Stealing the Elf-King's Roses

by Diane Duane

In an alternate-world Los Angeles, prosecutor/psychic Lee Enfield and her partner, Gelert, investigate the murder of an elf. They soon reveal a deadly network of ties among organized crime, multinational corporations, and planetary governments of the Seven Worlds--all working together on the "ethnic cleansing" of elves from the alternate world of Alfheim. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

401 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.

Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

(From her official website)

Reviews

[Lis Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an especially easy book to describe.

The cosmological background is that there are multiple alternate Earths, six of which currently have regular communication and trade with each other. A seventh has just been discovered as the story opens, and is subsequently revealed to be our own. One of these worlds, Alfheim, is the source of the gating technology that makes intercontinuum travel and trade possible, and of the fairy gold that makes gating technology practical and affordable. The setting of this story, or at least part of it, is an alternate Los Angeles, mostly referred to as Ellay. The legal system in Ellay is in some respects similar to that existing in the UK in our world, and in some respects, really different. In our UK, the magistrate, prosecuting and defending attorneys, and the jury do not invoke the actual personification of Justice, who determines actual guilt and imposes a suitable sentence, such as turning a nasty little weasel of a con artist into a human-sized weasel. Nor are the prosecuting and the defending attorneys all psychoforensicists, able to know whether suspects and witness a re telling the truth, or replay the events at the scene of a murder from the victim's viewpoint.

You might think that these abilities would make solving a crime child's play. It's not. You still have to have enough evidence to convince the jury and Justice that the accused is guilty, and this is harder to do if the events as you discover them involve impossible things happening, such as people appearing and disappearing into thin air without benefit of a worldgate.

This story is, or starts off as, a murder mystery. The murder takes place in the alternate world called Earth, in the city of Ellay, and the victim is an elf, or what is called an elf. Omren dil'Sorden is one of the Alfen, a native of the alternate Earth called Alfheim. At the time of his murder, dil'Sorden was a very successful and valuable employee in the R&D division of ExTel, a telecom multinational.

In the case of dil'Sorden's murder, our investigators and intended prosecuting attorneys are Lee Enfield and her partner Gelart. Gelart is a fayhound, and looks rather like a white, frizzy-haired wolfhound--Irish or Russian isn't specified, but the size sounds like an Irish wolfhound. It's mentioned a couple of times that the fayhounds were originally native to Alfheim, as are the Alfen, but it's implied that there are no longer any fayhounds in Alfheim. Why this should be is not further explicated here, and this looks deliberate rather than careless--one of several things suggesting that this may be intended as the first of a series.

As implied above, Lee and Gelart's psychoforensic examination of the scene of dil'Sorden's murder turns up the apparent appearance and then disapearance of a person, an elf, who watches the murder, appears to be satisfied with the result, and then steps through something that isn't there, and is not seen again.

Dil'Sorden's employer, ExTel, is applying a startling amount of pressure to get this murder "cleaned up" quickly--with odd hints that this doesn't necessarily mean "solved" in any greater sense than getting the immediate gunman. Then, in rapid succession, there's anattempt on Lee's life, she gets wind of a Five-Geneva report that reveals a surprisingly high, and increasing, rate of murder of Alfen living and working in worlds other than Alfheim, and she gets an anonymous, probably Alfen, call, suggesting that she should be looking for an opportunity to "leave town", and also to acquire--illegally, because it couldn't be done any other way--one of the Elf-King's roses, as this could have interesting and useful effects on technology currently causing her a lot of trouble.

The Elf-King's roses are, as far as she can determine, entirely mythical.

The Five-Geneva report is released, the fecal matter hits the air-recirculating device, and Ellay's politically ambitious DA gets Lee and Gelart appointed to the UN&ME (United Nations and Multinational Entities) commission that's being sent to Alfheim to investigate the strange Alfen murder rate and the evidence that it's related to Alfen organized crime. Dil'Sorden's murder rapidly becomes the least of their troubles, as they get caught up in an Alfen power struggle with a garnish of a planned multinational invasion of Alfheim, with the survival of all the worlds at stake.

