Into the Forge

Every so often, I just want to read a story of Good Vs. Evil. War, Intrigue, Hero's, Elves. And, I hate AD & D books. That is why I love McKiernan so much. Classic Fantasy written well. Every book I've read from him I've enjoyed immensely, including this series. Excellent! I couldnt rate it higher.

As I read through the scathing reviews of this book, I couldn't help but wonder what goes through people's mind when they give a fantastic book such as this poor reviews. Dennis McKiernan is one of the greatest fantasy writers in the genre. To call his work a blatent rip-off of Tolkien is a grevious sin. It must be said that Tolkien tales urged Mr. McKiernan to get into writing in the first place, and his Iron Tower Trilogy was originally written as a sequel to Tolkien's works; however, Tolkien's Estate declined to endorse such a sequel. Before typecasting McKiernan's works as unoriginal and boring, please read more of his Mithgar story arc. He is one of the most original authors around.

Although I thought this book was going to be another Tolkien ripoff, I found that the story was an original in it's own right. Also, a book can not be considered a "ripoff" whent the author admits to have gotten "ideas" from a previous author. This book did a great job of telling the tale of the war of the Ban which is what all of his books have centered around since The Iron Tower Trilogy. This Title is Mckiernan's second best novel ever...only to be beaten by part two of this Duology, Into the Fire. but that is another tale...and it IS all connected you know!

i've already read it three times and plan on reading it again. i can't wait to read part 2 into the fire.