Customer Reviews

Elvenborn

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a fan of the Elvenbane books for a long time. It was with much joy that I read the second book when it came out, and it was with even more joy that I finally read the third installment.
It has been a long wait, and I savored every page, forcing myself to read it as slowly as I could to make it last, just a little bit longer.
The book is a fantastic addition to the previous two novels. There is little character development with the characters that the fans already know and love. But they introduction of a few new ones is well handled.
Norton and Lackey have done a wonderful job of showing seven degrees of seperation works very well in the Elvenbane world. Twisting together charcters that have connections, even though they may not know it yet. Dropping hints that only those who are very familiar with the books would recognize.
I was frustrated at first because the characters I loved were not introduced in the book for several chapters, but the new characters are interesting enough to make it worth it.
And while it is not as thick as many of he epic novel series, it is just as entertaining. And a must read for any Elvenbane fan.

Applause to Norton and Lackey!!! Hurrah!!! i fell in love with the elevenbane back in the summer of '95, and have been stuck ever since, and when i learned of this third installment i couldn't wait to read it, to see what shana, lorryn, and company were up to. a huge credit to the authors for trying a new angle and introducing a whole new set of characters to the sage of the halfbloods. while it did start alittle slow, only really the first two or three chapters, i jumped right in and was quickly sucked deeper into the mysterious world of the elvenlords and the secrets they wanted to stayed hidden. i won't tell the ending, but i will say that the dynamics used on the characters were quite a change, but very welcomed, to breathe new life into them, to really see the dimensions of the characters and the world in which they lived in. kudos!!!

Like some of the other reviewers, I've been a fan of this series from the start, and eagerly awaited the release of this, the third book in the trilogy. Not only do I find the world Lackey/Norton constructed fascinating, but it's a very different spin than other authors have given to human-elven-dragon interaction, and I love it. It should go without saying that no-one should read any trilogy-finishing book without first having read the preceding two in the series, but with the way Lackey and Norton wrote the second and third books, this is even more important. Although the dedicated reader gets the updates on existing major characters that he/she craves, a whole new host of characters and circumstances is introduced as well, making this book not only a delightful continuation of the first two, but surprising and even more complex than I imagined it would be. It was definitely worth the wait, but as always with books I love - too short! I think I finished it in seven or eight hours on one day, since I'm a fast reader. Now I'll have to wait for the next offering!

Although this book does in fact revisit likeable characters, there is very little character development. The budding romance between shana and lorryn is of no surprise and caillach gwain is, as always, a menace. This book spends entirely too much time expounding upon the nuances of elven politics and explicating the intricacies of magical spells. The main character, Kyrtian, may be a military genius but that doesn't prevent him from being as dull to the reader as he is to the other elves. All in all, there is very little action involved and a dissapointing lack of plot. One gets the feeling that authors were trying to make a few bucks by fluffing up the series rather than releasing a well- thought-out install ment to the series. I expected more. Three stars.

I bumped into this series a few years back, and found the first two books extremely enjoyable. This new book continues a great tradition and really read well. The first half of the book provided some pleasant character development and switches to the familiar characters mid-way through the book. Overall the story is good, but you will appreciate the story much better if you read the books in sequence. The only drawback was that the ending of the book appears a bit rushed and open ended for a sequel.

Before I go on, let me just state that I am well aware of some of the complaints from people about Kyrtian being a boring character, the authors' overemphasis on all things Elven. There are even some ridiculous claims of illogical plot.

My reply to the above complaint is that those comments come from people who simply did not follow the series well nor tried to understand the land of the Halfblood Chronicles. Or, they simply do not have enough common sense to understand life and society in general.

Anyway, the book itself is best described as inconsistent. There are some extremely well-written parts, where the plot is developed at an adequate pace to keep readers' attention while still giving detailed descriptions. The plot itself adheres to the name "Elvenborn", as the main character in this book is someone who was born an Elf. The decision to shift the series to be looked through the eyes of an Elf who was a human-sympathizer definitely enabled readers to gain a more intimate understanding of the Elven microcosm. However, I do think that a lot of readers may not have the adequate grasp on politics and sociology to appreciate the intricacies that Norton and Lackey embedded throughout the story.

To summarize the inconsistency: this book does a very good job to draw readers in to the story in the beginning. The book subsequently fails sporadically to keep readers' attention with certain slow-moving parts. But my biggest complaint of all is, ironically, also the book's highlight: Elvenborn has an absolutely spectacular end sequence with the intensity that I have not seen in any other books I have read recently. I can only wish that the rest of the book were as good as the ending.

