Clark Graham's Dwarves of Elvenshore (Elevenshore Series Book 1)

A Book Review

Sometimes I get into a mood. Sometimes I want a book that’s not overly complicated, doesn’t include pages and pages of overwrought political machination and just gets on with things. Sometimes what I need is a simple story about a man who finds himself in a jacked up situation and tries to bring himself and his companions out of it. Sometimes, all it takes is a ripsnorting good time to make Jimbo happy. Sometimes, the prescription is a book like Clark Graham’s Dwarves of Elvenshore (Elvenshore Book 1).

Dwarves of Elvenshore is, at its heart a simple story: A human gets adopted by a dwarven king and then leads a dwarven army in battle to save their homeland. There’s plenty of action, maybe a bit of family type stuff and some logistics issues that make a ton of sense but would have been forgotten by a lot of authors. I like that about it.

The main character, Sarchise, appears to be over his head sometimes, but he has enough pluck for any ten main characters and always seems to get through things somehow. Actually, I may not be giving him enough credit here because he is an experienced woodsman and leader of men, but he sometimes has to deal with leading more men than he’s used to. He has to be a warfighter as well, and the feeling I got is that before being adopted by the dwarves, Sharchise’s battles were against the type of wildlife that admittedly could kill him, but doesn’t have the intelligence and adaptability of a humanoid enemy.

The action in Dwarves of Elvenshore is continuous and well written. The book is a work of military fantasy. It makes sense that there would be a large number of battles. They work well. Graham seems to have an understanding of tactics and strategy without a desire to bog things down in too much extraneous detail. It works well. There’s no need to detail where each and every sentry stands when most of them don’t matter to the story and Graham gets that. He includes enough to make things entertaining and believable without adding too much and bogging things down.

I was deeply concerned going into Dwarves of Elvenshore because the name of the book had the word “Elven” in it. I picked this thing up mainly because I wanted to see if the dwarves in it acted like dwarves or if they were lilac scented, lily eating elves who lived in caves (maybe) or (more likely) on the surface. Did Grahams dwarves actually act like dwarves? I came away impressed.

Graham’s dwarves are dwarves who dwarf with dwarvenly dwarvishness. They build. They fight. They eat. They drink. They sing. They know their position in the hierarchy down to the nth degree. And then they have kids and know where their kids fit into things. I love dwarves. I play dwarves in Roleplaying Games. I write stories about dwarves. I collect mounts in World of Warcraft. I have over four hundred. But my first mount was a ram. Do you know why it was a ram? Because, in WoW, Dwarves ride rams and I was playing a dwarf. I know dwarves and so does Graham.

Okay, so I have to mention this because it made me crazy and, I mean, I know I’m the only one who would care but let’s face it: Writing is cheaper than therapy. So, like, there was this part of the story where people kept referring to stone as “rock”. The dwarves in my book always refer to “stone” as “stone” and actually use “having stone” as a euphemism for being strong. (IE The average dwarf has more stone in their spines and in their loins than any human) and it was making me crazy. It’s not the kind of thing anyone else would notice and Dwarves of Elvenshore is an awesome book even with the verbiage there but I was almost reduced to a quivering mass of tears by this experience. It was horriblefying and stuff.

The relationship between dwarves and humans in Dwarves of Elvenshore was well done. The two sides have had a long alliance, but it hasn’t been active in a long time. There hasn’t been a reason for it to be, until there was. The two sides both look out for their own interests, but they work well together. And they need to, because the main villain of the piece wasn’t going away on his won. It took both races to put together an army big enough to oppose him, especially given the other threats they had to face.

The enemy in Dwarves of Elvenshore is basically a power mad wannabe dictator. It’s not exactly an original premise, but it works to move the story along. There is no one that’s easier to get behind than a group of people fighting for their freedom against someone who wants to enslave them and uses troops that don’t know any better to do it. There isn’t much about the dude in the book directly, but I have a strong dislike of the guy. He fits a profile with some of history and fiction’s worst criminals and it was good to see Sarchise and friends fight against the guy. He’s easy to root against and that makes me enjoy the book all the more.

Dwarves of Elvenshore is the first book in a series and it feels like this is going to be a fun ride. There are eight more out already. I’m not sure if there are more coming after that or not. I’ve got eight more books to read before I have to worry about it. I’ll be checking them out though. I’m looking forward to doing so. The book ends on a good lead in for another story, but not a true cliffhanger. I need to know how that resolves itself. Unless I miss my guess, the next one will end in a similar manner.

I won’t be getting to the next one soon though. I have commitments. It’s almost Memorial Day, and my annual event takes precedence. It’s going to feel good when I do though.

