The Dwarves

I was really excited about reading this book. It has a great premise,being about a fantasy race often neglected. Given that it's a translated book it's hard to know whether the faults I had with it were down to the original author or the translator. I suspect they lie in the original text. Characters would often stop in the middle of battles to have heartfelt discussions, the book feels like a series of set pieces where characters show up, something bad happens, it gets fixed, they move on to the next issue. It felt slightly childish and naive to me. Too many characters are simply bad or simply good, for no other discernible reason than being 2D cut out characters.

It's also a long book, and at times it really feels it. I enjoyed some show more sections of it, normally when the story was focussing on the main characters quest. There was however a lot of faffing about in this book. It was also quite twee and predictable at times. Aside from many of the characters being Dwarves, there's nothing new to see in this book. I was worried that this particular story wouldn't tie up and I'd have to read about its conclusion on wikipedia, as I certainly won't be reading the next in series. Luckily the author was able to squeeze in the conclusion in the final few pages. show less

This is the first fantasy I have read in quite a while and I enjoyed it. following the anxieties and quest of poor old Tungdil Goldhand as he wanders through the middle of war that threatens dwarf life itself and the revelations of his heritage as well as the friends he meets and makes along the way was a treat. Heitz gives us excellent though often one dimensional characters to carry his story forward. The plot has lots of twists and turns to keep your interest.

My small criticism is that I thought the scenes could have been painted a little better. We get a feeling for the battles and surroundings but his words don't make me feel as though I am really there.

There are a couple of more books in the series...I will give it a rest for a show more while but I can see me pick up the next in the series in the future. show less

In my opinion, The Dwarves started off really well. In a few chapters, Heitz manages to explore an interesting realm, Girdlegard. The early characters are introduced against a nice backdrop, and as a reader you start to care for them.

Halfway through however, the book lost me. In a matter of a few pages, all the main characters die and new ones are introduced at a rampant speed (thus failing to get interesting). Moreover, when Tungdil, the main character, finally realises his lifelong dream (getting reconnected with his kinsmen), the author takes very little time to describe it.

The book then continued to disappoint me with a fairly straightforward and pretty predictable story. The subplots were all too feeble attempts to colour the show more characters. Of course, if you want to describe a great LotR-alike quest in less than 300 pages, you are bound to miss ample opportunities to make a story truly remarkable.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book and already started in the sequel (War of the Dwarves), hoping that it will be better. show less

I really enjoyed this book. I believe that Heitz does a good job by finally highlighting the Dwarven race as main characters instead of supporting characters. The story line was well thought out and seemed to flow nicely. One thing that I did have a problem with was that it seemed very predictable. By using the word "predictable" I am describing that small conflicts in the story line. Many of these small conflicts seemed to be very repetitious.....example......."the party is attacked, they fight off the attackers, someone is injured, they get healed, for the most part no one dies". After so many of these it almost seemed as if they were fighting the same fight again and again and it kinda took the excitement out of it. Don't get me show more wrong, I believe the author kept many of the larger themes as secrets that kept me guessing but I would have loved to see less predictability on the smaller scale. Over all I rate this book with 4 stars due to his interesting approach, new themes, and the outstanding work of the translator! show less

Excellent read, impossible to put down. It is a translation from German so although 2009 in English it is from 2003. Nicely scaled epic quest storyline with the firm Dwarvish focus but pulling in mages and some fantasy faithfuls like orcs, elves and unicorns. There is the main finding my family story of the chief character Tungdil, plus a rather fun quest for a sword (TM)- ((OK, it's an axe))- there is a threat to the land from a mix of demon magery and lots of battles. When they start racing round the underground mines on the carts it reminded me of a mix of Indiana Jones and the Dwarf mines levels of Dungeon Siege! I did find it a little difficult to keep all the dwarf kingdoms and the mage realms unique in my mind (they overlap all show more over the place, even the two maps at the beginning don't help with this much). At the end of the book however, there was a dramatis personae which was nice but a little late to be useful. show less

I really liked it. The writing was generally pretty smooth and the action was pretty good. Some conversations seemed a bit forced but not sure if that is the writing or the translation. The characters could have used a little more development but I still enjoyed the book so much I had trouble putting it down.

Pretty cool book despite a slow start. The heroes are Dwarves for once and the humans are idiots. Elves don't get much page time so there isn't much to say about them. Pacing is a bit off, it's hard to get into and stay interested until the last third of the book. The plot is vaguely reminiscent of Dragonlance Chronicles, but less old high fantasy.