Saturday, 26 September 2009

The Dwarves by Markus Heitz

The original German version of this book spawned a best selling series on the continent and we can now enjoy it in a flawless English translation by Sally-Ann Spencer.

The tale itself is not particularly original. Think of a cliche about dwarves and Heitz has probably managed to cram it in: Small, stocky, stubborn, feisty bearded artisans living in underground cities who hate dwarves and elves. The list goes on. Indeed the novel borrows as much from the world of mmorpgs as it does from Tolkien and the main quest line to forge a legendary axe could have been lifted straight from World of Warcraft. For all that this is still a very entertaining read set in a well drawn world with lots of detail and sympathetic heroes. If the sequels ever get translated I will probably try to pick them up.

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