This is the start of what the author describes as an attempt to recreate some of the tone and spirit of classic fantasy novels, especially Tolkien's. The setting and style seem to be similar, though not quite as much High Fantasy as Tolkien. Like LOTR, the heroes of this story are mainly Warrows, McKiernan's version of Hobbits. The plot and characters are his own though, and there's no Gandalf to save the day. ( )

This trilogy bears about the same resemblance to the Lord of the Rings that a wad of gum on the underside of a seat does to a fresh stick of Wrigley's Doublemint. A lot of the material is similar to that of the source, but the freshness and flavour is not there. The cover art, on the other hand, is outstanding and worth keeping the book for. ( )

A generic, run-of-the-mill fantasy novel. I felt that it focused way too much on the fighting. ( )

The Iron Tower trilogy gets most of its ideas and characters from Lord of the Rings. It is a fun story with likable heroes, but don't expect anything original or mind shattering.