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Summary: This is the conclusion to the Hel's Crucible Duology.
Review: This is the conclusion to the Hel's Crucible duology. Along with book 1, Into the Forge, it tells the story of the Great War of the Ban as seen through the eyes of two "ordinary" Warrows, Tipperton Thistledown and Beau Darby, caught up in a struggle not of their making, two common soldiers (if there is such a thing as a "common" soldier) in a raging conflict against the forces who would crush freedom in the name of their evil god Gyphon. In book 1, Tipperton and Beau set out to deliver a mysterious and seemingly worthless pewter coin to someone or something named Agron. Along the way they faced terrible peril and death, yet they also made fast friends with an assortment of folk, Humans, Baeron, Elves, and Dwarves among them, as well as a squad of Warrows. At the end of book 1, they had yet to deliver the mysterious coin to Agron, and when we left our two intrepid heroes, they took up the journey once again.In this book, Into the Fire, book 2 ! of the Hel's Crucible duology, we follow Tipperton and Beau on into the dreadful dangers awaiting them as Destiny draws them into Hel's Crucible itself. In spite of the barrage of requests, it took me several years to get around to telling this story, but here it is at last. I do hope you find this journey into Mithgar to your liking, in spite of the perilous trek within. ---Dennis L. McKiernan
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Summary: Barn rats!
Review: Who knew war could be so boring? The second book of the Hel's Crucible duology almost rivals the first for boredom and irritating tendencies. During the course of the book, Beau comments, "Four years? No wonder I'm sick of war" or words to that effect. I felt like chiming in, "You and me both." This book picks up where the first left off, where Tip, Beau, Loric, Phais and Bekki are all setting out to finally get that stupid little coin to Agron. When they finally get it to him, they find out that there is a specific (and very dumb) purpose behind it, and become even more enmeshed in the war with Modru's sinister forces. At the same time, Tip finds that his girlfriend Rynna and her band of Warrows (warrior-hobbits) are still alive. But Modru's horde is not the only thing that threatens Our Heroes -- a deadly plague is sweeping Dendor. And to destroy Modru's forces, they will have to rely on a force that no one can control... The first book was kind of like watching the heroes running on a hamster wheel; they were running, but they weren't actually going anywhere or accomplishing anything. This time, they actually accomplish things. But it's the same thing; they run to someplace, they get new allies for the Good Guys, something bad happens, they overcome it. Repeat for 550 pages. We are told in almost day by day detail about what they were doing, where they were going, and what direction they were going in. Loric, Phais and Bekki all sort of drift in and out. And major plot developments like the plague, the destruction of Atala, and that thing with Galarun and the sword feel tacked on. The plague, for example, begins and ends within the course of this book, and it adds nothing to the plot. We're told that the Silver Sword can kill Gyphon, about halfway through the book; that's over three quarters through the story, and it feels like it was tacked in solely to add more pages to the meager storyline. The last thirty pages are exceptionally poorly written; it feels like McKiernan got sick of the whole story, and simply added some vague descriptions to an initial outline. The extremely important threat from Gyphon is added as an afterthought. The cast is too large for anyone to have much character development, and there is very little personal difference between Elves, Mages, Men, Warrows, and so on. Traumatic events such as the destruction of Atala last a lot less time then they should. After Loric and Phais find out exactly what happened, everyone gets upset for about ten minutes, then ambles off on their way. And supposedly important events are... well, underwhelming is too vague a word to use. When they finally get the idiotic coin to Agron (and by this time I was thoroughly sick of it) we are told its purpose. I ended up shouting, "That's IT? That's ALL?" At one point, Agron's army is wiped out by an avalanche. There is no real feel of crisis during all of this. Even so, the climax managed to snag me and force me to take it seriously. But then the Utruni showed up, and everything came apart. I'm sorry, but when they started speaking in a mangled Yorkshire accent, I laughed so hard I dropped the book. The Warrows are utterly annoying warrior hobbits (imagine Frodo joining the Marines), without the simple charm of Tolkien's creations. The Elves are still weird; the Dwarves sort of peter out somewhere during the story. Characterizations are even flatter than in the first book, and unfortunately we also have more annoying female Warrows; Rynna, and her irritating cousin Linnet. We still have Tolkien ripoffs: the Warrows are essentially hobbits in combat; the Gargons/Balrogs; Agron/Elendil; trolls, uruk-hai, orcs/ogrus, hloks, and rukhs; Boskydells/Shire; Modru/Sauron; Atala/Numenor; Gyphon/Morgoth; ents/Woodwer, and so on... Dialogue is still a problem, as is repetition. If I hear "oh my" or "barn rats!" one more time, I think I'll shriek. We are forced to endure the exact same descriptions in the season-changing ritual as before; and a paragraph on one of the final pages is, word for word, identical to one in the Iron Tower trilogy. (Mr. McKiernan, if you can't write a new description of the Thornwall, please don't write any description of it at ALL!) As in the last book, we are treated to excruciating romance. Thankfully, Elf lovers Phais and Loric are pretty much celibate in this book. But we have Tip and Rynna, and Beau taking up with the picky Linnet. (Yes, again, he falls instantly in love with minimal exposure to Warrow girls, and I fail to see the attraction to either Rynna or Linnet) Unfortunately, we also have to deal with Elissan, the pervert Elf from Book 1 -- she's still focusing on seeing Tip in the nude. (I was once jokingly called a "pervy hobbit fancier," but the description fits her better!) Outstandingly poor, failing even to succeed as a ripoff. I don't know why McKiernan sent this story to his editor without a few years of rewriting.
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