The Covenant of the Forge: The Dwarven Nations

Dragonlance: Dwarven Nations #1

by Dan Parkinson

The long-awaited historical saga of the rivalrous dwarven clans of Krynn and the birth of the legendary Thorbardin—told here for the very first time An old dwarven chieftain, Colin Stonetooth, leads a tribe of Hylar in a migration across Ansalon, pursuing a vision of a new home. Hordes of dangerous outsiders, fleeing the Dragon Wars, sweep across the countryside. Evil magic, strange knights, and precocious kender abound, endandering Stonetooth and his followers during their journey. In the Kharolis Mountains, in Kal Thax, the Hylar come upon squabbling dwarven clans and knit them into the new nation of Thorbardin. But a Theiwar assassin precipitates a civil war, a curse is fulfilled—and a child is born destined to become the Father of Kings.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Epic Fantasy

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Par...

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this a 2.5 rating.

This takes place in the Dragonlance universe. In this one, a tribe of dwarves are forced from their home and search for a new one. They come upon other tribes of dwarves with each having their own differences and hatred of the other dwarves. These tribes try to cohabitate and be the residence we come to know in the original trilogy.

There were parts of this book that I believe to be excellent and parts where I plodded along. That is the reason for my 2.5 rating. The author does a terrific job with each tribe and assigning them different traits and characteristics. All dwarves are not alike. And the author fits this book in nicely with the overall arc of this world. The problem was the journey as it was dry and it seemed more like a history lesson than a story. Throughout this novel I had no real connection to any of the dwarves. My only connection was to two minor characters.

I would only recommend this book to fans of this universe. The background information is vast and thorough but I believe only die hard fans will enjoy this book for the insight to the dwarf realm.

[Fco. Salvador · Rating 3 out of 5]

No había leído nada de Dan Parkinson, y debo confesar que me ha sorprendido gratamente. Sin caer en el defecto de un lenguaje excesivamente sencillo, su prosa logra transmitir velocidad e intensidad, sensación aumentada por la brevedad de los libros (poco más de 300 páginas cada uno) y su división en múltiples episodios de una decena de páginas. El autor explora poco o nada los sentimientos de sus personajes, centrándose mucho más en lo que ocurre a su alrededor, pero al menos consigue que el puñado de enanos protagonistas no sean todos iguales, lo cual ya es un mérito en sí mismo. Por supuesto, cualquier opinión sobre su estilo está condicionada por tratarse de una traducción; mas en este caso Mila López, traductora de los tres volúmenes, parece haber hecho un trabajo estupendo.

En mi opinión, "El Pacto de la Forja" es la mejor de la trilogía: aunque sufre la ausencia de tramas secundarias, muchos capítulos comienzan con algunas páginas que describen de una forma rápida y amena detalles sobre la cultura o la ingeniería enana; a pesar de la falta de continuidad entre sus diferentes partes, cuenta una historia interesante que llegó a engancharme bastante; y su relativa originalidad es un logro, habida cuenta de lo habitual entre estas novelas de franquicia.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing on a variety of fronts, this book promises to detail the origin of the great Dwarven city Thorbardin. If you are new to Dragonlance, a lot of the lore will be lost on you. If you are rusty to Dragonlance, most of the lore will be lost on you.

Dan Parkinson could have done a much better job with the style of storytelling here. While his representation of the Dwarves is fair and they overall feel is decidedly Dragonlance-esque, his overall presentation is rather hollow and almost boring at times. Where a standard novel with present to you solid protagonists, antagonists, and a clear arcing story with a clear direction of progression, this novel comes across almost like a conjoined grouping of short stories focused on the varying aspects that came together to create the Dwarven nation. While all of these factors really do come together in hindsight and feel complete, the reader will spend most of the book feeling like they are reading three smaller stories with their own individual beginnings and endings and then looking back to see how they fit together.

Another problem with this style of storytelling is that while the completed picture feels whole, the story components all feel much weaker along the way. Any one of these individual stories could have been made into its own complete novel and felt entirely better. Or simply surmised in back-lore for the reader in a solid forward/prologue, OR just discussed in small bits along the way while the focus was directed on building up a more complete feeling saga.

At the end of the day the book does come together in a number of ways, but there are of course some blatant attempts to tack in the Dragonlancey feel for readers. An analog character for Tasslehoff, a Sturm-like knight, gully dwarves, and a few other things show up for the sheer amusement of the core reader base. They don't quite measure up to the Hickman/Wiess originals, though.

