Rating: 
Summary: Better than Tolkien !!
Review: Though it is an obvious copy, I still enjoyed this more than Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings was slow to me, to much running. I feel the Iron Tower Trilogy is less drawn out. The books are a quick read and keep you interested from beginning to end. I personally enjoyed them much more than Tolkien.
Rating: 
Summary: It had so much promise...
Review: To date this is the most blatent copy of Tolkiens work. However, Mckiernan does admit this in the opening pages. Still if you are going to copy the master at least do it in a way that would honor his memory. This novels characters were shallow and very unrealistic in their interactions with each other and their enviroment. I was very dissapointed. The only way this novel recieved the two stars that it did was because of the ending. This at least showed some originality.
Rating: 
Summary: To Dissolve the Doubts of others
Review: To dissolbe the doubts of others, I would like to say that this book is a tribute to LoR. But if you think about it, arent' most books or movies a tribute to something. Every type of writing has a basic idea that most books follow.This book is a non-stop page turner, unlike LoR (no disrespect to J.R.R. Tolkien) Also the underdog hero is much different in background and otherwise. Besides that I find that the only part that slightly resemble LoR are Moria and mountains names the grimwall. The more I think about it the less the two books resemble each other. The idea that this book is even slightly plagaristic sounds crazy to me. I hope that my review has undone some of the damage done by a barrage of falsity.
Rating:
Summary: GET OVER IT!!!!
Review: To those of you who rated this book at 3 stars or under purely because of "plagarism" I say get over it!!! I agree that there are many comparisons to Lord of the Rings, but a story such as Tolkien's carries so many classic features of good and evil that it is hard not to carry many comparisons to that book. Tolkien was a master of words, and it will be a tough work for ANYONE to beat. Tolkien is such a beloved author that his works carry an emotional following. "Nobody can be as good as our good old Tolkien!" Don't get me wrong, the LOTR are and will always be my FAVORITE books! Anyone in the future who writes in any comparable style will forever be criticized of copying. Did you bother to read the forward to the book? In it Mr. McKiernan admits that his book is in part, a tribute to Tolkien's works! Now, for those of you considering this book, if you liked Tolkien, you should like this book if you read it with the intent to be entertained. I don't know about you, but that's why I read books! Truth should be critically analyzed, not fiction! But, there is room for criticism in literature. If you found LOTR a bit too deep or dry, try this book. It has depth, but somehow is not as deep as Tolkien. You get the same classic struggle of good against evil, but may be easier for younger readers. So to all the critics out there, I say GET OVER IT!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Haven't I Read This Before?
Review: Whoa, look! It's Lord of the Rings written by some guy who can't write! The Iron Tower is watered down LotR, literally. There are no real character transformations, no depth, and absolutely NO ORIGINALITY! Take Warrows for example. Warrows are short (HOBBIT!) make little noise when they walk (HOBBIT) and simple (HOBBIT) Except Warrows are useless. I believe that one of the things people find so endearing about LotR are the Hobbits. But the Warrows of the Iron Tower are either crabby (Danner), wordy (Patrel), or boring to boot (Tuck), while in Lord of the Rings, there are so many more aspects to hobbits! And here in the Iron Tower there is a Frodo (actually a very simple version of Frodo) and there are flat Merry and Pippin (Danner and Patrel), but where is SAM? Sam was one of the HUGE characters in LotR. What, Mr. McKiernan, you can plagarize the rest of Tolkien's work? Why not take Sam and call him your own too? Ditch this book and read The Lord of the Rings. It's much more satisfying and also better written. I am of the opinion that Mr. McKiernan should be sued by Tolkien Estate for the blatant copy of JRR's life work. P.S. Mr. McKiernan, rearranging letters in a word and calling it Elvish (or any language, for that matter) is pitiful. Purely pitiful.
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