In Flint the King by Mary Kirchoff and Douglas Niles we follow the story of Flint as he visits his home before the Chronicles trilogy kicks off.
It was really interesting to me because we get a fairly deep dive into the dwarven culture and learn more about their love of crafting and creating things. It is really deeply rooted in who they are.
We open with Flint just enjoying alone (before he travels to his homeland) and realize that he really is aging and not as adventurous as he might have been when he was younger. He is really more the reluctant hero in many ways.
As he travels he finds that this new Seeker group who claim to be religious and offering people chances at and afterlife, claiming to believe in the “new Gods” are really just kind of bullies that take taxes or donations from people that aren’t really all that voluntary. In Flint’s mind that makes them not to be trusted. These religious zealots have none of the healing powers of the clerics of old, and business owners view them as an absolute annoyance.
As he considers traveling to his homeland we find that Flint hasn’t really been around other Dwarves for years, and as he runs into one he finds that things in the homeland aren’t what they were, that annoys him into going and checking it out.
As Flint travels we see that he really doesn’t mind traveling, what bothers him is other people. We get the impression he is really just a recluse who would rather be left along than thrust into some leadership role.
We do in this book learn why he was invited into the Elven homeland and how he met Tania, which was an interesting side bit of his character backstory. It also serves to show just how respected Flint Fireforge is around Krynn.
Once we reach his homeland we find things are much different, his brother has been murdered and the entire village is not as he left it at all. Now change happens but apparently Dwarves are too stubborn to change quickly. That leads to some great action as Flint has to figure out what the heck is really going on.
There is more discussion in the video on my YouTube channel, but all in all this book I really enjoyed. I kept looking for time to read (I may have snuck the book into a football game which annoyed my fiancé just a little). Highly recommended for any DragonLance fan!