The biggest flaw with the novel is not in the power of the writer to mimic the base from which his material comes. Instead it comes from a lack of consistent story progression. The bounding focus on a multitude of protagonists leave the book feeling like a story about Dwarves, instead of a story about A Dwarf, or even truly a particular group.

In the end, Dragonlance is a setting of fantastic magics, dragons, and plenty of emotions. The novel has these things. To a mature reader the work may feel simply too silly, but for the target audience this novel may seem like solid material. Less jumping from point to unconnected point would have made it much better.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more, the characters were all there, but sadly the story wasn’t. I know there is a lot of history to fill in, but this jumped and skipped so it got to point without really filling in the gaps in between.

[Tom Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult but I will continue. Idc about your dwarf names- I’m bad at names. Feels like I’m reading Genesis “x begot x, x begot x” ick

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually really enjoy the books in the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms fantasy series but this one just let me down. Most of the books in the mentioned settings are rich on dialogue and the occurrences of individual or groups of characters. This book did occasionally have glimpses or short segments of this type of story-telling. Unfortunately the majority of the book reads as a telling of the history of the development of the mountain in Krynn where all the different dwarven races come to live together but separately and develop a covenant between their groups to work together to protect their home. Mostly told from the 10,000 foot high level of looking at what went on rather than the eye level of the characters.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read, it is great to learn how the dwarf clans came about and the differences between them. Its an adventure all the way and full of action, love the way they agree to form the covenant of the thanes and to protect one another from outsiders, love also how they build their Everbardin together, all pooling their talents to make their work easier, work is always done better this way and so much easier when the load is shared.

[Kyle K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vengeful mage strikes out at the Calnar dwarves of Thorin and the survivors are forced to flee. They travel West and find a collection of 6 other dwarven tribes in the mountains of Kal-Thax. With the Calnar as allies and leaders, the dwarves band together to resist invaders.

[Scott Block · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reader of this was boring, boring, boring! His voice was flat and monotone and he barely pauses between paragraphs or chapter breaks. I was pretty disappointed and, while I am a huge Dragonlance fan and love stories about the dwarves, I won’t be listening to the 2nd or 3rd books.

[William Brust · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first fantasy novels I ever read. Seriously. I think I was in 5th grade? Great story. Pick up the other two books in the trilogy if you can, but this one is by far the best.

[Mark Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My name is Cale Greeneye, and my dreams of seeing far-off lands is coming true. Unfortunately, it's taken war against the humans to realize my ambitions. We were content living inside the mountain, and we looked forward to trading with our neighbors during the annual Balladine celebration. However, my father, Colin Stonetooth, became uneasy as chieftain of Thorin. Our most dependable patrol failed to return from a mission, and thousands of armed humans amassed outside our walls among the regular guests. Our fears turned to violence when the strangers breached our defenses. Now, I am leading thousands of survivors, as we search for Kal-Thax. An old dwarf spoke of this mythical land, and we hope to find our dwarven relatives for sanctuary. My longing to scout the world has come at a costly price.

I always enjoy the characters in books, but this book made that difficult. I tried to make connections to the characters, but many of the dwarves died shortly after their introduction and there wasn't a clear main character. For those reasons, I didn't know how to write the summary above until I discovered who could actually tell it. Cale Greeneye seemed to be the best choice. War was the main problem right away with jealousy and envy fueling the dispute. Many humans viewed the dwarves as wealthy and privileged, and an evil leader took advantage of that sentiment. A different antagonist created unrest in the second half of the book, but his motivations were very similar. The second half of the book was more cohesive, as it focused on the area around Kal-Thax. The different dwarven factions around the mountain distrusted each other, and their alliance was in peril. The Thorin refugees added to the strain, but they also presented solutions. If you don't like conflict, fighting, and discontent then you shouldn't read this book. Overall, I liked the book and problems but wanted a main character or two to follow along the way. I get the sense my wish may come true in the sequel. There wasn't as much unrest at the end (there are still foreseeable issues remaining), so I plan on giving Hammer and Axe a shot.

[Pye Josephus Joestar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in the series that ties everything together nicely from the previous books. some pretty great battles and characters with great writing as well. I loved all the call backs to previous events from the first two books. The main character is fun to read about and it's easy to assume his role as you are reading, feeling the characters emotions as he makes the hard decisions and does what needs to be done regardless the outcome. The villians were written very well in this volume specifically as i found myself really feeling for the dwarves and hating the antagonists deeply, especially because of all the history from the first two books the builds up this comradery with the dwarves once you finally begin to read this one. Fantastic book, I would say out of all them I enjoyed the second volume the most but this was a great finish to the Dwarven Nations and I was left satisfied when I finished reading it.

