The Iron Tower Trilogy

The Iron Tower Trilogy: The Dark Tide (1984), Shadows of Doom (1984), The Darkest Day (1984) Dennis McKiernan

The Iron Tower Trilogy tells the tale of the Winter War, Mordru’s final attempt to gain control of Mithgar and bring Gryphon back into the world.

The story is told from the point of view of Tipperton Underbank, whose journals were the basis for the tale. (I love the fact that Dennis McKiernan has “sources” for these stories, and sometimes goes into detail about the scholarship of those sources.) Tip has joined the Thornwalkers, a group whose job is to guard the Bosky from intruders–initially wolves, but it’s quickly learned that Vulgs have invaded the thorn ring and are attacking lone families.

Tipperton’s squad includes Danner who grew up with Tip, and his commander is Patrel. It is these three whose stories we follow through the winter war, and the struggles in the Bosky.

One thing that I particularly like about Dennis McKiernan is that his war and his battles tend to be gruesome and unpleasant–he attempts to make them realistic rather than gloss over the details like many authors. I also like how he mentions other details, like how difficult riding or marching for long stretches can be. Although these are often comments made in passing, I like the fact that he has considered the fact that an inexperienced rider can’t just jump on horseback (or ponyback) and ride across the country.

It’s such details that express to me the amount of thought he put into his stories, and I appreciate it.

Something that I really like about these books is he does a good job with his female characters, and by that I mean he doesn’t write any shirking violets. His damsels in distress may shed tears over their situation, but then they’ll wipe their eyes and set about figuring out how to save themselves. There are other male authors that can write strong female characters (Steven Brust and David Eddings come immediately to mind) but Dennis McKiernan seems to have as many female leads as he does male leads, which is far more rare (Charles de Lint comes to mind here, but he writes a different type of fantasy.) Not that I mind male leads, but given the choice between a book about a male hero and a book about a female hero, I’d rather read about women.

These are the first Mithgar books, and as such, he goes into a lot of details describing the Volgs and Rucks and Holks, as well as the land, more so than in other books. Not that he doesn’t describe things in other books, it’s just that the descriptions are more subtle. Regardless, if you’re already familiar with Mithgar, these are sections you can quickly skim through, since you’ll already know these details.

On advantage of his early books is that there are no sex scenes–it isn’t even referred to. I’m sure Dennis McKiernan is trying to a nice job if it, but jeesh, I just cringe whenever I read those bits. I wish he’d just leave them out entirely, or at least let us assume what the characters are doing when he tells us they’ve gone off by themselves.

As always, I loved Dennis McKiernan’s characters. Tipperton and Patrel and Danner and Marilee are wonderful–especially Danner. It is interesting to note, however, how much the elves have changed throughout the series. Although Gildor is fine, the rest of the elves don’t seem to have the depth that they do in other stories. But as the Warrows are the center of this story, that’s not too much of a problem.

I love the covers of these books–I think they’re fantastic. They’re dark, with only a tiny splash of color. Mainly, I love the trees and creatures that writhe outside the front cover image, and the back cover text. You don’t notice them at first, but when you look closely at the cover you realize that the patterns are in fact creatures hidden in a dark wood. Mercedes Lackey’s Last Herald Mage trilogy has the same type of thing, and I love it there as well. The cover looks like the artist took a lot of time and effort to get things right–both the creatures described within as well as the tone of the book.

I love these covers so much that if I came across other books with a similar style cover, I’d buy them in a heart beat. However, I haven’t come across any other books with similar styled covers, which is too bad. And unfortunately, unless you can find all three books used, you’ll have to stick with The Iron Tower Omnibus, which is okay, but I prefer the covers to the individual books.
Rating: 8/10

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