Trek to Kraggen-Cor

Mithgar (Publication) #4

by Dennis L. McKiernan

Journey back to Mithgar, the spellbinding world of fantasy and myth brought to life by Dennis L. McKiernan in his Iron Tower Trilogy. Here, in an all-new adventure, the eternal struggle between the forces of darkness and the forces of light continues to rage in this magical land of ancient mysteries and mesmerizing beauty.For Lord Kian, heir to the Throne of North Riamon, the trek to Kraggen-Cor begins when he joins arms with Durek the Deathbreaker and his legions of Dwarves. Together with the two Wee Folk, Peregrin Fairhill and Cotton Buckleburr, keepers of the mystical Silver Horn of the Reach, their armies head for the high jagged mountains to reclaim the Dwarfian homeland, now in the hands of treacherous usurpers.

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Novels

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

McKiernan was born in Moberly, Missouri, where he lived until he served the U.S. Air Force for four years, stationed within US territory during the Korean War. After military service, he attended the University of Missouri and received a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1958 and an M.S. in the same field from Duke University in 1964. He worked as an engineer at AT&T, initially at Western Electric but soon at Bell Laboratories, from 1958 until 1989. In 1989, after early retirement from engineering, McKiernan began writing on a full-time basis.

In 1977, while riding his motorcycle, McKiernan was hit by a car which had crossed the center-line, and was confined to a bed, first in traction and then in a hip spica cast, for many months. During his recuperation, he boldly began a sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The publisher Doubleday showed an interest in his work and tried to obtain authorization from Tolkien's estate but was denied. Doubleday then asked McKiernan to rewrite his story, placing the characters in a different fictitious world, and also to write a prequel supporting it. The prequel, of necessity, resembles The Lord of the Rings; the decision of Doubleday to issue the work as a trilogy increased that resemblance; and some critics have seen McKiernan as simply imitating Tolkien's epic work. McKiernan has subsequently developed stories in the series that followed along a story line different from those that plausibly could have been taken by Tolkien.

McKiernan's Faery Series expands tales draw from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, additionally tying the selected tales together with a larger plot.

McKiernan currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.

(Biography taken from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sarah Staszkiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people are extremely hateful towards this series as it is clearly a 'rip-off' of Tolkien. However, I found this series very enjoyable. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was certainly a magnificent series, but it did have many many long drawn out battle scenes. McKiernan's novels, on the other hand, are significantly less focused on battles. There's still plenty of action and battle, but I found the series to be much faster paced and attention keeping. I love McKiernan's take on Tolkien's hobbits. The Warrows are not just simple, helpless characters. They are skilled with the bow and hunting techniques. Overall, I found this series to be extremely enjoyable. I for one am a huge fan of the Iron Tower Trilogy, and the Silver Call Duology.

[Carson Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5
Ok this is the biggest crime yet by McKiernan.
After some questionable choices by the author in his Iron Tower trilogy, which was a riff on the LOTR trilogy, he sticks the landing and made a different and interesting trilogy that I liked.
This here is so blatantly a Hobbit ripoff it’s insane. He not only steals the plot of the Hobbit but he tries to match the more lighthearted tone of the book and it doesn’t do him any good. His most interesting stuff in Iron Tower revolved around the darker tone and dire stakes, and he leaves that behind in this book and it’s a terrible mistake.
McKiernan can’t match the charming whimsical writing of Tolkien in The Hobbit and it’s glaringly obvious. This book tries to be fun but just comes across inert and uninspired.
Really hoping the second book in this duology can turn things around.