[Manuel Baraja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Para mí, de momento el más flojo de los 21 volúmenes que llevo leídos de la Dragonlance hasta el momento.

Personajes poco o nada carismáticos e historia que avanza en muchas ocasiones por que sí, recurriendo a recursos facilones.

Muy complicado empatizar con el pueblo enano, el auténtico protagonista, que hace gala de una recurrente doble moral.

Me chocaron especialmente unas pocas páginas en las que aparece una violencia y crueldad que poco tienen que ver con el resto del libro así como otros pasajes repletos de cursilería que me costó trabajo relacionar con enanos.

Esperemos que las dos siguientes partes de l trilogía mejoren muy sustancialmente.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a little dull and dreary despite a fairly lively first 100 pages. It amounted to pushing pawns around a map with a lot of characters introduced and name-checked but no real drama happening beyond "then the Dwarves went here and setup this fortress and made this pact" etc etc. I suspect there was a sense in which this was supposed to serve as a prologue for a more adventure-oriented conclusion, a strategy used by the Elven Nations trilogy (which didn't work). We'll see what the sequels bring!

[Mark Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure world building and background for the Dwarves of Krynn. A great resource if you're going to play a dwarf in/DM a RP heavy Dragonlance game.

The actual plot leaves something to be desired because the author has to fit so much lore into 300 pages. If you're looking for a capitivating story you might want to pass. If, like me, you love the Dragonlance setting or need flavor for a dwarf character for an upcoming game, this is excellent.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially a history book told from the perspective of a senile old dwarf who doesn't actually know anything, and who just pulls everything out of his ass while making himself look good. Still, it's a harmless enough read and the latter half is interesting

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book has appeal as a background and lore reference for Dungeons and Dragons, but otherwise lacks a compelling storyarc and main characters. The characters that had the most potential ended up having bit parts.

[Badger Dubhghaill · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can never go wrong with Dragonlance. I don't think I've ever read a bad DL book. This is a great start to a trilogy.

[Igor Cebrian Muiño · Rating 5 out of 5]

De las secuelas de Dragonlance son prácticamente las únicas que valen la pena (y Huma, por supuesto). Muy buenos libros si se leen a la edad apropiada.

[Brandon Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fav DL book

[Matt Littrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read. Nothing really hooked me but it was interesting enough that I was never bored.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are fun, but you won't fall in love with any of the characters. The real story is in how the factions came to be, and not so much on the leaders. You can get a bit more in-depth on a few of them in other Dragonlance novels. I'd categorize this under "lore" rather than a novel.

[Joel Norden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good solid start to the Dwarven nations! I love how Dan fit in a lot of history, with out it being boring. Very cool to see the founding of Thorbardin.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn't _bad_ exactly, but it isn't good. The problem is that it felt like the author was given a specific talk to accomplish: get characters from Point A to Point B so as to explain the existence of X. The formula makes it clear that the characters are secondary, which gives the book little emotional weight and not so much of interest.

This book is really interesting in terms of Lore, capital l, though. As a person who loves playing Dwarves as always liked Dragonlance, I'm definitely a fan of that side of things. But I couldn't help but replot this book in my head. A different narrative style with better character arcs would have made it better.

Also, minus points for making the token woman give up her birthright in lieu of her husband for no apparent reason. I was pretty bummed about that.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost finished with this book. I'm a huge DL fan, but never really strayed much from the core books. I was looking to get back into the world of Kyrnn and so picked this book up. There is nothing earth shattering about the writing, character development, or plot. It is however a story set in the DL world that is solely focused on the dwarven races as they "evovled" on Krynn. The author does a decent enough job to make you interested in the next book so I'll most likely finish out the series.

If you are a fan of DL and have some interest in the history of the dwarven race on Krynn I'd recommend this book.Its light, its fun and has characters named Gem Bluesleeve and Willen Ironmaul - gotta like that.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a bit of a dry story-telling style, which is befitting for a book that is basically the history of the dwarves in Dragonlance. Though it's decidedly the first in a series, it ends at a logical stopping point.

It does not require reading other Dragonlance books to enjoy it, but there are nice bits that expand that universe if you're familiar. Otherwise it's just a book about a variety of dwarves.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war of dwarves! It was neat to learn about different dwarven factions from the DragonLance setting. Very little on how they came to be but more centered around how they differed at the time of the book.

[Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

It tends to meander around quite a bit, but is surprisingly entertaining.

[Devi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story with interesting characters written from a unique point of view.

First book of a trilogy

[Alexander Faria · Rating 4 out of 5]

excelente historia