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hostral's review
3.0
This is my second Kellen book, after the entertaining Sorcerer's Code, which I suggest you read first as it's clearly superior to this work.
What we have here is a typical sword and sorcery yarn that's a little rough around the edges and showing all the hallmarks of an early effort from the author.
D'Arden Tal is humourless and dour at times, with some of the dialogue he spouts coming from 'what the hero should say 101'. The book itself feels like three interconnected stories that take place in the same city.
More interesting than Tal himself is his profession, an Arbiter. There's some inventive work with regards to the magic system and the atmosphere that pervaded the first effort I read is still here.
It's solid stuff for the genre, and doesn't outstay its welcome, definitely closer to a 3.5 than a 3 in terms of rating.
Overall Elegy can be seen as a gateway into Eisengoth, the world of Christopher Kellen. He wears his influences on his sleeve, and fine influences they are too. He's a humble man who just wants to add some much needed sword and sorcery fiction into a world that has been lacking it of late. For that I salute him, as this really is a solid effort worth buying.
What we have here is a typical sword and sorcery yarn that's a little rough around the edges and showing all the hallmarks of an early effort from the author.
D'Arden Tal is humourless and dour at times, with some of the dialogue he spouts coming from 'what the hero should say 101'. The book itself feels like three interconnected stories that take place in the same city.
More interesting than Tal himself is his profession, an Arbiter. There's some inventive work with regards to the magic system and the atmosphere that pervaded the first effort I read is still here.
It's solid stuff for the genre, and doesn't outstay its welcome, definitely closer to a 3.5 than a 3 in terms of rating.
Overall Elegy can be seen as a gateway into Eisengoth, the world of Christopher Kellen. He wears his influences on his sleeve, and fine influences they are too. He's a humble man who just wants to add some much needed sword and sorcery fiction into a world that has been lacking it of late. For that I salute him, as this really is a solid effort worth buying.
ellen_mellor's review
4.0
An exciting and original fantasy novel.
This is the second piece of Christopher Kellen’s writing that I have read and the first novel-length work. Set in the same world as that other work (Sorceror’s Code) and with one of the same characters Elegy was his first novel.
Much as I enjoyed it, with many of the same positive points that I enjoyed while reading Sorceror’s Code, such as well-written and interesting characters and the sense of a world with a history, I have to say that at times this did read like a first novel. I am not going to dwell on the negative points, especially as they are mostly contained in the early parts of the book, but I will point out the ‘worst’ one: Kellen (and, let me reiterate, this is only early on in the book – it improves radically by the end) has a tendency to repeat a word very soon after using it rather than work out a synonym. This is probably most notable when he is describing the magical effects of ‘manna’ (the energy that powers magic in this world). It is blue. Blue fire, a blue glow and manna-blue eyes etc. While this did not particularly detract from the story it did become quite noticeable. With perhaps one more editing run-through this could have been caught.
Anyway, enough of the bad. On to the good. It was an exciting, well-thought out and highly enjoyable read that kept me enthralled for the time it took me to read. The protagonist, D’Arden Tal is an Arbiter, a paladin-like warrior-cleric charged with finding and rooting out manna that has become twisted.
As such, he has arrived at the town of Calessa to discover that it is on the verge of being destroyed by a source of manna that has been utterly corrupted. The atmosphere of the town is described quite effectively and you can almost feel the all-pervading oppressiveness.
D’Arden Tal’s investigations lead him to various places in the town and we get to see the effects that the corrupt manna stream has had on many of the inhabitants – from zombies to the creation of demonic beings who were once ordinary people.
Interestingly, there is also a clever and original drug-use metaphor here in the effect that pure manna has, both on those who are exposed to a raw, unfiltered source of manna to the near-addiction that D’Arden Tal has for it. He has near super-human abilities but they have been granted to him at a cost – he must use a special knife (a heartblade – an object that figures largely in ‘Sorceror’s Code’) to ‘inject’ himself with a dose of pure manna. The use of the heartblade leads to one of the most heart-wrenching scenes when D’Arden Tal is forced to use it in a way in which it is not meant to be used.
The other characters that appear in the story are well-written and interesting. They come across as individuals rather than cookie-cooker stock characters and so when bad things happen to some of them I did feel empathy for them. My favourite character, after D’Arden Tal, was probably the girl soldier, Elisa, who Tal saves from an attack by manna-twisted creatures. She is bright, witty and brave, questioning Tal when he needs to be questioned and continuing to fight even when the odds seem unsurmountable.
In conclusion, despite a few, fairly minor, editorial concerns early on in the book, Elegy, is a mostly successful book and is an intriguing start to a trilogy which I am looking forward to continuing.
This is the second piece of Christopher Kellen’s writing that I have read and the first novel-length work. Set in the same world as that other work (Sorceror’s Code) and with one of the same characters Elegy was his first novel.
Much as I enjoyed it, with many of the same positive points that I enjoyed while reading Sorceror’s Code, such as well-written and interesting characters and the sense of a world with a history, I have to say that at times this did read like a first novel. I am not going to dwell on the negative points, especially as they are mostly contained in the early parts of the book, but I will point out the ‘worst’ one: Kellen (and, let me reiterate, this is only early on in the book – it improves radically by the end) has a tendency to repeat a word very soon after using it rather than work out a synonym. This is probably most notable when he is describing the magical effects of ‘manna’ (the energy that powers magic in this world). It is blue. Blue fire, a blue glow and manna-blue eyes etc. While this did not particularly detract from the story it did become quite noticeable. With perhaps one more editing run-through this could have been caught.
Anyway, enough of the bad. On to the good. It was an exciting, well-thought out and highly enjoyable read that kept me enthralled for the time it took me to read. The protagonist, D’Arden Tal is an Arbiter, a paladin-like warrior-cleric charged with finding and rooting out manna that has become twisted.
As such, he has arrived at the town of Calessa to discover that it is on the verge of being destroyed by a source of manna that has been utterly corrupted. The atmosphere of the town is described quite effectively and you can almost feel the all-pervading oppressiveness.
D’Arden Tal’s investigations lead him to various places in the town and we get to see the effects that the corrupt manna stream has had on many of the inhabitants – from zombies to the creation of demonic beings who were once ordinary people.
Interestingly, there is also a clever and original drug-use metaphor here in the effect that pure manna has, both on those who are exposed to a raw, unfiltered source of manna to the near-addiction that D’Arden Tal has for it. He has near super-human abilities but they have been granted to him at a cost – he must use a special knife (a heartblade – an object that figures largely in ‘Sorceror’s Code’) to ‘inject’ himself with a dose of pure manna. The use of the heartblade leads to one of the most heart-wrenching scenes when D’Arden Tal is forced to use it in a way in which it is not meant to be used.
The other characters that appear in the story are well-written and interesting. They come across as individuals rather than cookie-cooker stock characters and so when bad things happen to some of them I did feel empathy for them. My favourite character, after D’Arden Tal, was probably the girl soldier, Elisa, who Tal saves from an attack by manna-twisted creatures. She is bright, witty and brave, questioning Tal when he needs to be questioned and continuing to fight even when the odds seem unsurmountable.
In conclusion, despite a few, fairly minor, editorial concerns early on in the book, Elegy, is a mostly successful book and is an intriguing start to a trilogy which I am looking forward to continuing.
kriziaannacastro's review
3.0
It was good and exciting. The book has an interesting plot. I may pick up the next book in the series.
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