Rating: 
Summary: A must read trilogy
Review: These 3 books are great. The whole story takes place on Mithgar and involves every race in a war against evil. Elves, Warrows, Men, and Dwarves all fight for freedom that has come upon Mithgar. This book opens you up to the events of the Winter War and the beginning of the 5th Era. If you are a real McKiernan fan this is a must read book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Listen to Fools
Review: These books are quite excellent if you appreciate less soap-opera and more action. You have to recognize that these are some of the books, along with the likes of Robert Jordan's Conan novels, which helped define the old school/hardcore fantasy. Back when epic violence with only just enough frills was in vogue. This series is short, bloody, and well written. I wish it had been made longer, but the well written and bloody aspects more than make up for that!
Rating: 
Summary: No pizzaz.
Review: This book starts out fairly promising, interesting characters, nice background, good detail. There's even a large siege battle about a third of the way into the book that is fairly well written. But then its almost like the writer got tired, perhaps a ghost writer or student took over? Your interest fades rather rapidly, but you continue on vainly hoping the spark will be re-ignited. For me, it never was.
Rating: 
Summary: copy!!!!!!!!!!!! Of Tolkien?????
Review: This book was way to close to Tolkien. The charactures are flat and dull. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! If Tolkien read it, Im sure he would start to cry!!!!!The book mocks Tolkiens Beautiful works of fiction!!! Anyone who says this book is good needs to understand that this book is a blatant copy of Tolkiens wonderful books. The guy cant even write!!!
Rating:
Summary: (A-)
Review: This is a fantasy story, like many fantasy stories, (...) and the author duly avows that he was strongly inspired by LOTR. Is it any good, yes, and it is enjoyable to experience such a similar world, as Tolkien's, with out re-reading LOTR for the 20+ time. I sure wish Tolkien was still alive and making more stories, but,....... All in all, this is a very good read, very entertaining, and well worth the money. OVERALL SCORE: (A-)
READABILITY: (A-), PLOT: (B+), CHARATERS: (B+), DIALOGUE: (B-), SETTING: (A+), ACTION/COMBAT: (A-), MONSTERS/ANTAGONISTS: (B+), ROMANCE: (n/a), SEX: (n/a), AGE LEVEL: (PG)
Rating: 
Summary: Tolkien copied the Bible ..Iron Tower copies Tolkien
Review: This is a seminal work by a gifted author. The one big difference from Tolkien to DMc is he doesn't excessively described the endless details that Professor Tolkien does. Its a step below but well worth the time IMHO!
Rating:
Summary: McKiernan should we cast into the fires of Mount Doom
Review: This is so bad it doesn't even deserve one star. Not only is it a shamelss rip-off of TLOTR, it's a poorly written rip-off. How this guy EVER got this by anyone who had the brass knockers to call themselves an editor is perhaps on of the great mysteries of the 20th century. He should be ashamed that he ever made a filthy red cent for this travesty of fantasy literature. There isn't a single idea in this book that isn't pulled DIRECTLY from TFOTR--he even sets the events up in order!! It's like a geeky 5th grader who had played too much D+D had his parents supply him with an outline of Tolkien's FOTR, and then spent a weekend filling it in with the names of the PCs he dungeon masteres for. Quite frankly, it's pathetic. I must say I read the whole series incredulously, just to see if he finally came up with some of his own ideas. Nope. I felt sad and sick when I finally finished, and walked outside, covered the paperbacks in gasoline, and burned them forever. I hope my little ritual will let good ole' Prof. T sleep a little more soundly in his grave. He didn't deserve this.
Rating:
Summary: The most blatant copy of Lord of the Rings ever
Review: This is the most blatant copy of The Lord of the Rings of any fantasy trilogy I've ever read. For instance, the names of the Warrows are so much like Hobbit names they could be Hobbit names, and the plot is practically identical. Still, if you hunger for more Tolkien and have read all his works, this will satisfy the hunger a little. It's "cram" to Tolkien's "lembas", though.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Spin on some old ideas
Review: This series is a based on the standard fantasy staple of elves, dwarves, humans. However, the introduction of the "Wee Ones" (albeit a tad of a hobbit/halfling [similarities]) and their unique characteristics is a step in the right direction. The storyline flows relatively smooth, with decent character development and interesting plotline. A dark force trying to take over everything is nothing new, but the methods in which the author manipulates the evil, and the courage shown by the main chars is good. I'd recommend this series to anyone interested in the fantasy genre.
Rating:
Summary: A Humble Beginning
Review: This series, whether in the original three volume set or in one volume, is a very close copy of the Lord of the Rings. If you took all the main points of the Lord of the Rings, stripped from them Professor Tolkien's writing style and the names he gave the characters and the races and distilled it to a basic outline, you
would have the outline of the Iron Tower Trilogy. It starts of in the land of the small, quiet people and the quest is for the bad sorcerer/overlord to be overthrown forever. The hero from the small, quiet people will have as his companions an uncrowned king of men, a warrior-elf, and a mighty dwarf. They will be forced to travel through an ancient dwarven kingdom under a mountain range that has become the haunt of the demonic creature....the final battle is not so much a forlorn hope as it is a diversion.... I could go on. Mr. McKiernan adds other elements to it, and has taken some out(most notably the lack of
wizards) but they really do not effect this story immediately, with the sole exception of allowing Mr. McKiernan to write more books in this universe, and thus make it his own universe, and not a perpetual copy of MiddleEarth. It is worth reading, but read of this universe in this order: Iron Tower, Silver Call, Dragonsdoom... read them in the order that they were originally published. You will note the quality of his writing drastically improves. It is a humble begining to a good universe.
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