Iron Tower by Dennis McKiernan

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Submitted by Keith 
(Aug 22, 2010)

I read these books many years ago, and recently picked them up and enjoyed them all over again. Books I enjoy, I tend to look around the internet and see what is said, and if other books are coming soon. There is a large volume of reviews and comments regarding Dennis and him copying the LOTR.

Of course there is...the author admits it, he planned on it.....don't hammer the guy when this was his clear intention. When I read the LOTR (many times) I, like many others fantasized about what a wonderful story the retaking of the Mines of Moria would be. Dennis thought this too and wrote the story (the Silver Call series).

The kicker was that his publisher couldn't get permission to publish a sequel from the Tolkien estate. So they asked him to change things..and pretty much rub off the VIN number and paint it another color. They wanted the books anyway, and Dennis had to do the rebranding thus he started work on the Iron Tower as he had to do so much rework.

The Silver Call was written first, and was written as a sequel to the LOTR, rewritten due to licensing issues..I enjoy reading them for what they really are. It is what I wanted to see if Tolkien had written a sequel.

Be critical of his writing, the story, the characters, but don't be critical of his copying as it was intended.

This series has given me hours and hours of sheer enjoyment. The charactors are powerful, and have no problem rooting for the good guys. Modru is a horror indeed, as well as his supporting cast of minions. The story rivals The Lord Of The Rings, and in my opinion, offers much more action.Mr. McKiernan's story telling envelops you its hard to set the books aside.

I'd have to disagree with the previous reviewer of the Iron Tower Trilogy.

I loved these books, correction, book because I bought the volumeized version. The reason why is because it reminded me of Lord of the Rings.

However, there's no doubt Lord of the Rings is much longer and a better book, however the Iron Tower trilogy contains more action, and is almost as good.

For one, Lord of the Rings spent even MORE time describing the landscapes and castles than Iron Tower did. I've seen people turned off of reading LOTR because of this, but not Iron Tower.

I like that Laurelin is mentioned many times, because it makes sense. In times of war, we all need something to hold onto, some ideal, and the characters had Princess Laurelin as that ideal. Yes she did cry and whine quite a bit at first, but again only natural she was in a very bad situation. In the end she pulled through and became a much stronger person.

I agree, though, that the author mentions the word Saphirinne one too many times.

As for Tuck, yes he does cry, but he does many other things as well such as saving lives, and also doing his damned best to defend his friends and allies during the war. You can't say the same for the Hobbits, who spent most of the time cowering and only did a few note-worthy deeds.

Not that I don't love LOTR, I do, I just also love The Iron Tower.

Some writers can take the most mediocre storyline and transform it into something special through good writing and characters. "Iron Tower" trilogy is not one of those special stories. The flaws are many and varied: the characters are paper-thin and occasionally laughable, the action is dull, about ninety percent of the stuff going on is ripped off from Tolkien, and the writing style and dialogue range from mediocre to downright silly. It's one of those books where you keep reading because it seems impossible that it could get any worse.

Tuck Underbank is the hero, a Warrow (hobbit, right down to meals and baths) living in the Boskydells (Shire) who is called out to aid the high king Aurion (Theoden?) and his son Galen (Aragorn) in defeating the evil Modru (Sauron) and his dark forces of rukhs, lokhs and ogres (orcs, uruk-hai and trolls) as well as the Ghuls (Nazgul) and Vulgs (wargs). Tuck teams up with a fiery dwarf Brega (Gimli) and a majestic elf warrior Gildor (Legolas) and is drawn into Gron (Mordor) to defeat Modru.

The storyline of this trilogy is the same as Tolkien and many other fantasies: Heroes travel across land to defeat Big Bad Evil Villain. Emotional trauma. Battles. Magic. It's all laid out in Diana Wynne-Jones's "Tough Guide to Fantasyland." Comparisons to Tolkien are, let's face it, inevitable...Even if this is a tribute, it's not even a GOOD tribute!

