This is the story of Verminaard, unloved bastard son of Solamnic Knights, and his road to evil. My husband adores the Dragonlance series and insisted I read this. He'd finished it in a weekend, so surely I, the voracious reader, would speed through as well. He was wrong. Though far from being a bad book, it just didn't draw me in. Verminaard's evilness seems to be inborne rather than reactionary, to the point that the supposed contributing factors - the unloving father, the loss of the beloved brother - seem more like asides and much less sympathetic. Likewise with his half-brother Aglaca, who is unfailingly upbeat and loyal for no apparent reason. I understand the story the Williamses were trying to tell, and it took a while to put my finger on what was wrong. Then I realized it was missing a vital element of all great drama: levity. The human experience is not serious all the time. Even in the grimmest tales there is laughter. The unrelenting depression of this book left me frankly unmoved. ( )

Before the Mask is the first book in the Villains series set in the Dragonlance setting. The series focuses on the villains highlighted in the Chronicles trilogy by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis.This book focuses on the Dragon Highlord Verminaard and his ascent from an innocent child to one of the Dark Queen’s most famous dragon highlords. The book starts off with the birth of Verminaard and picks up several years later when her is a child. After this the author skips up a few years to when he 20 years old. At this point the author starts to bring in elements that eventually cause the rescue of a woman from capitivity and Verminaards discovery of the mace “Nightbringer”. After the retrieval of Nightbringer, Verminaard begins his descent into evil by a committing host of nefarious acts. The book ends with meeting his dragon mount Ember and pledging his loyalty to the Queen of Darkness, Takhisis.

Check out the entire review at my website.
http://www.thefantasyreview.com/2007/06/09/before-the-mask-review/ ( )