you believe in love at first sight, I don't.
And Raistlin... ok I didn't read the Raistlin chronicles and I don't know just how much ol' Fistie was affecting him but he just didn't seem himself- again, like an anemic and dare I say boring? version of the old Raist.

Some questions were left unanswered. Is Usha Raistlin's daughter or not? If she's not, how can the author's explain the short story "Raistlin's daughter"? Funny, that. There's this rumor going around about this yellow eyed Irda girl who is Raistlin's daughter and though the story is NOT true, one yellow eyed Irda girl does indeed exist only she's not the one from the story. I guess yellow eyed Irda girls are pretty common these days.
if she is his daughter after all, why did Rustlin lie to her? (That would also add the ewww factor to the Usha and Palin
storyline.)

First of all, if you're like me and kind of stupid, make sure you DON'T READ THIS BOOK FIRST!!! It will confuse you out of your wits. I was reading it and came across a name I didn't recognize, then I put the book down for a week just pondering who that person was. After finally deciding that it didn't really mater and I would find out later, I continued reading only to find the same thing happen again!

Other than this, it is a very nice read. I read it again after reading the Chronicles and Legends, and appreciated it much more. Other reviewers have said that this book drags on and never seemes to end. Well, I think that this really isn't true, since everything needs to happen. Anyone whose read farther ahead in the DragonLance series will know this.

Please, remember that nothing in the book is a personal offence to anyone. A friend of mine was so enraged with the ending that she burned the book. Later, she felt bad since it was a bad reaction, and she's now begging me for my copy so she can read it again.

First two books of the trilogy? Terrific. Great characters, interesting world, etc. And then came the third book. What possessed them to plunge laser-shooting tanks in the middle of this great fantasy world? As others have said, the book suddenly becomes...well, part of another series, in my opinion. I love Weis & Hickman, but this book's a disappointment. Judging from the other reviews, though, you'll either love it or hate it. Don't let this series turn you off to the authors; read Death Gate or any of their Dragonlance books!

It was good in most ways. The characters were very good, and the first thing I always look for in a book is good characters. The story was good except I resent it running like a science fiction novel. There were some really deep ideas in it, but at other times it could be light and funny. I thought the ending was really good except that it was not explained thoughly enough and was rather confusing to be the last book in the series.It was very origanal from other fantasy books I have read. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good fantasy book to read because I could not put it down.

I often find the duo of Weis and Hickman unfairly maligned by fantasy fans (often simply because they had the audacity to work with TSR) but there are some valid criticisms. The major one I have is that they can't wrap up books - this, in my mind, was THE exception. I'm rather surprised others didn't find things that way, that some reviewers criticized the ending. So they deviated from the sappy finish you always see in fantasy, evident even in good series like Memory, Sorrow and Thorn..big deal. It's a pleasant change of pace and flowed logically from the story. This book, in my mind, really makes a good series great, starting with Joram and Gwen's return and the effects that has. Introduces some fine new characters and advances the bearing of others. This would have finally given Margaret and Tracy a series with a good ending - why the heck did they screw things up years later by plopping a fourth book onto a great trilogy? A very good read though, one I highly recommend.

I picked up this book expecting a bunch of stories about well, the search for magic, but instead they're only a handful and the other stories are about kender and gnomes (which isnt necassarily a bad thing).
But the stories themselves are decent enough and the gnome stories, as always, are hilarious.
I would recommend this only to dragonlance fans.

I was hoping for more,but it was pretty good though.Leaves you with questions,but alright.Try it, you will enjoy it.

After finishing the War of the Souls trilogy, I feel the same disappointment that I experienced after watching "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." Yes, the books say Dragonlance on the cover, but these new additions just aren't the same as the originals - Chronicles and Legends. And to bring back Takhisis (yawn). How dull.

To begin with, I can't stand Mina. She is a poorly-written, one-dimensional character that I couldn't wait to die some awful death. (Whether she does or not I will not reveal). The treatment of Dalamar was also a joke, as he was seriously out of character (esp. galling because he was one of my favorite characters in the original books). Galdar was a good addition, but Gerard, Odila, Silvanoshei, etc. were all stock and forgettable. And I could never get attached to Gilthas, for whatever reason.

Tasslehoff, well, I like kender, but like the Aliens series, you don't need to keep bringing back Ripley to have an enjoyable story.

