The Gates of Thorbardin

by Dan Parkinson

Book Overview

An exiled dwarf's quest to find the fabled magical helm of Grallen takes him on a perilous quest to find the ancient dwarf kingdom of Thorbardin, buried beneath the mountain fortress of Skullcap,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880389125
• ISBN13: 9780880389129
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 310 Pages
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Should Have Been a 5 Star Book

This book was great!The frist chapter kinda dragged on. It does begin with the hero of this book "Chane Feldstone" about to kill a panther who has been chasing him through the wilderness outside "Thorbardin".Despite the action sequence right in the very begining, it took the book about 3 chapters to get good. This book was a great page turner after that. You almost couldn't wait to see what was gonna happen next...Now, the reason it was a 4 star and not a five was (1) The beginging that I allready mentioned.. and (2) The ending. No Im not gonna give that away, but, Despite this being a great book, the ending left an opening for a sequal. Thats ok, not great, but the way it ends leaves allot of questions, which is bad.Overall this was a pretty good book. Depsite the Flawed Beingings and Endings, I enjoyed this book and and Really looking forward to the sequal. If your a DL fan, dont miss this one, but look out for the stuff I've talked about, but if you are new to the Dl Saga...Don't start with this one.

Better than Volume 2....

I own the Heroes books from when there was two three-volumes series: Heroes I and Heroes II. Needless to say, the books in Heroes II built upon the books in Heroes I. Anyway.... This book was written to build on 'Stormblade,' which is a very sad book. 'The Gates of Thorbardin' kept me interested until the very end; I truly enjoyed this book.It is a very interesting story that combines a dwark, a kender, a gnome, and a human. Although the kender in Volume 2 was irritating, this one was funny. I am pleased that I bought this book, and I enjoy occasionally rereading this book. The characters are well-place and well-written. The storyline seems to actually have a purpose.I reccomend this book to all, but it doesn't make a good book with which to start the Dragonlance series. Try the 'Chronicles' books first; that trilogy started this whole thing!

An exceptionally well told story!

I hope that Mr. Parkinson will write many more Dragonlance novels. While his characters weren't too developed, they were also not overkilled with detail (such as the details of 4 generations of their families, etc.). The story itself ran smooth as silk, no contradictions in itself, just the right amount of humor too.Chane Feldstone, an orphan dwarf with no traces of his lineage, has a dream. Not like that of great men, but a dream that reoccurs constantly about an old helmet. He loves a dwarven woman who's father hates him (such as in-laws are, lol), and when Chane reveals that his dream is actually fate calling him... her father plans to have him "taken care of"... thus beginning Chane's quest and his adventures. Along the way he meets 'Chess' a kender, Bobbin- an insane gnome (you'll understand when you read it, lol), a human that goes by Wingover, and some others... then along the way Chane and his friends have to face armies of a Highlord (goblins, Hobgoblins, and a few Ogres).The whole "concept" in the synopsis of "uniting Thorbardin" is barley skirted upon... instead its about the finder of Grallen's helm bringing Thorbardin to a time that it once was...Very descriptive in battles, features and other things, and the combination of Kender and Gnome (insane remember) is a thoughtful added spice of humor. I highly recommend this book to Dragonlance fans.

Extemely....good?

WOW! You talk about a change! Usually when books like this come out, they suck. This is the exception. After reading the Fifth Age series, I couldn't even stand to LOOK at a another Dragonlance book. Then one day my friend told me to read it, so I did. As it turns out,it was one of the best ones I have read. You should read it.