The Dwarves is the first novel in a fantasy series by German writer Markus Heitz. Heitz sets up to give everyone’s favourite mountain dwellers a chance to lead a fantasy epic.
Tungil Bolofar is an unusual dwarf: an orphan who grew up in the Enchanted Realm of Ionandar. Tungil’s the only dwarf in the realm, has never met another dwarf, and only knows about his people from books. Tungil’s foster father, Lot-Ionan, tasks the dwarf with retrieving some artifacts from one of his former students. However, Tungil’s simple quest becomes perilous due to a power struggle within the dwarven tribes, the Perished Lands expanding across the continent of Girdlegard, and a corrupted magus allies himself with the orcs and alfars.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium looms large over the high fantasy genre. It became the template for other high fantasy novels and worlds and has influenced the likes of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, and Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. The Dwarves wanted to be like them since it was filled with fantasy tropes, i.e., men, elves, orcs, sorcerers, and an almighty being trying to conquer the world. It’s hard to stand out in this genre, and The Dwarves unique selling point was being told from a dwarven perspective.
In the novel, dwarves were divided into different kingdoms, each had different skills like metal work, masonry, and gem-cutting. It was similar to the Seven Kingdoms in A Song of Ice and Fire and the Districts in The Hunger Games since they had different specialisms, or like a video game with different factions. The dwarves’ distinctive features were being brave warriors, excellent craftsmen (and women), and inventors of an underground stream railway. They lived underground, liked heat and fire, and distrusted magic. An unfortunate trait within dwarven culture is many of the characters had similar names who were in close proximity to each other it did make the experience confusing at times. One of the most interesting characters in the book was Gandogar, the king of the Fourthlings and candidate for the high king. He had a sense of honour and wanted to do right by his people, but was being manipulated by his main advisor who wanted to go to war with the Elves.
On a visceral level The Dwarves was entertaining. There was a healthy amount of action throughout the story, from big battles to skirmishes where the dwarven party was outnumbered. Different styles of fighting were on display, like Boïndil’s willingness to charge into battle headfirst, to Narmora, a member of a theatre troupe, had a more agile fighting style. There was also a fair bit of humour, especially early in the novel, like Tungil’s rivalry with one of Lot-Ionan’s students.
The Dwarves did offer some mild entertainment, but the book had a lot of issues. It had lots of standard fantasy tropes that have been explored in other fantasy works. The world of The Dwarves was not as rich or interesting as in the big fantasy worlds like Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, where there were many factions and different cultures on display. It was particularly disappointing because the novel was written by a German, and there were hopes that the novel could have used Germanic and Continental influences instead of Anglo-Saxon, but this didn’t happen. Some ideas felt like they were lifted directly from other fantasy works, like the sorceress Andôkai and her hulking bodyguard, Djerůn, being like the Aes Sedai from The Wheel of Time, where a female magic user has a male warrior bonded to her.
There were some interesting ideas like the growth of the Perished Lands, and if anyone fell to the forces of evil, they would be resurrected as a slave to the followers of Tion. All the races had their own gods, so it added a bit of texture. Finally, the magic system in the novel was treated as a finite resource, and sorcerers needed to go to special areas to replenish their stocks.
The Dwarves was a big book at 730 pages. Fantasy books tend to be chucky, but The Dwarves did not have enough substance or world-building to justify this length. It was a book that required a harsh editor to be willing to cut the fat and make the book a leaner experience.
The Dwarves did offer some entertaining action, and there were some decent ideas, but on the whole, it was a minor offering in the fantasy genre.
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