That the Alfen know a great deal more about worldgating than they've ever shared or hinted at is, of course, not even a surprise, by the time Lee and Gelart start to figure out the Alfen factions involved.

I haven't really done justice to this book; it's a lot of fun. I'd be happy to see more of Lee and Gelart, at least as long as they remain in mass market paperback.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short thoughts: I enjoyed it, and it was nice to read something more science-fictiony after my long spell of fantasy. The cover is awful, though.

First, a confession: This is the only Diane Duane book that I've read. I know, I know. But there you have it.

The story, despite the title, is not really a fantasy. It has it's feet planted rather firmly in Science Fiction, I think. There are certainly elements of the fantastic, but the tone was that of rational scifi. Even with the more paranormal bits. It follows Lee Enfield, a lawyer and Lanthnomancer as she becomes embroiled in what first a murder of an Alfen businessman and quickly ratchets up to a much larger mystery.

It is written in third person, limited to Lee's POV, and is a nice example of a close third person POV. I actually had to look to see that it was third person, because my memory of the book made it seem like first.

I was rather taken with her concept of alternate Earths and a sheaf of universes, but that is not unique to this particular book (this I know, for Wikipedia tells me so). Still, she executed the idea wonderfully, showing the interplay between the different Earths. You get the feeling early on that this is *not* our Earth, though it bears a striking resemblance. For one, Justice here is an idea, not a force that can physically manifest and render a criminal sentence. For another, Lee's law partner Gelert is a giant fay-hound. I loved Gelert. Despite being a six foot fluffy white dog, he was a significantly grounding character. We also get to see Gelert's home life, and his wife and kids, which was fun, and rather "humanizing".

A subplot of the novel was Lee's relationship with her ex... who happens to be the DA on the case she's working on. There were times in the novel where I just wanted her to get over him, but I think those worked. Work relationships are hard, and break-ups of work relationships are even harder. I found Lee's emotions honest. I've been there, unfortunately. And the ending was just ambiguous enough that I can choose not to think that she went there.

We don't get to see much of the Elf-King until close to the end of the book, but when we do, I found him a well written, engrossing character. That takes talent, to plop a fully formed character in close to the end and have it work.

The largest problem I had with the novel had to do with our Earth. The first issue for me occurred was when the characters traveled to our Earth's NYC and wondered where the World Trade Center was... that threw me out of the novel instantly, and had me looking to see the publication date. November 2002. So, chances are that the mention was intentional.

The second issue was that our universe was seen as fundamentally corrupted, so much so that it would warp the idea of what is moral in the other universes once travel was opened up between them. This made me feel wretched. Even after I finished the book, I thought about it, and why I rejected the notion. And then it stuck me that this may be what some people feel when they are confronted with the Christian idea of a Fallen Creation--that there is something broken about the world, something wrong with it. And yet, the idea of the Fall doesn't bother me, so why did the notion of a broken Earth in this book?

I think it boils down to Christianity giving an "out" if you will, and that even in the Christian viewpoint, the world did not start out broken, and isn't even (now) bad. And it's fixable. In the book, it's just the way that particular universe is, and there's nothing that can be done. Now, in the end, something was done, but it was never quite made clear if that fixes our broken Earth.

But these two things, are very minor thoughts in my reading of the novel. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book, and I will be picking up other works by Ms. Duane, in the future, since I seemed to have missed out!

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is that rare beast, the book that can be legitimately shelved as both science fiction and fantasy. When it was first published, I immediately snagged a copy. The title intrigued me, and the premise sounded fascinating, even if the first cover was a little cheesy. Plus, I'd read some of the author's Star Trek tie-in novels and enjoyed them. So I was curious to see what Mme. Duane could do in her own universe. Universes, in this case: these stories are set in a bundle of parallel universes. One is Earth, where we spend the most time; another is Alfheim — yes, Elfland; and another is Terra, the world we know. We only see it a little bit, at the very end of the book.

So I love the concept, even if I thought the implementation was a little flawed. A couple years ago, I heard about this ebook-only "author's cut" and was curious. I didn't have an ebook reader — still don't actually — and so I put it on my mental "eventually" list. But then Mme. Duane had a 60% off sale in honor of her birthday, and I couldn't resist.

