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Dark Heart

Dragon's Disciple #1 / 1
by Margaret Weis, David Baldwin
Dark Heart (Dragon's Disciple #1) by Margaret Weis, David Baldwin
Unrated

Justin Sterling is a loner. Formerly Justinian, Lord Sterling, he has lived for centuries in, but not of, our world, serving an ancient entity known only as the Dragon. Justin's reward is immortality, but to keep it he must keep killing. He has grown to hate his interminable life, soaked in blood, almost as much as he fears the hideous death that will be his if he refuses to do the Dragon's bidding.

Sandra McCormick is also a loner. A dedicated Chicago cop, fleeing a twisted past as a victim of abuse, McCormick devotes her scant free time to studying the martial artsand occasionally cruising the grunge and punk nightclubs for anonymous one-night stands.

These two loners are about to meet.

Lieutenant McCormick has been assigned a high-profile case. Two men are dead. One a lawyer, one a cop. Both murdered in a mysterious and particularly gruesome mannertheir still-beating hearts literally torn from their chests.

It was Justin who killed the cop, after another disciple bungled the lawyer's death. Now Justin must eliminate the second cop assigned to the case. It little matters that she's a woman. He has done the Dragon's bidding for so long that the slaughter has become routine.

But there is something different about this assignmentfor both the cop and the disciple. It is a difference they both reject, and then embrace more and more passionately as the closing circle of Destiny draws them together.

For these two dedicated killers, these two confirmed loners, each assigned to stalk the other... are falling in love.

And love is the one vice the Dragon does not allow.

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FantasyUrban Fantasy
Release date: 1998

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Margaret Weis

Margaret Weis

In the sprawling worlds of epic fantasy, few names echo with the same resonance as Margaret Weis. Her stories aren't merely told—they are lived, breathed, and carried in the imaginations of readers who first wandered through the war-torn lands of Dragonlance and never truly left. Weis didn’t just write fantasy—she helped shape it during a time when the genre itself was still defining its voice.

Born in Missouri in 1948, Margaret Weis was a quiet but voracious reader, drawn not to fairy tales or whimsical fables, but to myths that roared with dragons, gods, and fate-bound heroes. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 1970 with a degree in creative writing and literature—training that sharpened her instinct for compelling narratives long before her stories found a stage.

Read more ...

It was at TSR, the company behind Dungeons & Dragons, where her path shifted from editor to architect of worlds. Paired with fellow writer Tracy Hickman, Weis co-created Dragonlance, a series that broke new ground by infusing role-playing lore with literary depth. With characters like Raistlin Majere and Tanis Half-Elven, Dragonlance Chronicles became more than a tie-in—it became canon for a generation of fantasy readers and gamers alike.

What sets Weis apart is not just her gift for building vast, believable worlds, but her ability to explore moral complexity within them. Her characters often wrestle with loyalty, ambition, sacrifice, and destiny—timeless themes made intimate. Whether charting the rise and fall of nations or the inner battle of a mage tempted by power, she brings a balance of mythic scale and human fragility to her prose.

Beyond Dragonlance, Weis has written across subgenres—from science fiction in The Star of the Guardians to dark fantasy in The Death Gate Cycle. Her voice adapts, but her core remains: a commitment to stories that challenge, inspire, and endure.

Despite decades of success and millions of books sold, Weis remains grounded in the love of storytelling. In interviews, she’s spoken of writing as “a form of escape—but also a way to understand the world.” It's this duality—escapism laced with introspection—that gives her novels their staying power.

Today, Margaret Weis continues to write, create, and inspire, not just as a bestselling author, but as a quiet revolutionary who helped prove that fantasy could be as rich, nuanced, and emotionally resonant as any other literary tradition. And for readers still journeying through Krynn or discovering it for the first time, her legacy grows with every page turned.

Dragon's Disciple

Dragon's Disciple consists of one primary book, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

Dark Heart (Dragon's Disciple #1)
Unrated
Margaret Weis' Testament of the Dragon: The Illustrated Novel (Dragon's Disciple)
Unrated


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