Customer Reviews

Shadows of Doom (Iron Tower Trilogy)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book achieved overall excellence it managed to keep this reader involved through the entire novel. I think that this is just as good of a series as "Lord of the Rings". Dennis McKiernan is an excellent author also try "Tales of Mithgar."

I think all the reviwers who are blasting this book for being a Tolkien rip off are missing the point sure there a lot of similarities espesially the Krakken but this was orginally meant to be a sequal to Lord Of the Rings, also imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If can get past that this may not be the most orginal idea in the world and just enjoy the story.

The Iron Tower Trilogy is a must read for fantasy fans. It owes much of itself to J.R.R Tolkien, but McKiernan clearly proves that he is a master storyteller as well. It's an easy read but one you won't want to put down.

The Shadows of Doom is the best book out of the Iron Tower Trilogy. The entire book keeps you wanting more. You can feel as if you were fighting off giant monsters and traveling through the dark and dismal halls yourself. This book is excelent to read on the cold days of winter by the fire. Keep your eyes open when you read this one, and keep a few days of your scedual clear

I've been reading Fantasy for years. From Jordan through Erikson, Marco and a ton others. McKeirnan continues to be one of the BEST story tellers. His skills are amazing and in the Iron Tower Trilogy anybody can see what keeps McKeirnan on the top.

Buy it. Read it. Be happy!

Shadows of Doom is the best of the Iron Tower Trilogy. From Laurelin's confrontations with the vile Modru, to the perilous descent through the Drimmen-Deeve, McKiernan weaves a spell that won't let go! A heart warming adventure in the tradition of Star Wars and Willow, modern in it's thinking and American in flavor. A Classic!

I liked the first book (even if it was a pale copy of LoTR) but this was too much! The scene in Kraggen Kor was shameful, it was exactly like the Moria sequence in LoTR. Consider: LoTR-A group of characters representing elves, dwarves, humans, and hobbits (little folk) have to go through an abandoned dwarvish mine. In SoD- A group of characters represnting elves, dwarves, humans, and warrows(little people) have to go through an abandoned dwarvish mine. In LoTR -a octopuss like monster drives them into the mine and blocks their escape. In SoD-a octopuss like monster drives them into the mine and blocks their escape. In LotR the mine is infested with orcs. In SoD the mine is infested with orc wannabes. In LoTR a demonic monster faces our heros and falls off a bridge into a deep pit. In SoD a demonic monster faces our heros and falls of a bridge into a deep pit. Not the mention nothing in this book is original. mcKiernan should be ashamed of himself for copying a masterpiece onto his pathetic trilogy.

Reading Dennis McKiernan's "Shadows of Doom" is not unlike watching a train wreck as it occurs... in slow motion. The first book of the Iron Tower trilogy, "Dark Tide," was irritating and poorly-written, full of elements lifted straight from "Lord of the Rings." One would expect that it couldn't get worse in "Shadows of Doom." Astonishingly, it does.
Picking up where the previous book left of, the Spawn attack the wagons leaving Challerain Keep, killing everyone except Igon (who almost dies) and Laurelin, who is captured and taken to Modru's dungeons. Elsewhere, Patrel and Danner return to the Boskydells, only to find that Modru's Horde has attacked. Galen, Tuck and Gildor set out to find the armies of the late king, teaming up with a very rude dwarf named Brega along the way. Being pursued by Vulgs, they have no choice but to venture into the evil-filled dwarf citadel of Kraggen-Cor.

Not only does the pace slow in "Shadows," but the characters become even flatter and duller and the elements become even more blatantly Tolkienesque. The writing is terrible, the dialogue laughable, and the derivative elements aren't helped by poor plotting. A pivotal plot point appears most of the way through the book, utilizing the cliched villain-gloats-and-explains-his-evil-plot tactic; the attack on the Boskydells has no real impact on the plot, except to make Tuck cry.

