List Price: $26.99
Save: $11.37 (42%)

FREE Shipping on orders over $35.

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Want it tomorrow, Dec. 31? Order within and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Buy Used

$9.67

+ $3.99 shipping

Used: Like New | Details

Sold by powells_chicago

Condition: Used: Like New

Comment: Independent bookstore since 1970. In stock, quick shipment with delivery confirmation on domestic orders. 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

An Apprentice to Elves (Iskryne) Hardcover – October 13, 2015

by Elizabeth Bear (Author), Sarah Monette (Author)

12 customer reviews

See all 2 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$20.52

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$15.62

$7.77

$9.67

Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear return with the third book in their Iskryne trilogy, An Apprentice to Elves. The trilogy began with A Companion to Wolves, and continued in The Tempering of Men. This novel picks up the story of Alfgyfa, a young woman who has been raised in the Wolfhall by her father Isolfr, who is the human leader of the queen-wolf Viridechtis' pack, and was the protagonist of the first book.

The warrior culture of Iskryne forbids many things to women-and most especially it forbids them bonding to one of the giant telepathic trellwolves. But as her father was no ordinary boy, Alfgyfa is no ordinary girl. Her father has long planned to send his daughter to Tin, a matriarch among the elves who live nearby, to be both apprentice and ambassador, and now she is of age to go.

An Apprentice to Elves (Iskryne)

$15.62 FREE Shipping on orders over $35. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Elizabeth Bear

18

Hardcover
Sharon Shinn

19

Hardcover
$19.07
Elizabeth Bear

65

Mass Market Paperback
Elizabeth Bear

65

Hardcover
Katherine Addison

359

Mass Market Paperback
$6.20
Sarah Monette

30

Paperback
$14.95

If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 77%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. .

Product Details

Series: Iskryne (Book 3)
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (October 13, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765324717
ISBN-13: 978-0765324719
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #565,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #501 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Fantasy
- #799 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Horror
- #8397 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		25%
4 star		58%
3 star		17%
2 star		0%
1 star		0%

See all 12 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A fine end to the trilogy

By Liviania VINE VOICE on October 15, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES is being billed as the conclusion of the Iskryne trilogy. I'd hoped for more books in this series, but this is a good note to go out on. The Iskryne books are inspired by Viking history, with elves, trolls, and companion wolves thrown in. The first book detailed the world and the battle with the trolls, and the second book bought in a new human threat - the Rheans, who are basically Romans.

Once more, the book is told by new narrators. AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES alternates between Alfgyfa (the daughter of the first narrator, Isolfr), Otter (a former slave rescued in the second book), Fargrimr (a sworn son who is the jarl of the heall closest to the Rhean invasion), and Tin (an elf smith who brokered the alliance between humans and elves with Isolfr). This helps expand the world and showcase more lifestyles of the people within it. It is the first book with female narrators, so many of the points of view were much needed. I did feel like the Rheans delaying their invasion for more than a decade was mostly so that Alfgyfa could become old enough to narrate.

But overall, I enjoy the way the Iskryne trilogy has grown and changed since the first book. The first book, A COMPANION TO WOLVES, felt like a commentary on Pern and how the dragon relationships worked. Over THE TEMPERING OF MEN and AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES, it has become its own series, with complex relations between and within species. I loved that this book was not all war, but also an examination of how the two groups of elves broke apart and a fierce drive to bind men and elves closer together before their alliance crumbles without an external threat.

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES is not a fast-paced novel.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

An Apprentice to Elves

By J. Hamby on October 26, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

I like Sarah Monette's writing. I like Elizabeth Bear's writing. Both have produced books I've greatly appreciated and both have produced books I've had to work at and ended being a bit underwhelmed by. But as a team, I have loved all three of the Iskryne books. I cringed a bit at the graphic nature of the male-wolf bond and how it translated over into the human aspect of sexuality. But it was also as realistic as it was graphic and, while I could see how it rubbed some people the wrong way, it never fell into some kind of exploitative exercise. Something I cannot say the same for in even much tamer depictions.

