{"id":91,"date":"2005-07-07T22:18:01","date_gmt":"2005-07-08T05:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=91"},"modified":"2021-05-31T19:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T23:36:28","slug":"the-dragonstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/91","title":{"rendered":"The Dragonstone"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dragonstone<\/em> (1996) Dennis McKiernan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a good book, but not my favorite Mithgar books. Unlike other books set in Mithgar, there are few appearances by characters from other books: Aravan is mentioned in passing, the great dragons make an appearance, and Vanidar accompanies Arin for awhile, but mostly the characters in this book appear only in these books. Which makes this an ideal Mithgar book with which to start into the series. <\/p>\n

In The Dragonstone<\/em>, Dara Arin has terrible visions of chaos and war centered on a green stone. As the war seemed to rage all over Mithgar, and involved even the dragons, she knew that this was a vision of the future she was seeing, not one of the past, thus she seeks the aid of mages to determine how she can turn keep this terrible vision from becoming true. In this quest she will be joined by those determined by prophecy, but no others, lest her quest fail.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest to me, the debate that threaded through this book was of free will versus predestination. Do we have free will or is all we do predestined by God(s)?<\/p>\n

One of the things I find frustrating is Dennis McKiernan’s need to give the book a happily ever after ending, with most everyone finding their true love. With the on going discussion of free will and predestination, it almost seems as if he has come down on the side of predestination, with those who fulfilled their tasks receiving the reward of true love. Which I suppose is okay, but I found it annoying, since I could see what was going to happen.<\/p>\n

But despite the requisite happy ending, it is a good book, and I recommend it to anyone who is already reading the Mithgar series, or is interested in beginning the Mithgar books.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dragonstone (1996) Dennis McKiernan This is a good book, but not my favorite Mithgar books. Unlike other books set in Mithgar, there are few appearances by characters from other books: Aravan is mentioned in passing, the great dragons make an appearance, and Vanidar accompanies Arin for awhile, but mostly the characters in this book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291,39],"tags":[309,310],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-sword-sorcery","tag-dennis-mckiernan","tag-mithgar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/101","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":0},"title":"Into the Fire","author":"Michelle","date":"July 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Into the Fire (1998) Dennis McKiernan Book Two of the Hel's Crucible Duology The conlusion to the story started in Into the Forge, Phais, Loric, Tipperton, and Beau leave Mineholt North to continue Tip's quest to take the coin to Agron. War continues to rage as Gryphon seeks to dominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Into-the-Fire.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":103,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/103","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":1},"title":"The Eye of the Hunter","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Eye of the Hunter (1992) Dennis L. McKiernan If I remember correctly, this is the second Dennis McKiernan book I read--and the first novel. (The first book was the short story collection Tales of Mithgar.) In The Eye of the Hunter, the Lastborn Firstborns Gwilly and Faeril, join with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/07\/Eye-of-the-Hunter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/105","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":2},"title":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon (2000) Dennis McKiernan This is the final book in Dennis McKiernan's Mithgar series, where all the loose ends are tied up. We follow the journal of Bair, the impossible child, borne of Riatha and Urus. The reeds speak of Bair as the one to find the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Silver-Wolf-Black-Falcon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/26","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":3},"title":"Red Slippers","author":"Michelle","date":"June 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Red Slippers Dennis McKiernan This compilation of short stories should be the final Mithgar book. As Dennis McKiernan says in the beginning, there were some loose ends that he wanted to go back and tie up, or explain, or stories that were mentioned in passing that he wanted to mention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/06\/Red-Slippers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":77,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/77","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":4},"title":"Tales of Mithgar","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Tales of Mithgar (1994) Dennis McKiernan Still looking for books to tide me over, I turned to another favorite, Dennis McKiernan. I picked up Tales of Mithgar because it's a collection of short stories, and I love short stories. Set in the \"One Eyed Crow\" tavern, a blizzard has descended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Tales-of-Mithgar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":90,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/90","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":5},"title":"Voyage of the Fox Rider","author":"Michelle","date":"July 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Voyage of the Fox Rider (1993) Dennis McKiernan Dennis McKiernan is another author I appreciate for his ability to write duologies and single book fantasies. Of course as the Mithgar books all have the same setting, and contain recurring characters, I suppose that gives him the luxury of being able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Voyage-of-the-Fox-Rider.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}