The Warrows are copies of Tolkien's hobbits, but lacking in the enthusiastic charm of those particular "wee folk," which the quality that makes people love them so much; the Warrows lack charm, strength, or courage. Similarly with the derivative Elves, who are immortal, cultured, elegant, and dull as ditchwater. Dwarves are crabby and crusty, lacking in personality; medieval human Men are even duller than Warrows or Elves, and the assorted evil beasties who menace our heroes (copies of orcs, uruk-hai, Nazgul and wargs) are not-so-veiled copies of Tolkien's works. Moria, the Dwarves (or as he calls them, the Chakka), the squid-beast, and the Balrog -- in "Shadows," you can find unexciting copies of all of the above. At a certain point, you stop goggling in horror and just find it all immensely funny.

Tuck is still as annoying as he was before, crying and asking stupid questions, although he's somewhat easier to ignore. Still, the idea that McKiernan is setting this little twerp up as an alternate Frodo Baggins is nothing short of hysterical. Galen's sole moment of character development is some very contrived conflict over who to rescue (a real king would not experience any conflict -- he'd do his duty, no dithering). Gildor is still quite dull; Brega is abrasive and bossy; Danner and Patrel lose whatever shreds of personality they might have had. And Modru was a lot more frightening before we actually saw him.

The female characters are still passive, boring and lacking in any strength, except McKiernan tries to make us think otherwise. Laurelin stabs a Ghul after lying down and crying through a fight scene, then sits and cries for the rest of the book. Merrilee, at the Boskydells, has to be verbally defended by Danner when she proves unable to speak up for herself and her fighting skills, then starts sobbing into a male shoulder after a battle (the implication is that women cry when there's a fight). You go, girl.

McKiernan's writing remains hideously repetitive and weird. As if the readers are incapable of remembering anything more than a page back, he constantly mentions that the Mere is black, Tuck's eyes are "sapphirine" and sparkle, that Brega is gruff, and that Elves are graceful. The characters often act in bizarre ways, such as the escaping Patrel and Danner laughing like a pair of recently escaped mental patients; the fight scenes are absurdly hard to visualize, except for the battle with the Gargon (which is just silly -- how often do heavy footsteps sound like "Doom"?).

"Shadows of Doom" o'ertops "Dark Tide" like a wave of Shadowlight. It's a painful experience unless you stop taking it seriously. Derivative, poorly-written, lacking in any interesting qualities at all.

This book was a discard I picked up at the library. Unfortunately, this was one book that truly deserved to be discarded. I am never critical of Tolkien-esque books solely because they are Tolkien-esque. This book was not only a rip-off, but also badly written to an extreme extent. It takes cliche to a new level, showing why the fantasy genre has had a reputation as "not good literature". This book's wimpy, unrealistic, cliche characters, painful use of fake "Olde English" grammar and sentence structure, and poor writing style in general made it unreadable. Perhaps because I am an actor, I always pay attention to dialogue. This dialogue is so incredibly melodramatic that I literally burst out laughing at several points. Imagine someone actually saying this stuff, or trying to act it! I kept wondering if this was being written seriously- was McKiernan perhaps trying to spoof bad Tolkien copies? Even the descriptions are fantasy cliche. And you can read one paragraph and count at least one stupid made-up name (usually with apostrophe!) per sentence. Ridiculous and unbelievable. Please, please read _The Tough Guide to Fantasyland_ by Diana Wynne Jones to find out just how pathetic and unoriginal this book really is.

Ug! After staggering through the abysmal "Dark Tide", I decided to read this sequel because I couldn't believe that anyone would copy Tolkien so blatantly and so poorly. Surely, the plot of this second installment would deviate substantially from Tolkien. Amazingly enough, its even more of a Tolkien copy than the Dark Tide. And its a bad copy at that. Though the action and plotlines are virtually identical, McKiernan's story is completely devoid of the sense of mythic proportion that makes Lord of the Rings such a classic. Lots of people have imitated Tolkien's basic structure of a heroic fantasy, and that's fine. But copying the actual plot and characters is going too far. This is the only multi-volume fantasy series I have ever started and been unable to complete. Read at your own peril