The Elvenbane

The Elvenbane (1992) – Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Tor Books | ISBN: 0812511751
Condition: Good | Sold by Crappy Old Books

Elves. Graceful, beautiful, immortal beings of extraordinary magical ability, traditionally associated with enchanted forests, delicate jewellery and an irritating tendency to behave as though everybody else has wandered into the wrong part of the garden. In most fantasy novels, they’re the good guys. Noble, wise and occasionally insufferably superior, but generally reliable when the forces of darkness come knocking.

Not here.

Welcome to The Elvenbane, the first volume of the Halfblood Chronicles, in which Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey perform the entertaining trick of turning fantasy’s most elegant inhabitants into a thoroughly unpleasant ruling class. These elves aren’t particularly interested in singing beneath the moonlight or helping small creatures find their way home. They’re rather more enthusiastic about power, slavery, political intrigue and ensuring that everyone else knows their place.

In this world, humanity lives under the domination of powerful elven overlords, whose magical abilities and considerable arrogance have allowed them to establish a civilisation built upon exploitation. Humans are useful principally as servants, labourers and disposable possessions, which is hardly the sort of arrangement likely to produce enthusiastic customer reviews.

But the elves have a problem. An ancient prophecy warns of the Elvenbane, a figure capable of threatening their supremacy, and nothing makes an apparently invincible aristocracy quite so nervous as the suggestion that its privileges might eventually be revoked.

Enter Shana, a young half-human, half-elven girl whose existence is itself a dangerous secret. Raised among dragons, she grows up with an understanding of the world rather different from that of either the enslaved humans or their imperious masters. As her magical abilities develop, she becomes entangled in a struggle involving forbidden powers, hidden histories and the possibility of overturning an entire social order.

The dragons, incidentally, are not merely enormous flying reptiles employed to set fire to inconvenient villages. They possess intelligence, culture and their own complicated relationship with the other inhabitants of this richly imagined world. Their involvement adds another layer to an already elaborate fantasy society in which almost everybody appears to have a secret agenda.

Norton and Lackey combine magical adventure with questions of prejudice, oppression, identity and resistance, creating a story in which inherited power is considerably less admirable than courage, loyalty and the determination to question established authority.

Originally published in 1991, this 1992 Tor Books edition offers a substantial helping of traditional epic fantasy, complete with dragons, dangerous magic, unlikely alliances and enough aristocratic unpleasantness to make the average medieval tax collector seem positively charitable.

Offered in Good condition by Crappy Old Books, it’s an excellent addition to the shelves of fantasy enthusiasts, collectors of Andre Norton or Mercedes Lackey, and readers who prefer their elves magnificently dressed but morally questionable.

A sweeping adventure about discovering who you are in a world determined to tell you what you must be.

And a useful reminder that pointed ears, perfect cheekbones and several centuries of magical education are absolutely no guarantee of decent manners.

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