The Brotherhood of Dwarves [Paperback]

The first in a series of novels by D.A. Adams finds Roskin, heir to the throne of a remote, peaceful kingdom of dwarves, craving excitement and adventure.

Roskin is the son of King Kraganere and the heir of Dorkhun; he is also half dwarf and half elf. Hot-headed and impulsive he craves adventure and experience. The story follows him as he serves `a year of isolation to find his inner peace.' It was interesting to read a story with a privileged dwarf at its centre going through his own rite of passage.

I particularly enjoyed Roskin's interactions and relationship with the old warrior Red who serves as wise counsel and mentor to the green Roskin. Together they get into plenty of brawls and scrapes. The action is not for the sake of it as the reader can see Roskin learning from his mistakes. He also takes quite a few knocks as he evolves from a coddled royal into a hardened traveller and adventurer.

As well as Red, the young dwarf is joined on his journey with some unusual and interesting characters such as Molgheon a female dwarf, Vishghu a female ogre, and Kwarck, a half-elf wizard. I would have liked a little more depth and back story but perhaps that is missing the point as Adams keeps the action coming thick and fast.

This is very much a `land divided' with many kingdoms and disputed areas. There are also three types of dwarf: Tredjards, the Ghaldeons, and the Kiredurks. Factor in disputed human, elvish and orcish lands and you have a melting pot and plenty of scope for conflict and danger.

The novel is packed with in-fighting and scheming as well as an impressive roll call of dwarves, elves, humans, ogres and orcs. Roskin's main quest is to find and return a stolen platinum statue known as `The Brotherhood of Dwarves' which used to symbolise the unity of the nations in the past. The unlikely group of allies assembled around Roskin find themselves venturing to Black Rock, an imposing fortress to retrieve the artefact. I would have liked more background and detail on the statue and after being mentioned it is never brought up again, but perhaps as this is a series of books its importance will become more apparent later.

I really enjoyed learning of the differences in culture between all of the lands. Adams is great at reminding us that there are many languages spoken including orcish and elvish. This helps in making this world solid and more vivid.

Roskin certainly discovers the harsh realities of this world as he endures first-hand the suffering of the slaves at the Slithsythe Plantation which is ran by amoral and sadistic orcs.

I found the addition of buffalo to this fantasy world unusual but I suppose there is no rule book saying that there can't be. The plantation also seems to belong more to the Antebellum South of the nineteenth century than fantasy fiction but again it is used to good effect in highlighting the cruelty of the orcs.

The novel is short and sharp but always entertaining even if it does end rather abruptly. The main purpose of this entry seems to be in setting the scene: introducing characters as well as the history and geography that I am sure we will get to know much better. It's a good opening effort and I will be looking out for the sequels and hope they will give us a little more depth to what is a promising start.

I must admit that when I was offered this book to review I was only too glad to accept. You see, I have this thing about dwarves in fantasy. I really don't care if the races: orcs, goblins elves and all the others are the same as they are in every other fantasy, it's what the author does with them that matters. It is in this area that D.A. Adams pulls off a great character driven story. There's no ground breaking, genre shattering new ideas just a well-rounded story that leaves you wanting to read more.
The lead character, Roskin, though of noble descent sets out on a gap year to find a fabled statue, so it's a quest. There are only so many basic story types and this is one of the simplest - so get used to the idea. Too many people are quick to tear new authors apart for their lack of originality, well it was once written `there is nothing new under the sun' and that was over 3000 years ago. With that settled I'll get back to the story, or will I. You see, I'm not one for giving the story away, after all I'll see it differently to you as much as you will the next person. So instead, I'll just say that I found it to be a commendable first novel. The story moves along at a good pace, is filled with background history that adds richness and depth to story, and gives something to set future stories against. It was long enough to enjoy without ever becoming a hard slog. More words do not make a better story.
I'll round things off by simply saying that I will go on to read the others in the series in the simple hope that they are at least as enjoyable as this one. Most writers improve with practice, I can only hope that D.A Adams does, that way I will have even better stories to look forward to.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that I bought it for Kindle and the formatting is awful. It appears as a column down the middle of the screen and only uses about half the width of the page. This makes it a harder read.

It then starts with a lot of exposition. This is slow and laborious and I nearly gave up reading there and then.

When the story gets going it turns out to be about Roskin, the son of the king of the dwarves (at least 1/3 of them, as the book goes into detail about the differrent tribes). He is also half elf (which makes very little difference to the book). This is a coming of age tale where Roskin leaves his tribe and sets out to retrieve the statue 'The Brotherhood of Dwarves' (hence the title) and has various adventures along the way. He meets varied people of many different types, ogres, orcs, dwarves, humans and eventually half-elf and elves. He doesn't really listen to anybody or even the abilities of his half-elf nature and eventually suffers for this.

You may guess from this review that I had trouble empathising with the protagonist. I also found the world rather unbelievable and found the best character in the book was human.

I got this as a free book. I wouldn't pay for it.