Book Review: The War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz (The Dwarves #2)

 

It has been a hot minute since I read book one, but I do want to continue this series. So let's take a look at book two. Spoilers ahead.

Tungdil and his friends return and must once again face armies of orcs, älfar and even new creatures known as "avatars" in order to keep the peace of the realms. Meanwhile Tungdil is facing struggles of his own as he is trying to find out where he belongs, and also has issues in his love life with Balyndis.

I will not pretend that these are like, the greatest fantasy books of all time or something. But out of the ones I've read in recent years, I think the Dwarves series is one of the ones I enjoy the most. It's not perfect and does have its flaws, but I genuinely find myself loving this world and the characters that inhabit it.

The characters for me are what mostly makes this book. Tungdil, the twins and the rest are still interesting and likable and we also get some neat baddies along the way in this book, such as Ondori. The lines between good and evil are also blurred slightly in this book as not every character is 100% good or bad, which is the kind of morally gray thinking I can get behind in a fantasy (where in a lot of books of the genre things are very black and white). My favorite characters are Balyndis and Boïndil, but Tungdil and Myr and Boëndal are also great. I also thought Rodario and Narmora were rather engaging.

What I also appreciate is that this author is absolutely not afraid to kill of major characters, including those on the side of our heroes. And sometimes quite unceremoniously in quite brutal ways, too. It does really add to the stakes as the reader wonders who is going to bite the dust next. Just in this book there's quite a few deaths among the major characters and I was genuinely afraid my favorite characters were going to bite the dust at several points.

The world-building is also neat and I like how we got to explore more of the world and various dwarvish cultures in this book. Heitz is also very good at writing engaging battle scenes that keep me consistently engaged. Battles in books can be kind of hit-and-miss for me, but The Dwarves has these down very well.

However, I wouldn't say this book is perfect. The characters, even if well-written, can also come across as a bit simple and caricature-ish (Boïndil's dialogue is very predictable, for example). Also the world-building is good, but could be better and more in-depth. Particularly on the cultures that are not those of the dwarves. I'd love to learn more about the humans of this realm, or the elves, or orcs or älfar. 

So yeah, I myself greatly enjoyed reading this book, but I can also see why some people think it's not for them. 

Rating: 4/5