he second novel was called GreatHeart. In the lands of Sielwode, the elves face a fierce confrontation not only with the encroaching humans, who are threatening their sacred groves, but also with the undead and the other monsters of the Shadow World. I remember enjoying this book but not as much as the previous one. It was another view of the elves of this realm. Totally different from the elves from Tolkien, Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms (Warhammer's elves would only arrive a couple of years afterwards... for me of course). One thing that the three novels have is a good writter. Writers that know of the world and know how it works. All the elements for a rousing good adventure tale are present - a young hero in the making bent on proving his merit as a warrior, and a twisted arch-villain intent on securing his place as ruler. The book follows the life of Cald Dewhef, a human orphaned when his family's caravan is assaulted by a raiding band of gnolls. Cald is taken in by a noble elf prince, despite the stern disapproval of virtually the entire elven nation, who are all incredibly xenophobic. The elves inhabiting this particular forest actually have a "shoot first" policy, as they have been ordered to kill anything entering their territory that isn't an elf. Racial prejudice seems to play a big part in this book, as nearly every race is immediately distrustful, or outright hateful, towards everyone else. The humans distrust the elves, the elves hate everyone, the gnolls just want to pillage and kill, etc. The story then continues beautifully and my only problem was the timeline. It jumped a lot from the beginning to the end and it was a bit confusing. A good book nevertheless. 8/10