In any event, I don't plan to read any more Dragonlance novels, but I will re-read Chronicles, Legends and Second Generation. Beyond that, it just is not the same. (Dragons of Summer Flame is particularly bad.)

Anyway, that's my two cents.

What can I say about this one?

I've read some of the Meetings Sextet, all of the Chronicles, a few of the Dawning of the New Age books, and all of the War of Souls.

All were excellent, (with the exception of Dawning of a New Age, which lacked the Dragonlance luster).

This book was necessary to usher in (yet again) a new age for Krynn. Thus, much had to be accomplished within the book, and indeed much did happen.

I, personally loved it, it didn't let me down (Weis and Hickman never do). The characters were appealing-- i've taken to heart Odila and Gerald, as well as Gilthas, Mirror the Silver, etc.
And, of course, the insatiable Tas.

It was well written, had a great storyline, and made me finish the book in three sittings.

THIS BOOK WAS A GREAT END TO A WONDERFUL TRILOGY. THE SECOND BOOKWAS SLIGHTLY DISSAPONTING BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU FROM BUYING THIS BOOK. MINA'S STORY LINE TAKES SOME SOMEWHAT UNEXPECTED TWISTS, MAKING HER MUCH DARKER IN THE THIRD BOOK. HER LOYAL SECOND HAND,GALDAR, STARTS HAVING DOUBTS ABOUT THIS "ONE GOD"(YOU FIND OUT THAT THE NAME OF THIS ONE GOD IS VERY FAMERLIER)BUT ALTHOUGTH HE STOPS HAVING FAITH IN THE GOD HE REMAINS LOYAL TO MINA. ODILA PLAYS A VERY IMPORTANT PART IN THE LAST BOOK, AS WELL AS RAZOR AND MIRROR, THE SILVER DRAGON. THE KENDER, WHO LIGHTENS UP THE BOOK FREQUENTLY, MAKES A HONORABLE CHOICE THAT ALMOST MADE ME CRY. THE TWO ELEVEN NATIONS COME TO SOME VERY IMPORTANT DECISONS THAT CHANGE THE WAYS OF THE ELVES ALOT. I GREW TO HOPE FOR MINA, THAT SHE WOULD COME OUT STRONG THROUGH THE ODDS AGAINST HER WITH THE ONE GOD. DOES SHE? READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!

Like someone else said, the back cover is a lie - there are no maps. Basically I borrowed this book from the library because of the first 50 pages which contain interviews with Weis & Hickman. This is really interesting stuff, covering :
- their backgrounds
- how they got to TSR
- how the whole DragonLance project started
- how they got chosen to write the books and the incredibly short time frames they had - they wrote the first DragonLance book in under 2 months!

My advice, read this section, forget the rest. It ain't worth buying but definitely worth borrowing.

If you want to know more about the worlds created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, this book will give you a good amount of information on the various settings. The bulk of the book is a comprehensive and considerably detailed encyclopedia separated into five different sections -- each one dedicated to a particular series (i.e. the Death Gate Cycle, the Dragonlance Novels, etc.). The book is also wonderfully supplied with beautiful full-color paintings from the novels, black and white photographs of the authors in the Interviews chapter, and a helpful book-by-book analysis of the authors' various works. The first problem, however, with this potentially great work is that the description at the back of the book misleads the reader. It promises "numerous black-and-white DRAWINGS and MAPS to each world." This is false. There are absolutely NO MAPS within the book, and the only black and white pictures are mostly photographs. It's disappointing because detailed maps would have greatly aided the encyclopedia entries. And a well-structured timeline would have likewise been invaluable and much appreciated. The encyclopedia entries also need more information. Some descriptions are only a sentence long. In addition, the book-by-book analysis in the first chapter completely left out the Dragonlance Novels (which I find particularly sinful, because it was the Dragonlance Series that catapulted Weis and Hickman to fame.) So much more could have been added visually. The writing content could have been packed with meatier annotations and previously unknown trivia. I guess I'll have to wait for another,worthier attempt at these magnificent fantasy realms.

If your looking for an autobiography, novel or a new story, you've come to the wrong place. This is a very detailed reference book FULL of information, with only a little new meterial (like about the author's lives). If you are a longtime fan of the author's, however, this can be a great book to have. After having already read the books of Weis and Hickman, reading this book can remind you what happened, clarify confusing points, or simply bring back memories of a great story.

