Review of THE ELF-QUEEN'S BOUNTY by Joshua Calkins-Treworgy

Review of THE ELF-QUEEN'S BOUNTY Joshua Calkins-Treworgy (see his MySpace page)

A TAMALARIA NOVEL

BooksForABuck.com, November 2010

When a renegade elf and his human hirelings break into a museum in the capital of the Elvish Kingdom, the Queen and her high council are shocked. Were-coyote and councilman Shoryu Tearfang isn't just shocked, he's mad. One of the stolen artifacts is his family magical bow, the bow that helped him survive and win the war against Richard Vandross. He intends to get that bow back no matter what it takes.

Although the elvish army is fully deployed, the queen has no intention of letting the aging were-coyote put himself into danger alone. She hires the most capable bounty hunter on the planet, Portenda the Quiet, to lead the search for the renegade and his henchmen. None of them, however, realizes that the theft is part of a larger scheme, a plan to undermine the entire kingdom.

Portenda and Shoryu cross the continent in pursuit of the four human brothers who participated in the theft and who can, they hope, point them in the direction of the renegade elf. Four humans would normally be easy prey, but one of them is a trained ninja, another a capable fighter and thief, and a third a man who's been systematically replacing his body with mechanical parts to create a form of superman (with the fourth being an expert pickpocket).

Author Joshua Calkins-Treworgy (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of fantasy by Calkins-Treworgy) continues his Tamalaria fantasy series with a deeper look at the elvish kingdom and the return of favorite characters from earlier novels including Shoryu (from DAMNATION OF THE REALM and THE DREAD KNIGHT'S REDEMPTION) and Portenda (from A HUNTER AND HIS PREY). Calkins-Treworgy shows us more of the magical world of Tamalaria, delivers plenty of battles, and does an excellent job showing the "human" side of his characters (in quotes because not all of his characters are strictly human). Fans of the series will certainly want to grab a copy. If you haven't read any of the Tamalaria novels, THE ELF-QUEEN'S BOUNTY is a great place to start as well.

Four Stars

Reviewed 2/28/10

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