Sometimes I get into a mood. Sometimes I want a book that’s not overly complicated, doesn’t include pages and pages of overwrought political machination and just gets on with things. Sometimes what I need is a simple story about a man who finds himself in a jacked up situation and tries to bring himself and his companions out of it. Sometimes, all it takes is a ripsnorting good time to make Jimbo happy. Sometimes, the prescription is a book like Clark Graham’s Dwarves of Elvenshore (Elvenshore Book 1).

Dwarves of Elvenshore is, at its heart a simple story: A human gets adopted by a dwarven king and then leads a dwarven army in battle to save their homeland. There’s plenty of action, maybe a bit of family type stuff and some logistics issues that make a ton of sense but would have been forgotten by a lot of authors. I like that about it.

The main character, Sarchise, appears to be over his head sometimes, but he has enough pluck for any ten main characters and always seems to get through things somehow. Actually, I may not be giving him enough credit here because he is an experienced woodsman and leader of men, but he sometimes has to deal with leading more men than he’s used to. He has to be a warfighter as well, and the feeling I got is that before being adopted by the dwarves, Sharchise’s battles were against the type of wildlife that admittedly could kill him, but doesn’t have the intelligence and adaptability of a humanoid enemy.

The action in Dwarves of Elvenshore is continuous and well written. The book is a work of military fantasy. It makes sense that there would be a large number of battles. They work well. Graham seems to have an understanding of tactics and strategy without a desire to bog things down in too much extraneous detail. It works well. There’s no need to detail where each and every sentry stands when most of them don’t matter to the story and Graham gets that. He includes enough to make things entertaining and believable without adding too much and bogging things down.

I was deeply concerned going into Dwarves of Elvenshore because the name of the book had the word “Elven” in it. I picked this thing up mainly because I wanted to see if the dwarves in it acted like dwarves or if they were lilac scented, lily eating elves who lived in caves (maybe) or (more likely) on the surface. Did Grahams dwarves actually act like dwarves? I came away impressed.

Graham’s dwarves are dwarves who dwarf with dwarvenly dwarvishness. They build. They fight. They eat. They drink. They sing. They know their position in the hierarchy down to the nth degree. And then they have kids and know where their kids fit into things. I love dwarves. I play dwarves in Roleplaying Games. I write stories about dwarves. I collect mounts in World of Warcraft. I have over four hundred. But my first mount was a ram. Do you know why it was a ram? Because, in WoW, Dwarves ride rams and I was playing a dwarf. I know dwarves and so does Graham.

Okay, so I have to mention this because it made me crazy and, I mean, I know I’m the only one who would care but let’s face it: Writing is cheaper than therapy. So, like, there was this part of the story where people kept referring to stone as “rock”. The dwarves in my book always refer to “stone” as “stone” and actually use “having stone” as a euphemism for being strong. (IE The average dwarf has more stone in their spines and in their loins than any human) and it was making me crazy. It’s not the kind of thing anyone else would notice and Dwarves of Elvenshore is an awesome book even with the verbiage there but I was almost reduced to a quivering mass of tears by this experience. It was horriblefying and stuff.

The relationship between dwarves and humans in Dwarves of Elvenshore was well done. The two sides have had a long alliance, but it hasn’t been active in a long time. There hasn’t been a reason for it to be, until there was. The two sides both look out for their own interests, but they work well together. And they need to, because the main villain of the piece wasn’t going away on his won. It took both races to put together an army big enough to oppose him, especially given the other threats they had to face.

The enemy in Dwarves of Elvenshore is basically a power mad wannabe dictator. It’s not exactly an original premise, but it works to move the story along. There is no one that’s easier to get behind than a group of people fighting for their freedom against someone who wants to enslave them and uses troops that don’t know any better to do it. There isn’t much about the dude in the book directly, but I have a strong dislike of the guy. He fits a profile with some of history and fiction’s worst criminals and it was good to see Sarchise and friends fight against the guy. He’s easy to root against and that makes me enjoy the book all the more.

Dwarves of Elvenshore is the first book in a series and it feels like this is going to be a fun ride. There are eight more out already. I’m not sure if there are more coming after that or not. I’ve got eight more books to read before I have to worry about it. I’ll be checking them out though. I’m looking forward to doing so. The book ends on a good lead in for another story, but not a true cliffhanger. I need to know how that resolves itself. Unless I miss my guess, the next one will end in a similar manner.

I won’t be getting to the next one soon though. I have commitments. It’s almost Memorial Day, and my annual event takes precedence. It’s going to feel good when I do though.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Spider Webs

Dwarves of Elvenshore
Clark Graham
Self-published, 2014

Dwarves of Elvenshore is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Dwarves of Elvenshore