A Child of Elvish

Oh boy. I've been looking forward to reading Nancy Varian Berberick's A Child of Elvish for quite some time now.  And unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations at all.

A Child of Elvish takes place some months after The Jewels of Elvish. Nikia is pregnant, and the pregnancy is going well, but there are doubts from Garth and their fathers as to who the child's father is thanks to Reynarth.  Meanwhile, the land continues to sicken and die from the Sorcerer's magics.  While Mannish lands are the hardest hit, this sickness is spreading eastward to Elvish lands, despite the Elvish mages' attempts to hold it off.  In the middle of it all, an Elvish hunter-scout (Kicva) and a Mannish farmer-turned-soldier (Joze) find Islief of the First People, who brings them to his Lady (the ghost of the long-dead queen Aeylin, or Ylin to the Mannish).  She tells them that she can heal the land using the power of the Emerald (sister-jewel to the ruby of Guyaire), but she needs Nikia's unborn child to do so.

I don't like saying this, but I thought this book was an absolute mess.  Where The Jewels of Elvish had a much tighter plot and only a few point of view characters, A Child of Elvish was all over the place.  The books starts out following Kicva and Joze for quite a while (this was largely pretty boring because a lot of it was kind of a recap of the first book).  Then just when it's getting interesting, it abruptly switches to Dail in Citadel.  From there it jumps around from person to person (including to some super random characters like Mother Ina, the nursemaid of Fenyan's son, who has POV for a single scene for no real reason).  It even hit a point where I wondered if we'd ever get back to Kicva, Joze, and Islief! 

I also felt like the world itself had changed; while the basic trappings were the same, some of the deeper worldbuilding, especially around Elvish magic and beliefs, felt different.  Elvish magic was now built on prayers to their gods and goddesses, and their seven deities were suddenly loudly worshiped everywhere (the deities were all pairs: both a god and goddess together made one); in The Jewels of Elvish, I remember Nikia only mentioning her family's chosen deities who were honoured on her wedding cup (and she didn't invoke them through prayer when casting her small magics).

While I struggled to get through the majority of this book (I considered just stopping at multiple points because I honestly just didn't care about what was happening), there were two good things: Islief, and the book's ending (before the prologue).  Islief was a super fun character.  He was the last of his race, cursed to remain alive because centuries ago he stole the crown with the Jewels of Elvish for Aeylin; he would only be able to pass on once those wrongs were righted.  Islief remained deep within his mountain home for untold centuries, but journeyed out to help Aeylin's ghost right their past wrongs.  Because he had been so long away from the rest of the world, he delighted in everything he saw above (but also sorrowed deeply for the dying lands).  He also had a wonderful relationship with Joze (who he called Tall) because Joze, like him, felt everything so deeply.

The ending of the book was also really good.  One of the Elvish king's mages had been tasked with finding the Emerald and bringing it back to the Elvish in order to heal the lands.  Somewhere along the way, the Elvish mage's task gets wrapped up in his dreams of power and wielding the Emerald himself.  Joze and Kicva arrive in the chamber with the Crown to try to stop him, but he loses himself to the magic and is destroyed.  Joze, who is dying of the plague (he had been denying it, but Mage Aidan saw the truth of it in him in the end), insists that Kicva bring the Emerald to Nikia and her baby (she'd had the baby by this point, named Gai by Garth for happiness and gaiety).  Gai, with the ghost of Aeylin and Dail's help (for balance of male and female), heal the world.  Islief goes to return the Emerald to the Crown, and finds Joze not quite dead yet; keeping his promise to the young man (one I had long forgotten, truth be told), Islief gives his strength to Joze in the hopes that he can overcome the plague, and in doing so, passes on to be reunited with his people.

