Review: The Elvenbane

The Elvenbane by Andre Norton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great story! And great characters! I really dig the 'coming of age' genre within the Fantasy world. Elvenbane is very different than any other fantasy book I've ever read.

Basic story: Feral human raised by dragons, learning her powers, and how she will fit into the world of humans, elven lords, half-bloods, and dragons.

I think some people rate this book low because it's a thick fantasy novel that is slow paced. You just need to accept that it's slow paced, understand that, learn from it, and move on. It bothers me when people say 'ahhhh nothing happens until like half way through the book wahhhh' - go read a quick and easy teen fantasy novel then. This book is filled with great narrative and description and detail and I loved every moment of it.

I usually don't write a recap of a whole story but this fantasy story is so great that I had to <3

Story: (the more you read the more spoilers)
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In the beginning the two main POV's are women; one a human, and the other a dragon. The human woman is a concubine to the elven king. This book is more sexual and political than I was expecting. Not necessarily sexual scenes but discussing it. The human woman wants to be the concubine to the king but she doesn't want to get pregnant because then they would kill her 'half-blood' baby and possibly even her, else she would end up as a scullery maiden for the rest of her life. She accidentally gets pregnant with the kings baby (this is not 100% for certain though, just assumed) and runs away.
She withers away in the dessert and a dragon comes along and see's her dying. Dragons are unheard of in this world and they want to keep it that way. But the dragon see's that the woman is pregnant and feels that it would be sinful to leave the innocent baby to die. The dragon uses shape-shifting magical abilities to pull the baby out and the human woman perishes. The dragon doesn't know what to do about the baby and contemplates if the child is the Elvenbane and the prophecy has been put in place.
Her son Kenan takes care of Shana and teaches her dragon abilities. Kenan even has his own little pets lol that he sometimes feels tempted to eat but feels guilty for killing. Shana isn't welcome among the kin and feels left out. She wonders if she was shape-shifted into being a human and is actually a dragon and part of the kin. She realizes she has other powers that kin doesn't. She shows her powers by attacking a bully dragon and the kin get spooked and outcast her into the dessert.
Kenan goes running after her to save her but is too late and a bunch of humans take Shana and are about to sell her to slave labor. She is sold off at a high price to a secret 'half-blood' clan and they teach her how to use more abilities. They are surprised at her strong powers. Kenan then goes to Shana and he disguises himself as a half-blood.
Meanwhile two new characters are introduced, Lord Dyrans (the elven king) son Valyn, and his close friend who is secretly a half-blood Mero aka Shadow. They run away and meet Shana and Kenan. Valyn and Shana are very attracted to eachother but Valyn calculates that Shana is probably his half-sister in which he is disgusted by his dirty thoughts of her. Shana is hurt by this. She teaches Shadow of how to use his half-blood abilities but he's a slow learner.
They are chased by Lord Dyrans army into Valyn's old friend Triana. Triana tries to glamour Shadow into becoming her half-blood slave lover. Shadow gives in but then realizes after she murders one of her jealous old slave lovers in a blink of an eye that something is not right here. Shadow spies on Triana and realizes her intentions and learns that she is getting Lord Dyrans army to come and take Shana an Valyn. Shana steals Triana's powers and portals back to the half-blood clan - The Citadel.
Because of the portals loud entrance, the elves realized where they were hiding, and now they go under siege. The dragons are no secret now.
Kenan runs back to his kin and proposes that they shouldn't be secret anymore and they should fight in the wizard war. Kenan duels with his challenger his sister and loses. The moment he thinks he failed and is gong back to Shana empty handed half the kin join him, including Father Dragon. Father Dragon makes wisdom and explains how proud of them and that he's thought this all along and the fact that they came up with it on their own is great. Turns out he was in the original wizard war and history is repeating itself but this time he wants to win. They meet Shana and Shana is so happy to see them, now they have a chance. Valyn sneaks into Lord Dyrans tent easily, probably because he is elven with no disguise. Valyn basically suicide bombs his father with magic and they both parish.
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