The SF Site: Featured Reviews Archive

The reviews are sorted alphabetically by authors' last name -- one or more pages for each letter (plus one for Mc). All but some recent reviews are listed here. Links to those reviews appear on the Recent Feature Review Page.

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Dragondoom by Dennis L. McKiernan
reviewed by Rob Kane
This is a bit of trip back to pure sword and sorcery type fantasy, containing all sorts of elements of a traditional epic fantasy. There are dragons; powerful, immortal, evil, and vengeful. Guarding their hoards and flinging death from on high to mortal creatures on the ground. There are humans; noble, strong, and adventurists. Dragon hunters and empire builders. There are dwarfs; proud with long memories. The loss of their greatest dwarvenholt fifteen hundred years ago is still fresh in their minds. There is the sorcerer; evil and scheming for power. He throws his power about to protect himself and his awesome treasure. And finally there are adventurers; courageous and unrelenting. The story belongs to them, with their long journey and what they learn along the way.

The Writing of Dennis L. McKiernan: From The Silver Call to Dragondoom
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
It's inevitable that his work is going to be compared with that of J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, we may as well state (as he does, in his Introduction to the reissue of The Silver Call) that the Tolkien influence is obvious, especially in that earlier work, and get past it. Lambasting him for his analogues to hobbits (Warrows) his Dwarves and Elves and Rucks (if they aren't Orcs, they may as well be) is so easy it's kind of pointlessly boring. Is McKiernan wrong?

Once Upon A Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan
reviewed by William Thompson
As its title announces, this is a visit by the author to the realm of folklore, in this case, a retelling and extensive and imaginative expansion upon the well-known Norwegian folk tale, "East o'the Sun, West o'the Moon." It opens with a beautiful, pure and innocent maiden who agrees to a proposal presented by an enchanted bear to marry a mysterious, "faery" prince in order to rescue her family from poverty. The maiden falls in love with the prince, but due to an undisclosed curse, can only see her love at night, and even then he must wear a mask, his true appearance kept from her. Soon, the heroine succumbs to the bad advice of an avaricious mother, and surreptitiously gains a view of the prince's face as he sleeps, inadvertently waking him and bringing on the sentence of the curse.

Hel's Crucible Duology by Dennis L. McKiernan
reviewed by Todd Richmond
There are a couple of common themes here, both of them pointed out by the author in the foreword. One is about common people thrust into uncommon situations and struggling to meet the challenge. The other is about how all things are connected, that nothing happens without having some consequence on other events. Did the author stick to them? Todd comments.

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