If you have read the first one, most of the new material is in the last chapter. It doesn't substantially alter the ending; just tried to make it more clear, as this edition's afterword says.

However, I have a major philosophical problem with this book. Duane writes that the "ethical constant" in Terra, our universe, is off kilter. As a result, terrible things happen here that don't happen in any of the other universes. Genocide is the big one. Who wouldn't want to live in a universe where genocide never happens, or the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks never happened — but to posit (even in fiction) that evil things happen here because the universe is simply brain-warping and encourages evil makes me grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

There's a hint in the afterword that a sequel is a possibility ... I don't know how likely that is, but I'll be keeping an eye out for any.

[Sue Bowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally enjoyable fantasy, but a little hard to follow at times. I loved the detective's sidekick.

[Lillian I. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and had hoped there would be more with the lead characters as it gave promise for a series of interesting mysteries. A parallel world urban fantasy, Ms. Duane's writing transports you to another place with mystical elves and mysteries to solve. I've read this book several times and find something new and enchanting in it with each read. It's a well crafted story and I recommend it highly.

[Ry Herman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The version I read was the revised and expanded "author's cut" edition. The more I read this book, the less and less enthusiastic I became about it. At first, I was quite taken with the intriguing world, interestingly atypical characters, and murder mystery set-up. About midway through, though, I started to feel like the book was a bit overwritten and was becoming a slog; there was a multiple page section that boiled down to little more than "they waited for an hour at the airport". I expected it to pick back up at some point, but instead everything became tediously drawn out. The characters never went to one location when they could pass through three instead. I was still prepared to give the book three stars for the interesting ideas until, at the climax, the characters chose to have an extremely long, extremely boring conversation explaining what has been going on and why -- literally while their enemies are breaking in and firing off guns and are about to kill them all. That pretty much lost me for good.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say, every time I read something by Diane Duane I feel myself strangely but comfortably at home. Strangely, because her universes are so out there, but comfortably, because they’re weird in very similar ways. Stealing the Elf-King’s Roses fit nicely into my idea of the kind of thing she writes, and the way she thinks. I must say, I was happy to see her write an extended work from an adult female perspective — in a weird way, this made me wish that she’d continue Young Wizards long enough for Kit and Nita to grow up and have new sets of problems to deal with, because now I know that Duane is just as perceptive about adults and their problems as she is about young adults and theirs.

I must say, this book was nothing like I expected it to be from the cover. I’d always expected it to be some kind of high fantasy story, but when it turned out to be urban fantasy, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved all her main characters, and her concept, and the moment when I realized that Lee doesn’t live in the Earth I know and love, but some other Earth, where the White House is blue and Jesus was a woman named Suzanne. More broadly, I enjoyed the idea that there would be inescapable congruencies between neighboring universes in a sheaf (something that definitely shows up in Young Wizards) and that those universes will have certain points of “convergent evolution” that cannot be avoided — not just in physical laws and concrete places, but in names of scientists and inventors and even cities.

Most of this world, frankly, felt familiar, courtesy of my reading of the Young Wizards books. Talk of sheaves of universes, Powers that work through humans, worldgates, entropy, all of these things drew me back into the feeling that Lee probably lives a lot closer to Kit and Nita than she thinks. Lanthanomancy felt a lot like Earth’s version of Terra’s wizardry — and of course, the persistent imagery of gardens and the temptation of the mortal female reminded me a lot of Duane’s envisioning of humanity’s Choice. Especially toward the end, the Laurin’s decision to remake his world and allow it to move forward had congruencies with Quelt’s decision in Wizard’s Holiday. Although her people go on to a life beyond bodies, while the Laurin’s are now more subject to the demands of theirs, I still felt a real emotional similarity (there were also moments that felt quite reminiscent of the Song of the Twelve).

