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Elfhome (2012)

by Wen Spencer(Favorite Author)

4.3 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1451637837 (ISBN13: 9781451637830)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Baen

series

Elfhome

review 1: Elfhome, the third book in the Tinker series, is a bit of a departure from the first two books. Instead of being a continuation of Tinker and Wildwolf's story, this is the story of Tinker's cousin Oilcan and the half-oni Tommy.I really enjoyed the switch in the story. Oilcan has always been quietly supportive of Tinker, so I was happy to learn more about him and to see where his strength came from. Seeing the world through his eyes really helped me understand why he is so protective... especially of children. Since Oilcan saw his mother murdered by his father, he has strived to protect his family while also not becoming his father. He finds his world turned upside-down when he becomes the protector of five Stone Clan children and when his great-great-great-etc-grandfather ... moreForge of Stone appears.Tommy has an equally sad past as well as a desire to be a better man than his father ever was. As the son of the deceased oni-leader Lord Tomtom, Tommy has seen his family abused and killed, and has taken care of the other half-oni children, even those that no one wants to see. When his family is threatened due to the actions of others, Tommy has to prove that he is innocent by rescuing Jewel Tear from the hands of the oni.This story illustrates more than anything that all of the people are all one clan in the Westernlands. They are not Wind Clan or Stone Clan or Humans or Tengu or Half-Oni. They are Pittsburgh.
review 2: This was a strong closer to the series that in many ways redeemed the weak middle book. While poor Windwolf still doesn't get an actual personality (or even much screen time!), Oilcan is fleshed out fairly skilfully, as is Tommy Chang who just barely appeared on the scene in book 2. The ramifications of immortality are explored in a little greater depth, and the story at least shakes a stick at addressing some of the challenges of weaving together a peaceful, if not necessarily cohesive, society out of a range of players that are diverse to say the least. The last couple of scenes were a bit troublesome. I'd say they were unbelievable, but we Are talking about magic-wielding elves fighting oni and humans in a magically-transported Pittsburgh, so you are being asked to bite off quite a bit. Still, without giving any spoilers, the skill with which certain characters fought was a bit hard to swallow. In addition, the book suffered from a fair number of editing errors: wrong forms of words, tenses, or even wrong words in a few places. This sort of sloppiness is hard for me to excuse - although I tend to blame the editor as much as, if not more than, the author. While Elfhome did close up the cycle started in Tinker, there are a lot of avenues left open for the author to explore in potential future volumes: the astronauts were barely mentioned here, we left a tunnel project hanging, and there are lots of directions that the main characters could take as well. I rather hope she decides to continue some day. less

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