The Elven (The Saga of the Elven, 1) Paperback – August 1, 2015

I've been wracking my brain for the past day or so, struggling to find the best way to articulate my thoughts on "The Elven." I've found little success: "The Elven" somehow manages to tell a story both both familiar and refreshing. It can often be difficult to fully express the quality of a novel--the adjectives that come most easily seldom confer nearly so much meaning as they ought to.I first discovered "The Elven" entirely by happenstance. I was aching for a good book to read, and the discounted price on Amazon--along with the discounted price of the eBook--convinced me to give Hennen's story a shot, even though it had only one user review on Amazon.com. Cursory research revealed the Bernhard Hennen is a fairly prolific Fantasy author in German, whose works have been translated into many different languages. This unfortunately-titled novel, "The Elven," is (more unfortunately) the first of his stories to be translated in English. Hennen has approximately 17 books available on Kindle on Amazon.de, all of which are rated very highly--the majority scoring a 4.5/5 review average (including "The Elven," which has reviews from more than 400 users). The reviews for the "Elven" series were particularly glowing. I took the liberty of translating a bit from the two most helpful German reviews:The most helpful positive review, by "Martin H." (5/5) declares the book to be harmonious, fascinating, thrilling, sad and vivid. The first three novels form a trilogy of sorts, but each stands alone as a complete story. He states, "The world and characters are vividly and lovingly described so that the reader is immediately immersed into the world of the Elfs. Everything is written with a great deal of detail that never feels too wordy or fails to hold the readers attention." He also states that the story manages at times to be dramatic or melancholy without ever feeling contrived or cheesy.Conversely, the most helpful critical review, by "Media-Mania" (3/5) declares the book to be a very good read, but "brutally" short. This first novel is a complex book that tells a "marvelously intense story," with a great deal of suspense, action, mystery and magic, as well as a great deal of humor. He/she/they declare it to be "A true adventure story and a master work." The review has nothing but praise for the novel itself, but instead criticizes the (German) audiobook adaptation, which apparently lost much of the content from the novel.If you're out to sample more reviews than appear here, check out the German page on Amazon.de: http://www.amazon.de/Die-Elfen-Roman-Elfen-Romane-Band/dp/3453315669/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8You may also want to check out the listing on Amazon.co.uk, whose reviews (for whatever reason) don't appear on Amazon.com at all:http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Elven-Bernhard-Hennen/dp/147782751XSo: now that I've read the book myself, what do I think?It's fantastic. Possibly even a little sublime. The Elven is very much written directly in the mold of the old Norse sagas. At first glance, that may seem to be a mark against the novel. After all, is there any setting more cliched in fantasy than the Norse-inspired mythic realm? Elves, Dwarves, Trolls and lots of hearty men with stout Scandinavian names, epic beards, and double-headed axes?But where most Fantasy authors conjure their settings through the lens of Tolkien (whose own work was a lens through which to view the old Sagas), Hennen ignores Tolkien and emulates the source itself. So, despite the many similiarities to Tolkien's masterpiece, "The Elven" feels more like a parallel work than a derivative one.I guess my "review" is getting pretty long, huh? I'm sorry about that. I really want to "sell" this book to everyone out there, but at the same time I don't want to rob any enjoyment of the story by spoiling anything, no matter how minor. The story of "The Elven" has humor, but treats its plot and characters seriously--with respect. The central conceit of the novel is lifted directly from some of my favorite myths and fairytales. To get from one point or another, the characters travel by means of magical portals--portals which are not altogether reliable, and have a bad habit of dumping our heroes out at their destination far later than they'd expect. This allows the story to be focused and personal, while still managing to fill out a truly epic, historical scale spanning centuries.And, covering entire generations as it does, the novel is able to constantly provide each scene--each moment--with genuine tension. Because people do die, and the world does change, and if there's one clear and obvious theme to Hennen's story, it's that everyone is at Time's mercy. In other words, it's impossible to be certain in the safety or success of any one character, because their trials and triumphs are presented at a historic scale. This transforms the "draw" of the story from seeing what the characters do to, instead, seeing why and how they do the things they do.What makes the story of "The Elven" truly memorable is the pacing. The "time travel" conceit allows the tale to be neatly divided into small chunks--each like a self-contained story that is connected to both the preceding and succeeding tales, but also enthralling in its own right. Rather than a single novel, "The Elven" feels like a collection of heroic stories tied together more by the characters involved than the machinations of the overreaching plot. None of the scenes feel wasted, and nothing at all feels superfluous (which, I now realize, is praise I can confer upon preceious few books, fiction or otherwise). The prose itself is--and I cannot stress this enough--magnificent.I wish I could discuss the quality of the translation, and maybe someday in the future I will. What I can say, having learned German myself solely to read Herman Hesse's stories in their original tongue, is that translating German to English is a very difficult task. And while I cannot yet comment on the accuracy of Edwin Miles' translation, I CAN comment on its overall quality. The prose... is simply fantastic. The writing conveys action, humor and beauty quite deftly. So deftly that, if I did not know better, I would never have suspected this to be a translation at all. Miles clearly put sufficent effort into his translation to make it appear effortless. If more of Hennen's books are to be translated into English (and I very much hope they are), I hope they are translated even half so well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the epic journey. I was left however with a sense of mourning that was not resolved. The characters are fantastic. The detail imagination are incredible.

so beautiful, complex, poetic, tense. I was hooked the entire time. I couldn't have predicted the ending and I'm glad I couldn't. There were lots of twists and gorgeous descriptions. It just felt so otherworldly. And the best thing? all three main characters were my favorites

This is a rather lengthy book, which is something that I enjoyed as it gives the reader time to get into the story and appreciate it. It mostly follows the epics of three characters, a human and two elves, starting with their hunt for an evil creature from which the rest of the story is spun.The beginning is a bit slow and there is quite a bit of material to assimilate, but once you are past this initial phase, the reading is quite enjoyable. The characters are reasonably well developed and the style and tensions are reminiscent of the Lord of the Ring, though the story line is original and very different from Tolkien's trilogy. The book is structured in connected but separate stories with additional secondary characters added at each stage, and a last "chapter" that ultimately brings together the different threads that had been woven throughout the preceding chapters. It is well done with few if any minor inconsistencies and the ending brings satisfying closure to the story, while at the same time leaving open the possibility of a sequel based on one of the main characters, but not one that is based on lingering questions left open at the end of the book (something I always find annoying).I gave the book five stars in spite of a somewhat choppy beginning (it took me a while to get into the story), in part because of its originality and the fact that once it has taken off, it is able to sustain the reader's interest all the way to the end.

Some battles, some time warping and much courtly love, beautifully described places and beings and events. well worth a read!

É o melhor livro da série, embora os demais também sejam bons. Os personagens são muito bem construídos e a história é empolgante.

If you love fantasy, this is a must read. This book caught my imagination and made me wish to never finish reading it. War, fantasy, love, friendship and many more thinks you'll find in here. You will love it

It is a very nice fantasy book, well written and with an interesting story! I am just waiting for the English translation of "Nuramon"... 😊

One of the best fantasy novel I read...ever! (And I have read a lot of them).Very repeatable and deep characters with all shades. Once you start reading you don't wanna stop until you reach the end. Every character is developed and rendered in such fine nuances that you actually start seeing them as one among you!The events are fast paced, edge of the seat. Love stories finely interwoven with tales of valor, characters with whom you fall in love and characters whose guts you hate. I thoroughly loved this roller coaster of an epic.