Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
The Rise and Fall of a Dragonking is the final volume of Lynn Abbey's Dark Sun trilogy, and it has the unusual distinction among shared-world fantasies of actually sticking the landing. The earlier novels set up the political and metaphysical pieces (Hamanu, the sorcerer-king of Urik, has secrets going back centuries; Pavek the war-orphan has grown up; the desert world of Athas is shifting). This book pays them off.
Abbey does the work of treating Hamanu as a tragedy rather than just an antagonist. The long passages from his point of view, looking back across centuries of choices, are some of the strongest writing in the Dark Sun line. The action scenes are competent. The character work is the draw.
Four stars. Best read at the end of the trilogy, ideally not far behind Brazen Gambit and Cinnabar Shadows.
Related reads
If you liked The Rise and Fall of a Dragonking
Cinnabar Shadows
by Lynn Abbey
The second Dark Sun: Chronicles of Athas novel. Lynn Abbey deepening the world and earning a real second act.
Jerlayne
by Lynn Abbey
Lynn Abbey writing solo fantasy about an elf-woman caught between cultures. Quieter than her better-known shared-world stuff.
The Brazen Gambit
by Lynn Abbey
The first Dark Sun: Chronicles of Athas book. Sword-and-sorcery with extreme heat. A Lynn Abbey shared-world entry.
The Nether Scroll
by Lynn Abbey
A late Lynn Abbey Forgotten Realms novel, working with a particularly chewy chunk of FR cosmology. For Realms completists.
Catwoman : Tiger Hunt
by Lynn Abbey
Lynn Abbey writing a 90s Catwoman tie-in novel. Better than tie-ins have any right to be and exactly as fun as you would hope.
The Guardians
by Lynn Abbey
A Forgotten Realms novel by Lynn Abbey. Bloodstone Lands, ranger protagonist, and the kind of competent shared-world fantasy the era produced in volume.
More by this author