Griffin's Daughter by Leslie Ann Moore

I actually finished this novel about two weeks ago, and I intended to post on it when Raven had finished with Truancy, but life got in the way last week, so here I am.

The later middle part of Griffin's Daughter seemed to suffer from a lack of direction. Before, Jelena had been focused on the goal of finding her elven father, but she became sidetracked when she met a cute elf, a lord's younger son named Ashinji. Since elves don't approve of marriage between a half-breed (Jelena) and a true elf (Ashinji), they are kept apart. It has all the makings of a great love story, but the big reason it didn't work for me was the vast age difference between Jelena and her love. She's only 18 and he's in his 30s. (I know, I know--Jane Austen did this in Sense and Sensibility. But ya know, it didn't really work for me there either, even though the Colonel is one of my favorite Austen heroes. But I digress.) Part of this can be accounted for by the long life-span of elves. Perhaps mentally, he is only 25 or so. However, presumably Jelena will have a longer lifespan as well, since she is half-elven.

Anyway, that's the only real problem I had with the love story, and it is probably mostly a matter of personal taste. And despite my problems with it, I really liked the way it worked out in the end.

After a digression with Jelena's cousin and traveling companion Magnes going off and doing some very unexpected things, the story came back to Jelena and found direction once again. The Dark Lord from the prelude begins to become quite active, acting through animal surrogates. I don't want to give the ending away, but it was fairly satisfying, insofar as the first novel of a trilogy can ever be satisfying. Moore has obviously thought things through and has set the stage well for future books.

Except for some sex scenes, this novel almost seemed like a young adult novel. Moore has a natural flair for language. Her work comes across as literary without being affected, and is highly readable. I would definitely be interested in reading her future works.

Here is my first Post and my second Post on Griffin's Daughter.

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.)

Griffin's Daughter by Leslie Ann Moore

Normally, I have a strict books-on-shelves policy concerning review copies. That policy is simple. I only cover novels that can be found on the shelves (not via special order) of bookstores throughout the country. The reason for this is not snobbery. Let's get real; what do I have to be snobbish about?

I'm looking for authors who have achieved the dream of major press publication. It's exciting to cover those authors. They are always excited about their books and it's just plain fun to read their books, to exchange emails with them, to occasionally have coffee with them (ok, so this only happened once) and to interview them.

I decided to make an exception to this policy with GRIFFIN'S DAUGHTER (Amazon USA, UK, Canada), which I'm not sure is even available on shelves at all.

(BTW, two interviews of recently-featured authors should be incoming this week.)

Leslie Ann Moore has no idea that I've actually known about her book for quite a while. Back when I first started FD, I surfed around in Locus Magazine's Monitor section and took note of her book. However, since it came out in January of last year, almost six months before I started FD, I gave myself a pass on her book, along with other much more prominent books like oh, say Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind.

In January, she sent me a very professional email, asking if I was interested in her book. And I was. I looked at her website, which although somewhat incomplete, looked reasonably professional. I've seen worse websites from major-press authors. Then, I took a look at her publisher and noticed it was a very small press. I told her that I'm reluctant to take books directly from authors (which is true) and that if she could ask her publisher to send me a review copy, I'd take a look at it. Well, Avari Press ended up sending me a very nice press kit along with the copy. So I was impressed again.

Then, this weekend, I started reading it, and I was impressed a third time.

First, the cover. While I don't hate the cover, I must say that I like the back of the cover much more than the front. The artwork on the cover appears to be a watercolor and the subject matter is not particularly compelling. The back has a stylized griffin, but it, unfortunately, is covered by an over-long blurb. The white text on the griffin is hard to read. The cover looks slightly amateurish, and I'm afraid it probably hurts the author's efforts to get it into bookstores.

Which is a shame, because what is inside has been a wonderful surprise.

The novel begins with a prelude, but don't let that fool you. The prelude is action-packed with a warrior elven princess fighting her father. She had his concubine steal his magic ring, from which he derives vast magical power, which has driven him insane. If you think we're headed full-steam into a stereotype, just read a few pages more, for they end up ripping the magic out of the ring and stowing it safely within the body of a descendant far in the future. Did you expect that? I certainly didn't. The dark lord screams in agony and outrage and the story is over.

Unless, you happen to be the owner of the body in which they stowed the magical power. Since Jelena was a child in the womb when it happened, she didn't exactly comprehend what was going on. Her mother turns out to be the human sister of a duke, and when she dies during childbirth, Jelena is left at the tender mercies of her uncle. Who'd rather not admit that she exists. Humans have some serious hatred for elves, who they believe to be the soulless spawn of demons. Therefore, Jelena's foster mother--the castle midwife--brings her up as a servant.

Chapter one begins with Jelena waking up, but don't let that turn you off. She wakes up on the Day Everything Changes.

Jelena is easy to like in a sort of old-fashioned way. She doesn't have a lot of spunk and sass that you see in a lot of fiction nowadays, but she is loving and loyal, and once she makes up her mind to do something, she doesn't wait around. She also doesn't sit back and take abuse.

Avari claims to publish "a literary class of fantasy literature, or high fantasy, which is characterized by rich, intricate plots with well-developed characters, races, locations, magic systems, and themes." High fantasy describes this novel quite well, with its human and elven cast of characters. Moore's writing is decorative without being overwhelming. Similes salt the pages, but I found them clever. Let's grab one from a random page. It needs a bit of context:

Only the kitchen boys remained. There were three of them, orphans all, and they earned their keep by turning the spits, tending the fires, and running errands. They made their beds by the main hearth, huddling together like puppies in winter . . .

Which I found delightful. I'm still reading, and I'll put up at least one more post on this novel.

The author has also done podcasts of her novel, which you can find here.