The next series of Raven adventures (Legend of the Raven) the Raven have traveled to the elven homeland of Calaius to find help for Julasta whose magical heart is still buried. As elves with a magical gift train at Julasta before returning to the jungle, Ilkar knows they can assist in raising the heart. Already wary of non-elves, the population is just short of hostile to the Raven. They discover that an army of outsiders had just desecrated of the temple of Yniss setting off a plague called the Elfsorrow, a mysterious affliction gradually killing the elven population. Before the elves will even consider helping the Raven raise the heart of Julasta, they must recover stolen artifacts and halt the spread of the Elfsorrow.

The memorable cast of the Raven continue to put forth an adventure story threaded through with several story lines-- the failure of Julastan magic, the Elfsorrow plague, Xestekian ambition and the anti-magic rhetoric of the Black Wings. The inclusion of the elven culture is a welcome detail, adding more variety to the Raven's regular adventures as elven warriors travel with them to recover their missing artifacts. We also see more of Ilkar's character as he tried to reconcile the expectations his family had for him.

My Recommendation
If you have not read the previous trilogy-- The Chronicles of the Raven, I highly recommend starting with Dawntheif and working through the series. Elfsorrow is a great start to a new trilogy of Raven adventures.

Elfsorrow by James Barclay
Published by Pyr
421 pages

Elfsorrow by James Barclay is available at Amazon.com