Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, tired and cliched
Review: I picked this book up out of a bargain bin, and I am very glad that I did. The first problem is that large portions of this book are lifted out of other fantasy books. I mean, the base premise is about a young man/boy from a sleep town that gets a ring with amazing powers, who then has to travel away to defeat an evil lord. Along the way he starts to discover his ability to use magic.
I mean, this has been done so many times there should be a law against using it. Jordan and Goodkind are two examples of authors using this IDENTICAL idea, and that's without even thinking hard.
From here, it goes downhill. The characters are uninteresting and grey. The fight scenes are badly done, and totally out of sync with reality. If I want to read about sterile, legal fencing matches, I'll go and look up the websites of some fencing clubs, thank you very much.
Another thing. Glasses. Since when do people who are essentially living in a small town in the middle ages have glasses? Next thing we are gonna see kids running around with braces and contact lenses. Steer clear of this, seriously. Go and read George R R Martin or David Gemmell, instead
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: Slow start, odd ending
Review: This book started slowly and the characters are introduced during a fencing tournament. In my opinion, the tournament lasted a little too long. As the story unfolds the pace does pick up a little, but there are still slow parts and overall the book is a little short on interesting dialog. The final battles are okay, but the ending came from out of nowhere and really wasn't an ending at all, but the setup for the next 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.
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