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Silver Wolf, Black Falcon

Silver Wolf, Black Falcon

List Price: $7.50
Your Price: $6.75
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great end to a great series
Review: I have read every book by Dennis L. McKiernan except Dragondoom, and I must say, this ranks right up with the Eye of the Hunter in terms of greatness. I loved how all the prophecies, tokens of power, characters, and plots from all the other books came together and culminated in a massive adventure, spanning the entire world of Mithgar and venturing into other planes as well. The characters are great, with unique personalities. All in all, a truely epic end to the wonderful Mithgar series. Mr. McKiernan, if your reading this, please write more books for this wonderful world!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Speaking from experience
Review: I have read every single book that Dennis L. Mc.Kiernan has put out. I have cried when beloved characters have died and I have been so angry when the bad guy wins the battle that I've actually thrown the book across the room! I have become so ivolved in his stories that days worth of sleep were well spent reading instead. He is a magnificent author and I find it a privlage to read any of his books again and again. I haven't read Silver Wolf, Black Falcon but I know that I will truly enjoy it. I too am saddened to find out that this will be the last book of the Mithgar series. However, I am joyed to know that many loose ends will finaly be revealed. It has been a pleasure and an honor to read Mc.Kiernan's works and I find this last book to be an epitaph of the world of Mithgar and it's unique life and history. I cannot express enough my gratitude at having been able to relate to and fall in love with Mc.Kiernan's creations. I thank you from the depts of my heart for the enriching experience your books have brought me and taught me and nurished my senses. To meet you in person would be the only greater honor, for you truly are an artist of the highest caliber with your insite to our hubris and human nature. Thankyou again for your works, for I know my kids will enjoy them as much as I have, and your words will become the next classics of literature as Tolken, Asmov, and Twain before you.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Standard McKiernen faire
Review: I've enjoyed Mr. McKiernen's work over the past few years, and have found him to be (more often than not) capable of telling intriguing and pleasant (if somewhat derivative) yarns. _Silver Wolf, Black Falcon_ proves to be pretty standard McKiernen faire. Although he has told more imaginative tales, with more engaging and entertaining characters, this book should prove to be a worthwhile read for both newcomers as well as older fans. Indeed, readers who possess more familiarity with his Mitgarian tales will likely enjoy the many references to previous stories and previous characters that so fully populate this most recent work. It is unfortunate to hear that this may well be the last Mithgarian story that Mr. McKiernen writes, it is a pleasant world to visit with a welcome amount of believable flesh on its conceptual bones. Hopefully, in the future, Mr. McKiernen will write about a world a wee bit smaller than Mithgar, so that when his characters are called upon to go wandering to its farthest corners, the reader won't be bogged down quite so much with the endless and exhausting details of an endless and exhausting trek.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Standard McKiernen faire
Review: I've enjoyed Mr. McKiernen's work over the past few years, and have found him to be (more often than not) capable of telling intriguing and pleasant (if somewhat derivative) yarns. _Silver Wolf, Black Falcon_ proves to be pretty standard McKiernen faire. Although he has told more imaginative tales, with more engaging and entertaining characters, this book should prove to be a worthwhile read for both newcomers as well as older fans. Indeed, readers who possess more familiarity with his Mitgarian tales will likely enjoy the many references to previous stories and previous characters that so fully populate this most recent work. It is unfortunate to hear that this may well be the last Mithgarian story that Mr. McKiernen writes, it is a pleasant world to visit with a welcome amount of believable flesh on its conceptual bones. Hopefully, in the future, Mr. McKiernen will write about a world a wee bit smaller than Mithgar, so that when his characters are called upon to go wandering to its farthest corners, the reader won't be bogged down quite so much with the endless and exhausting details of an endless and exhausting trek.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: McKiernan is wonderful as usual!
Review: Just another of the endless sagas, with much detail but little story! The characters get on their horses and off, they tie them up, talk for a while, then get on again; The author repeats this cycle over and over again with a little action thrown in every 70 pages or so! If you love minute detail and endless repetition then you'll love this book!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The same 10 to 20 pages repeated over and over for 500 pages
Review: Just another of the endless sagas, with much detail but little story! The characters get on their horses and off, they tie them up, talk for a while, then get on again; The author repeats this cycle over and over again with a little action thrown in every 70 pages or so! If you love minute detail and endless repetition then you'll love this book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mr. McKiernan has done it again!
Review: Mr. McKiernan has once again enthralled me in the world of Mithgar. I remember the first books of his I read, The Iron Tower Trilogy, books I could not put down. Since then I have not found books in the genre that can compare. Mr. McKiernan has capped off his Mithgarian saga beautifully with this novel and I for one am saddened that this may be his last. Mr. McKiernan's tale in this book delighted me, especially with the mentionings of my personal favorite: Tuckerby Underbank. Out of all of his wonderful characters, Tuck stays with me most. Anyone who enjoys quality High Fantasy would be missing out to not read this last(?) novel. Mr. McKiernan, if you should read this humble review, I deeply thank you for these books and while I understand the need to put the pen down at some point, I hope you've at least another tale or two in you. Thank you again Mr. McKiernan and Godspeed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mr. McKiernan has done it again!
Review: Mr. McKiernan has once again enthralled me in the world of Mithgar. I remember the first books of his I read, The Iron Tower Trilogy, books I could not put down. Since then I have not found books in the genre that can compare. Mr. McKiernan has capped off his Mithgarian saga beautifully with this novel and I for one am saddened that this may be his last. Mr. McKiernan's tale in this book delighted me, especially with the mentionings of my personal favorite: Tuckerby Underbank. Out of all of his wonderful characters, Tuck stays with me most. Anyone who enjoys quality High Fantasy would be missing out to not read this last(?) novel. Mr. McKiernan, if you should read this humble review, I deeply thank you for these books and while I understand the need to put the pen down at some point, I hope you've at least another tale or two in you. Thank you again Mr. McKiernan and Godspeed.

