Elves on the brain.

[krait]

I'm stuck on elves again. (This is a thing that happens to me periodically, I've learned. Although no, I haven't learned why it happens.) In the last month, I have:

* gone on a Forgotten Realms fanfic binge
* reread Salvatore's dark elf prequel trilogy (Homeland, Exile, & Soujourn)
* recced a bunch of Forgotten Realms fanfic
* started rereading Brust's Hawk
* purchased Vallista to follow it up with
* reread three Sidhe novels by Josepha Sherman
* read a bunch of LOTR fanfic
* watched 8 hours of LOTR films
* thought about going to the library for the LOTR books
* gone looking for my bootlegged Record of Lodoss War episodes

Oh, yeah, and

* acquired an elf-themed icon

So... send help?

And by help I definitely mean recs for elf-centric canons and fic. :D There must be things out there I haven't read yet! Save me from having to resort to Mercedes Lackey rereads, friends. :D

(As a side note, who has Sapkowski's Blood of Elves waiting in the to-be-read pile? Yeah, it's me! I've been meaning to pick up the Witcher novels for about a year now, before Netflix decided to make it a show; having elves in the title should bump it up the stack!)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

And by help I definitely mean recs for elf-centric canons and fic. :D

OK, so none of these are unqualified recs, but a couple off the top of my head:

Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara West -- love the world, find the prose grating/something to get through (though that might be a me thing). The ~Elves are called Barrani, and they are pretty great. This is secondary world fantasy with Elves, humans, Dragons, lion-people, people with wings, and some other races. The Dragons are also wonderful (and there's one whom I'd love to see in a crossover with Aliera in particular). Not all the books are Elf-centric, but several are, and one major secondary character plus several more minor others are Barrani. I don't think there's much fic in this fandom at all, but mathia has done some tyically gorgeous illustrations.

Do you do urban fantasy? I quite enjoy the Elves in the Kim Harrison Hollows books, although there are not enough of them and too many vampires and demons and other stuff.

I mentioned these over on the other thread, and these are a sci-fi take on Elves, but they've very Elven, and definitely scratch that itch for me: MCA Hogarth's Earthrise and sequels (like Firefly if Mal were a grumpy Martial lady, Simon was a telepathic space!Elf, Zoe and Wash were incestuous tiger furries, and Kaylee was an8 feet tall bird. The book is a lot of fun, and in the sequels they get to the planet of the space!Elves, which is the part I especially enjoy. (These can get kind of dark in places.)

I'm actually pretty meh on the Elves in the Witcher-verse, but I did enjoy what I've read of the books (which includes Blood of Elves) and am planning to read more, eventually.

[krait]

Wooo, thanks!

I'm not much for urban fantasy, and I have bounced off Michelle West before, but I am absolutely up for sci-fi versions of elves - honestly, I would have used my atevi icon for this post if I didn't have the new one to show off! - and things that are basically-elves-but-with-a-different-name. Which reminds me, I should finish the Winds of the Forelands series. (It has a race of Basically Elves, except short-lived instead of long-lived, which is linked to their usage of magic.) Next time I go to the used bookstore, I'll have a look for Earthrise and Forelands books. :D

I don't get the impression that the Witcherverse does all that much with its elves, what with the focus being on, well, witchers, but I am officially peeved at Netflix turning it into a show before I could read the series, because now they've redone all the books with ugly covers I don't want to buy and the local library has a 3-week waiting list for most of them and just doesn't have the rest at all. *grump grump*

Oh, but speaking of the used bookstore, I should look for more Sherman novels! Apparently she never finished the Prince of the Sidhe series (or, well, she stopped after two novels, and the main character never gets un-exiled, so I'm calling that unfinished), but some of her other titles sound promisingly elfy. :D

[isis]

The Witcher elves are actually a pretty big deal, though in some cases it's more of a background big deal. There are multiple civilizations of elves, and those who live on the Continent came thousands of years before humans, but the humans took over and moved many of them to reservations and/or killed them, and elves are generally discriminated against...so, sound familiar? ;-)

If you are up to playing the videogames, the second game is set within a big conflict between humans and non-humans, and a guerilla elf battalion is important, and their leader Iorveth is an important character. The games have a lot of story in them, really well-done.

Speaking of videogames, the Dragon Age games also have elves, with the option in the first and third game to play an elven character, and several of your companions (and potential love interests) are elves. The elven lore is very important in the third game, Inquisition.

I'm having a hard time coming up with books that aren't obvious, but - have you read The Goblin Emperor? Everyone's an elf (except for the goblins), which basically means that elves are the default human.

ETA: oh, duh, have you read Elfquest? It's even online!

[hamsterwoman]

Ooh, yeah, Goblin Emperor is a good suggestion!

