He hurts a little, though
I finished The Elves and the Otterskin last night. Overall pretty good, but I’m not sure how it fits into the series.
The story stared off pretty interesting — a young boy, second son to a poor fisherman, is sold to a witch to be her slave. But, it turns out that she wants an apprentice and not a slave, and so she spends long years training him in the ways of healing and magic. One nights, in a bog, he overhears the nefarious plan of a necromancer, and shortly thereafter his teacher is killed and he finds himself transported to another realm. I think, but am not sure, that this realm is supposed to be where the events of the first book took place. I think this for a few reasons: we have the same non-human race names as the other book, like Alfar and Black Dwarves. I also think that the antagonist in this book is the same as the one before, but I can’t be sure. I’m also not sure if this book comes before or after the other. There’s very little linking the two, apart from the name of a series on the cover.
Anyways, after a promising first quarter on the novel, Boyer very quickly falls into the by-then well-worn ruts of high fantasy. Quest for a sword, kill a dragon for its treasure, rescue a captured prince, etc etc. There is some political intrigue stuff thrown in, which is kind of refreshing, but then there are also some incredibly blatant rip-offs, like a magical hero’s sword, once broken, then reforged; and even a gnarled and slightly crazed man who lives with a dragon’s treasure, protecting a magical ring. I laughed out loud when I got to that part.
Oevrall, it was an OK read, and fairly quick, but I hope this “series” shapes into something in the next two books, or else I will be annoyed that I could have read them separately. Now I’m reading Philip K. Dick’s The Game Players of Titan, a wonderful book.