I know I will have to read this book again, because my reading of the ending was definitely rushed, and there have to have been things that I missed. It left me with a strange feeling, though, especially the part about Lee and Matt maybe trying ot make things work again. I thought the early portion of the book was pretty clear in saying that Lee had caught Matt cheating on her — why should she get back together with him? Also, maybe I’m just reading this into things, but I thought like there might have been something more than ceremony between Lee and the Laurin at the end — all the joking about being partners, and that kiss on a cheek — but even if they weren’t going to be romantically involved, I didn’t want her to be with a guy who did nothing but make her hurt.

Still, reading this confirms something I had long suspected but am now pretty certain of — anything I read by Diane Duane will be a pleasant surprise and an even more exciting adventure. Now for Door Into Fire, attempt #3…

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, dense work that is the culmination of a dream Diane Duane deferred for decades. The pinnacle of her work — in its ideas, if not necessarily in her writing abilities — and well worth the read. That said, the book does suffer under the immense weight of its many ideas, and I badly wished all the information on the Seven Worlds contained had been exposed through a series of narratives prior to this one.

However, while I admit that this work won't work for many, as a devotee of Duane's œuvre, it certainly worked for me. Awarding 5 stars for the complete package of research and ideas that came with the narrative, but would be a more realistic 4 stars without my rose-tinted glasses (pun intended). (And, let's face it: if you're not a fan of informationally dense books, this isn't for you at all.)

Footnote: Please keep in mind that I read a modified version of the work that had been reedited for clarity and had additional information about the massive setting.

Final judgment call: Pick it up if you're looking for a challenging, fun fantasy/sci-fi work...but if you aren't in love with it as I am, I don't blame you. No one ever said roses wouldn't have thorns...

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book many times. It's one of my favourites from Diane Duane. It combines my like of crime dramas on TV with a wonderful and believable modern fantasy world.

The Elves are more like Tolkien's elves; tall, beautiful and immortal. But they are in a modern world and have modern flaws. They are also not exactly the main characters in this book, though they do figure predominately.

To sum up, this book involves alternate universes and how they interact with each other. The main character, Lee, is a psychoforensic lawyer who takes on a case to solve the shooting death of an elf. Her and her parter, who is of a race that look like large wolfhounds, end up entangled in various plots, one of which is to kill the elf-king.

That only scratches the surface of the story. Diane Duane creates amazing characters and detailed universes and how they interact. Her ability to give the important details without getting bogged down in a lot of tedious description is a boon. Her characters are believable and likeable. I could go on forever about what I like about this book but you would probably just get bored.

Of course, I highly recommend this book, especially if you have read Diane Duane's works and like her writing style.

[Sharon Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting plot/characters and world building. I kept thinking of this book as one of the rather tightly plotted spy/detective novels set in an international setting and that is very much what it is on one level. The main characters are futuristic human 'detectives' with some paranormal abilities investigating an elven death, with political and racial prejudice tangles involved. The investigation involves them in an investigation team sent to the elven world.

Interesting characters with good character building, an interesting plot that presents a rather unique elven culture and an ending with some ambiguity which makes me wonder if more books may be planned.

[Tria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very hard to get hold of a copy in the UK, but I have one at last, thanks to BookMooch! I'll be writing a full review when I get back from the UK Discworld Convention (running from Friday 26th August to Monday 29th, and I won't be home til the Tuesday). For the meantime, it simply gets a five-star rating - and I may take it with me to ask Diane to sign it... ;)

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A much more mature novel than it looks/sounds. The main character, a plain middle-aged woman investigating increased murders of elves across the worlds, seeks ever deeper into a plot that just gets brouder and more interesting as you go.

[Sophie Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents a world full of intriguing ideas and worldbuilding concepts, and a pair of protagonists whose friendship I adore. That’s what kept me reading through dense text, slow pacing (the pace improves after the midpoint, though it remains dense), and a frustrating ex-romance subplot with a terrible resolution (WHY THE HECK WOULD SHE ASK THAT JERK OUT TO DINNER?? It’s implied that she’s finally ready to move on with her life and THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF MOVING ON WITH HER LIFE. It’s not the most important part of the book but it’s the last sentence Duane left me on and so I’m stuck on it!).