While it isn't something that I "liked," per se, I also need to mention Garth.  I felt so sorry for him throughout this book.  Garth wanted nothing to do with kingship or ruling, wanting to just be off hunting and enjoying the company of his friends and family.  But in A Child of Elvish, he gets maneuvered into being the Regent (his father, heartbroken by Fenyan's loss, abdicates in favour of his grandson, but as the child is very young, he needs someone to rule in his stead).  This is at a time when the lands are dying and plague is hitting the people.  Some of the lords of Mannish provinces (including Karo, the other grandfather of the young King) have also, in their desperation, decided that the treaty between Elvish and Mannish should be broken since the Elvish lands are as yet untouched by the Sorcerer's spells (and they don't appreciate the Elvish "scraps" they have been given).  Garth is dealing with impossible situations (plus the uncertainty of whether Nikia's child is actually his), and it hurt to see this good man so trapped by them.  I was also sad for his death in the middle of all this, even though I saw it coming (part way through the book, Nikia suddenly realized that while she respected and liked Garth, it was Dail who she actually loved; Garth's death meant that Nikia and Dail could be together, especially since Dail, as cousin of the Prince, would also be in line for the throne should everyone else be dead....)

So while there were some things I did really like in this book, overall I really struggled with reading A Child of Elvish.  It was all the more disappointing since I had long been looking forward to reading it. :(

The Jewels of Elvish

I first read The Jewels of Elvish a long time ago.  I don't remember when exactly, but it was before I started this blog (and I believe before I read Eragon the first time, because I remembered far less of this book than that one).  I don't remember why exactly I picked it up (it may have been because I read The Lioness, another book by Nancy Varian Berberick which I quite liked and read before starting this blog).  I remember, at the time, loving The Jewels of Elvish.  I discovered there was a second book, A Child of Elvish.  It took me many years to find myself a copy.  Of course, at that point, I knew I'd have to reread The Jewels of Elvish so I could remember what happened before moving onto the sequel.  Getting around to rereading it also took me years (like with finishing the Inheritance Cycle, Jacob's Ladder, and the Jeremiah Hunt trilogy).

With the looming threat of the Sorcerer, an ancient foe who was defeated many years ago, reappearing, the Kingdoms of Mannish and Elvish have decided to forge a peace treaty between their two races, who have been warring for generations.  As part of that treaty, the Elvish princess Nikia is wed to the Mannish prince Garth.  Nikia is also presented with the Ruby of Guyaire, the symbol of Elvish rule, by her father.

Sent with only her loyal handmaiden, Lizbet, to live in the Mannish Citadel, an alien place made of stone (unlike the familiar wood of her people's buildings), Nikia struggles to find her place in her new home among the Mannish.  She slowly makes friends, first with her sister by marriage, Gweneth (the wife of crown prince Fenyan, Garth's older brother), and then with Dail, Master of Bards and Garth's cousin, and finds her place as Lady of the Bards, tasked by Garth's father to create new songs to inspire everyone in the wake of the Sorcerer's incursions into their lands.  But she also fights terrible prejudice, as many Mannish mistrust the Elvish thanks to the long years of animosity between the two people. 

But when war finally breaks out in the North, and Garth is lost and presumed dead, Nikia and her friends find themselves kidnapped by the Mannish mage, Reynarth, who has discovered that the Ruby of Guyaire is not just a symbol, but a powerful magical talisman.  Holding her friends and husband as hostage, the mage seeks to break Nikia to his will and use her to unlock its power. 

It's funny, while I remembered very little, as I started reading The Jewels of Elvish, I had a vague recollection of Prince Garth.  In the first chapter, when both the Elvish and Mannish Kings speak with their children of the treaty between their people, as soon as Garth was mentioned, I knew he was the one who marries Nikia (even though King Alain hadn't said anything yet).  I didn't really remember Nikia, nor did I remember Garth's brother, Prince Fenyan or the two kings.  But I had a vague recollection that I knew and liked Garth.  And that recollection proves true: Garth is very likeable, and far more open to his circumstances (specifically that he is part of the treaty with the Elvish) than his older brother, Fenyan.  I also love his introduction to Nikia - chasing his favourite hound while covered in mud and dirt, hours before their wedding when they weren't supposed to meet. 

I find it even funnier that I had no memory of Dail from the first time I read this book.  While Garth is Nikia's love, it's Dail who is far more present in the book, being her companion when her husband is sent off to war (and being by her side when she is kidnapped by Reynarth).  Dail is charming, funny, smart, and a good friend to her (even though he secretly longs for more).

