Elvish

The Elvish Trilogy, Book 1

By: S.G. Prince

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

It's against the law for elves and humans to fall in love. But laws can be broken.  

When Venick is caught wandering the elflands, he knows the penalty is death. Desperate, he lies about his identity in hopes the elves will spare his life.  

Ellina doesn't trust the human, and not merely because he speaks the language of men. Men lie. In elvish, however, lying is impossible. In a moment of intuition, Ellina decides to give Venick a chance: learn elvish, reveal his truths, and she will set him free.  

That is not, of course, what happens.  

As Ellina and Venick come to know each other, their feelings start to shift. Then Venick uncovers a dark secret, and suddenly, the fate of the elflands seems to rest in his hands. But every choice comes with consequences, and Venick must decide if it's worth risking his life to protect a race that hates him, all to save an elf he's not allowed to love.  

Magic, love, and fate collide in this fantasy adventure from S. G. Prince.

©2018 Summerhold Publishing (P)2019 Tantor

A Novel of Facial Expressions

This story of a human encountering a brutal elvish people is average and a bit predicable. Many times, the motivations of the characters are questionable and have you scratching your head, hoping later chapters reveal something - but it doesn't. It may be worth the credit it if you're a big fan of stories about elves, but I'd discourage anyone looking for a more engaging fantasy romance. On a side note, the biggest negative for me was the constant, and I mean pervasive, descriptions of the characters' facial expressions (and the other character's interpretation of the expression) as they talk to one another. It got so bad, I began betting to myself how many times in one scene a grimace, scowl, blank stare, raised eyebrow, or combination of these and many others would be thrown in. Add on the thoughts and interpretation by the person that's watching the expression, and it all really detracted from the story telling. 2 stars.

Okay

I think my issue is that I went into this book with expectations of what I wanted vs. what the book's focus is. I have been wanting a good fantasy story in an elven world that isn't war based or overly dark and serious. This didn't deliver that. I don't dislike the characters nor am I connected to them. This follows in the dark and serious elf category.

Amazing narrator, subpar story.

First and foremost the narrator is fantastic. That said, even he can't save this book. I have 3 hours left and I don't think I'll finish. I can't get over the 'you mean so much to me I give you all of me' after such a short time and so little meaningful interactions. I feel like I barely know the characters and have little investment in them. I found myself rolling my eyes at the dialogue and like someone else mentioned, the weirdly frequent facial expression descriptions.

Narration ruined what might have been ok

I tried. This narration was so awful I couldn't get past it in order to follow what could have been a decent story. How does one turn an adventure into a punishment? This becomes my first DNF.

Enjoyable but predictable.

I enjoyed it, it's a bit predictable and the romance was a little rushed I thought. Daniel Thomas May does an excellent job reading. If you're looking for a good if not somewhat cliche romance then you could do a lot worse than Elvish.

Loved it

Loved the story, so many twists and turns. Loved Daniel Thomas May's performance, he helped to keep the characters moving.

Has promising moments

The action and intrigue are there. The Romeo and Juliette story handicaps both the characters and the story. Hard to believe a good warrior can loose all self awareness by believing words not said or actions not taken by the female elf. For a Great War strategist He seems dim witted and governed most of the time by emotions. Still a good story and worth the credit.

Elves and humans take center stage

Good story about elves and humans in a magical world with Romeo and Juliet undertones. Interesting angle on the star crossed lovers angle in fantasy.

female perspective

Great writing and great backstory. I hope the next book however has more plots and less dealing with inner dialog

Great book

Loved to read and listen to this book from one of my new favorite authors.

GREAT!

Loved the performance of the voice actor. The story was interestingly written and didn’t follow a traditional fantasy character arc. I enjoyed my whole time, I wondered in the middle where the plot was and what the focus of the story was but I did actually end up powering though a small section in the middle and it was soooo worth it!!!!

Elvish

Really enjoyed this audiobook, a slow burner but had a good story and some good characters too.
This was included in my membership for free which is awesome - do I now use a credit for the next book Elder ? I think so.

Enjoyable and easy on the ears

I read a lot of these fantasy stories - it eases my day … I enjoy them and have my favs - this included in my subscription- . So I gave it a try - …. Can’t complain , was throughly enjoyable. Not up there with Robert. Jordan or Michael J Sullivan or my absolute favourite David R Slayton . But throughly enjoyable!

Exactly what I needed

A fantastic story that is made even by its excellent narration. The pace of the story is just right and the balance between emotion, romance lore and action have clearly been well thought out.
It's early days yet but so far this is my favourite fantasy book of 2020. Can't wait for book 2!