Stealing the Elf-King's Roses

By Diane Duane

Book Overview

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,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446609838
• ISBN13: 9780446609838
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Warner Books
• Length: 418 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.1" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

incredible

i've read this AT LEAST 20 times since it came out. fabulously fabulous book. i wish Duane would stop writing all those Star Trek and Spiderman books and get back to THIS kind of storyline. the publication of her new Wizards book has been delayed for about 3 years also, while she piddles around with sub-standard stuff. i've sent her email about this, but i'm sure she has never read them.....

Duane had done it again!

Duane had done it again! This book was EXTREMELY good, though that is not surprising. I really enjoyed it.Like all hr other books I've read so faar.

She's got the whole of worlds in her hands...

Stealing the Elf-King's Roses is another great book by Diane Duane. She is widely known as one of the best Star Trek novelists, but even non-fans of that series can enjoy her books. This particular one has lyrical prose, interesting situations and an intriguing setting. It all adds up to something that I'm very glad I read.I've always been a Diane Duane fan, and when I saw this book, the premise really intrigued me. This is a combination fantasy/science fiction book. It has parallel worlds and some sort of psychic powers (though some may seem Lee's power as more magical than psychic), but it also has the Elves and the magical "glamour" of their world. Elves make all the other races uncomfortable because they have what seems to be a magical, perfect beauty that has some sort of psychological effect on the other races. There is actually a practical reason behind all of this which is addressed in the story in a very intriguing fashion.Duane's world-building is marvelous. There are numerous universes that share a lot of common traits, with other traits being completely different. They all occupy the same space, just in a different world. Travel and commerce between these worlds are commonplace and made possible by a substance called "fairy gold," which powers the gates between the worlds, and which the Elves control. The two main worlds in the story, the first being Lee's world, a sort of modern-day setting with a few differences, such as different creatures wandering about, weird version of cars, communication implants and stuff like that. The second world is Alfheim, home of the Elves, who are a very secretive race. As the story unfolds, you see that they actually have a reason for being so secretive, but that things may have to change in order to avoid a calamity. While Duane does a good job portraying the differences between Lee's world and our own, she really outdoes herself with Alfheim, making it a truly beautiful place with a strange veneer of unreality about it. It's breathtaking, eerie and a place that you really like visiting.While the book certainly has a great concept, Duane makes it more than that. The characterization is simply wonderful. Lee and Gelert's friendship is very touching but there's no hint of any romantic feelings between them. He's happily married (or whatever the wolf-like equivalent would be in this world) and she's just coming off of a bad relationship. But it's clear that they love each other as only good friends can. They're willing to do whatever it takes to protect each other. Gelert is even willing to do something that could easily be considered a suicide mission (and with his "wife's" insistence!) to save Lee. The dialogue is great and Duane makes Gelert one of the most human wolves that you'll ever see. There are times when you will lose track of the fact that he's a wolf because he sounds so human, but then he'll do something like drink his champagne from a dog dish or something like t

fascinating mixture of fantasy and science fiction

On an earth much different than our own, people are able to transport themselves from one place to another and one universe to another by using the gates which are constructed in part from fairy gold. The elves control the distribution of fair gold just as they block anyone from any of the diverse universes from traveling to Alfheim, the elfin world.Lanthanomancer Lee Enfield and her partner Galert, a madrin (a wolfhound the size of a horse that talks and is very intelligent) use their sight and scent to see below the surface at crime scenes and while interrogating perpetrators. The duo is so good at what they do that they are sent at their government's bequest into Alfheim to find out why elves are killing elves. Before they know it they are caught in a civil uprising that unless stopped, could mean a massive war throughout the known universes.Dianne Duane, long known and respected for her excellent work, has gifted her readers with a unique view of the Fay that make it seem as if another species has been discovered by the author. Her protagonists are a superb working team whose personalities mesh so well they are better together then apart in a kind of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. STEALING THE ELF-KING'S ROSES is a fascinating mixture of political and inter-dimensional travel inside a fantasy science fiction plot.Harriet Klausner

A Multiverse Thriller, With Roses

Stealing the Elf-King's Roses (2002) is a standalone Fantasy novel. It's good to have Duane writing heroic fantasy again. While I enjoyed her science fiction, media novels, and Young Wizards series, I think she only realizes her full potential in a universe with wider constraints of her own devising. This novel is another classification headache, much like "The Three World Trilogy" by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Multiple universes exhibit different physical and moral laws. Some of these laws allow powers that we would classify as magic. And one of the universes is Alfheim, the home of the Elves. It seems that intercontinual trade exists between six universes within the sheaf and, according to the papers, a seventh has just been discovered. A crucial element in the trade is Fairy Gold, which has properties that reduce the power requirement for intercontinual gates. Alfheim is the only source for this metal and strictly controls the supply. The point of view follows Lee Enfield, a mantic in forensic lanthanomancy, as she and her partner Gelert, a madra or fayhound, investigate the death of an Elf at Eighteenth and Melrose in Los Angeles. Obviously Lee's LA isn't the La-La Land that we know. And the story becomes even stranger as it progresses. Lee and Gelert discover with their lanthanomantic powers -- her Sight and his Scent -- that the victim had been shot by a human, but that a second Elf had observed the murder, with some satisfaction, and had then just faded away. In addition, the shooter himself left a fading pyschospoor that puzzles Gelert. The shooter is quickly caught on an anonymous tip and the authorities are trying to restrict the case to just the proximate killer. Lee and Gelert, however, are fighting to widen the case and soon turn up information to support their lanthanomantic evidence. It soon becomes obvious that Elves are being murdered in the universes outside Alfheim and other Elves seem to be contracting or performing the murders. Conspiracy theories bloom like desert flowers. On the basis of these findings, the other five trading partners force Alfheim to accept a joint investigating committee and Lee and Gelert are pushed onto the committee. Then events, and landscapes, really turn strange. Duane takes us into Fairyland in more than one way. Pay attention to the fairy tales researched by our heroes; they are your only hints. Welcome back, Diane, and when are you going to tie up all the loose strings? The madrin are only one of several mysteries left unexplained. That seventh universe is especially intriguing. -Arthur W. Jordin