Runes & Ruins

by J.S. Morin

No army. No map. No backup. Just dwarves.

With their outpost secure, the newly crowned king of the Dragonhammer dwarves finds himself more concerned with trade and infrastructure than conquest. The failed invasion weakened their enemies, and the dwarves have graciously declined to counterattack.

After all, the Dragonhammer Clan sees the monument to their dead every day.

But the goblins can't afford to leave well enough alone. Desperate for resources only available within the dwarven-controlled region, they try to barter. And when the dwarves refuse to deal with their enemies, the goblins resort to theft.

King Nedrum Dragonhammer wants nothing more than peace, but he's not willing to pretend the goblins will ever let them have it. Not after they proved they can't mend their ways. A hasty war party is assembled, and the goal is finally drive the occupiers out of their ancient homeland, once and for all.

The Dragonhammer Saga isn't the story of one dwarf, but of the whole clan. If you want the whole vibe of dwarves as hard-drinking, hard-working, family oriented, and tougher than nails (or just about anything else), then this is the series for you. If you prefer your dwarves and gruff, bearded miners who might occasionally break into song, good this is also the series for you!

328 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 20, 2026

About the author

I am a creator of worlds and a destroyer of words. As a fantasy writer, my works range from traditional epics to futuristic fantasy with starships. I have worked as an unpaid Little League pitcher, a cashier, a student library aide, a factory grunt, a cubicle drone, and an engineer--there is some overlap in the last two.

Through it all, though, I was always a storyteller. Eventually I started writing books based on the stray stories in my head, and people kept telling me to write more of them. Now, that's all I do for a living.

I enjoy strategy, worldbuilding, and the fantasy author's privilege to make up words. I am a gamer, a joker, and a thinker of sideways thoughts. But I don't dance, can't sing, and my best artistic efforts fall short of your average notebook doodle. When you read my books, you are seeing me at my best.

My ultimate goal is to be both clever and right at the same time. I have it on good authority that I have yet to achieve it.

Reviews

[Frank Carver · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dragonhammer Dwarves march to retake their old home.

After thoroughly enjoying the first book in the series "Lava and Lightning", I rushed into reading this new volume. It's been several years since the events of the first book. Not much time for the long-lived dwarves of the Dragonhammer Deeps, but enough for their human friends and goblin enemies to get old and weary. When goblins start raiding the dwarves for platinum, king Nedrum decides enough is enough and brings forward their plans to retake their ancestral home of Skrasforge.

This book still has a lot of what I loved about the first one - a richly developed dwarven culture, a heady mix of technology, magic and action, and characters who feel real and act accordingly. Overall, I enjoyed it, but a shade less than its predecessor. The best thing about this book is definitely the machinations of the street-smart goblin leader contrasted with the worthy and traditionalist dwarves.

However, I I think this book suffers a little from middle book syndrome. It's position in a trilogy is clear but it mainly seems to serve as a bridge between the "up from nothing" struggles of the first book and what I hope will be an era-defining climax to come in the next.

I'm still looking forward to the next one, though.

[Brett Wickersham · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been 15 years since the last book, and the founding of Dragonhammer Deeps. The dwarven colony is growing and thriving. Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for the goblins that are inhabiting Warm-Stone, their name for the captured dwarven city of Skarsforge. When the goblins need platinum, and their stores have run out, they decide that their only course of action is to steal a lode from the dwarves. This act of aggression rallys the dwarven clans to finally take the last step, and begin the process of reclaiming their ancestral city.
This is a great continuation of the series, and has enough twists and surprises to keep the pages turning quickly. Even though the dwarves are our protagonists, and the goblins are the antagonists in this story, you can't help but feel for them a little as you see how the actions from the first book have had an impact. I am definitely looking forward to the third installment of the series.

[Kelly Peasgood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picking up 15 years after the first book (which is barely a blink in Dwarf terms), we see the impressive industriousness of the Dwarves of Dragonhammer Deep, and also the restlessness of some inhabitants keen on reclaiming Skrasforge, along with the festering resentment against the Goblins who dwell there. Plans are made to scout the city in the hopes of finding a way to mount a successful war to flush out the 'green vermin'.
Great look at the thought processes and memories of various races given their differing life spans; what seems yesterday to a Dwarf is a generation gone to a Goblin, barely any time to an Elf, and don't bother with silly things like time to a Dragon.
I found the end anticlimactic, yet it sets up the sequel well.