book review: The Hammer of the Sun
The Hammer of the Sun (The Winter of the World book 3 of 3)
by: Michael Scott Rohan
There are many different ways to judge the quality of a book, I think. Some stand out on a technical level, others shine in their mastery of wordcraft, or worldbuilding, or believable characters. There’s also “emotional impact”, or something like that. And, regardless of the other aspects of quality – if a book impacts me emotionally (in a positive way… you know not like making me want to burn it) I’m going to have to call that quality.
This book hit me in two places, the first of which was a surprise. The second was the ending, so that was somewhat expected – especially as the closing book in a trilogy. Based on those two hits alone, this book is four stars, but it has plenty of merit beyond that. The pre-historic (but not prehistoric) world and it’s literal battle with the ice(age) is vividly done, the lead and three supporting characters each get a good amount of time and growth over the course of the trilogy, and the magic system is the only one of it’s kind I’ve seen so far (no actual “spells”, everything is crafted/enchanted by “smiths”) and really works quite well within the bounds of the setting.
Another kind of interesting thing about my experience with these books was that with each one I went into it expecting to be bored – even with the second and third, after I’d had the exact same expectations about the previous ones, I STILL had that feeling. Something about the world – on paper it doesn’t sound quite as interesting as it actually is in words. So, another achievement for the author there. Also, he does a great job of making the reader empathic to the leads pain – and he undergoes something in this book that still makes me physically cringe just to think about (no it’s not necessarily torture… just something incredibly painful that I haven’t encountered in a book yet, nor wish to again O.O).
SO. In closing. I highly recommend this series to fans of “classic” style epic fantasy. Very much in the vein of Lord of the Rings… but I found it more approachable than that.
FOUR STARS
A NOTE ABOUT MY RATING SYSTEM: Yes, my rating system actually goes to FIVE, but I’m really fucking stingy with anything over four. Even four is an achievement. You need some seriously nuts stuff to get over FOUR, like the Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time or Reality Dysfunction series. So, while this series is very well crafted, and was a wonderful read, it did lack a little in the mind blowing department. But that’s ok. If everything was awesome, awesome wouldn’t be so awesome.
Hmm..perhaps I should get these for Josh then.
And hopefully he won’t scoff at the author’s “surname” being Rohan. O_o
How could you scoff at that? That’s about as awesome a last name as you could ask for. As a geek.
Oh, are we supposed to believe that’s his real last name?
Well, he is Scottish.
Yes, Bethany, there is a Mike Scott Rohan. The name comes from Brittany, in particular a town there, but you will find it throughout the French aristocracy; my father was French, and only settled in Scotland when he joined the British Army in WWII. As a small boy it made me look more closely at my sister’s copy of LOTR, but I would probably have become an SF and fantasy writer anyway.
I did have the chance, once, to ask Tolkien himself where he got the name, but by then he was very old, and couldn’t remember. He did say that someone had sent him a postcard of one of the famly castles in Brittany (which I wrote into the books). He also reminded me that the family, along with the Lusignans, is supposed to be descended from the water-spirit Melusine. Since on my mother’s side I’m descended from the “Border Wizard” Michael Scot, court magician to the emperor Frederick II, I guess I was probably long ago doomed to be a hopeless romantic.
Keep reading!
Wow. Thanks for stopping in :).
It’s been a while now since I read them, but I have to admit that your books really surprised me – especially given how hard they were to track down (I was also surprised that they were not better known). I was a super avid fantasy reader in the 90s, and never once did I see these books in my local bookstores. Thanks to the internet, I was able to track down 1st print hardcovers.
Huh, I just noticed that there are volumes 4-6…I wonder why I didn’t notice that before? I’ll have to track those down as well.
Glad to hear they were enjoyable! Certainly my then publishers were not the most clued-up about publicity, distribution etc.
I largely gave up fiction writing around 2001 for several reasons, but mostly because I was battling with ill health, including diabetes with rare complications, and my wife was also ill. I moved to the rather more relaxed world of classical music, and currently write for the BBC’s music publications. However, two publishers are currently bidding for the e-publication rights to all my books — including some that never appeared in the US — so you may find them easier to get at soon.
And if that takes off, well, I may go back to writing some more again. Feels good to still have readers like yourself!
Cheers,
Mike