Elfshadow: A Book Review

Right I finished reading this book a few days back, so I am way overdue for writing up the review of it. My bad! Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham is a Forgotten Realms novel, and the second in the Harpers series of books, each of which focuses on an agent (and sometimes more than one) of the semi-secretive organisation of that name, the members of which are sworn to battle evil and tyranny across the face of the continent. This book is odd in that neither of the two main characters are Harpers, or not fully anyway.

Arilyn Moonblade is the closest to being a Harper, a half-elven warrior woman named for the incredible sword she wields, an heirloom passed to her from her deceased mother. The Moonblade is as deadly as it is beautiful, slaying anyone but Arilyn who tries to wield it, and it possesses numerous powers, each wielder in its long history having granted the blade another power tailored to that wielder (for instance one of Arilyn's ancestors often fought Red Dragons, so the sword manifested a rune that rendered the wielder immune to fire). She is kept at a distance by the organisation though, for what she does is kill people, and officially the Harpers do not sponsor assassins.

Arilyn though is a hunted woman, everywhere she goes other Harpers are turning up dead, each branded with the Moon and Harp symbol of the organisation, and suspicion is beginning to mount that she is responsible. Wanting to find out more the archmage Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun (a highly ranked member of the Harpers) dispatches his nephew Danilo Thann to accompany Arilyn, he being under strict orders that she is not to know his purpose in travelling with her. To this end Danilo calls on his skills as a Bard and Noble, easily painting himself in the role of a foppish young dandy, when he is really anything but.

The pair are as alike as chalk and cheese, and yet they work well together, their banter making reading this book a joy. The other characters are well written too, from the sly Elaith "The Serpent" Craulnober (an elf with a very long streak of viciousness and duplicity in him), and Kymil Nimesin, Arilyn's friend and mentor with a well hidden agenda. These days Elaine is one of the major writers of the Realms, and seeing as this is her first book and she absolutely nails the world right from the start it isn't hard to see why.

Elfshadow gets a 4/5 rating from me, the book is superb but the ending is a bit rushed I felt, and in places the book uses magic as a crutch to explain things too easily. There are several sequels to this novel detailing the further adventures of this mismatched pair, and I'll likely read and review those in due course.