Coming back to the world of Dragonlance (Krynn, Ansalon, ...) is always great. It's been, however, several months since I was last there (with "Kang's Regiment", as the Chaos War had commenced). Instead of going back on the timeline, I decided it is best to carry on and head into the future, since the Chaos War is going on, hence The "Chaos War" Series.

"The Last Thane" is book 1 in the quintet. Douglas Niles takes us to the world of Thorbardin and its various cities and dwarven clans (Hylar, Daergar, Theiwar, Klar, ...). The Hylar's thane, the cousin of Baker Whitegranite, is out with several of his troops to fight against the forces of the dark queen Takhisis, so he leaves Hybardin in charge of Baker, who's actually more interested in decoding ancient writings (by the hand of Chisel Loremaster) and knows close to nothing about ruling a city. But he gets help from a.o. a veteran military commander.

Baker is married to a Daergar female dwarf, who after several marital struggles, decides to return to her native home, to her brother, Darkend. He has conquered the throne in an unfair series of battle (as the tradition has it), making sure the outcome would be positive for him. As Garimeth, Baker's wife, informs Darkend about the Hylar being without thane and thus proper ruling, Darkend sees an opportunity to expand his territory (for which he set up an alliance with the Theiwar and Klar).

Little do they, and the Hylar, know that the forces of darkness, led by Zarak Thuul and his dragon, Primus. As you can imagine, there's lots of bloodshed, killing, destroying and what not. But also the Hylar were surprised of the betrayal by their dark brothers. So, yes, things get messy in the dwarven kingdom.

"The Last Thane" contains elements of friendship, love, betrayal, ... And certainly this: what goes around, comes around.

The writing is ok, the events are well described (though I had trouble picturing the environment - either a fault in my imagination or the writing style), but some happenings did leave me frowning. But hey, it remains Fantasy and Dragonlance, in which case it's normal certain logic cannot be applied here and there. All in all, a nice read, yet not among the best DL-novels. ( )

There is a problem with this series. Originally this book is listed as book 2 of the Chaos Series, The Doom Brigade was book 1. The Doom Brigade was removed in later publishings to become the first book in another series. ( )