[Jason Waltz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have enjoyed this if I read it in the early '80s. Probably not though - as it is such a blatant rip-off of Tolkien. It's almost the same story, and in the depths of trying to be the same story, it's got a zillion names, little people, everyone loves to eat and tell tales, and blah blah blah. Danger finally raised its head (predictably) in the last 50 pages. In other words: boring.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty blatantly Lord of the Rings fanfic with the serial numbers barely filed off. Following the destruction of not-Sauron a few centuries ago, the Dwarves now wish to reclaim their homeland of not-Moria. Aided by a Warror (read: totally not a hobbit, guys, really) named Peregrin (yes, really) not-Durin leads an army overland to the Dusk Gate, the opening of the ancient dungeon. Despite being a blatant knock-off, I actually found this rather enjoyable. The characters aren't especially deep, and the lack of women is frustrating, but McKiernan's writing isn't too bad. He at least makes a vague effort at differentiating his world from Tolkien's, though I hope he gets better at that in later books. There are some nice poignant bits, especially the way the protagonist deals with the realization that war is horrible rather than the happy thing of epic tales. All in all, while this definitely isn't the best fantasy novel ever, it's actually kinda fun if you can get past the obvious parallels to Middle Earth and the fact that this is kinda The Hobbit but positioned as a sequel rather than prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever wonder what Tolkien's dwarves would have done with Moria now that the balrog was killed. McKiernan's dwarves go back to reclaim their lost home. I love dwarves, I love fantasy so this story has it all for me. Top honors, highly recommended

[Matt Glaviano · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

Why do I read Dennis L. McKiernan novels?

If you, Theoretical Reader, actually want an answer to that, check out my review of the Iron Tower series. In this case, I mean it much more figuratively. Like, why the hell do I do this to myself?

For context, everything I'm reading right now that's NOT Walter Mosley are in-between books. I'm reading all the Easy Rawlins mysteries, but want to cleanse my palate between books to avoid burn out. Does that justify this decision? Is 10 year old Matt yet appeased with making reading choices for me?

Here's the funny part -- I think this book (these books, hopefully, since I'll finish the duology soon) is a step up from the Iron Tower series. Don't get me wrong -- there's still too much (WAY too much) proper noun place-naming instead of description... but not as much. There's more of a sense of place here. And while it's clearly Tolkien derivative (WAY too much so to be homage), there were moments where the plot went it's own way -- like, not the way of the Fellowship (although even that goddamned word is used. Sigh).

While I'm reading this in the Silver Call double-book edition, I've chosen the cover that I owned when I was a kid. This is, again, about getting that dude off my back. One more book and I'm out. Do you hear me little Matt?

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable volume one of a duology by McKiernan that takes place way after The Iron Tower Trilogy but was written before that series.
This story revolves around warrow's Perry and Cotton who are caretakers for the "warrow museum and archives" and how they get involved in their own adventure.
McKiernan takes the two back to Kraggen-cor where many years prior Tuck went through on his great adventure. It also is a war story and McKiernan really shows the evolution of these characters throughout this book in terms of their innocence and naivety to becoming actual hardened soldiers.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trek to Kraggen-Cor and The Brega Path comprise the Silver Call Duology, a sequel sequence to McKiernan's Iron Tower trilogy, the first-published books in his Mithgar series. I have heard that The Silver Call was originally written as a sequel to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but he could not secure permission to publish it, so he wrote his own trilogy and then re-wrote these two volumes to serve as a sequel to his own story. Perhaps his initial enthusiasm was augmented by his later increased skill and subsequent attention to detail, but for whatever reason I thought The Silver Call (it's really just one long story cut in half, in my opinion) was one of the best high-fantasy epics I'd ever read. I prefer it to Tolkien in many ways. There have been a -lot- of similar fantasy series, but Mithgar is among the best and The Silver Call is one of the best of stories set there.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This to me seemed like just another post Tolkien fantasy novel. Almost too much so. It was a group of people that came together and went on a journey. It very much mirrors, in many ways at least, The Fellowship of the Ring, up through the gates of Moria. Having said all that I really enjoyed it and have been wanting to read it again.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, again a 3.5 but hey. Perry and Cotton want to feel they are on a grand adventure, but they soon realize that knowing about past wars cannot prepare them for the reality of friends actually dying in battle. Looking forward to book 2.

[Brian Liebenow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know he stole his ideas from Tolkien, but 12 year-old me loved it.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd one. Originally written as a sequel to LOTR, McKiernan had to change the names and places and then write a prequel series that basically retold LOTR. I skipped the prequel series (The Iron Tower trilogy) and jumped straight into this duology and I'm (mostly) glad I did. The similarities to Tolkien's world are still VERY apparent but as the book goes along Mithgar starts to feel like its own world. The biggest drawback this book has is that it's A TON of setup. Lots of marching and moving across a map so if you didn't like Fellowship you might be bored (I wasn't). McKiernan has a similar writing style to Tolkien for better or worse as he sometimes gets bogged down by his own prose. Overall, though I enjoyed this novel despite its shortcomings. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys old school fantasy. I also recommend reading this back to back with its sequel novel (The Brega Path) as it kinda abruptly ends and was clearly split in two by the publisher. Here's hoping Part 2 kicks it up a notch 3.6 stars rounded up.

