Elf Books

I recently read Malekith and The Shadow King from The Black Library's Time of Legends series.  They are the first two books in the trilogy telling the story of the Elven civil war called the Sundering.  Both books are written by Gav Thorpe.

Malekith tells the story of the son of Anearion, the elven hero that defeated the deamons and saved the elven nation at the expense of his soul basically.  Anearion was the first Phoenix King and Malekith and his mother think that he should inherit the throne when Anearion dies.  The rest of the elven princes disagree and this leads to Malekith taking to adventuring over the seas into the new world.  Eventually, he comes back and tries to rid the elven homeland of the destructive cults that have taken over his home province.  It turns out his mother is behind the whole thing.  In the end, Malekith takes his mother's side in secret and sets to taking the Phoenix throne himself.  He fails and war ensues.

This book was sooo boring.  The story plodded along at a snail's pace.  The character development was poor considering the amount of time that was taken to do it.  Black Library books are generally known for their action, as the books are intended for a younger audience.  Well, it was pretty light on the action too.  So, a fail on the story progression and a fail on the action quotient.  The descriptions are long and not particularly original or insightful.  Thorpe does not do a very good job of immersing the reader in the Warhammer world.

This was a story that could have been told in 200  pages or less.  Instead, I slogged through twice that many to get to the somewhat interesting ending.  I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone who likes good or even mediocre literature.

I'll review The Shadow King in the next post.