Review: Revenge of the Elf (Nysta #1)

Revenge of the Elf (Nysta #1)

by Lucas Thorn

Nysta is a new kind of elf.

When nine killers rode out of the homestead with blood fresh on their hands, they reckoned that would be the end of it.

The lost spellslinger was looking for a way out. He figured Nysta could lead him to the safety of a town called Spikewrist. And then there was the tragic creature born in the darkest  shadows of legend. He reckoned she would fight the greatest fight of all.

But none of them counted on the violence she would unleash. Because in the Deadlands there is no forgiveness. No mercy.

Winter in the Deadlands could be cold. But the revenge of an elf would be colder.

**

2 Stars

I really really wanted to like this book. But no matter how much I tried to force myself to like it, I just couldn't.

I give credit to the author for trying hard to change the way people look at Elves. Unfortunately it is a lost cause, to many books and movies have been created at this point to get away with it. I can't help but think of them as tall, willowy people that can be cold hearted but are also good for the most part. Here I got a scarred up elf that curse almost ever other word. I could have maybe handled that well, but cursing in modern phrases killed it for me, though I can say every now and again a homemade one was thrown in, but for the most part the f-bomb was dropped so much I have a feeling I might be saying it a lot in the future because I have read it so many times.

I couldn't even like Nysta, I wanted to. . .she had it hard in life, but her thoughts were all over the place that I started to get tried reading about her. At first I thought it was a pretty neat concept on how she named her weapons, but after a while I got really tried of reading them over and over again, it had a way of jarring me out of the story itself.

I really don't even understand the end of it at all, she started out wanting to get revenge (hence the title) but ended up mixed up in some kind of darkness that wanted her. It seemed kinda pointless to me, the author could have gotten away with her just going after the people she wanted, there was enough of them to kill off a few every book and keep it going. 

I did like the mage, he was interesting to me and amusing. He is the reason I read the book to the end. Can't say what it is that I liked so much about him, but its out there. I started to wish things would start to be told from his point of view after a while, I was way more interested in him than Nysta. What I don't understand is why Nysta let him tag a long with her, especially since she supposedly hates mages. I stopped caring about that after a while though. I imagine it will be something explained in the books after this one. 

I wish I also got a better understanding of the gods. To me they didn't really seem like gods after awhile, just siblings that didn't get a long and started to kill each other off. 

Would I recommend this book? Probably not, it just didn't work well for me.

As a side note. . .love the cover, it is the reason I got the book.