The Fifth Ring

Rating:
Summary: Fine Story
Review: I've been reading fantasy since I was a kid and I was somewhat taken aback when my literature professor assigned this book for our class to read. While fantasy is a lot of fun, most of it isn't terribly well written. THE FIFTH RING, by Mitchell Graham was a plesant exception and a complete surprise interms of its quality of writing.

I really enjoyed the interplay bewteen the principal characters and the exciting fight and ocean sequences. Graham is a sublte wrtier who doesn't beat his readers over the head with endless description. In fact, like Hemmingway, he uses very few adjectives, achieving most of his goals through dialogue.

What it all comes down to is that this book was a great read. Contrary to what several people have written here, I saw nothing derrivitave about this work nor was there much similarity to other masterpieces produced by such notables as Jordan, Terry Goodkind, or Terry Brooks. Graham can hold his own with any of them.

I recently had a chance to read an advance copy of THE EMERALD CAVERN, the next book in the series, and I'm here to tell you there ain't no similarity to the Lord of the Rings or any other fantasy book I've read. This one is a must.

Definitely the next major fantasy trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive and Fun
Review: In all honesty I'd have to say that the themes being played out here have been done before, but so what? Epic quests are nothing new and haven't been since the Homer. Tolkien certainly wasn't the first and Graham won't be the last. That's half the fun of it. A young boy goes on a quest with his companions under the tutelege of an older,wiser man to strange places.

This is exactly why I love fantasy.

In the interview I read with the author he said he wans't trying to accomplish anything new. What he did manage was a very entertaining and fun story. The pace (in the second half of the book) is so fast I found myself picking it up over and over again just to see what happens.

One thing I can say without qualification; Mitchell Graham writes the best action/fighting sequences I've ever read. I also particularly enjoyed the characters of Father Thomas (definitely cool), Gawl (a 7ft tall giant and sometime sculptor), and the young hero, Mathew.

I'll definitely pick up the next installment of this trilogy and can give it a strong recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: It's been years since I've read any fantasy and I'm very glad I picked this one up. I read it nearly straight through on my flight from New York to Australia.

I thought the characters of Mat and Father Thomas were simply great. Lara, Mat's girlfriend, was a lot of fun as well. The storyline is a standard one, in terms of the journey and coming of age. What set's it apart are the relationships between the characters, the nice touches of humor, and the author's ability
to craft an action scene. Another person on the plane was also reading this book and we had a chance to talk about it briefly. She echoed my thoughts.

One thing I felt the author did an excellent job with was the dialogue between the characters. The speech didn't sound stilted or forced. It was more like people talking to one another.

If you're looking for a great book to spend a few evenings with, this is it.

Phillip

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous First Effort
Review: Good books are notoriously hard to come by and The Fifth Ring was a pleasant surprise. The story is definitely not what I expected. As a fantasy purist I half-expected to see another LOTR knockoff. This was certainly not the case here.

I found the characters funny and the plot highly engaging. New author Graham uses rediscovered technology in a mideaval society instead of magic. There is also a strong moral theme running throughout the book about what happens when a character breaks the law.

The fight scenes absolutely rock. This is a novel of high adventure wihtout a lot of clutter and endless descriptions that generally bore me to tears.

I found Mitchell Graham's style subtle and extremely clever in the way he develops his characters. Becasue there are no extended descriptions it would be easy to dismiss them as underdeveloped. This would be a major mistake, because they are anything but. I found myself rooting for the young hero and his girlfriend and the wonderful Father Thomas.

I have read that the author has finally finished the sequel. The Emerald Cavern will be something I greatly look foward to.

Rating:
Summary: Falls Short
Review: This book is short on dialog and plot. The author should have shaved at least 150 pages off the book, where the plot really goes nowhere. At the end, things happen seemingly from nowhere with very little setup or foreshadowing. The end itself is also uninspired. I'm not sure why so many people rated this book so high - the characters are droll, the action is forced and not described well, and the plot is indeed slow. In my opinion, don't even bother with this book.