[Chris Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a ton of problems with this book.

First off, this is still early in McKiernan’s writing career—at this point, he’s still writing what is essentially Lord Of The Rings fan-Fiction. There are several scenes which are lifted wholesale from Tolkien.

Second, it’s mostly boring. It’s 250 pages of travel descriptions. Seriously, nothing happens for nearly the whole book. We get detailed descriptions of marching, and riding, and camping, and fording, and more marching, and more camping, and then some raining so less marching the next day, and then snowing, and then three days of camping because of the snow, and then finally more marching, and so on.

BUT...

It’s incredibly readable. The characters are well-written, and very likable. And even though nothing is happening, you care about them all.

And McKiernan’s Dwarves are the best in the genre, hands-down.

Despite the issues, still a very good read.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish I could give it a four stars. I mean, it's fun to read, and that is no small feat, and I do like the characters. Yeah, the overall structure is Tolkien, but he wrote it as a sequel to Lord of the Rings, so it's understandable when seven companions get called "The Fellowship" and stuff like that.

I like that most of the challenges the heroes face in this book are natural ones, not caused by any evil force from another plane or whatever, just good old ice, snow, water, and rocks. I like that. Oh, there's a giant Kraken, sure, but even that conflict is as much with the elements as it is with the creature.

Trek to Kraggen-cor does a great disservice to female characters, however, as here they are apparently suited only to serve men who go off adventuring. Luckily, McKiernan righted this wrong in the Iron Tower books, at least to some degree.

So, yeah, overall, a fun read, but nostalgia plays more than a tiny role in its appeal for me (as I first read this series in the 1980s).

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

My husband thought I'd like these books because I love LOTR. Also I love great writing. Sorry, I tried, honey. I cannot stomach one more of these books. I see there are a lot of people who love the overstated homage to Tolkien, as well as many fans of McKiernan's style of writing (not for me). Good for all of you. I have to leave it here, though. I had to speed read (which I hate doing) just to get through the first trilogy and this book. Sad to say, I don't even care how this all ends. I have no intention of ever returning to Mithgar.

[Derek Gillespie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't see any enemies until 70% into the book which gives you idea of how it was a little hum-drum. There were only two battles and very little words to describe - I welcomed this aspect since I find battle scenes to be boring.

Don't know if I'll be reading The Silver Call....

[Lucas Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25. Not a bad Tolkien clone of a story. He wanted to write a sequel to LOTR and was not allowed so he made his own similar world to do this. Could see my younger self loving this but after years of more character driven fantasy it was just ok. If you like classic style fantasy give it a try

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing I don’t like about this is the author’s insistence on saying “ere” all the damned time. Seriously, Dennis. The word “before” is your friend.

[Cara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written straight from the Tolkien school of "high fantasy" and about as enjoyable a read.

If you like Tolkien, you'll like this. I don't, so I didn't.

[Prasanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

After 4 years visiting Mithgar for a grand adventure of my favorites, the warrows.

[Docgastro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Langweilig, zieht sich wie Kaugummi......,,,

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really is as bad as everyone says it is. A pastiche so bad it verges on parody. Alas, not so bad that it’s good, either. Just very poor.

[Isaac Sherman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not badly written, but... very derivative of LOTR and not very compelling. I didn't really care about any of the characters, despite some otherwise interesting elements.

[P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't get enough of this fantasy world.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Wickedpen]

This is actually by Signet/New American Library 253 pgs.

[Francine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like the Lord of the Rings genre. The author uses long descriptions to give the reader a picture of events and places. This compliments the Iron Tower trilogy.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 12%

[Ty Bedell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure, there are echoes of Tolkien, but that’s okay. I enjoyed the story and the characters. Dwarves are always fun.

[Tracy L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silver Call duology was not may favorite in the series. It is an interesting story but the characters were not as intriguing and/or interesting as characters in other books. Many times the characters could be down right annoying. Luckily the books are shorter so it was a quick read that gave you some history of the world Mr. McKiernan created. But, don't judge the Mithgar series on these books.