The Elvenbane (Unknown Binding)

by Andre Norton (Author), Mercedes Lackey (Author) "SERINA DAETH. I am-Serina Daeth..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lord Dyran, Father Dragon, Lord Berenel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A brisk, glittering yarn that packs as much action, suspense, and twisting of conventions into one novel as many writers invest in whole trilogies."--Amazing Stories

"A splendid blend of the talents of two excellent storytellers!"--Anne McCaffrey

"One of the season's liveliest and , most appealing fantasy epics."--Publishers Weekly
-- Review --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

"A brisk, glittering yarn that packs as much action, suspense, and twisting of conventions into one novel as many writers invest in whole trilogies."--Amazing Stories

"A splendid blend of the talents of two excellent storytellers!"--Anne McCaffrey

"One of the season's liveliest and , most appealing fantasy epics."--Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• ASIN: B00005VS8A
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,696,707 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 1 in The Halfblood Chronicles Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Child of Prophecy, August 10, 2003

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Elvenbane (Halfblood Chronicles, Bk. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Elvenbane (1991) is the first novel in the Halfblood Chronicles. The Elves are aliens from elsewhere. They are long-lived and have great magics and, long ago, they conquered Earth. Now the humans wear slave collars and take orders from Elven overseers. The Elves and humans can interbreed; the resulting child usually has Elven magic and the mind powers of the humans. These halfblood Wizards are reluctant to obey the Elven Lords and eventually rebelled in the Wizard's War. Ever since, it has been a killing offense for a human to become pregnant by an Elf.

The Elves and humans unknowingly share the planet with the dragons, who came during the Wizard's War. Dragons are shapeshifters and their shamans have the power of mind speaking and reading the thoughts of others. They can also play with the lightning and create gates between worlds. The dragons despise the Elven Lords and cause confusion and anger whenever they can. One of their favorite ploys is to spread the prophecy of the Elvenbane, a halfblood who will free the human from Elven tyranny.

In this novel, Alamarana is a shaman and pregnant. She is traveling across the world, shifting her shape and becoming one with the planet. For a while, she impersonates an Elven maid and leads an Elven Lord into a marriage agreement just before she vanishes from his manor. Then, as she is meditating in a body of stone, a human slave, also pregnant, literally stumbles across her. Serina Daeth had been the chief concubine of Lord Dyran, but another concubine managed to make Serina fertile with the Elven Lord and so now she is fleeing for her life.

Alara almost abandons Serina in the desert, but decides to help deliver the child. When the mother bleeds to death, Alara takes the girl child home with her. Seeing the baby, all the dragons of her lair start to argue and complain. The infant is too noisy, she is too smelly, and she is ugly, but Alara is determined to keep the child. Moments later, she goes into contractions herself.

Alara's son, Keman, thinks the infant is kind of cute. He is the type of dragon child who brings pets home with him and the human baby looks to be another pet, yet so small and feeble. When his mother goes into labor, Keman takes the child home and puts her in the pen with Hoppy, his three-legged two-horn, who soon includes the human in her nursing brood.

Keman names the baby Lashana, which is "orphan" in Elvish, but since she is so little, he shortens the name to Shana. Since his mother is very busy with his baby sister, Keman takes over the care of this little human. He makes her a shift of his own shed skin to protect her tender skin. He starts teaching her to talk, refusing to just speak mind-to-mind. He soon learns how hard work there is in being a mother.

This novel is about family, fate, and freedom. As with most of both authors' stories, this tales features characters who persevere in their struggle against hardship and injustice. Moreover, it contains alien characters who defy there own kind to help win the struggle.

Recommended for Norton and Lackey fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of strange powers, friendly dragons and righteous conflict.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible read, February 7, 2000

By	Robert Hansen (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elvenbane (Halfblood Chronicles, Bk. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Before reading this evew, please take into account the fact that I am slightly prejudiced; this is my favorite book of all time. The thing I love about this book is the way it destroys stereotypes. In this book, elves are evil beings, humans are stupid, and dragons are either lazy or terified of being discovered. There are no people fighting all that is bad in the world because they want to, instead they tend to run away as fast as possible. When you have been reading this book for sometime, and hen put it dow, prepare to take 10 to 15 minutes in order to readjust to reality. A few people I have lent this to have also experienced this, so It's not just MY overactive imagination. There are some minor problems. By about half-way through the book, the alliances of all the main characters are clear, so it's fairly obvious what will happen in the end (although the details are surprising). The book also leaves someting of a cliff-hanger, remedied by the sequel, Elvenblood (although this too has an ambigous ending). In all, if you like realistic, gritty, and above all well-written ficton, this is the book for you.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compulsively Readable, July 31, 2002

By	Aimee "reader extraordinaire" (Athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elvenbane (Halfblood Chronicles, Bk. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Escapist fantasy at its best! "Elvenbane" is a wonderful ride, well-written and absorbing. You're swept up at once in the world of the story, and carried along relentlessly to its end. This is a page-turner in the best sense -- you always want to know what happens next!

As others have said, the real fun of this book is the way it turns our expectations on their head. It takes a fairly standard fantasy set-up -- a prophesy foretells that one of the despised and hunted half-bloods will become the savior of humankind -- and quickly subverts it. Nothing is as it seems. As soon as we think we're safe in a standard fantasy cliche (such as the wise and kindly dragons who take in the orphaned child, or the half-blooded wizards in their hidden fortress in the forest who will become the heart of the fight against the elves) -- boom! It evolves (or perhaps I should say devolves) into something else entirely. There are no pure and good-hearted heros in this book. These characters are real people -- grumpy, bad-tempered, and petty, as well as kind-hearted and brave. Even Shana, the main character, has a sharp temper and a tendacy towards self-centeredness (in my opinion, anyway). These flaws make the characters more realistic; I cared about Shana and her foster-brother Keman, and I wanted them to win.

As for the reason why I gave this book four stars instead of five? Norton and Lackey spend so much time establishing their world and characters, that by the time the action picks up, they've run out of room! The ending felt greatly rushed to me. It's true that the end brought no real surprises, but the fun is in seeing the story play out, and I felt a little cheated by all the scenes I felt were missing. Valyn's sacrifice in particular lacked the emotional impact I felt it should have -- simply because he hadn't been around long enough for me to care that much about him! I realize that, at 560 pages, this book is already quite long, but if as much attention had been paid to fleshing out the ending as was paid to the beginning and middle, it would have been perfect.

But, even so, I greatly enjoyed this novel and I recommend it to anyone. It gives you what all fantasy readers want -- a story you can lose yourself in.