Rating:
Summary: A classic in the making
Review: I was pleasantly surprised by this book. My initial thought was that it was a LOTR clone, but that was certainly not the case. This is a very different world with very different and realisitic characters. It's a soaring adventure story with the coming of age of it's young hero, Mathew Lewin.

The author deals with morality issues quite well and the cast of characters make you want to get to know them more and more as the book progresses.

I've also read (and reviewed) Graham's "Emerald Cavern" and can definitely give this developing series my seal of approval.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Book
Review: I was totally impressed by this story. It had everything: humor, high adventure, wonderful characters and an interesting plot where magic is based on science.

This is definitely one of the best fantasies to come along in twenty or thirty years.

Rating:
Summary: In the middle
Review: Some have complained about "The Fifth Ring" being a Jordan rip-off. To some extent, it is, right down to women who fold their arms under their breasts and say "Men!" in exasperated voices. However, such an analysis misses many things that Mitchell Graham does right. Most notably, when Mathew Lewin and his friends have to flee their rustic little down with a hoard of bad guys on their tail, they actually act like real teenagers. They experience nervousness, confusion, homesickness, and their relationships have ups and downs just like in real life. In that sense, at least, Graham is already better than Jordan. His plotting is not as bad as some people have suggested. Somewhere in the rulebook of formula fantasy, it says that the hero's father must die or be taken out of commission during the first few chapters. Sure enough, Mathew's dad meets an untimely demise right on schedule, but the way that it happens is at least somewhat unexpected.

Though better than many standard fantasies, "The Fifth Ring" is not without certain flaws. The opening chapter consists merely of a character mentally reciting an infodump for our benefit. In fact, archbaddie Karas Duren turns out to be a total wash, and the chapters told from his perspective are a waste of time. Furthermore, the "all manner of hellish abomination" mentioned on the back cover turns to be just some lame orc wannabees named "orlocks". There are continuity issues too. Character often travel hundreds of miles in a single day, quite a feat in a society with only medieval technology, and entire armies inexplicably cross the entire map without being noticed by their opponents.

Writing is a mixed bag. There are some good passages where the characters' emotions feel genuine and the dialogue rings true, and even a few good jokes along the way. On the other hand, we also get endless streams of clichés. It seems like every five minutes, a character has a bad feeling in the pit of their stomach, feels a chill run up their spine, or wonders whether to believe their ears. So in short, "The Fifth Ring" is worthy of neither the ringing accolades handed out by some fantasy fans nor the scathing criticism dished up by the others. But it is a book that shows promise. If Graham does clean up his writing style and work on developing decent villains, might he actually go on to be one of the major fantasy authors of this generation? Stranger things have happened. This guy bears watching.

Rating:
Summary: Really Pleased
Review: I heard so much about this book and so many people were reading it, I finally caved in. I'm glad I did. While it wasn't the greatest fantasy I've ever read as some reviewers have written, it was an extremely entertaining book. The characters far and away carried the story and my guess is Mr. Graham has a bright future ahead of him.

I'm definitely going to pick up the second book in the trilogy, The Emerald Cavern which is out tomorrow according to the press releases. My local store already has them on back order. I liked the fact that Lara, Mathew's love interest, is not a whimp nor is she one of Jordan's perpetually bad tempered females. She can hold her own with most men and gives as good as she gets. The giant Gawl is a lot of fun and I just fell in love with Father Thomas. Mathew remindes me more of a young Horatio Hornblower.

All that said, The Fifth Ring gets high marks and Graham a round of applause for a job well done.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, well-wrtten story
Review: There are few fantasies I've read that I enjoyed as much as this one. I loved the characters and the world Mitchell Graham creates. I found things realistically set out and the humor Graham injected was a breath of fresh air.

This was just a great story to read. Simply top notch.