For countless millennia, the dwarves of the Fifthling Kingdom have defended the stone gateway into Girdlegard. No man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching it. Until now.
Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith labors contentedly in the land of Ionandar, the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. Although he does not want for friends, Tungdil is very much aware that he is alone – indeed, he has not so much as set eyes on another dwarf. But all that is about to change.
Sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he has not been trained. Although he has many unanswered questions about his past, Tungdil is certain of one thing: no matter where he was raised, he is a true dwarf.
And no one has ever questioned the courage of the Dwarves.
I feel like it has been so long ago that I read this book, since I finished it while I was in Hilton Head this summer. The interesting thing about going on vacation is that I usually bring about 10 books and then read a bit of each one before I decide on the one I am going to take to completion. This year, Markus Heitz’s The Dwarves made that cut and was the book that I read while on the beach, by the pool, and building sandcastles.
What struck me while reading the book was that while it did not really break any new ground, I was engrossed by it. Even some of the scenes seemed familiar in design to other books, including The Lord of the Rings, but in the end it did not seem to matter. I enjoyed reading about Tungdil and his journey to be re-introduced to the dwarves.
Heitz does a great job with character and situation while slightly bending the standard save-the-world story to create something readable. The world is in dire straights, and Tungdil, who was a scholar for a wizard, comes to take a journey for his master and will be introduced to some of his own kin. Heitz created characters and towns that are believable (in the fantasy sense) and towns that felt part of a real world; this is his strength. He throws in some standard enemies, the evil Alfs (Elves), Orcs, and a back-stabbing wizard, but they feel powerful. You have a sense that the world may really come to an end if Tungdil and his dwarves do not complete their mission. Heitz also does a good job at introducing loss to the main character by the many deaths around him that he must pay witness to. There are little pieces of each of our experiences in Tungdil, which I believe led me to fall so hard for this book. We talked about the loss, but Tungdil is a bit of an outsider from the start, and who has not felt like the outsider at some point? Heitz has a good grip of the human psyche, and I believe his subtle use of bonding elements from Tungdil to reader pull up the average story.
A book where you may know the descriptions of the character, but that is okay, because the story is a whirlwind where you do not want to be bogged down in something unfamililar from the start. I enjoyed the characters from Heitz and look forward to the next translated work we get from this author.