I really liked Gweneth.  She was excited to have a sister and accepted Nikia without question.  She was also such a tragic character, having married for politics, just like Nikia (but without even real affection from her husband), and having miscarried multiple children (which led to Fenyan's distance).  I felt so sorry for her being stuck in Reynarth's machinations (which is another thing I vaguely remembered when talk of the miscarriages first sprung up in the book). Reynarth was also an interesting villain.  He wasn't remotely likeable, but he was also understandable, being driven by hatred for what he lost to the Elvish many years ago.  I also liked how he very much doomed himself, being caught up in a plot of betrayal against the Sorcerer, and himself planning on betraying the betrayer (not to mention he was a traitor to his people, using his magic unbeknownst to them to help the Sorcerer's troops). Needless to say, the characters are really what make this book.

Oh, I didn't mention Nikia either.  I liked her character.  She was a child who is forced to grow up thanks to her circumstances.  She's also got spunk and a heart of gold, even if it isn't always on display (she spends so much time finding her place among the Mannish that she isn't able to often, but this was best displayed when she helped Gweneth's son survive, and took the child from Fenyan so Gweneth could hold him before she died).  I thought there was a lot within Nikia that I could identify with, and so I found her story quite alluring.

The plot itself took some very dark turns once Garth disappeared and Nikia and company were kidnapped.  Prior to that, I was quite enjoying it as more of a political story, where Nikia is trying to deal with prejudices (I love the scene where she decides to stop being a victim, and plainly uses her magic rather than continuing to hide it).  But Reynarth's attempts to break everyone are dark indeed (and while it isn't shown, I should give a trigger warning: he does rape Nikia). 

This latter part of the book, in my opinion, wasn't as good as the first half.  It wasn't just the darkness of what happens, but also the helplessness of everyone.  Yes, Nikia is able to find the strength to save everyone (and defeat even the Sorcerer with the Ruby of Guyaire), thanks largely to Reynarth's arrogance (he doesn't even bother to have a guard watch over Nikia because he's sure he's broken her).  And her friends are able to escape thanks to their own ingenuity (and some major helpings of luck).  But I had a hard time reading about just how helpless everyone was for so long (it felt like it took forever for Nikia and company to actually get to Reynarth in Seuro).  It's for this reason that I'm no longer counting The Jewels of Elvish as one of my favourite books (although I do not begrudge my younger self for liking it so much - perhaps I was at a different place then, and the themes within the book spoke more to me at the time?)

Well, whatever my changing perspective and thoughts on the book, it's now time to finally read the sequel, A Child of Elvish.

Dalamar the Dark

Although I enjoy reading fantasy novels, I do not normally concern myself with the magic of a world, including its mages. This is especially true of the fantasy lands such as Dragonlance, where the system runs off of a pantheon of Gods in much the same manner as Dungeons and Dragons. That said, I am a fan of Nancy Varian Berberick's books, and so I was willing to give Dalamar the Dark a try.

Dalamar the Dark tells the story of a servant elf who was born with a lot of magical talent. He was taught only a little bit and very grudgingly by the Silvanesti Elves who practice good magic, and so he taught himself black magic in secret. When war threatens his homeland, the elves must flee their homeland. Once they return, Dalamar is caught and exiled from Silvanesti forever for worshipping the dark gods. Dalamar then goes on to fulfil his destiny as a dark elf.

While this book sounded like a lot of fun, it was a very ponderous read. From the beginning, it seemed hard to follow, jumping around all over the place with no real consistency. This wasn't helped by the fact that it's been a long time since I've read any Dragonlance novels, and so could not remember what happened in the world (Dalamar the Dark parallels the story from the Dragonlance Chronicles series). But even after it stopped jumping from person to person, it just never made me want to read it. Picking the book up was a struggle, and so was reading more than about five pages. While the ending was alright, it never seemed worth the struggle to get there. As a fan of Berberick's work, Dalamar the Dark was a huge disappointment, and I do not recommend it to anyone. There are many better books out there, both in the Dragonlance series and by Berberick.