Review: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

I know, two reviews in one day. It’s kind of amazing, really.
Title: The Elvenbane
Author: Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Genre: fantasy
Grade: A

Synopsis: Two masters of epic fantasy have combined in this brilliant collaboration to create
a rousing tale of the sort that becomes an instant favorite. This is the story of
Shana, a halfbreed born of the forbidden union of an Elvenlord father and a human
mother. Her exiled mother dead, she was rescued and raised by dragons, a proud, ancient
race who existed unbeknownst to elven or humankind. From birth, Shana was the embodiment
of the Prophecy that the all-powerful Elvenlords feared. Her destiny is the enthralling
adventure of a lifetime.

My Thoughts: This was so good for most of the book. Then we reached a part that sagged a bit, which lowered my grade from the A+ I was considering, and then there were also a few tiny niggles that bring the grade down just a smidge, although other readers probably wouldn’t have the same issues I did.

To give a better summary, this is the story of Shana, whose mother was the concubine of Lord Dyran, a very powerful elvenlord, in a world in which elves have subjugated humans as slaves. Unknown to elves and humans, the world is also populated by dragons, who largely keep to themselves. Thanks to a previous uprising among half-elves, who have both elven magic and the innate human magics, it’s now illegal for half-bloods to be alive at all. Which is how we find Shana’s mother, crawling across the dessert pregnant with Lord Dyran’s child. She is assisted in the birthing of her baby by the dragon shaman Alara, who after some consideration takes the half-blood baby back to the dragons and raises her alongside Keman, her son. Unfortunately, the dragons don’t know what to make of Shana and they exile her.

So after all that, what worked? Well, both Lackey and Norton are good at drawing characters I could relate to. And what I especially liked was that there was some moral ambiguity. We have some truly good people, some truly evil ones, and some selfish, petty people of all the races.

While I’m talking about characters, I should specifically bring up Keman, Alara’s older child. I love him, and only wish we could have been even more inside his head. He is earnest, very bright, and something of a nerd by dragon standards, which means he gets bullied a lot. And I loved his sense of honor, and the fact that for a while he was the only one of the dragons who seemed to think of Shana as a person.

Shana wasn’t a bad character either. I was afraid she’d be a huge Mary Sue, but she didn’t come across that way for me, mostly because she really does go through a lot. I really felt for her when she was exiled, for example, and struggling to find a place for herself in a world she had no idea existed.

I also loved the world-building. When I mentioned this book to someone on a mailing list, his reaction was to say it sounded derivitive. But I didn’t feel that it was at all. But then, I find political intrigue fascinating, and I also like moral ambiguity, so even though there isn’t much beyond the elves, humans and dragons, it was enough to keep me interested.

This book is also a bit darker than a lot of fantasy I’ve read, and I thought it tackled some interesting themes, imperialism being one, the necessity of change being another, and exactly what is meant by sentience. These were all questions it was fascinating to explore in greater detail.

And then there were the things that would probably not please anyone but me. I really liked the slightly slashy relationship between Lord Dyran’s heir and a half-blood slave who turns out to be his cousin. So there were swlashy *and* cesty overtones. *LOL*

Of course, mentioning that leads me to my few niggles. First of all, I really didn’t like the doomed love arc of Shana’s. I thought it added a demension of conflict that didn’t need to be there, especially since we meet the guy she’s infatuated with relatively late in the book. And I was annoyed with her love interest for not simply telling her why he couldn’t be with her. He just assumed she wouldn’t care, which I thought was pretty arrogant.

It’s mostly because of the love interest subplot and another little adventure involving a manipulative and deceitful elven lady that slowed down some of the final sections. On the one hand, we did see Shana having some definitely childish moments. On the other, she was shunted to the side for much of this part.

My last niggle was that I felt like there were a few incidental characters whose povs we didn’t actually need. They bogged down the story with unnecessary verbiage.

But those quibbles were fairly minor, and even the parts that I thought dragged a bit still kept me absorbed. I would definitely recommend this book, and will definitely be reading the sequel.