Elvenbane (The Halfblood Chronicles #1) Book

This book was literally shoved into my hands by my fiancee, who had been quite insistant that I read it. I'm glad I have now, for I have a lot to say about it.

My first impression was of an extremely dense narrative, with a few flashbacks of mild interest, but mostly a front-heavy descriptive piece which was difficult to slog through. Things honestly do not start happening until five chapters in, and I found a very clunky -- if thorough -- method of introducing a world, for that's primarily what the first four chapters do: build the world and introduce three characters.

Staying with the novel is worth it, however, as immediately thereafter I was greeted by a plethora of very well-built characters, who grew realistically as the novel progressed. And that's what Elvenbane really has to offer: deep, complex characters, a deep, vibrant world, and a heaping helping of some fantastic imagery to pad it out. You won't find much in the way of action (more on that later), but this story is held together by its protagonists and their relationships with others.

At its core, Elvenbane is a tale of progress vs. stagnation, wrapped around a more heroic story of an oppressed people rising up against their masters. That story is told unromantically -- this is even admitted halfway through -- and that makes the characters feel all the more real. Elvenbane is really meant as an introduction rather than a means to an end. I was quite dismayed, upon reaching the halfway point, to realize that there wasn't enough book for the premise to be concluded sufficiently by the end. Book two it is! But the ending is in no way unfulfilling, and it even taught me something.

I mentioned before that there is little in the way of action. What we get near the end is a full-scale battle, but told only in snatches, and focusing on the protagonists. This is the first time I have ever seen this sort of writing technique employed, that I can recall, and I find it intriguingly effective. We really need to know no more than the major events of the battle, and seeing it through the eyes of our heroes keeps the reader grounded. In the end, it is those heroes who will carry on the fight in the next book, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.