Dale Elvy

Spirit City is the middle book of Spirit Shinto, a fantasy trilogy by Wellington writer Dale Elvy. In the first book, tribal hunter Tane, renegade Shinto mage Sajha, and their accomplices have defeated an invasion of the island of Maragon by the armies of the ruthless Lord Kuso, militaristic lord of the neighbouring continent.
Most of Spirit City follows separate journeys: Sajha the mage travels to ancient ruins to find the true nature of Shinto magic, while Tane takes a break from his life as unwilling de facto mayor of the liberated city Shevilian to travel to the Eastern Empire and petition the Grand Caliph for aid against the expansionist plans of Lord Kuso.
Neither Sajha nor Tane have it easy. Sajha is shocked by what she discovers; Tane has to deal with both human and natural opponents amid the sweltering deserts and political chicanery of the Eastern Empire. Then, to save Shevilian from another attack by Lord Kuso's forces, the talents of both will be needed — and they are both a long way from home.
Spirit City has all the strengths of First Hunter — pace, excitement, a lack of the padding which bedevils many fantasy novels — and less of the weaknesses. This second volume is better written — Elvy writes of a stern officer's moustache curling upwards "as though retreating from the sharp commands issuing from his mouth", and there are other nice touches — and it is much better proofread.
On the other hand, the characters — with the partial exception of Tane — have little depth, and are mainly there to move the plot along, and the settings remain generic — there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why the Eastern Empire's capital is located many days' ride from the coast, amid burning deserts, except to provide plenty of scope for desert bandits and ancient ruins half-buried by drifting sands.
But these are criticisms in retrospect. While I was reading the book, I just wanted to get to the bottom of each page to find out what would happen on the next. And that means Dale Elvy has done his job.

(Review written for the Evening Post newspaper, Wellington, New Zealand)… (meer)

First Hunter is the first novel in a fantasy trilogy by Wellington writer Dale Elvy. In it, Tane, the "First Hunter" of the title; Sajha, a renegade mage; and a number of other thieves, bards and the like come together to fight for the independence and survival of the indigenous people of the island of Maragon. Their adversaries are invaders from the neighbouring continent, where militarised, slave-owning Great Houses compete among themselves for honour and Empire. Sajha is a runaway daughter of House Yakoso.
There's a couple of key points here. First, the book is in many respects a standard first novel of a fantasy trilogy, introducing characters, setting up relationships, and foreshadowing battles to come. Second, the hero is a member of a tribal indigenous culture whose personal names and social organisation are very reminiscent of Maori in the 19th Century.
The political parallels are there, but First Hunter is primarily an adventure with added magic. One of the book's best features is its brevity: what many fantasy authors might have laboured over for 600-plus pages, Dale Elvy dispatches in under 400, ensuring a page-turning velocity. Some key scenes early in the book — Tane's confrontation with the creature that killed his son, a bardic recounting of an ancient legend — are underwritten and perfunctory, but once the author settles into his storytelling rhythm only some lamentable proofreading lapses distract from the story, which is at its peak when the action moves outside the invaders' city and into the jungles of Maragon.
That storytelling ability makes me want to read the remaining volumes in the trilogy. There is room for improvement: the invaders' culture is too strongly reminiscent of the Tsurani culture in Raymond E. Feist's and Janny Wurts' Empire series; and the characterisation is sometimes inconsistent, with even the most evil of characters suddenly turning helpful and talkative when the plot requires it. If Dale Elvy can better integrate character and setting with his sheer storytelling ability, the next two volumes will be truly satisfying additions to the fantasy genre.

(Review written for the Evening Post newspaper, Wellington, New Zealand)… (meer)