The Hand of Chaos, volume 5 of the Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The saga's villain-protagonist, Haplo, is tasked with visiting four of the Sundered Worlds. There he is to incite chaos, war, etcetera so that his master, Xar, can travel to each world and take over by ending the wars Haplo initiated.
During his travels he meets Alfred, one of his ancient enemies. After the Ancient World was destroyed, a group of powerful wizards known as the Sartan imprisoned the Patryns (like Haplo and Xar) in a realm called the Nexus. The Nexus unfortunately turned deadly, with dragons and other nasties springing up to threaten the imprisoned Patryns.
If you enjoyed the semi-twist to the Dark Tower saga, or magitek (we have the rune-magic utilized by the Patryn/Sartan, and mechanical magic used by many of the elves on the four worlds) worlds, you'll like this series.
If you enjoyed Dragonlance, I think you'll like this. If you were like me and was somewhat on the fence with Dragonlance, go ahead and give this one a try. I prefer it to Dragonlance thus far.
