Reviews for The Odyssey of Gilthanas

The average rating for The Odyssey of Gilthanas based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-01 00:00:00 Neil Duyck Being a fan of Gilthanas (As is everyone who purchase this book is I presume.) This was a heart wrenching book to read. The story takes occurs after the events which took place in the Dragons of Summer Flame and spans over a 15 year period. We find that Gilthanas during the period of the War of the Lance, was the beloved governor of Kalaman, where he flourished as a great leader. By his side was the silver dragon and one of the most sacrificial characters in all of Dragon Lanre lore, Silvara. We find out that during this time, Gilthanas rejected Silvara because she had lied to him about being a dragon. In fear of having his heart broken further, he ignores and mistreats the silver dragon whom eventually leaves his company in attempts to find her own happiness. The odyssey begins in Silvanesti, where he is the prize prisoner of a Silvanesti lord. During this time, Gilthanas has time to reflect and think about his grievous error of mistreating Silvara. A common theme in this book is fate, and as fate would have it, Gilthanas eventually escapes from the Silvanesti prison and embarks on a journey to find him and to live life. Originally, he plans to journey to his homeland and assist his brother in recapturing the ancient elven forest from the hands of the Dark Knights. But he comes across a crossroad and eventually figures that there is only one person...one thing which could give his life true meaning..one pursuit which would lead to happiness...and that was finding his love, Silvara. So our hero embarks on a 12 year journey around the world of Ansolan in search of the silver dragon that he hurt long ago. What unfolds is a tragic, yet gripping story full of lies, deceit, heroism, chivalry, humility, assassins, friendship, romance, destiny, and of love. As you can tell from the negative reviews, Gilthanas never does find Silvara. And as a fan of the romance between the two estranged lovers, it will piss you off to no end. The ending of this book may not be great, but the characterization of Gilthanas as a hero is wonderfully portrayed. In this book, Gilthanas is portrayed in a light that I have to say is the best depiction of a heroic elven male protagonist that I have ever read in a science/fantasy fiction book. He is heroic, humble, chivalrous, charismatic, charming, strong, intelligent, and honorable. This novel shows the product of the his growth as a living being after rejecting Silvara and dealing with the emotional and physical pain and guilt that decision resulted in. Many of the reviewers dislike this book because the ending. Indeed the fact that Gilthanas and Silvara never do find each other is painful. After all of the hardships that Gilthanas endures in this novel, he comes soooo close to finding Silvara, but destiny once again intervenes and prevents that from happening...perhaps because Gilthanas has one more lesson to learn before he is rewarded with eternal love. The book jumps from first person narrative, to third person. And the book is never told from the first person perspective of the elven prince. Instead the first person narratives come from all of the people whom are impacted greatly from their meeting of Gilthanas. The book is well written and is a unique book to say the least. There are sections of this book which are very emotional such as Gilthanas meeting with his brother Porthios and the final few pages where we finally read about happened to Silvara. Don't let the negative reviews this book received detour you from reading it. The ending might not be what we all wanted, but "The Odyssey of Gilthanas" certainly does justice to the character we all know and love.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-08-29 00:00:00 Chris Reed This review is based on the short stories and not the gaming part of the book. I am not a gamer so I cannot tell if that part was good or bad. This is a collection of short stories set in the Dragonlance world. Some of the stories are only 2 pages long. All the stories have something to do with the character Gilthanas. In some of them, he might make only a cameo appearance. This is a nice collection. It shows the tragedy of his life and his quest to reunite with Silvara. While reading this book, you actually feel for Gilthanas and you are hoping he finds Silvara. Even the stories that have nothing to do with him are tragic and you feel for the characters. After reading this book, you will have a more sympathetic view towards Gilthanas and his tragedy.