It was very dissapointing for a margeret Weis book Its not a book u wanna read. Some people might though

Wonderland is a remarkable place. It has survived all attempts of analysts and adaptors to structure and sentimentalize it. It is wonder, it is madness, it is a comic nightmare which reflects desires and perceptions within us exaggerating them into caricatures of absurd proportions.

In this anthology, seventeen bold and practiced explorers of the literary genre have dared to journey back into madness in quest of...what? Wonder? Truth? And the remarkable thing is that each one of them brings us back something different, because, of course, Wonderland is never the same twice...

There are stories in this book that will arouse your interest. There are stories that will bore or annoy you with their approach. And there are some that will terrify you with a moment of insight that will take you back to Wonderland all over again. I particularly enjoyed "A Common Night" but that will vary...

Welcome to Wonderland. Don't bother preparing yourself because here is where all structures break down. Prepare to lose yourself in a world of puns and nightmarish absurdity. Or, as I suppose the Mad Hatter would put it...

"Abandon all mope, ye who enter here!"

well what can i say, this book wasn't very captivating as the other dragonlance books that i have read. i mean sure there are twisted plots and sub-plots that was etched into this storyline. and there was also fantastic characters in this book like all the other books! but what can i say, this book really didnt grasped my attention like the other dragonlance series such as the chronicles and legends series. it was an okay book overall, but i think this book could have been open to improvement. but if you are a dragonlance fanatic, get it if you must. but i recommend other readers to go for other dragonlance books, instead of going for this one first.

This book seems to be a summary of the book Dark Hart by Margaret Weis and David Baldwin which was a very good book. The illustrations in this book really help to put a mental picture together about what the setting and charters in Dark Hart were like and the stories about Justin Sterlings(the main charters in Dark Hart) past are really enjoyable. If you are interested in reading this book you will enjoy it much more if you read Dark Hart first.

The book is very good, though at times gruesome and violent. The detail was outstanding and the characters were well rounded. The book is very good, but it leaves you hanging a bit.

It's obvious that Weis is expanding her literary horizons with this new book. People who compare it to Dragonlance are missing the point. It is not supposed to be Dragonlance. The dark mythological sequences drip ambience and mystery. A beautiful book, that's beautifully mastered by the Dark Queen herself.

The novel by itself is fine. However, this book can't compare to the trilogy or the other books by the same author. Although I find the Darksword trilogy the gloomiest of all Weis & Tracy's novel I have read, they are a very good read and portray the human element (the emotion, the logic behind each action etc.) very well. This book lacks the depth and consistency. The plot is very very loose. I'm very disappointed with this book and don't think it deserve its place as the 'Legacy' of the DARKSWORD.

Legacy of the Darksword blends together fantasy and science-fiction in a disharmonic confusing whirlwind. We are taken twenty years after the original trilogy ends. Saryon and his mute companion Reuven live in Oxford, England. Prince Garald is now King, of what, we do not know. Mosiah has unexpectedly joined the ranks of the Duuk-tsarith. Humankind is being hunted and destroyed by the Hch'nyv, an alien race seeking to eliminate everyone but themselves. Rumours stir that in Thimhallan Joram has created another Darksword, and that it is this that will stop the alien race from attacking. Saryon, Reuven, and Mosiah return to Thimhallan to attempt to persuade Joram to give them the sword so they can save humankind. Hot on their tail, however, is a group of people known as Technomancers who want the sword for their own reasons. Thrown into the mix is Eliza, Joram's daughter, and Scylla, an agent of a secret government department. Simpkin returns from the dead ...

...and it is only he who gave me any pleasure in this new tale. And even that was a dry emotion. The characters lack depth and the plotline is weak. Joram is a minor character, who has seemingly reverted to the angry and melancholy blackness of his youth. Time hop-scotching is introduced, whipping the story through three different alternate times.

While this is okay if you're looking for a "light read," this book holds nothing of what the original Darksword Trilogy has. Although it appears the same size as the first three books, the font is much larger to make up for it. The entire story was unnecessary, as the trilogy ended in a befitting manner, closing the Prophecy nicely. I'm not going to say "Don't read this," but please be prepared as you go into it that it's NOTHING like the original Darksword Trilogy. Don't expect much from it.

I thought this book was great. As good as the Dragonlance books (although i see some of you don't agree ;) ) I thought it was good, i would recomend it to any fantasy fan.