When I was a pre-teen I loved the book, now I recently re-read it and was a little disappointed. The world that the authors created is fascinating and although a lot of people complain about the intimate details about small and inconsequential things I am a glutton for description and world-building. The more about the world and it's workings the better. The plot is interesting albeit a little stereotypical but poorly-paced and the characters I see now, are very flat and one-dimensional and there is an awful lot of "show don't tell" like we are constantly told about how mind-blowingly clever Shana is but what passes for extreme intellect in this book is classified as "common sense" among the readers (or so I'd hope). The whole in your face almost aggressive feminism in this book is a little jarring if only because it is anvilicious I remember one incident goes along the lines of "Valyn had always just assumed that women exist solely to satisfy him, but after meeting Shana and realizing they are in fact sentient and don't just hang around on hooks when he leaves the room his whole perception of the world he grew up in was shattered" Ok, well that was a bit embellished but seriously read the book, I'm not exaggerating nearly as much as you'd think. The characters are all very stereotypical and it's far too black and white (a common problem I have with Lackley's books in particular) the good guys are morally superior and will find out how to make la resistance work without bloodshed. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil and kick puppies for fun just to prove how evil they are. Seriously, i'm suprised the evil guys weren't dressed in black leather and bondage spikes and the good guys in white robes, that would have been the only way to make the good-bad divide more blatant.The Dragons that everyone loves? Meh, They piss me off no end, they are the quintessential "superior species" besides the crimes they commit against biology. They are arrogant and constantly look down on everyone, If they're so great why do they hide away from inferior little humans and their elven masters? They just seem like a game-breaker species, they're super-strong, practically immortal, super-intelligent and magical they're also very eco-conscious and constantly berating other species for their unwise use of natural resources, big talk when you're a something-odd-ton dragon who can live in a cave, is not affected by seasonal changes and can both photosynthesize and eat raw meat...But the worst and most irritating part was the discontinuity within the goddamn book. HOW OLD ARE THE FREAKING ELVES!!! In fact how old are any of them, the passage of time is blurry at best, is Shana sixteen or fourteen when the books really kick off? How long did she spend with the wizards? She seems to be a helluva lot older when she sets the rebellion in motion, in her late teens early twenties at least. Wizards are said to live for about a century which is midway between humans and elves??? Are the elves in the world the original refugees from their own world or several generations later? It's stated that Dyran came through the gate and then it's contradicted by the ancestors of other "elders" having died of old age in this world, who are apparently older than he is. We see the children and grandchildren of the "original" elves and it's never stated if they live for hundreds or thousands of years
My full review: http://coffeecookiesandchilipeppers.b...Considering that this title was published over twenty years ago, in 1991, it feels surprisingly fresh in its themes and content. I have read work by both authors before, but this was a new world for me and it had plenty of interesting features to keep me entertained.I was particularly pleased with the authors’ decision to deviate from the usual trope of beautiful and wise elves. In this world they are actually aliens that built a wondrous civilization on another planet and then destroyed it, using a portal to find sanctuary on the human’s home world. Although they retain their usual beauty, grace and near immortality, they are also narcissistic and highly unpleasant, abusing and degrading humans for their own amusement. Indeed they are not even particularly nice to one another as they vie for position and personal power. The women have a particularly terrible time because they have great difficulty in conceiving and yet are blamed for this biological problem, which is caused by radiation from their new home’s sun. All in all, they are perfectly horrid and it is very easy to sympathize with the downtrodden humans who we encounter.Given the cover, I realized that we would be encountering dragons, but the artist has done a poor job of recreating a moment from the book. As with the elves, the dragons are also alien to this world, but they have taken a very different approach to their life upon a new world. They remain hidden and use their ability to shift into other forms to hide in plain sight as they study both the Elves and their human slaves. However, they share the malaise and apathy that has also infected the elves and, while they deplore the mistreatment of the humans, they are unwilling to get involved with something that they perceive to be ‘not their problem’. Shana and Keman eventually stir some of the Kin out of their apathy, but this is controversial and their ‘trouble making’ is dismissed by many in the community.The dragons here are almost nothing like the ones that we usually encounter in Fantasy titles, even those that can also shift into human forms. We are shown an unusual society structure and it was very welcome to see distinctly non-human beliefs and thought patterns in a race that is said to be alien. I always find it irritating when so-called aliens behave just like humans and never suffer from conflicts of understanding because they do not share our culture. Not only do these dragons feel totally alien, but they also seem to have biology completely different from our own. They can not only shift into a humanoid form, but also change all or parts of their body into stone, for example, in order to withstand terrible weather conditions or damage. I found their magic to be delightfully original and intriguing.
