{"id":100,"date":"2005-07-28T19:10:23","date_gmt":"2005-07-29T02:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-01-23T18:32:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:32:49","slug":"into-the-forge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/100","title":{"rendered":"Into the Forge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Into the Forge<\/em> (1997) Dennis McKiernan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first book in the Hel’s Crucible duology. Tipperton is awakened by sounds of battle outside his door, and thus is drawn into what is to become one of Mithgar’s great battles of good versus evil, as Gryphon seeks to dominate not just Neddra, but Mithgar and all its people.<\/p>\n

This duology tells the story of the War of the Ban, the war that relegates the creatures of Gryphon to the night, making the light of the sun deadly. As the Ban plays a large part in the majority of the Mithgar books, it’s good to get the history of the war.<\/p>\n

As always, I enjoyed Dennis McKiernan’s writing and his characters, although I could really do without the romantic bits. He tries to make them nice and short and sweet, but… jeesh. Just stop. Please. As this is the war of the ban, there is fighting from the very first chapter, and death and destruction. <\/p>\n

The running theme for this book was consequences and secondarily, the nature of God. As is obvious when considered, all actions have consequences, but he considers also unintended consequences, and the innocent actions that can lead to dilemma and even catastrophe. But we cannot be frozen into immobility by wondering whether our every small action could lead to unexpected disaster. More interesting, although not discussed as much, is the nature of God, and what makes a being a God. We have authority and power over our pets, but does that make us gods? It’s an interesting point to consider.<\/p>\n

One thing I love about this book is the cover. The scene depicted is from the first chapter and the artist got the details exactly right, down to the scar in the man’s forehead. Because the scene is in the first chapter, it’s not giving away anything that happens later in the book, which I really like. Either give me a somewhat generic scene with the main characters (Mercedes Lackey’s Tamara and Kethry books are good for this) or depict a scene at the start of the book, so you’re not wondering 1) who or what the artist was depicting or 2) when on earth you are going to get to the scene on the cover.<\/p>\n

If you like Mithgar, this is a book you’ll want to read. Is this the place to start if you haven’t read a Mithgar book before? Maybe not. What made this book so interesting to me was that it was telling the history of a major even that is mentioned time and again in the series. You might prefer to start the series at Eye of the Hunter<\/em> or Tales of Mithgar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Into the Forge (1997) Dennis McKiernan The first book in the Hel’s Crucible duology. Tipperton is awakened by sounds of battle outside his door, and thus is drawn into what is to become one of Mithgar’s great battles of good versus evil, as Gryphon seeks to dominate not just Neddra, but Mithgar and all its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,291,39],"tags":[309,310],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-sword-sorcery","tag-dennis-mckiernan","tag-mithgar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/101","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":0},"title":"Into the Fire","author":"Michelle","date":"July 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Into the Fire (1998) Dennis McKiernan Book Two of the Hel's Crucible Duology The conlusion to the story started in Into the Forge, Phais, Loric, Tipperton, and Beau leave Mineholt North to continue Tip's quest to take the coin to Agron. War continues to rage as Gryphon seeks to dominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Into-the-Fire.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/26","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":1},"title":"Red Slippers","author":"Michelle","date":"June 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Red Slippers Dennis McKiernan This compilation of short stories should be the final Mithgar book. As Dennis McKiernan says in the beginning, there were some loose ends that he wanted to go back and tie up, or explain, or stories that were mentioned in passing that he wanted to mention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/06\/Red-Slippers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":103,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/103","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":2},"title":"The Eye of the Hunter","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Eye of the Hunter (1992) Dennis L. McKiernan If I remember correctly, this is the second Dennis McKiernan book I read--and the first novel. (The first book was the short story collection Tales of Mithgar.) In The Eye of the Hunter, the Lastborn Firstborns Gwilly and Faeril, join with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/07\/Eye-of-the-Hunter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":77,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/77","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":3},"title":"Tales of Mithgar","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Tales of Mithgar (1994) Dennis McKiernan Still looking for books to tide me over, I turned to another favorite, Dennis McKiernan. I picked up Tales of Mithgar because it's a collection of short stories, and I love short stories. Set in the \"One Eyed Crow\" tavern, a blizzard has descended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Tales-of-Mithgar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":90,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/90","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":4},"title":"Voyage of the Fox Rider","author":"Michelle","date":"July 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Voyage of the Fox Rider (1993) Dennis McKiernan Dennis McKiernan is another author I appreciate for his ability to write duologies and single book fantasies. Of course as the Mithgar books all have the same setting, and contain recurring characters, I suppose that gives him the luxury of being able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Voyage-of-the-Fox-Rider.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/105","url_meta":{"origin":100,"position":5},"title":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon (2000) Dennis McKiernan This is the final book in Dennis McKiernan's Mithgar series, where all the loose ends are tied up. We follow the journal of Bair, the impossible child, borne of Riatha and Urus. The reeds speak of Bair as the one to find the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Silver-Wolf-Black-Falcon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}