Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword [Hardcover]

Wendy Pini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Led by Cutter, the elfin Wolfriders have experiences equal parts triumph and tragedy, loss and gain. Now, the elves must adapt to a world without the Troll smiths, who forged their weapons and tools. Still in shock and recovering from her parents violent deaths, Shuna, the adopted human daughter of Cutter and Leetah, must cope with a rugged new world full of strange rules and pitfalls. Painfully aware that shes simply a human girl whos surrounded by impossibly beautiful, magical beings, Shuna embarks on a quest hoping to unite elf and humankind in peace.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first new Elfquest story in years from the original creators returns readers to the ongoing saga of the Wolfriders, a tribe of feral elves who must constantly fight to survive against a harsh environment and the ever-present threats posed by fearful primitive humans. The simultaneous quests undertaken by elven tribal elder Treestump and the tribe's adopted human daughter Shuna fuel the narrative; one's striving for the much-needed secret of ancient troll metallurgy, and the other's seeking to forge a bridge between her human relatives and her elven family. Their journeys are fraught with frustration, doubt, sacrifice and sheer peril, all leading to major turning points for the future of Shuna, Treestump and the Wolfriders as a whole. Bursting with the strong characterizations for which the Pinis are acclaimed, this volume showcases lush color art and immerses readers into the clash between the natural and magical worlds. While the story isn't without moments of conflict and action, the tone is one of quiet reflection, as the tale is recounted by the now aged Shuna. This is another solid addition to the Elfquest legacy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. In this new graphic novel by the creators of the Elfquest adventures of the 1980s, readers follow Shuna, a human girl adopted by a tribe of elves called Wolfriders, as she comes of age, dealing not only with grief resulting from the violent deaths of her parents but also the scars left by her father's abusive behavior. Shuna is happy in her new life, but her personal fears and insecurities are magnified by the beauty and character of the seemingly perfect elves who have taken her in. After meeting a human hunting party, Shuna embarks on a quest, hoping to bring humans and elves together in friendship, and, along the way, comes to terms with her own humanity. Because of its strong focus on story, this is a good bridge to and from fantasy novels and an especially good choice for teens just coming into comics. The character of Shuna, an independent idealist, is also a great lure for girl readers. Wendy Pini's style is still bold and fun, and her work remains some of the most recognizable art in the comics industry. Fans of the previous Elfquest adventures won't be disappointed. Tina Coleman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401201830
• ISBN-13: 978-1401201838
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What were they thinking???, September 28, 2004

By 

yani (South Australia, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword (Hardcover)

Well, I have to say, if this is the quality of work due to come out of the new EQ/DC venture... they really don't need to bother.

As mentioned in other reviews, the story is far too rushed, suffers from a whole bunch of cliche's and plot holes (don't even get me started on the "Zombie" trolls, or the miraculous ressurection of a character long assumed dead), and, I'm sorry, but there was NO reason for Kimo gaining the shapeshifting powers, except to amaze and startle the humans... when character development is included to push the story over a plot hump, what's the point?

Working in Photoshop seems to have made Wendy very very very lazy with her art... when I can see and count the PS effects (star brush used every time something is "magical", mosaic filter used for crystal and treasure effects, blurring on all of Kimo's transformation scenes) it made me wish she had stuck to the black and white work of Dreamtime, she at least put effort into not only the backgrounds (there seem to be far too many backgrounds where Photoshop was used to create them from scratch, and the figures seem to almost be floating in mid air, even with the shadows), but also to the general consistancy of the images... Kimo's puffy bangs disappear and reappear in a couple of scenes which just bother me.... and the amazingly beautiful shading of Strongbow and Moonshade on the first panel of page 19 doesn't carry over to the next two panels...

Having said that, there are some beautifully and wonderfully detailed panels... but rather than saving the story they just highlight what Wendy is capable of, and show the pages/panels around them for the less that perfect work that they seem to be. Take for example the top panel on page 5, Shenshen is beautifully rendered, good shadows and a really rounded feel to her... every single other Sun Villager in the panel is coloured with almost totally flat colour.

The story, as I said, has more cliches and holes than you could drive a herd of Shagback's through... there are too many "teasers"... how Shuna learns to send, how Kimo becomes a shape shifter (and why), Crescent's warning (and what does "Look for joy above, it is coming... look for danger below, it is there now!" MEAN anyway... and why include Crescent in the story at all if that is the only role she was supposed to play), Moonshade and Strongbow's new cub not getting a name right away (they're calling her "Hey you" until then maybe?), and in fact, the whole "conception to birth in less than a page" thing (why, just once, can't we have an elf pregnancy that actually takes more than 5 minutes to happen... look at Tyleet, she was pregnant for the whole of Hidden Years... made for good story).