What do You think about The Elvenbane (1993)?
2.5 stars I listened to this novel while commuting in May 2011. I found few characters to relate to or care for. I rolled my eyes multiple times at the antics of the adolescents, chalking their behavior down to young adult fiction norms. However, when the adults behaved with even less maturity or even common sense than the youths in their care, I cringed and about gave up reading further. It became a chore to finish. Too much melodrama. Shana seems to be the only one with any inkling of where her moral compass points and overflows with her need to pursue what she perceives as doing the right thing. Laudable, but not always the wisest course. She came across as a bit over the top. I thought young adult fantasy would be similar to a fable, or a similar story type that teaches a moral or other shows an example of a character trait to strive after. Perhaps this subgenre has changed beyond recognition in the three (almost four) decades since I read similar stories. Aasne Vigesaa read this Brilliance Audio production and did a fine job, only using a couple of strange pronunciations of words a couple of times (most notably 'ubiquitous' which only appeared once in the novel).
—Jon
I like to have an engrossing "read" as I drive the highway, conditions permitting of course. There has to be the right combination of storyline and descriptive text to keep me following along. And as with any book, I have to feel something for the characters. This story, by one of my favourite authours, Andre Norton, (co-authoured by Mercedes Lackey whose work I don't know other than this) hit the mark for me. For starters it had most of my favourite types of creatures; dragons, wizards, elves, humans, unicorns (or at least cranky one-horns) and the right combination of mostly likeable characters, intriguing situations and a storyline that I could follow without having to stop to process what was happening. As always with Norton, the descriptions were superb. I could see what was being described with no effort on my part.I particularly enjoyed the interplay between the various layers of society. I would have liked to have had a better understanding of these layers, but now that I know this is a series, with at least two more books, I suspect I will learn more. Even though this is the first book, you could read only it without carrying on to the other books, it is good enough a story to stand alone. I loved young Shana, an innocent of great power and intelligence. It just doesn't occur to her that she can't do what she needs to. She lives her destiny as Elvenbane and the destroyer of the status quo. The relationship between her and her foster brother Kemon is endearing yet refreshing, in that it doesn't have the undercurrent of sexuality and/or bitterness that you often find in pseudo-sibling relationships in stories. Even without the typical self-questioning of one's role in life and why things are the way they are, there was still enough action to keep me intrigued. There were shape-shifters, portals between worlds, gems to increase one's power and a couple of elves that met an ugly and surprising end. You can't go wrong when elves explode. I don't want to give too much away in a review, but if you like fantasy, and strong female leads, then you will enjoy this book. I listened to the unabridged audio-book, read by Aasne Vigesaa. Her voice was pleasant, although she had an odd pronunciation for a few words. At the beginning of the CD there were siblant s's, making me wonder if I would be able to continue listening. Luckily they faded away, only re-appearing a few times. Vigesaa's choice of voice for each character worked for me, making it even easier to enjoy the story. Altogether there are 16 CD's for a total of 19 hours of listening time.
—Leslie Pringle wrrldgrrl
A very interesting book that fills a kind of gap in my reading of fantasy books from its time (early 90s). I remember hearing a lot about this book around the time of its release, and seeing it on bookshelves -- I think I even owned it at one point but later got rid of it unread. I'm not sure why I never opened it -- I think I may have been put off by its cover, which, being a Boris, is gorgeous, but repelling at the same time, with its rather grotesque dragon and token torn-clothed maiden. But recently I read the first chapter online and immediately ordered it, used. It does a number of things that no other Mercedes Lackey book does, which may be the hand of Andre Norton (whose work I've been curious about and own some of but also have not read). These are elves the way you expect them, and yet slightly twisted -- same with the dragons. Both dragons and elves are interlopers who came long ago to a world with native humans and proceeded to enslave them (the elves) or avoid them (the dragons). All three have different kinds of magic, which in the humans' case is suppressed by elven ownership collars. The Elvenbane is then of course the prophesied figure who will undo all of this. There are parts of this I loved, and the world lingers in my mind after the book is done -- always the best sign for me -- but 'round about two thirds of the way through the plot just goes berserk, leaping forward, skipping key foreshadowed moments, setting up things and letting them go. Portions written separately by each of the coauthors are also evident, for good and ill -- I counted four uses of the word "sybaritic", which I don't think I've ever seen in a fantasy novel before. In all it's a worthwhile exploration if you like either of these two authors, with a solid core and enjoyable world even if it did have enough plot for a four book series crammed into its ~500 pages.
—Erin Hoffman
