Markus Heitz’s The War of the Dwarves, the eagerly awaited sequel to his first novel, The Dwarves, has finally been translated into English. Heitz’s hero, a Thirdling dwarf named Tungdil, and a mixed group of followers have just defeated a dark evil, Nod’onn, at the Blacksaddle. Tungdil, a rather naive but truly heroic character, has been able to forge a shaky alliance of dwarves, men, and elves, without which the Great War could not have been won. Heitz’s second dwarf novel opens with Tungdil setting out to fulfill his promise to rebuild the Fifthling kingdom and seal the northern pass agaisnt further evil incursions from the perished lands. Unfortunately, there are rapidly developing plots that will cause our hero once again to alter his personal plans in favor of saving the world from disaster. Heitz’s use of overlapping plots adds an interesting texture to what might otherwise seem like the same old story with familiar characters and familiar action.
Heitz cleverly makes his characters more appealing by making them multidimensional as well as imbuing them with subtle flaws, which greatly influences the novel’s action. Tungdil, a Thirdling dwarf who was raised by a wizard, knows very little about his past and believes he is not influenced by the Thirdling lust for blood revenge against all other dwarves. As the novel develops, Tungdil struggles to prove both to himself and to others that he is truly free of the Thirdling curse, ultimately forcing him into a direct confrontation with Lorimbur, King of the Thirdlings. It turns out Tungdil is a direct descendent of Lorimbur, who uses bribery, treachery, and assignation to break up the already crumbling alliance in order to open a direct path to the destruction of all the other dwarf clans. Since clan allegiance is paramount to the dwarves, many of Tungdil’s needed allies begin to question his true feelings. Where Heitz differs from many other authors of this genre is that his hero has to fight an internal battle to stay the course, do the right thing, and doesn’t always prove totally noble. Tungdil has frailties that make him all the more deserving of our respect, and in the end, someone we can feel a kinship to.
As if Heitz hasn’t placed enough complications in poor Tungdil’s path to protect Girdlegard from the newly rising evil from the West, he also throws a burgeoning love at our unsuspecting hero. Balyndis, a Firstling smith of the Steelfinger Clan, has been traveling with Tungdil, and a mutual affection has grown into an epic love–a love as doomed to disaster as that of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Balyndis’s father, when approached with Tungdil’s marriage proposal, is aghast that a Thirdling–whose clan has sworn eternal vengeance on the other folk–would even suggest such an impossible union. Our hero is shaken and loses all focus, abandoning all his obligations. Heitz’s fateful love story mirrors Shakespeare’s iconic one in many ways, as all love stories of this type do. In fact, this part of the novel is extremely familiar, but maybe because of the setting, or the dwarves themselves, it seems somehow fresh. I think the ill-fated love presents a depth of feeling that once again makes Heitz’s characters accessible on a very personal level.
It is impossible not to make comparisons between Heitz’s two dwarf novels. The Dwarves, while not a completely new fantasy world, has the advantage of introducing the reader to a new cast of characters who, thanks to Heitz’s talented story-telling ability, draw the reader into the action. The first novel starts slowly and carries you on an ever-increasing ride that keeps you enthralled and does not let you down at the end. The War of the Dwarves would appear to have a much more difficult chance of success, considering that Heitz’s cast of characters are now as familiar as his world was in book one. This seeming obstacle rears its head as the novel opens, causing the action to appear choppy, and at first the reader may feel a little disappointed. However, don’t let the opening gambit color your view of this novel, because the action picks up steam, especially when Heitz introduces his outcast dwarfs, a mysterious group who have made their home in the ancient Dwarven tunnels that connect the Five Kingdoms. The “Tao” axiom expresses their existence best: “The more rules you make, the more rule breakers you create.” They are a lively and completely unique clan of Dwarves who add a spicy twist to the rest of the novel. In the end I was turning pages and eagerly awaiting the next plot twist. I totally recommend this book, with the caveat that reading its predecessor The Dwarves first will make the reading experience more rewarding.