This almost feels like a really long individual comic... like we only got half the story, or even the condensed version of a much longer tale.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oh no . . .not HumanQuest - NO!!!, August 4, 2004

By 

Parkermann347 (U.S.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword (Hardcover)

I have finished reading this, friends, and I'm afraid I've got bad news. What EQ fans have dreaded has come to pass . . .not even the Rebels series was as heart-sickening.
We have entered the age of Human Quest.
The story is told from, for chrissakes, *Shuna's* perspective! This in itself might not be so bad, but the story becomes a jarring mess of 'put your head down' moments and sheer ridiculousness. For example, did you know Shuna has her period? ANd to top it off, the reader is treated to the sight of horny wolf-friends trying to mount her, so she is therefore banished -choke - -gag- to the Palace of all things!
This is only the beginning - and the general tone of the book suffers. The human perspective keeps it from flowing and totally removes the reader from the sense of immediacy that is necessary to keep a story like this from becoming laughable. Do you recall that all previous stories lack any sense of a narrator? No one WANTS to feel like this here is our story, boys and girls, this is our narrator, she is very conscious of herself in the story . . .ugh. It totally ruins it. The elves, even Skywise become completely alien. Long gone is the sense of 'Now' or intimacy with any of these characters that was so vital to the epic that was Elfquest and that has been 25 years in the making. What I dreaded, that the human worshipful viewpoint of the elves would take over, happens here. Maybe this is a device of Wendy's to cool all the readers off, so no one will even care if they all die, disappear or whatever. Basically it's like she's just burned out and just wants to meet a deadline. (Apparently she had hip surgery during production, but you know DC - Big Business roars, it gets) I couldn't believe, having re-read the entire EQ series back to back, how distant and aloof the elves all felt to me in this book. The gutwrenching scenes of the Palace War, or the pivotal moment when Rayek realized who Venka was . . . that sense of intimacy is all done away with in the tone of this meager 92 page volume. Yes, the price is heavy for a hardbound pamphlet, but they know we'll buy it anyway. This kind of thing is what I feared upon hearing about the DC takeover. Maybe the next narrator will be Batman or Robin, that's about all that could make it worse. Not even Wendy's art is able to resurrect this patched together mess. The brief moments of elf-life, Strongbow and Moonshade's love scene or Treestump's struggle in the Troll cavern are all at a remove that leaves one asking, how the heck did Shuna know that!? Was she in the tree with Moonshade and Strongbow when they were 'interrupted'? Maybe they did a special lock-send just for her to tell her all about it. Oh yeah, BTW, she can send too, isn't that something? Maybe this is just the beginning of everyon'e bugbear- the half human/elf character we know is coming. This kind of stuff just confirms it - no matter what Richard said 20 years ago. The elves have traded place with the humans, now *they* are the tribe of half glimpsed faces smiling and laughing while Shuna in all her angst stands on the outskirts, hoping, wondering. Quote: Close, never to be closer, one of us but not.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Agghkkk!! --- Wolf filth!, August 5, 2004

By 

Evie "Lestr" (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword (Hardcover)

Close, never to be closer, one of us but not." This is the defining statement that describes how the reader feels after this book. All the previous books that 'let us in' so to speak, are now pushed off with this distance approach to the elves. The only reason I give it 2 stars is because of the art.
By the way, brings up another development. Wendy had traded in her flowing lines and shimmering detail to go all digital. As someone who uses Adobe for artistic purposes, I'm fully aware of the things that can go missing in relying on digital too much. Friends, this thing isn't just colored with computer aid, it is ALL computer generated. And no, folks, she isn't quite up there with Pixar studios, who just might have been able to pull it off. She is amateur and it shows. Period.
Heck, whatever she's doing, it's pixellated -- some lines are actually wavery- as if she was still practicing while drawing. Please, at least draw so that the darn pixels or whatever are not visible by the time the resolution is jacked high enough! Drawing is at heart organic in nature, and this book is false at heart, like the two Star wars prequels. The feeling I have about this technology takeover being the end-all and be all is better expressed in the words of Skywise after the death of Starjumper in book 7: "Then why am I so cold?"
The nadir, the absolute lowest point, the Jar Jar Binks of this story is the human who has a crush on Shuna. Bee. No, it's not a guy with a girl's name. Oh no, that I could handle. No, what we have here is a new tribe of humans who each take on an insect as their identity. *stops for a moment to clear out bile in throat, there it's gone - * As I was saying, you go from the Djun who was evil but awesomely cool, bone chilling, with a fully detailed city-state with its own culture and an caste system and everything, to a new tribe of humans who in 10,000 years modeled themselves on different insects. Yuk. And 'Bee' is the worst, he actually (not making this up) wears a Bee costume! The Bat would've been better!!
Please Wendy and Richard, PLEASE make this all a dream of Shuna's, like in Dreamtime, I'll understand - you made a mistake, were a little rusty or whatever . . .PLEASE no more Human Quest! Uncle! Uncle!
So, for what it's worth, don't say I didn't warn you. The 5 year wait for a new graphic novel by Wendy has brought us this. It should have been 10 years, or maybe not at all.