The second book took the strong characterization and plotting and expanded it a bit into larger and more complex world building and allowing the plot to expand as well.

Here we get the fruition of that in an even broader, but no less complex and detailed story. Complete with wonderfully varied new characters that play off the expansion as we are given even greater views of the world and its events.

Bear and Monette play off each and greatly enhance the aspects of their writing that I enjoy in each. Bear does great immersions of characters in their world. Her worlds ring with a nice exoticism as well as a great sense of permanence -- she does what great world builders do, they not only bring it alive in the moment but add the sense of deep history and culture that never bog down in info dumping but simply are there as part of the characters and the plot. Monette's strength seems more character oriented. Both are also good at what the other seems to excel at. But here it is a nice process of polishing only the finest of facets as they meld and merge effortlessly, the collaboration is a smooth and engrossing read that feels exactly as it should.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

For the diehard fantasy fan, this novel has a richly detailed world and complex characters.

By Dark Faerie Tales on October 26, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: For the diehard fantasy fan, this novel has a richly detailed world and complex characters.

Opening Sentence: Even as a grown woman of fifteen, Alfgyfa never stopped thinking about the wolves she had encountered as a child.

The Review:

An Apprentice to Elves is the third novel in The Iskryne series by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. This is definitely a series/novel for the die-hard fantasy novel fan. An Apprentice to Elves can be read as a standalone novel. I didn’t read the first two novels but the last one mainly focuses on the main characters’ daughter, Alfgyfa and her journey as she is torn between two worlds, those of regular humans and the svartalfar (elves).

Alfgyfa is human but she isn’t quite just a regular plain human, she can communicate with wolves just like her father. As a child she was sent to live with the svartalfar to apprentice as a blacksmith. It was done as a political move by her father because he knew that the elves needed to see a human grow up and hopefully the elves may offer to help to the Northmen (Alfgyfa’s fellow countrymen) when they go to war with the Rheans (southern invaders).

An Apprentice to Elves does not just focus on Alfgyfa. The novel also follows several other characters, Otter, Tin and Fargrimr and how the impending war effects each of their lives. Otter was once a Rhean slave. She knows their tactics and tries to help the Northmen with what is coming. Otter has made a better life for herself since she was rescued and hopes that she will never return to Rhean control ever again. Tin is the elf master blacksmith that is training Alfgyfa.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See all 12 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Good ending to this trilogy

Good ending to this trilogy, one that brings all in Iskryne against the Rheans invaders. We meet Alfgyfa, Isolfr's daughter of iron and ice, as determined and wild as her father,... Read more

Published 21 days ago by Andreea Pausan

Fulfilling end to the trilogy

I am sorry this is the end of the trilogy, because I liked it even more than the previous 2 books. The POV characters gripped me more than the ones in the previous books... Read more

Published 28 days ago by Cissa

Slow start, but got really good.

'Did I want to run through the forest with wolves?' They asked.

Yes, yes I do.

Not having read the first two books in this series, I was not initially sure... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Dreams

Strong 3rd book

I think this is the strongest of the three books. Alfgyfa isn't a wonderful character and I love her relationships with her human and Alfish friends and family. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Kindle Customer

Female blacksmith, companion wolves, Northerners. Great tale.

Excellent tale of Northmen (and women) told by an escape Brithonia slave and the daughter of the local leader who was apprenticed to the Alf Mothers and Smiths. Read more

Published 2 months ago by C. Cameron

if you like in-depth worldbuilding, this is the book for you

I had not heard of this series prior to receiving "An Apprentice to Elves," but this book stands on its own. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Sneaky Burrito

Fantasy World Building at Its Best

An Apprentice to Elves is a fascinating novel, where the multi-layered, mythical world is as much a star as the characters themselves. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Wendell

Awesome

4:00am finished. Now to dream. Worth waiting 5 bloody long years.
Please give us more sooner , I loved all 3 books, so awesome.

Published 2 months ago by lala

For fans of the series

An Apprentice to Elves starts slowly, very slowly. The first third to one half of the book provides background necessary to understand the plot. Read more

Published 2 months ago by J. Sasse