The Elvenbane

Written by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by Aasne Vigesaa

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 with 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 all-powerful Elvenlords feared. Her destiny is the enthralling adventure of a lifetime.

“A brisk, glittering yarn that packs as much action, suspense, and twisting of conventions into one novel as many writers invest in whole trilogies.” —Amazing Stories

A Main selection of the Science Fiction Book Club

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Feb 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781441814296

Andre Norton

Andre Norton was one of the most popular science fiction and fantasy authors in the world. With series such as Time Traders, Solar Queen, Forerunner, Beast Master, Crosstime, and Janus, as well as many standalone novels, her tales of adventure have drawn countless readers to science fiction. Her fantasy novels, including the bestselling Witch World series, her Magic series, and many other unrelated novels, have been popular with readers for decades. Lauded as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, she is the recipient of a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention. An Ohio native, Norton lived for many years in Winter Park, Florida, and died in March 2005 at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reviews for The Elvenbane

[Beast mann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved the whole trilogy, whis it had continued. Great world building and a fresh twist on iconic creatures. Read it as a young teen and couldn't put it down.

[PamelaJoyceSilva · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I will admit it was not what I expected. It is not Andre Norton so much as Mercedes Lackey. It is a good if lengthy story. I thought there was much more narration than was needed. Snd a few too many POV but still, I had to listen to the whole thing!

[kassilem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting story. I don't think I've come across a story where elves are a conquering and evil race before this. It set a intriguing premise. Shana annoyed me a little bit, but then again she is a teenage character and has teenage impulses and desires. I'm not sure what part of this book was contributed by Lackey as the writing style and dark events didn't seem like her style. I'm assuming Norton contributed the majority of the plot and am interested in the author, whom I haven't come across before. This is the first of a trilogy and I'm sure I'll be continuing the series.

[johnfair_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first part of this book has quite a messagey tone to it, which, with the familiarity I have of the two authors, have largely come from Mercedes Lackey. This made it rather hard going this time through but as soon as we got past the moralisation and into the action proper it gets much better. It's just a pity that this only happened in the last third or so of the book. Shana, born of the illegal union of Elf and human, finds herself in the Lair of a Dragon clan during her teen years and finds herself facing constant criticism for being a two-leg, not that she thinks of herself as a two-leg, but as a dragon stuck in two-leg form. Finally pushing the dragons into exiling her, Shana suddenly finds herself in the hands of real two-legs (human) who had taken her prisoner until they think she's a half-wit and sell her off as a slave. At this point, she helped to escape this fate and she's introduces to a group of half-elven wizards though she find herself hemmed in by more rules designed to maintain the status quo so when Shana and other younger members of the Citadel decide to help a band of children with power escape an Elven estate, they find themselves at odds with the powers to be and Shana is joined by an escaping elven heir and his half-elven cousin and her foster brother who all end up having a number of adventures as they try to escape those on their trail.

[kmajort · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Best of the 3.

[jacobsbeloved · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The world that the writing team of Norton and Lackey crafts is quite fascinating in its detail and description. The timeline and history of this world seems to place it sort of after the end of our present world, as a kind of post-apocalypse in which first the dragons found and then the elves, with the latter taking over and enslaving the remaining humans. I found the passage of time to be bothersome at times, since the authors seem to almost skip over the climaxes in favor of just relaying the information through the memories of the characters after the fact. More than once, I wished the writers could have written out this passage of time so that I can actually experience it as it happens.The characters were all well-developed and unique, as the size of the book allowed the writers to spend lots of time focusing on a single character, even if his or her purpose seemed to end rather abruptly with death, such as Shana's mother, Serina Daeth. Normally, I have no trouble picking characters that I favored over the others, but with this book, no character seemed to jump out at me as so much better than the others, even the main character Shana, who seemed to lack in maturity as much as a pre-teen, with how she behaves around some of the other characters.There were several over-arching themes in the book, such as the need for change, the call for justice, and how every rule has exceptions. Shana especially seemed to find the latter annoying as she continually found that what she was taught about elves, humans, or dragons was not always true. Even though the legend of the Elvenbane is merely a tall tale crafted by the dragons to stir up trouble with the elves and humans, Shana falls into the role by accident simply because of a dragon's kindness. Ironically, her up-bringing gives her the perfect personality for playing that role, as the main goal of this book was to put her in the perfect position to fill this role for the next book in the series, Elvenblood (Halfblood Chronicles).

[tuckerfrye_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was one of my guilty pleasures of 8th grade. I read half of it in one sitting, and finished the rest during class the next day. Wonderful story with unique twists on elves, dragons, and magic.

[meersan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A half-elven girl raised by dragons learns to use super magic powers to rebel against orientalist feudal elves.

[jshillingford_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the first series I came across where Elves aren't honorable and wise beings - they're the villains who keep humanity enslaved. The ancient race of dragons decide to play with the elves by spreading a legend of a girl who will free the humans, the Elvenbane. Imagine their surprise when their legend becomes reality. Excellent.

[laranth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lashana is a half-human, half-elven, orphaned at birth when her concubine mother fled the wrath of her father, and died giving birth to her in the desert. Rescued and raised by dragons, can Shana survive in a world where halfbreeds are hunted by the elven overlords for fear of the powers they were born with: the magic of the elves and the psionic abilities of the human slaves.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first of the series by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, an interesting read about a human world where elves and dragons have invaded, dragons almost invisibly and elves as human slave-masters. Half Elves possess possible power to take down the evil masters, so they're killed, one survives and is found by Dragons.