As much as I liked Lee and Gelert, for most of the book, our heroes don’t truly understand the stakes of what’s going on, and that meant that I, the reader, had no idea why anything was happening until very late in the book. The characters just have Lee’s “hunches” to guide them through the story, and they stumble into the place where they need to be in the end, with a character who will provide the exposition we’ve been lacking for most of the book. I kept reading mainly out of a desire to find out what the point of it all was, but in hindsight, that was the sunk cost fallacy at work.

I also struggled a lot with the basic concept of a god of justice who gives people the literal magical power to see the truth of events, places, and people… and yet they still need to gather witnesses and evidence for a courtroom setting where they convince the jury of what the truth is, so that this god of justice can show up and tell the jury what to think. My complicated feelings about this only worsened at the climax of the story, which confirms that the Sight is not about objective truth at all, but rather is the power to convince other people that something is true, to the point where you can alter reality to your will and therefore be right all along. I may be completely missing Duane’s point here, but all I saw was contradictions.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Duane has done it again!

The worldbuilding is gorgeous, the main characters are fierce and brave and so very human (no offense intended, Gelert! :D), the way magic works is remarkable and amazing and may by my favorite magic "implementation" I've seen sofar.

Once again, she brings her magic poetic language out in the open in the last third and I loved every page of it.

I usually don't like crime novels, but I loved this one. THough of course it is more of a genre buster fantasy/scifi/crime/adventure/mystery novel :D.

In the 2011 afterword she said she may yet write a sequel. I fucking hope she does, because I love this universe more than the Young Wizards Universe right now, and I've read for books from that series.

Hats off, Diane! Oh you magnificent storyteller, may you yet grace us with another foray into this world!

And I am seriously considering to write a fanfic in this world one day. It just seems like a great sandbox to play in :).

P.S.: The "Terra has a shitty ethical constant" thing bugged me too (it was badly integrated in the story, especially with the ending aftermath, I wish we heard more how the events there affected Terra), but she explained in the after-word that she, having lived in New York for many many years, inserted that into the otherwise finished novel right after 9/11, so I forgive her. It's just understandable that she felt quite devastated and hopeless and cynical right after that.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such an odd, hard-to-describe book; it's not really what I thought it would be (which I can't even articulate). It took me a long time to read it -- both in the sense it took over a month (since I took a "break" to read a lighter book), and that I owned it for nearly 20 years before actually cracking it open. (So you see, there's still hope for all the not-yet-read books in my collection!) It was hard for me to get into it, and I found myself re-reading pages because they were just not sinking in. However, I don't think it's a poorly written book, per se; there are just a lot of elements -- mystery, procedural, conspiracy, political, sci-fi/multiverse, and fantasy -- and they don't always come together well. I think the book took a few too many tangents on things that were ultimately not that important to the end goal (and the things that *were* important could've been emphasized more). It wasn't a very unified book -- "meandering" might be a good descriptor. (And perhaps my focus could've been better too.) I will say that I liked it much better than the last sci-fi/fantasy/mystery I read a few years back (Wrapt in Crystal).

Also, I really loved Gelert, both because he is a large anthropomorphic dog and because he worked so nicely as Lee's loyal work partner (complete with loving family including adorable pups). He was just a fun character and definitely the bright spot of the book for me.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some authors write science fiction that reads like fantasy, and some authors write fantasy that reads like science fiction. Diane Duane often falls in the later category, but Stealing The Elf-King's Roses doesn't. It's both science fiction and fantasy at the same time, which makes it somewhat difficult to categorize. Similarly, the title and cover make it seem like a fantasy romance, which it isn't.

So what is Stealing The Elf-King's Roses? It's a sci-fi & fantasy crime procedural that quickly turns into a political thriller, and finally evolves into the realm of the metaphysical. That sounds like it would be enough to give you whiplash, but Duane is, as the Philadelphia Inquirer once boasted, "a skilled master of the genre", and she pulls it off.

It's also the rare book that could absolutely never be filmed. So much of it takes place internally, or in the realm of interpretation, that it lives entirely on the page. That isn't a bad thing, by any means, but it is interesting to note.

[Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is weird in the way that a Diana Wynne Jones book is, aka I found it extremely enjoyable while also understanding about half of what was happening at any time. The title and cover are a little misleading because this is basically a sci-fi lawyers in alternate universes murder mystery set in the 2000's, not a trashy 80's fantasy. (Which would have also been fine in my opinion, btw!!)

In true DWJ-style fashion, the last 50 pages went off the rails and (as usual) I read them at 4AM and had no idea what was going on, but I was still extremely invested.

If you're looking for an interesting take on a lawyer mystery that includes large talking anthropomorphic dogs and also justice being doled out by Lady Justice, an actual deity who cares about criminal court cases, and also a fun and nostalgic take on Los Angeles that gave me a little pang in my heart as I read it, then this is a neat book to try. Enjoy!

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.5/5

I had a really good time with Stealing the Elf-King's Roses. I was really into the setting, and I eagerly fit every new piece of information about the various worlds into the larger puzzle to try and understand what was going on. Lee was a great narrator - I really connected with her and her journey to find the truth and bring justice to the dead man.

The only reason this wasn't a five-star book for me was that a lot of what was happening at the end felt sort of jarring. While I know it was probably supposed to feel pretty confusing because Lee didn't understand what was going on, it made it hard to follow what was actually happening, and why previous things had happened the way they did. I did appreciate the actual ending, slightly ambiguous and open-ended as it was. It fit really well with the book.

[Carro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, re-read several times, most recently in the author's cut eBook direct from the author https://ebooks.direct/.
The premise is a number of parallel worlds and in each one they are different. So there is a human inhabited Earth, Elf inhabited Earth and so on with gates between. It is done at a roughly contemporary level of tech, plus magic. The main character is a trial lawyer with the ability to review past events - as in she can go to a recent crime scene and re-play what happened. The spirit of justice will actually appear to decide on the sentence once the jury has brought in a verdict.
The book starts with a trial, but then becomes more of a mystery thriller.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 rounded up because Diane Duane is one of my founding authors. She helped shape my worldview with her pansexual characters and I will be forever grateful.

This story is a little dry, but I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the main character who is competent. I love competence. The title is sillier than anything you will run into in the story.

[Mackenzie Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't the best Diane Duane novel I've ever read, but it may be the *most* Diane Duane novel I've ever read. The personal and the cosmic are the one and the same, everything is explained just enough to tantalize and never enough to satisfy, and being human is not a prerequisite for being a person.

It's maybe not a good entry point to her writing, but I enjoyed it a lot!

[Phreia Von Woolfgaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main characters are extremely lifelike however, secondary and tertiary characters have no depth at all. The idea of adventure through dimensions is exciting to explore as your imagination takes them in. It was a great read that leaves you curious for a future but at the same time this ending would be fine if that was it. It would be a great book for a long weekend or a relaxing one.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very good! Fun science fantasy world, interesting plot, characters I enjoyed spending time with. The ending is a little jumbled/rushed, but not enough to sour the experience.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit, I was hoping for a police procedural by page 10 or so. This? Was significantly more/other than that, and good fun.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes science fiction with fantasy. Unfortunately for me I was unable to finish the book.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been waiting...

...a long time to read this book. Glad to find it available on kindle. It was very complicated and creative.

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a good start, I liked the magical crime-solving, but the parts in Alfheim kind of dragged.

[Catching Shadows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stealing the Elf-King’s Roses is an interesting combination of political intrigue and police procedural, and has the feel of a “grown up” version of Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series. (In fact, some of the alternate earths mentioned will be easily recognizable by anyone who has read the Young Wizard books.) This is a near-future science fiction/urban fantasy where a string of alternate Earths are connected by worldgates. (I should also mention here that the Earth the protagonist comes from is not our Earth, though you probably would have figured that out within the first few pages.) The book opens with the discovery of a sixth world, and mentions possible economic and political repercussions as a result of the discovery and possible contact with the sixth world.

Our protagonists are Lee Enfield, a “lanthanomancer,” and prosecutor who has a form of “Second Sight” or clairvoyance, and her partner, a “fayhound” named Gelert. Since we’re introduced to them during the tail end of a trial, we also learn that the Justice System is very, very different in this world; the purpose of the jury/court is to summon the presence of Justice. Justice appears to be an actual entity, which makes the ruling based on guilt or innocence of the defendant, who supplies the verdict. (In this case, a dishonest businessman gets turned into a weasel because he cheated and stole money from his clients. Lee wishes her opposite number good luck in going after an appeal.)

