Review: ‘The Forge in the Forest’ by Michael Scott Rohan
The siege of Kerbryhaine had been raised, the Ekwesh hordes vanquished, the Mastersmith slain. But for Alv — now Elof the Smith — the war was not yet won: Kerbryhaine was still a divided city; the Ekwesh, bloodily defeated, would look for revenge; and the Ice, implacably malevolent, continued its inexorable march southward.
So from divided Kerbryhaine Elof, Kermorvan and his companions mounted an expedition to the legendary lost cities of the East; if they managed to reunite the war-torn tribes, perhaps they could stand together against the menae of the Ice. But to Elof and Kermorvan the journey would also bring knowledge: of the Powers ranged for and against them; and of the secrets within themselves waiting to be revealed — secrets that would play a part in the war yet to come. (Goodreads Summary)
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. As the title suggests, smithcraft is central to the book, and Rohan has a knack of taking complicated forging and metalworking processes and describing them in a way which makes them interesting, understandable and easy to visualise. Unfortunately, this is sometimes to the detriment of other areas of plot, which sometimes feel cursory and inexplicable. The gradual removal of the other travelling companions, for example, often came across as rather abrupt and contrived. That said, this was a lovely rambling epic of a book and I look forward to reading the next installment.
The Forge in the Forest: The Winter of the World II by Michael Scott Rohan. Published by Time Warner, 1990, pp. 406. Originally published in 1987.
N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads. I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.