The end of Elvenborn achieved, if anything, a rekindling of my faith in this series after the Elvenblood let-down. Now if only they can rename the anticlimatic title of the fourth book:�@Elvenbread, even though I'm sure that Norton and Lackey picked that name for a good reason.

Having read all three books in the series thus far-- Elvenbane, Elvenblood, and now Elvenborn, I do have to say that this is the least interesting.

I was saddened to see that characters who were front and center in the first two novels of the series are how shunted to the side, and new characters such as Kyrtian come to the fore.

I must agree with another reviewer that Kyrtian is really not very interesting or successful as a character. The palace intrigues and political maneuverings of the elves take up much of the first half of the novel. One keeps being more and more impatient wanting something-- anything-- to happen.

There's a real lack of originality and surprising imagination that has always been the forte of these novelists.

I will say this-- the last 100 pages of the book, which take place as characters search for the "gate between worlds" in subterranean caves, is gripping and a masterful accomplishment of suspense and -- yes -- even terror. But it comes on too late to really save the novel.

My comments up to this point may also suggest another flaw-- a great unevenness. A few episodes in the book are up to the standards we came to expect in this series. But alas, they are just a few oasises in a desert of flatness and mundane fiction.

Sorry-- the first two books in the series were better. A number of years have passed between the second and third books of this series. Maybe the writers put the project on the shelf too long, and just couldn't recapture the magic.

There are better books by these authors. Spend your book budget on those.

Pat Callahan

It is hard for me to compare this book in quality to the first two in the series, Elvenbane and Elvenblood, because it has been so long since I read them, but my overall impression is that those books were of higher quality than this one.
My biggest problem with this book was that we are told what character development we are supposed to be seeing, not shown it by good writing. In the beginning, characters around the main character, Kyrtian, continually comment on how naive he is. Later, we are subjected to comments and even thoughts of the character himself on the fact that it is a good thing he is no longer naive, and has learned so much. Does he show that by his actions? I'm not sure. I was too distracted by the characters telling me about it.
This trend of telling not showing continues to varying degrees throughout the book, though its not so blatant in other places.
Finally, the ending was too obviously a set up for the next book. Nothing is explained, and my main reaction was pretty much 'what the heck???'
All in all, a very readable book, but I'd suggest that you approach it from the standpoint of finding out what happends next to characters you already know, not for the writing itself. If you haven't read the first two books, there's really no point.

This was a good story, but I came out of it wanting. There is a great big building up throughout this story for the main character, Kyrtian, to find certain ancient Elven relics that have been lost since the Crossing. What they did find only held my interest because of the wonderful mood-setting job the authors did to make the place seem spooky, with an underlying menace. They never tell how the things they find came to be menacing when they were originally meant to *help* the Elves. Why would it now kill Elves? These things, which I had the most questions about, were simply not explained enough by the end, as I'd been hoping - indeed, as I'd been *expecting* due to their impact on both the characters and on me as a reader.

The final glimpse at the end of something otherworldly, even to that world, was fascinating, but was not followed up which I found terribly disappointing given the lack of other explanation I'm been hoping for at the end.

Some of the ending was rather predictable, while others seemed to have been just thrown in there because the authors needed to wrap the book up.

It's not all bad news. This book definately help my interest, which surprised me since I'd read the reviews here before reading it and was expecting it to be somewhat boring. It was good to see Keman growing as a character, though Shana doesn't really share the same treatment. Kyrtian as a main character was not someone I found boring at all. In fact, I liked the way he pulled his double- and triple-crosses, making use of his reputation to seem boorish and stupid. That brand of subtlety is good, and just different enough to the other back-biting Elves.

I wished more had happened with Rena, who'd held most of my interest in Book 2 and whom I'd grown to like. I felt she was a little wasted, as was Mero.

This book was an odd clash between a good read and what could have been a brilliant story if it had been longer and the existing characters expanded upon more. I enjoyed it for the most part, though those unanswered questions annoyed me in the end. Someone here has mentioned there will be a fourth book. Maybe my questions will be answered in there. I hope so.

Four stars.

I loved the first two books in the series and then loved this one just as much! It reads well and the whole series is enjoyable for re-reading. It has well-developed characters and character-relations and I find myself lost in this world of dragons, elves and humans.

Now, if only they'd come out with the 4th one that's been (forthcoming) since at least 2003: Elvenbred.