Close Kin : Book II -- The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy (Hollow Kingdom Trilogy)

Rating:
Summary: Return of the "Kin"
Review: Clare B. Dunkle returns to the world of "The Hollow Kingdom" with "Close Kin," a romantic adventure that stretches the boundaries of her invented world. Though this book is a bit too rushed, Dunkle's mix of humor and suspense carry the story smoothly as we find out a bit more about the mysterious elves.

Seylin the elf-goblin has been Emily's friend ever since she came to live with the goblins, and he has now fallen in love with her. When she absentmindedly rejects him, the brokenhearted Seylin decides to go find other elves. He manages to track down a camp of them -- but he finds that they have little in common.

The band leader is a brutal thug, the elves live in poverty, and the women are treated as scum... and all elf women die horribly in childbirth. Meanwhile, determined to find Seylin, Emily sets out accompanied by a crabby loremaster. Both she and Seylin discover the tragic joint past of the elves and goblins, and the terrible secret that is driving the elves toward extinction.

"Close Kin" takes a darker tone than its predecessor. Sure, "Hollow Kingdom" wasn't light and fluffy, but "Close Kin" explores the terrible aftermath of wars and misunderstandings. One scene even has an elf woman mutilating her face so no one will marry her. Yep, it gets that heavy, although Dunkle lightens up somewhat after the "kidnapping" of the elf brides.

It does rush past the romance a bit more quickly than you'd expect, and the elf women adjust to the feared goblins in way too little time. However, most of the plot moves at a fast clip, giving us plenty of looks at the grimy elf camp and the bloody history between the two races. There's certainly enough backstory to provide plenty of prequels, if Ms. Dunkle chose to write them.

Seylin gets plenty of dimension and angst to go along with his interesting elf-cat-goblin shapeshifting. Emily doesn't get much personal growth, sadly. But Dunkle also populates "Close Kin" with plenty of other interesting characters, such as a ditzy elf, a crabby priest, a little girl with her head full of fairy-tales, and a goblin street urchin (who is, incidentally, the most entertaining character in the whole book).

The final chapter of "Close Kin" seems to hint at the third book of the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, and it sounds like the third venture into the kingdom of the goblins will be winner.

Rating:
Summary: Two quests
Review: First, a disclaimer, I have know Clare since I was a wee little child and have been enthralled by her imagination for (mumble) years.

On to the review:

I just finished reading her newest book a few nights ago and can hardly wait for the next installment. I love the premise that both Seylin and Emily go on a quest, even though Emily doesn't quite realize that she is on a quest when she first leaves to find Seylin. As with her last book, Clare keeps turning our usual conventions of the heroes/heroines being the beautiful people upside down and inside out, hammering home the idea that physical beauty has nothing to do with what is inside.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This was an excellent fantasy novel. Dunkle has a very fresh voice and presents a wonderful view of goblins. I recommended The Hollow Kingdom to my students when it came out and I will recommend this one as well. The only flaw was the foreshadowing of the third book. It didn't need to be in there for the story, and seemed very rushed. Dunkle should have waited for the third book to write the third book.