Their next case turns out to be an investigation and forensic analysis of a crime scene, a murder. The victim is an Alfen businessman. Several anomalies are discovered during the course of the investigation, and the murderer when he’s apprehended, confesses to the crime. This murder case turns out to be linked to others with similar anomalies, and Lee finds herself removed from the case and re-assigned to an investigative team being sent to Alfheim after being attacked by unknown persons and receiving a very strange phone message about “the elf-king’s roses.”

Alfheim is an alternate universe mostly closed off from the other alternate worlds because the technology and the very matter of that universe interact very differently with the matter of other alternate universes in the chain. The nearly immortal inhabitants of Alfheim are generally regarded with distrust and almost instinctive dislike. (The general and universal response to the Alfen is “too perfect to be real,” and this turns out to be true in an unexpected way.) Lee has to go from trying to find out why so many murders have been occurring among the Alfen living in other worlds, to figuring out the meaning behind the strange phonecalls she’s been receiving about the roses.

I liked this book over all, but found it a little confusing in places. I wasn’t quite sure how the writer got from point A to point B in the story line, and the breakneck “full immersion” approach to being dumped into Lee’s world doesn’t work for me. (Mostly because Lee’s world is just enough like ours that the parts that aren’t just like ours are extremely jarring for me.) Duane’s characters are engaging and interesting, and once you get into the story, the storyline definitely holds your attention.There is a nice balance of character interaction, drama, suspense and humor, and the forensic/investigative/judicial details felt authentic to me.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish it--in truth, barely started it (Kindle said I was 12% in when I abandoned it).

I used to feel it was unfair to judge a book if I hadn't slogged all the way through, but if, say, half the audience can't finish a book, isn't that worth knowing about it?

I love mysteries, I love fantasies, I love Thraxas, for example, or City of Stairs, so I thought this would be right up my alley. Instead of welcoming me in, however, it read like Volume 12 of some long-established series where it would only make sense for those who kept up with Volumes 1 through 11. (And I say this as someone who actually loves it when the author withholds a bit--think Gene Wolfe, for example--but this book did not have that kind of tone, the "bear with me, enjoy the evocative writing, and eventually you will be rewarded" tone. )

The style was straightforward, and I'm getting picky in my old age. If you're going to confuse me by dropping me into something without explanation, your prose had better sing! But Duane's prose was, well, prosaic.

And I still haven't read the sequel(s) to The Hollow Kingdom yet, or any of Thackeray besides Vanity Fair, so the time I spent is a sunk cost and I can live with that and move on to something better.

Note: future me popping in to say I've now read the sequel to The Hollow Kingdom and tried more Thackeray, but they were also disappointing. But my point remains ... the longer I spend on a book I don't like, the less of my limited time can be spend finding the ones I do like: like Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont or Ayoade on Top.

[Sarahz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd one. I expected it to be a bit romance-y, given the cover art, but it's really a straight up procedural. The most romance it has is the bit at the very end where the main character calls up her cheating ex-boyfriend to ask him out on a reconciliation date, so if anything it gets negative points in that category.

So, I went into it expecting a slightly different book, but once I adjusted expectations it was an interesting procedural (not really a mystery), and had some neat world building. The pacing was a little odd, though - it got slow in the middle for a while.

SPOILERS

The book involves parallel worlds, and it is revealed that our world is the darkest one, where horrible crimes occur that aren't heard of elsewhere (they mostly talk about WWII and the Holocaust in this explanation). I might be reading too much into things, but the fact that the book was published in 2002 and a passing reference to the missing twin towers made me think that maybe that part was influenced by 9/11. They explain that there's an imbalance between the worlds that has damaged ours, and do their best to rebalance things. I don't know that the ending worked purely on its own very well, but I liked the idea of it in the context in which it seemed to be written. The end was a little strange, but I think I like it.