Elfquest: Journey to Sorrow's End

Elfquest Novelisations

by Wendy Pini

The Holt was a forest haven for persecuted elves, until it was invaded and destroyed. Now a small but gallant band of Wolfriders must search the world for a place not contaminated by humans--a place where legends say other elves live in peace and safety. If it's not already too late...

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Science Fiction Fantasy, Elves, Fiction, Graphic Novels

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Wendy Pini is one-half of a husband and wife team with Richard Pini that created, most notably, the Elfquest series.

Wendy was born in California and adopted into the Fletcher Family in Santa Clara County. Early on, she developed as an artist and was the illustrator of her high school year book. She submitted samples of her artwork to Marvel Comics at 17 that were rejected.

Pini attended Pitzer College and received her B.A. in the Arts and joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.

In 1972, she married Richard Pini and began illustrating science fiction magazines, including Galaxy, Galileo, and Worlds of If. In 1977, Richard and Wendy established a publishing company called Warp Graphics to publish their first Elfquest comic. Elfquest was self-published for 25 years and in 2003, licensed to DC Comics. The comic series has won several awards, including the Ed Aprill Award for Best Independent Comic, two Alley Awards, the Fantasy Festival Comic Book Awards for Best Alternative Comic, and the Golden Pen Award.

Wendy has illustrated other works, including Jonny Quest in 1986, Law and Chaos in 1987, and in 1989, two graphic novels of Beauty and the Beast. Recently in 2007, she completed a graphic novel entitled The Masque of Red Death.

Wendy has received several awards over the last four decades, including the San Diego Comic Convention Inkpot Award, the New York State Jaycees Distinguished Service Award, the Balrog Award for Best Artist, and was inducted into the Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002.

Wendy and her husband currently reside in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Reviews

[Carol A · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter of this book gets a little bogged down in backstory for me, but when I read it to a couple of my early elementary school-age campers at Girl Scout Camp when I was a CIT, they wanted me to read the first chapter and were riveted the whole time.

The rest of the story is beautifully structured. The world is created thoroughly, as are the characters. Even the supporting characters refuse to be ignored.

Of special note: When we reached the end of the week for the two girls to attend Girl Scout Camp, they were really bummed because we hadn't reached the end of the book yet. I was only able to pacify them by writing the title and author on two pieces of paper for them and telling them that they could get it from Waldenbooks or Barnes & Noble.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - If you think reading a novelization of a movie is weird, try reading the novelization of a comic book. It's more than a little surreal. But when it's done by the original creators of the comic, it's kina amazing. Lots of extra detail, lots of fleshing out and following their intents. It got a bit heavy in places and florid but one can argue that ElfQuest is always rather high fantasy so it is not unexpected. Despite any fluff, it reads fast and fun and the characters manage to have their own personalities despite being quite a huge cast.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first introduction into the entire Elfquest storyline. I thought it was a well thought out world with a lot of intricacies that kept it entertaining. The story of the elves from the forest journeying through the desert after their home was destroyed by the humans was a good tale of perseverance and triumph. Also the coming together of two cultures is a good lesson that could be applied to us all these days.

[David Leemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, for what reads like a game world book. I like the characters, whom I had before only known from a set of D&D miniatures made of these. I still have the miniatures, and a couple have even been painted.

[Jeff Granger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the comics before I even knew about this novel, so I already knew the story, but what a great book! That's it, that's my review. If you love Elfquest, read this. If you have no idea what Elfquest is, but enjoy great writing, read this.

[Lars Hellberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good novelisation of the classic comic book. Enough is added to keep comic readers interested, and the rest is given more depth. The language feels a bit haughty at times, but all in all it was a very pleasant read. Or in this case, re-read, since I read this one way, way back when.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read this in almost 30 years. Blew through it in just a couple hours. Still loved it. I need to hunt down all the graphic novels again, they were my favorite growing up.

[Lorien · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I learned that this book existed I knew I wanted to have it. When I learned of a nicely priced hardcover that's signed? HAD TO GET. Now it's mine, all mine!



*AHEM*

As someone who's read the first volume of ElfQuest a million times, and knows it so well that I didn't read the words as much as saw the comic in my head, this was surprising good. There are LOTS of little scenes that are in between panels and pages, things that won't work for a graphic novel or comic, but are needed for a novel to work. These scenes were full of hidden gems, flashbacks to things revealed much later, as well as things that just aren't there, but don't take away from the original material. After all, this is written by Richard and Wendy Pini, who did the original series. This isn't some random person taking the story and adding whatever they feel like. This is WARP doing every little detail of the story. Some changes are made, and one of my favorite scenes right at the end was cut, probably due to space limit and flowing issues. But on the whole it's the same story, just more of it.

