Review of AMBER AND ASHES by Margaret Weis (see her website)

THE DARK DISCIPLE: VOLUME I

Wizards of the Coast, August 2004

The death-god is frustrated. His legions of zombies and walking skeletons are stupid, stinky, and have a nasty tendency to fall apart when he needs them most. Now that the gods have returned, he decides it's time for a new approach--an approach that will involve beautiful, young disciples with good skin and lively habits. But first, he needs a prophet and beautiful Mina is a great choice--she's already worked for a god but is currently unemployed due to her god's death. Between the two of them, death and Mina can create some powerful magic.

When his brother is taken by the death-god, given eternal life--sort of--the monk Rhys abandons his worship of Majere to seek the cause of his brother's problems--and an explanation for why he poisoned the entire monastary. He is quickly adopted by the sea goddess--who has plans of her own, but who just might have a use for a monk and who is concerned about the new role that death seems to be playing. Still, the sea goddess is only willing to do so much, and death has a hold even over her. Rhys has his work cut out for him, and he's not even sure what he wants to do about it.

Author Margaret Weis (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Weis) digs deep into the DragonLance universe to write a fascinating story of gods, mortals, and the strange relationships between them. The human characters, Mina and Rhys, along with the death-god who has discovered a taste for life, drive the story forward. Rhys, in particular, is fully realized--human, given enough doubts about himself to be interesting, uncertainties about his mission to allow Weis to put him in fascinating dilemmas, and well enough trained that he actually has a chance even when he faces gods and the walking dead. His relationship with the sea goddess--one of both respect and profound distrust--makes for enjoyable reading.

Weis is a talented writer whose prose draws the reader in. I had a ton of work to get done and really didn't have time to read this story, but I couldn't stop and finally decided to give myself half a day of pure enjoyment. AMBER AND ASHES is a good one.

Four Stars

Reviewed 10/29/04

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