[krait]

"Background" was sort of the impression I got of Witcher elves, so I'm glad to hear that at least they get some in-depth background. *moves BoE up another notch*

Sadly I don't own a videogame console newer than the PS2, so the games are out, but I might look up a few playthrough videos on Youtube. (Though nothing can possibly top this one.) :D Dragon Age likewise, but I know enough about it through fandom osmosis that I've read fic for it, so fic recs are welcome if you have any good elf-centric DA fic faces!

Somehow I have not yet read TGE, so that one will definitely go on the list! Thanks!

Elfquest, of course! What a good idea. I remember reading a few Elfquest books back in the day (there were elves... with four fingers... and soulbonded wolves? in one of them! It was like teenaged!me's id glued between covers.)

[isis]

If you have a Windows machine, the games play on that! If you have a Mac, sorry. :-)

The drunk witchers "quest" was hilarious. I didn't go quite all the way in my game play to the crossdressing, but I saw the clips!

[hamsterwoman]

and I have bounced off Michelle West before

if it's the writing, I can definitely relate! XD (I'm several books behind on Elantra, despite really liking the world and some of the characters, because I need to have a lot of patience to get through each of them...

I think you're not likely to find Earthrise in a library system (at least,mine doesn't have it) or in (decently priced) print form, as I believe they're self-pub. But if you read in e-form, Amazon has the firstbook for $0.99, and is also giving me an option to loan mine, which I'd be happy to do if you're interested :) (I own the sequels also and hopefully they're also loan-able.)

I did not realize that atevi were space elves! (or that the character in your icon was atevi). The universe seems to be throwing Cherryh at me at every turn. Perhaps it is trying to tell me something, but based on my experience so far with Cyteen, she is not a very bingeable author!

I'd not hear of Winds of the Foreland before, but will have to see if the library has any (they seem to be out of print? -ish?)

, because now they've redone all the books with ugly covers I don't want to buy and the local library has a 3-week waiting list for most of them and just doesn't have the rest at all.

Aww! I actually kind of like the minimalist show-based cover, but what I believe were the previous ones are definitely much more colorful and dynamic (and similar in style to the Russian editions I have). From a quick glance at the reissued The Last Wish, it does look like a pretty good translation, though (judging against the Russian one, which I've been told is very close to the original), and I'd heard that the earlier English translations were not great.

but some of her other titles sound promisingly elfy. :D

Hee! :D

[krait]

Well, atevi are aliens, but they're taller than humans, stronger than humans, with better hearing and night-sight than humans (and uncanny eyes, to go with it), and they have elaborately braided hair, and while canon is silent on the subjects of ears and lifespan, the cover art has leaned into the pointed ears idea. :D

I have actually never read Cyteen, but I love the Foreigner series (with a few caveats, as pretty much any long-running series is bound to pick up) and the Chanur saga, so I am definitely biased toward Cherryh when it comes to my fish-out-of-water and humans-in-alien-cultures needs.

I haven't finished the WotF series, and wasn't aware they were out of print; I'm not a hundred percent sure the series is finished, but I own the first three or four and they satisfy my craving for intricate fantasy politics (and elves), so maybe I should get into it again.

Aww! I actually kind of like the minimalist show-based cover

Minimalist I can live with! A third of the book surface - including the entire spine - being candy-apple red? That, I cannot. Couldn't they have picked any other color? Witcher's Eyes Gold, or Uncanny Magic Green, or Shining Weaponry Silver would all have been fine! I just can't with the Stereotype's Nailpolish Red. :P I'll have to go hunting around for older versions online.

[hamsterwoman]

A third of the book surface - including the entire spine - being candy-apple red?

Oh huh! I only saw the Witcher Medallion Pewter cover of The Last Wish. Nail Polish Red is kind of a meh choice, yeah.

You might want to hold out for the new translations, though. But I'll let isis or someone else who's actually read them in English translation comment on that more informedly :)

[isis]

I only have the ebook versions. Get the David French translations, if you can. The Danusia Stok (might have her name wrong) translations are not nearly as good.

[krait]

This is good to know - thanks!

I am now hunting for the French translations online, but the main result so far is a lot of baffled amazement at how few people give translators any kind of recognition!

Even the ones that list a translator don't give any proof of it, and I've seen at least one listing labelled "translated by David French" that looked identical to the book I already have, which is the Stok translation. :/

[krait]

Maybe it's supposed to be Blood Of Elves Red? But yeah, they're... very red.



If they took all that red off, they'd have room for a much larger picture of Geralt looking pretty. :D

[hamsterwoman]

Ahh, I see what you mean, that's kind of a weird design choice, I agree.

I was thinking of the hardcover(s?), in this style:



(I loved all the stuff they did with the brooch-like episode titles dingbat things on the show, so I like this callback to it.)

[type_wild]

Is Elfquest too obvious?

[krait]

Now that you mention it, I remember reading a few Elfquest novels back in the day! I should totally try a few more. :D