[estranghero]

I posted this at the Writer's board but I figured for those who don't go there, I'll post this here also.

http://www.sfsite.com/08b/dm134.htm

Agree? Disagree? Violent reactions?

For the record, I loved "Dragondoom", found "Silvercall" so-so. But my main grief with McKiernan is that he's become so preachy.

[Nimea]

Very interesting article - and I agree. Thanks for posting the link!

Mmh, I always thought he wrote The Iron Tower trilogy before Silver Call - but no, other way around. Might explain why Iron Tower is really much better than Silver Call.
But otherwise his later works are varying very very much in quality. So I really liked Dragoncall and enjoyed The Eye of the Hunter very much just like the Tales of Mithgar, I had a hard time with The Dragonstone and the Hel's Cubicle.
Voyage of the Fox Rider? At least readable, as far as I remember.

[estranghero]

No problem. ;)

I've always wondered about that. Is it plagiarism if you call your copying a hommage ?

My review of his works:

Best is "Dragondoom".

The rest are: 2nd is "Dragonstone" (for the interesting characters), 3rd is "Eye of the Hunter" (we get to check out the rest of the realm of Mithgar), and 4th is "Voyage of the Fox Rider" (sea-going quest).

I found the "Tales of Mithgar" uneven between lousy stories to boring. Never read the "Hel's Crucible" books.

The reason I get his stand-alone books is that I fervently hope he gets back that same magic I discovered in "Dragondoom". So far, no luck yet. :rolleyes:

[allanon]

Ah, I wanted to ask for that guy? What's his books about? Is he good?

[Heresy]

One of my main troubles with McKiernan is that he tends to write 200 pages more than he has to to tell a story.

Don't read Hel's Duology if you can really help it. Not only is it repetitive and long winded, it harps on other stories without giving you any real inkling why (except for It's all connected you know.)


What it read like was Book 1 had a few chapters left, but instead of finishing the story off, it was thrown into Book 2 and conveniently extended with a lot of filler we didn't need to know.

[DragonReader]

I'd like to respectively disagree. Personally I do not see McKiernan's work as "preachy" at all. And while is early work is very similar to LOTR I do not see that in his later work. Yes it shares the many of the same themes and elements but then again so does almost every fantasy novel ever written. Having similar themes is not the same thing as plagerism. Now you can argue that the Iron Tower and the Silver Call are just LOTR rip-offs and I will agree that these are more than just similar, but this is not true of his later works. Having said this I did enjoy the Iron Tower and Silver Call series but not as much as his later work.

Personally I like his work. Dragondoom is my favorite but I have liked them all. I have read all his Mithgar books except the most recent story collection (Red Threads) and in my opinion there has been alot of growth in his writing style. But that of course is just my opinion. I just wanted to offer an alternative view for anyone considering Mckiernan.

[PDC]

I gave up on him after I read the Iron Tower Trilogy.

Could it have been anymore of a Tolkienn rip off?

[Heresy]

He’s one of those writers who hits and misses... As I said earlier, Hel’s Crucible was a drag to read, it was overloaded with tedious events and over taxing speeches that made it difficult to read through. However, in the Tales of Mithgar, I felt this was the other way around. It was well written and I think it shows his story-telling skills at a zenith in terms of description, completion and purpose. One of McKiernan’s biggest faults is to overload his bigger works with events and actions that aren’t necessary to the main plot. (Some people can get away with this because they keep it interesting, some can't)

[Grawgos]

I really like Mckiernan's work. I loved the Iron Tower, Silver Call, dragondoom, eye of the hunter and his work on the new Thieves World series. I think he is a great writer and I enjoy reading his tales. If you have any questions for him, he is always popping into the Yahoo Thieves World group. He seems like a very nice man and is always willing to answer questions.

On another note, I would like to defend his Iron Tower series. I think there were a ton of similarities, but at the same time it is different enough to stand on it's own. I really liked it. Lets face it, everybook out there has borrowed some sort of element from a myth, folklore, fairytale or something. I have also heard people find LOTR hard to read, but have never heard anyone say they had trouble finishing The Iron Tower.

I don't wish to start trouble with that last statement. Everyone is free to think what they want. If you think it is a horrible terrible out right ripp off of the LOTR, that's fine. I'm just saying I disagree and I really liked the books.

[PDC]

Hey, if you liked it, great.

I loved the movie Troy, while just about everybody else hated it.