This book lacks the texture of Tolkien's writing. There's none of the majesty and mystery. Additionally, he does not seem to understand that saying a character is a hero and telling us why is not enough to make us BELIEVE it. Let the person's actions throughout the book tell us why. And these characters, unfortunately, grow more paper-thin as the story progresses -- the more there are of them, the less we care. The character interactions range from ludicrous to nauseating, from the weird buddy-buddy dialogue of Tuck and his allies to his too-cute-to-stomach romance with Merrilee.

The ripoffs are many and varied: ancient battle between good and evil is exactly like Tolkien's (including McKiernan's own Eru and Morgoth). The dwarf mine-city; tentacled beastie outside magical concealed doors; Balrog/Ghath; Boskydells; Warrows; the horn given to Patrel; the Elven retreat where our heroes rest for a while; several character names; amazingly dull "Elfess Rael"/Galadriel; the blue-glowing dagger-sword Bane belonging to Tuck... The list goes on and on. In addition, the characters have the outward appearance of the LOTR characters, but none of the depth: Tuck has all of Frodo's angst, but no reason for it; Modru is a caricature, Sauron without his menace; Galen has all of the commanding presence of Aragorn, but nothing to back it up; Brega has all of Gimli's stubbornness and occasional obnoxiousness, but none of his fire or dignity; Gildor is graceful and elegant, but has none of Legolas's quirky sense of humor, athleticism, humility or gentle teasing.

Some elements are removed -- most notably Sam, Gandalf and the Ring. Unfortunately the gaps are filled by original elements. Events near the end, lacking a Ring, are utterly original -- and ludicrous. Tuck's love interest is Merrilee, who is one of the most annoying female characters I have ever read about. She goes alternately from weepy to a frenzied military advisor (who even lectures a seasoned general on tactics!). Patrel is actually a fairly nice character, but Danner is a pain: He's like a hobbit needing Prozac, perpetually taking offense and wanting to go out and kick Spawn...

But perhaps the worst is Princess Laurelin, whom the male characters spend about half of the book praising and thinking about ("For the Lady Laurelin!") despite the fact that she never actually seems to DO anything. She's so relentlessly sweet and kind and lovely that she made my teeth ache. She is also a Damsel In Distress -- she's kidnapped, and spends many, many pages whining to herself and crying in the dark. (For all the complaints about Tolkien's women, they never were DiDs -- sometimes they even rescued the men!) Compared to the capable and tough Eowyn, Laurelin is helpless. There are sexist comments about women's importance and abilities, and Laurelin's preoccupation with her appearance -- they contradict his heavy-handed gender equality message in Book Two.

McKiernan's writing is about equal to a 9-12 book, but kids will get bored quickly with the endless descriptions of castle construction, mountain passes, and the history of forts. The editing is terrible. When we're first introduced to Laurelin, her eye color is mentioned twice in the same sentence. Run-on sentences abound, and semicolons are used with abandon. There are references to good guys smiling and "showing teeth", which is usually considered menacing. Whenever one of the Warrows does or says something even vaguely amusing, everyone in the room falls over laughing. In addition, McKiernan constantly repeats himself: Tuck's eyes must be called "sapphirine" about ten thousand times. Ditto with hair color and clothing color. (Okay! Laurelin is blond! Igon wears red! We get it!)

The characters spend too much time crying. Tuck is the worst -- every other page, he's sobbing, tearing up, or weeping about something or other. Another problem is dialogue. No one talks like these people do. Warrows switch from dialect to dialect: from Cockney to pirate to ordinary English -- and some accents I can't identify. Men and Elves switch between normal speech and formal speech, often in the same conversation and with no warning. And someone needs to tell Mr. McKiernan that it doesn't count as an ancient dialect if you spell words funny. (Example: "Hal! Heah Adoni cnawen ure weg!" as "Hail! High Adon knows our way!")

I get the distinct impression that this is LOTR -- as Mr. McKiernan thinks it should have been written. Bad, astonishingly bad....