[Ribald]

I had the good fortune to get a review copy of this first English translation of Markus Heitz's The Dwarves, which is the first book in a projected 4 book series. To pithily, if a little inaccurately sum it up, The Dwarves is just like Tolkien's The Hobbit, if The Hobbit grew up, started wearing a hoody and drinking on street corners. Or perhaps, Tolkien with a dash of Gemmell and a sprinkling of George R.R. Martin.

Basically, young Dwarf has been raised in isolation by a human wizard and has never had contact with other dwarves. The representatives of the Dwarven kingdoms are meeting up to elect a new High King. Evil orcs/goblins/ogres and general undead nastiness have invaded the tranquil land, led by a band of Evil Elves. Therefore young Dwarf gets sent into the big bad world (and we get to tour along with him as everything is laboriously explained) and runs across some other Dwarves, becomes a pawn in the political infighting of the leadership struggle and ultimately becomes embroiled as a central figure in the quest to save the land from the encroaching aforementioned undead nastiness. Along the way he also discovers that female dwarves don't have beards.

All in all this book was generally a fun read. The plot is linear but ambles along at a good pace. A couple of the character backstories are interesting, and one in particular is actually quite poignant. Some of the characters are exceptionally irritating and there are a couple of WTF moments when certain characters seem to completely change personality and motivation, but this is made up for by some of the better characters. Not heavy on humour but there are one or two glimmers in there (particularly the self aware nature of the book and of fantasy tropes), but there are a couple of gruesome battle scenes that dirty up the Tolkienesque aspects of the world nicely. The history of the world has not been fully developed but there are hints toward a deeper world history, a wider world beyond the limited borders of the vale setting, and a promise of less stereotypical plot in the later books.

Two high points are the Dark Elves, who are much closer to the Celtic Faerie or Norse Mythological creatures than they are to your usual Dark Elf clones (like the Drow from Forgotten Realms) and they are genuinely screwed up sadistic puppies, and the Dwarves themselves, who for once are not alcoholic Scottish side-kicks around only to supply some comic relief to the proceedings. There is a great Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mine car sequence and an interesting approach to magic, albeit far more prosaic and stereotypical approach than most modern authors.

There is enough stereotypical Tolkienesque quest narrative and plot devices to entertain those that want that safe familiar read, with a couple of neat ideas to entertain those that want a little more. This is not groundbreaking stuff in anyway, but it is stereotypical genre fantasy done well.



Ribald

[T'renn]

I read all the books of Heitz in Dutch. I liked it in being Tolkienesque as it was. Heitz is at the front of the current rise of German Fantasy, with other writers like Peinkofer and Hennen writing as well. The Dwarves was quite a succes. Now other titles have started as well.

Like (orignal, no, but good)

The Elves (by Bernhard Hennen)
The Orcs (very funny, by Marcus Peinkofer)
The Trolls
and so on

[Coco with marshmallows]

picked this up last week and started reading.

its not earth-shattering by any means, but its solidly entertaining. certainly i'm enjoying it anyway.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

Dwarfs are one of my favourite races in fantasy and my favourite portrayal of them has got to be Pratchett's whilst there's some serious stuff in his portrayal it still fairly comedic or has that undertone. I read Stan Nicholls Orcs and I found that to be an interesting take on Orcs is this book to dwarfs what that book is to Orcs. I read an extract of this book wherein they're deciding whether to make war with the elves and such like things and I found it somewhat boring I assume the rest of the book is better

[Ribald]

I have just started Orcs by Nicholls and will undoubtedly get around to reviewing it at some point, but so far it has been a curious read. Nicholls has had to both humanize and civilize the Orcs and thus has removed a great deal of their intrinsic barbaric nature and so rather than giving us a book from the point of view of the evil orcs, and exploring how they don't consider themselves as evil, he has given us a book from the point of view of standard noble and misunderstood barbarians who happen to be green.
So far the plot seems to be heavily centred on plot coupons and the type of narrative that goes along the lines of "Go to town A, get item B, go to town C get item D, run from pursuit to location E and remarkably come across item F" etc etc.... I am hoping that it improves. There are some interesting aspects to the story and most people on this forum have a soft spot for a squad of soldiers traipsing across hostile territory in search of something only half-understood... so I will remain optimistic until proven otherwise.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

So are you saying Dwarves is better in your opnion

[Ribald]

To put it simply, yes, The Dwarves is a lot better than Orcs.
Of course only in my occasionally humble opinion. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me but I really think that Orcs is a poor book.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

If it's better it's better I'm only asking so that I can avoid wasting my money rather than because I love Orcs and think nothing can compare

[Ribald]

If you like the plot of The Hobbit and a Gemmell-esque style then The Dwarves isn't bad. It isn't a great fantasy novel, nor does it have much flair, but it is solid stuff with occasional glimmers of something better.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

Well my copy just arrived I'll crack it open soon as I finish RotCG

[Ribald]

@Ben... I am really hoping you like The Dwarvesmore than Orcs otherwise I will feel really guilty.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

Well I'm about 2/3rds done and I have to say it's pretty good. Do I like it more than Orcs, not really, I'd say they're about even but it's only the first of what I believe is 4 books so I may change my tune

EDIT: Just finished it and I have to say it certainly heats up towards the end. It blows Orcs out of the water. I look forward to reading the rest of them

This post has been edited by Ben Adephon Delat: 08 November 2009 - 01:46 AM

[Ribald]

@Ben.... I feel slightly more relieved now. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

For a while I was worried the book was veering from dwarves as the protagonists but it redeemed itself with a twist that whilst falling short of the mark of being the best I've was was still pretty good.

With regards the female dwarves that was an unusual compromise between bearded and beardless

Spoiler

having them basically having a less prickly and permanent five o'clock shadow.

It's cool but bearded female dwarfs are just funnier and seem more dwarfish and less human which is a good thing in my book. Furthermore

Spoiler

Bylandis spent an unusually long time in her undergarments. Dwarfish fanservice I certainly never expected to read it.

Spoilers are there to be safe I don't really think there's any book ruining stuff there

[Tamilyrn]

Thought it was OK but it seemed squarely targeted at YA audience. I found myself several times in the position where I wanted to know what was happening but didn't want to read how it happened. A lot of skim reading and very little slowing down to enjoy something really good.

Doubt I'd read the next one.

[Ben Adephon Delat]

I read more than enough intricate plots sometimes all you want is for good guys to win and bad guys to fall like tenpins. The book isn't that simple but it's far closer than books like MbotF

[EsotericForest]

Sometimes a person needs to read something extremely deep, with a hundred plot lines running in every direction, like Steven Erikson tends to do. Other times a person needs a bit of a lighter read like the dragonlance series or the Harry Potter series can offer. Sometimes a person's brain just needs a little bit of a break, or at least mine does.

So after reading this topic, my curiosity was peaked and I ended up ordering the book. I'll let you guys know what I think of it