Righteous Fury

The author of the "Dwarves" series (The Dwarves; War of the Dwarves) now turns his attention and point of view to the Älfar, a race of immortal, casually cruel warrior-artists who appeared as deadly foes in his previous books. Although their name, their immortality, and their finely honed skills suggest a connection to typical fantasy elves, they are actually more similar to the obscenely decadent Melniboneans of Michael Moorcock's "Elric" books or the pride-corrupted emperors who presided over the fall of Numenor in J.R.R. Tolkien's backstory to The Lord of the Rings. Heitz makes it clear from the first chapter that his protagonists are very problematic antiheroes: vain, racist slaveholders, whose lovingly detailed art and architecture, even more than their martial skills, reveal a nightmarish fascination with the infliction of pain, humiliation, and death. The author places the reader inside the minds of his characters "as they see themselves." Readers who are not repelled by the Älfar's nature will find an absorbing tale of battles, quests, Machiavellian scheming, and, perhaps, in the end, the foolishness of shortsighted arrogance.