Tome Thursday: The Dwarves

Hello everyone!

I'm back into the realm of fantasy or science fiction, depending how you look at it right now, although I have to admit that this book is pretty much fantasy when it all boils down to it. Epic fantasy, maybe? That, too, but I wouldn't be so sure according to the reviews I've seen on Amazon or Goodreads.

Not that I usually care about those.

To me, the total number of good reviews doesn't say whether or not the book is good or bad. It just tells me that I may find it to be different than what the other readers thought about it. I've seen this happen with movies more often than books, since IMDB tends to have ratings that really do fool people. If you judge a movie just by the rating, you can miss out on a lot of great ones because the only ones who actually review are the people who disliked it. Me, I try to be objective.

But back to books.

Markus Heitz is a German author, and I first saw his books on accident while browsing in the store one day. They attracted me because of the fact that they were, apparently, about Dwarves only. So I eventually decided, what the heck, let's try it!

The book series consists of four books, although I've only read one so far, I haven't gotten to the point where I could focus on the second with so many other books to read. It's sad, but it's my reality somehow.

The first one is titled simply The Dwarves, and it's actually a really good beginning even though some things were probably lost in translation somehow since it was originally written in German.

We mostly follow the perspective of Tungdil, a Dwarf who was raised by humans and has never really met any of his own kind. He is a smith with one of the wizards in the land called Gildegard, but is at the beginning of the book recalled by one of the Dwarven clans, as an apparent missing heir to the throne.

Let's back up.

There used to be five clans of the Dwarves, but the Fifthlings were the first to fall to the so-called Perished Land, which is basically a gray waste with monsters and stuff that's eating up the beautiful world, and they opened the gates into Gildegard. The Fourthlings and Secondlings are in regular contact and the Dwarven High King is usually picked from those clans. The Firstlings have been lost to all communication for a long time now, and the Thirdlings were Dwarves gone bad, who were eventually anihilated by their own kind so they wouldn't go all crazy on the other races.

Okay.

So the Fourthlings send for Tungdil, but we are blessed with the perspective of the Dwarves as well, as the current High King is basically playing for time so that the heir apparent, Gandrogar, won't claim the throne and take the Dwarves to war with the Elves. That would be beyond bad, as they should fight the Perished Land and corrupt wizards, but you know, politics. Gandogar is spurred on by his advisor, which just goes to show you can't trust anyone in high positions of power.

Tungdil arrives at the Fourthling kingdom, and the race for High King begins with tasks that must be performed by each of the two candidates. The balance never quite tips from one to the other, until the last one: they must go to the abandoned Fifthling kingdom and forge an axe with which to destroy the dark magician Nudin.

Have I mentioned these names are singularily impossible to pronounce? Let's not go into Bovagr, Balëndal, Boindil, Djerun, Furgas, Armora and Balyndis. It's like the author decided to combine as many consonants as possible.

But anyway.

Gandogar and Tungdil both pick a team to help them, and they start their journey through underground tunnels that used to connect the whole of Gildegard and the Dwarven kingdoms. They also, coincidentallly, lead them to the Firstling kingdom where they realize the Dwarves are very much still active and alive! And matriarchal, to boot.

They plead with the Queen to go and help the rest of the clans, who are by then under siege from the bad guys and have taken refuge in the one place unwelcome to Dwarves - the Thirdling mountain.

Tungdil & Co have no time though as they race to the Fifthling kindom to get all they need; there they also find Gandogar, as the lone survivor of his own team, as Nudin's forces are trying to prevent them from creating the axe which could destroy their master (side-note here: Nudin had by this point destroyed all other magicians who had previously lived through the land; he has done this because the Perished Land has somehow taken possession of him and it says it's 'the only way' to protect them from something else, something far worse). They are aided in their endeavor by the Revenants of the Fifthlings; a Revenant is someone who has died in the Perished Land and has risen again, like a Zombie, only these guys are good, channeling their inner beast to help our lot.

The axe, Keenfire, is forged, and now they must make haste to where the Dwarves are under siege, as only an enemy of the race can successfully wield it. Tungdil originally thinks it might be Djerun, who seems to be part troll or some other monster, but it turns out the wielder is Tungdil himself.

He is a Thirdling, just like Gandogar's ill-fated advisor, and as such he is an enemy, but he ends Nudin's life and the combined races of Elves, Men and Dwarves have victory (the other two joined up in battle earlier once they realized things were starting to get real).

Gandogar is crowned High King (he's not so bad, really), while Tungdil and Balyndis go to rebuild the Fifthling kingdom. The Perished Land has been destroyed.

But just as the book comes to a close, a strange meteor crashes down into Gildegard.

Dun dun dun!

I have to say it was entertaining to read all the political machinations and whatnots, not to mention Tungdil was amusing as no tomorrow, and his companions even more so. In some ways, this reminded me of The Lord of the Rings, but not overly much, and although there were some blips (like Gandogar saying pretty modern things, or no one ever explains what happened to him and his team, to an annoying bad guy named Sinthoras who keeps repeating one thing 'Sinthoras will be your death'; I was like DIEDIEDIE!) it was comical and entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading the second book!

If you're into Dwarves, this is definitely one for you.

xx

*image not mine