Title: An amazingly bad book.
Review: I've read a lot of fantasy and science fiction in the last 20 years. This is, without a doubt, the worst piece in either genre I've read in that entire time.Anachronisms abound. The characters are paper thin. The plot is predictable. The battles are not stirring.The very best things about this book (and the sequel, which I read for this very reason) was the chance to laugh at the bad writing, and the chance to guess which other story some particularly awful bit had been borrowed from.I don't think that Dennis McKiernan is deliberately writing this badly, or trying to be this derivative. It's not that derivative is always bad (the Belgariad series by David Eddings is both derivative and delightful). I think Dennis must have been in a hurry, or a had a contract he was forced to honor. A pity.
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