Charles Ingrid (1949–2024)

{first in Elven Ways tetralogy; fantasy, magic, elves}(2006)

About 700 years before the story starts the Vaelinars (also known as elves) were cataclysmically exiled to the world of Kerith which was already inhabited by other humanoid and non-humanoid races and they now all live uneasily together. The Vaelinar are still called 'the Strangers' by the native races and hold themselves apart; they are long-lived (a couple of them even remember the exile though they would have been children then) show more and are now the only race with magic and don't usually acknowledge Vaelinar half-breeds since they do not carry magic in their blood. The two prologues which give us this information are written as though penned by historians of this world; the language in them is awkward and hard to follow but the narrative picks up once the actual story starts.

We follow a few characters of different races through this story. Sevryn is a half-blood Vaelinar who does not have their striking, multi-coloured eyes - but, unusually, he does have magic and finds it useful to be underestimated. The Farbranches are a dwarve-like Dweller family with three sons and a daughter who wants a sister - and they rescue a young girl from the nearby river who has Vaelinar looks and no family so they adopt her as their own and give her the name Rivergrace. In the larger world of Kerith there are war-like factions who want to break the uneasy peace or conquer lands and peoples in a quest for power; the Vaelinar ild Fallyn clan likes to make trouble and Quendius the half-breed Vaelinar wants to challenge the gods of Kerith - who abandoned their peoples when the Vaelinar arrived.

I like the warmth of the Farbranch family. Their everyday lives are woven through this fantasy and give the story a structure to build around as we spend much of the book following them, first in the countryside where they suffer Bolger and Raver raids and then in the city, where they meet other races. They also meet Lariel the Vaelinar Warrior Queen and Sevryn. There are politics and war brewing and even some environmental pollution - although I felt that particular issue was resolved a bit easily.

This is the first book of a tetralogy; although the ending is wrapped up neatly enough that it could be read as a stand-alone though it leaves enough open to continue the overarching story in the next book. It does do a lot of world building so there are initially a lot of threads to follow until they are braided together and it covers a lot of physical territory too; I could have done with a map. The timeline is initially confusing because there is a gap of twenty years between the first few chapters and the rest of the book which is not filled in and, possibly, because the Vaelinars have long lives which skews the concept of relative ages.

I think this was a LibraryThing automatic recommendation and it was quite engaging. There were some animal deaths, casually mentioned and not dwelt on, which I could have done without though it was probably only enough to take my rating down by a quarter of a star.

3.5-4 stars show less

Read the full review at Witchmag's Boekenplank

Hmm… Although I’ve read this book in one go, it wasn’t what I hoped it would be. My main problem was the writing style. It felt a bit too poetic and outdated to me. Like one of those historical romance, with well spoken heiresses and such. Totally not my style. I had a hard time at first with getting into the story because of this, but I managed to get used to it, before the book ended.

And now onto the story. I’ve never read a book where show more so many minor characters die. In such a short amount of time that you’re unable to build a connection, which means no single teardrop from me when they die. And therefore their death and even existence felt needless. It also happened so often that it came predictable and I didn’t feel the need anymore to even build a connection. I even started getting surprised with characters who stayed alive. Not some feeling I’m keen on having while reading a book…

The blurb mentions something about love and destiny with an exiled ranger. Okay I found the destiny and the exiled ranger, but what happened to the love? The emphasis in the book is too much on the whole adventure that there are almost no words of love. Although I understand that at times saving the world is more important, but still… want my romance time!

Last but not least I can’t finish my review without telling something about the heroine, Alorie. There was nothing that made her stand out from all the other heroines I’ve read about. She has the standard problems: act first, think and show remorse waaaay later. Which of course made me annoyed at times. She falls in love and tries to save the world. Been there, done that. Too much standards for me to really consider her a person worth writing about.

What I did like in this book were the unicorns, the good and the bad ones. This time unicorns are not just pretty horses who can only be tamed by maidens. Nope. This time they are more, much more. They are wild creatures who above all value their freedom. And they are able do defend and even kill anyone who stands in their way! I loved all of it! It made reading this story so much better! The prophecy was also very well executed. Everything, or at least what I’ve read until now, fit exactly. Pity, though, that there wasn’t a map available. There are many places and cities mentioned and since remembering places isn’t one of my strong points, it would have made this a lot easier ;)

Conclusion

2 HEARTS. There were just too many things that bothered or annoyed me to really enjoy this book. Although it’s a great world with an interesting prophecy and a whole new look on unicorns, it wasn’t enough to make the rest less annoying. Would I be able to recommend this book to other persons? I don’t have a clue. This is a story everyone has to read by themselves, so they’ll know if they like it or not ;) Not very helpful, I know, but with this books it really depends on what you want ;) show less

Despite an interesting scenario and a promising start I just found this story too prosaic and "meh" to really hold my attention. The wizard of the title just isn't that interesting.

A world where elves suddenly descended after mages had wiped themselves out. For hundreds of years the elves have been trying to remember where they came from and how to get back there.
This follows 2 halfbloods. One becomes the spy for the queen of the elves and the other grows up with a dweller [think hobbit/dwarf cross] family.
The elves have accords to not war with eachother and this series deals with how those accords are failing.
In this novel, a renegade elf forces demons into weapons show more to make them super-powerful. And it comes down to the 2 halfbloods to stop him.

I will probably read this series but no other by the author. It just wasn't interesting enough to me to search out her other stuff. show less