he hero of a previous Dragon Lance book, “Weasel’s Luck” returns. Coming from a hard luck Solmanic family in a period set before the original series, this book follows Galen Pathwarden as he is knighted under the charge of his mentor from the first, Bayard Brightblade. Galen struggles with the new and committed knightly lifestyle and h is old conniving, lazy ways. When his brother Brithelm vanishes mysteriously, Galen sets aside his better judgement and embarks on a quest that leads hi in the heart of a mountain, where a pale plainsmen tribe mine opals unknowingly to further the devices of an evil god. Galen must face fear, the mad shaman Firebrand and himself to set things right. This was by far one of the better non-series DL books I have read. The author manages to inject humor and charm into the text as well as referencing the cultural history of the DL world. It is something often ignored by most of the sequel/prequel writers. Williams is not a great writer and some passages can get bogged down in overly attempted prose, but for the most part, the text bounces along with the well-thought out character of Galen. By using the history and geography of the DL world and not the main characters of the original, Williams can make the book his own and have some fun, which make it that much more fun to read. ( )

In [Galen Beknighted], we pick up the story of Galen Pathwarden Brightblade, several long years of Solamnic training after the events relayed in [Weasel's Luck]. We catch up with young Galen on the eve of becoming a full-fledged knight. Unfortunately for Galen (and pretty much everyone else), nothing ever comes easy for Galen. In [Weasel's Luck], the antagonist, The Scorpion, binds Galen to him with a set of opals. Now, it appears that those opals are artifacts of great power used by Plainsman Shamen to keep their histories. One of these shaman, Firebrand, wants the opals that Galen has, and has kidnapped Galen's brother Birthelm to convince Galen to turn the opals over to him... But nothing's ever easy...

So with the porcine knight Ramiro and his squire, Danelle Di Caela, and his brother Alfric acting as his squire, Galen goes out in search of Firebrand in an effort to free his brother... but nothing's ever easy...

I liked this book MUCH more than Williams' previous volume about Galen. Perhaps it had to do with writing style... perhaps it was simply that Galen was more grown up, more noble... Perhaps it was that Galen simply cared... I'm not entirely sure. But the fact is that I enjoyed the book. The banter quieted somewhat versus [Weasel's Luck], but I was fine with that.

Read 12/2007 ( )

Not a bad follow-up to Weasel's Luck - not fantastic, but not bad. ( )