Rating: 0 stars
Summary: Silver Wolf, Black Falcon completes the Mithgarian story arc
Review: Silver Wolf, Black Falcon completes the Mithgarian story arc that I have been working on for twelve novels, one collection of short stories, and one graphic novel. All along the way, I have had the pleasure of travelling across Mithgar with many readers, some old, some new, and many of whom I've met in person and on line (on message boards and in chat rooms) and by "snailmail." All I can say is thank you for being my travelling companions, and I hope you find the saga of the Impossible Child to your liking.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Falcon" doesn't fly far enough
Review: The grand finale of the Mithgar series is, unfortunately, anything but grand. "Silver Wolf, Black Falcon" opens with plenty of promise, but it gets bogged down in the continuing plotline, underdeveloped characters, and a lot of promising material that never really gets used.

Following up from "Eye of the Hunter," Elven Dara Riatha and Baeron shapeshifter Urus just had a baby -- Bair, the "Impossible Child" who will apparently save Mithgar someday. That, and his mix of Elven, demon, human and Mage blood will allow him to go to any of those planes of existance. Around the time Bair is born, another boy of destiny is born in the Eastern land of Jung -- a child cut from a dead woman, who has a massive dragon-shaped birthmark on his head and neck.

With the help of an evil yellow-eyed demonlike mage called Ydral, the child becomes a mighty Emperor. He also gains control of the Dragonstone, and so is able to command any dragons anywhere. Bair, meanwhile, is raised and tutored by Dwarves, Elves, and the elf mariner Aravan. Fulfilling a promise, he accompanies Aravan on a journey that takes them across Mithgar toward Jung -- and then to the other worlds of Neddra (evil things), Adonar (elves), and Vadaria (Mages). And they learn that the final battle between good and evil is beginning.

One of the frustrating things about this book is that it does have a lot of promise. But unfortunately it is too wrapped up in the prior books (for instance, will newbies to Mithgar know who the heck Danner Bramblethorn is?) and too desperate to tie up the loose ends to really utilize its plot. The first part of the book is word-for-word recap from "Eye of the Hunter," and the first third of the book is essentially buildup to a plateau. And as it struggles to bring it all to a climax, it drops quite a few of the threads it was supposed to deal with.

Bair is a typical perky perfect-kid hero with special powers that nobody talks to him about. One of the worst things about him is that he's underutilized: His power to go from one plane to another really doesn't accomplish anything, plotwise. In fact, Bair never really accomplishes much at all. Aravan tells Bair not to be an idiot, engages in philosophical banter, and mopes because he thinks his girlfriend is dead. The bad guys are casually ambitious and amoral -- while this might be fine for Ydral, but his self-important pre-history Chinese emperor is a conscienceless idiot with a very big mouth. The kid has no redeeming characteristics at all, and so it's hard to really see him as a person.

Descriptions are flatter than ever, since McKiernan takes readers for the first time to Neddra, Adonar and Vadaria -- all of which are indiscernable from parts of our own world. Why bother? On the other hand, he's becoming more enamored of blood, bile, gore, and especially intestines (I don't know why he keeps mentioning intestines) and any scene with a bit of grossness or violence can be counted on to have some spilled guts. There are, however, some genuinely chilling (and disgusting) scenes, like when Ydral does his necromancer thing on a flayed man; there are also some funny scenes, though sadly too few.

And fans of this series will probably like seeing characters from prior books like Loric, Alamar, Phais and Dalavar Wolfmage, and discussions of others like Tip, Beau, Thork, Elyn and Danner. The dialogue has gradually gotten better, but there are still some really dopey moments, such as the most hackneyed love proclaimation ever ("My heart was dead, but now it lives"?) and the laughable idea of the mightiest dragon crying like a baby. That, and the dialogue of the Warrows is now almost indistinguishable from that of the Elves.

"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon" rises a bit higher than most of McKiernan's books, but it is still too self-important and too unimaginative to be even good light fun.


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