Griffin's Daughter - Continues to Impress

Although the story has hit a bit of an impasse, GRIFFIN'S DAUGHTER by Leslie Ann Moore continues to impress. Moore keeps tension on every page and the plot continues to move.

At first, I thought this was a European based novel--and I still think that--but imagine a Europe before Christianity, when slavery and the practice of keeping concubines still existed. Throw in some elves and give it a lot of racial tension between elves and humanity.

You guys know I'm not given to excesses of praise, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a critique other than just a touch of a mid-book slowdown. At first I thought I found a mistake in timing, but upon rereading the section in question, I'm inclined to think it was my own mistake rather than the author's. The closest thing to a critique I can think of is that Jelena, the heroine, has determined that she will "never love again" which I always find hard to swallow. Never? She's only eighteen!

But of course, such a sentiment might well come from an eighteen year old, so that can't really be a critique either. It's not the author's fault that I'm a heartless forty-something!

GRIFFIN'S DAUGHTER is ranking right up there with any fantasy I've read recently from the major presses. The subject matter may not be gritty enough to be fashionable these days, but I'm hardly one to find fault with that. I'm continuing to enjoy the story and I'll put up another post when I'm finished.

Here's my first post on this novel, which contains all the links that I usually put in debut showcases. (I didn't write a debut showcase for this novel, because it came out before I started this blog.)