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The trilogy follows the stories of two Silvanesti elves, Kith-Kanan and Sithas. The two are brothers, with the older Sithas set to inherit his father's throne. Various woman-related troubles split the two apart, but impending war brings them together again, and in the end everyone learns a valuable lesson.
The first book, Firstborn, focuses chiefly on Kith-Kanan as he flees his native city to live in the forest. He finds love and friendship, death and war, and then comes back to his home city of Silvanost to help defend it against incursions from the neighboring human king.
Sadly, as interesting as such a plot might be, the writing is flat and dry. Certainly there are exciting parts – Kith-Kanan's desperate battle against the dark pirate to save his young forest friend Mackeli and his beloved Anaya is thrilling enough – but overall the writing is bland, and when the nearly-unlikable Sithas is the subject, the tedium could be cut with a dull knife.
Firstborn meanders, never dwelling in a single place long enough to get to know the characters, and kills off interesting people so that boring characters can take their places. It is difficult to find a sympathetic character anywhere in the book; Sithas is uptight and unimaginative, Kith-Kanan is childish and unwise, and the elf woman Hermathya is a disgusting schemer who, unfortunately, never falls on a sword.
The second book, The Kinslayer Wars, is much more interesting. Kith-Kanan is now leading an army of Wildrunners against the invaders, and diplomacy takes a back seat to action. Battle scenes appear regularly, which helps to spice up the novel, and Sithas is even a little interesting.
The major downside to The Kinslayer Wars is a trip the brothers take together, a side journey that takes up a disproportionate amount of the book and yet seems to be nearly forgotten once it is over. The journey is the kind of thing that binds two people together, but in the rest of Kinslayer Wars and into book three, it seems to have been as forgettable as a trip to the zoo.
The Qualinesti rounds out the trilogy, and the writing team from the first book returns to finish off the story. The wars may be over, but trouble in the Silvanesti forests and the surrounding lands is not dead. Memories of families divided and loyalties betrayed have frayed the kingdom, and to solve the problem, Kith-Kanan goes off to establish Qualinesti as a separate kingdom, one more welcoming to outsiders.
Qualinesti is easily the most forgettable book of the three. While the troubles are interesting enough, they leave no lasting impression. The only thing that does leave a mark is the surprise ending at the end of the book, which I will not give away. I will say that we still never get to see Hermathya take a poisoned dagger to the heart, and that disappointed me considerably.
Possibly the most irritating thing about the trilogy is the near-complete lack of editing. While it seems a spellchecker was employed to catch the most grievous errors, there is no shortage of misspelled names and punctuation gone wildly wrong. These errors are almost certainly the result of scanning the original books into character recognition software – the writers may be a little short of compelling, but they can figure out where to put a period.
For a reader expecting the fantasy equivalent of Steinbeck, The Elven Nations are a huge disappointment. If you want powerful, gripping fantasy, keep looking. One the other hand, a reader who goes into the trilogy looking for a light read with minimum personal investment will find the Elven Nations interesting and often exciting, if not particularly compelling.
Style: 3 – A writing style that is interesting enough carries an essentially run-of-the-mill fantasy story. An average fantasy read that won't tire you out.
Substance: 2 – Almost entirely forgettable, these books have all the depth of a trashy romance without all that exciting bodice ripping.