This has a very large prologue, covering more of what happened on the first few pages of the comic about the High One's first landing on World of Two Moons (aka labeled Abode later), and then follows Cutter and his tribe from the moment they rescue Redlance, to them losing everything to fire and humans, to their insane journey to Sorrow's End, and what Cutter found there.

I think the best thing this novel did for me was it showed just how close to death the Wolfriders really were when they found Sorrow's End. They weren't just hungry, thirsty, and sunburned. They were dying. You feel the pain, how much they each went through, and how terrified they all were. You can understand the sore throats, and bodies so pushed past their limits that getting up each night to keep trekking on, because if they didn't get up, they weren't going to live. They did the exact wrong thing to do with limited water - rationing it until everyone is dehydrated for a much longer period of time. You should gorge yourself on water, then deal with dehydration when it comes because they felt it the first half day in the blocked exit of the Tunnel of Light, and weren't okay until the feast their first night in Sorrow's End.

While the journey is just a blip in the graphic novel, this is the heart of the story, taking up so much, and pretty much it's the catalyst of everything that comes after. They lose two wolves, and everyone is close to death. They all don't eat and barely drink the entire 3 day journey. Small sentences in the GN can't cover just what they endure during these days, and how terrified and exhausted everyone is. And even until the end the Wolfriders don't really recover from the sunburns, which while not stated, were on the level of white blisters (trust me those hurt for weeks).

While the romance between Cutter and Leetah is over half of the GN it's the second half and proves just how bad it really is for both of them. We feel how dangerous denying Recognition is, which drives both characters past their limits, even more so than the trek did for Cutter.

One thing I really dislike is more than once they say how Recognition is a reason for Cutter to basically rape Leetah. It's mentioned in passing the GN which always upset me, but the novel states it several times. I don't think it should have been mentioned as an option at all, like if the other hesitates it's okay to force them. I'm just glad that for Cutter and Leetah it wasn't okay, and it isn't even close to happening.

For that reason, while it's a great story, well told, and covers more than the comic could, this is just as 4.5 out of 5 stars. That's a big deal and it's not treated like it would be.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I have read the comics I have failed to get my hands on the novels. So, when the opportunity arose, for a mere $3, I grabbed one of the novels up. When I went and looked at Goodreads there was an unfortunate lack of reviews with which to judge the book. So, I decided to read it and write my own review.

Hopes before reading: expansion of what I already know about the universe, internal dialogue of characters, further character development, and maybe I’ll see something I missed before.

Review:

As a fan I struggled to pull any images out of my mind other than the ones I had already seen in the comics. Whether that is a flaw in the writing or just that I have become so sure of what everything should look like is up in the air. However, I did not feel that the descriptions matched with the images that I had seen in the comics, but perhaps that is just me.....

I feel some of the characters are less compelling in the novel than in the comic: Moonshade for example lost some of her appeal in the novel. She seems less strong. Meanwhile, other characters are MORE compelling. Rainsong is a character that in the comics I paid little mind to. But she gets an opportunity to shine more in the novel.

A small nitpick about the artwork. It did not always line up with what is going on in the story. For example, the image of the healing comes 5 pages before the actual healing.

There were a few gems of information that you would not glean from the comics alone which made this book, for me, worth the read. I did enjoy that I got to see the world from several different perspectives. I feel the characters who didn’t get a lot of attention in the comics were given more attention in the novel. Although some fan favorites did not get as much time centerstage.

Overall, I think if you are not a fan of the comics this book will not appeal. The writing isn’t super strong, but it isn’t awful. The description of the elves are weak in my opinion, but if you read the comics that isn’t that important because you already know what they look like. There are a smattering of illustrations done by Wendy throughout the book which may help new comers to the series. But it's clear the main audience is going to be their fans.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a comic book fan, I've always appreciated and approved of the Pini's success of independent comics. And, OMG, it was so nice to have some girls in our fandom. I haven't liked the stories too much, tho, and I met Richard Pini once or twice when I was touring conventions (I was writing comic books at the time), and I didn't like him much (didn't dislike him much either, but I did begin to understand why there were a few negative rumors about him at the time).

These written chapters, told at a time when the Wolfrider mythos was as rich and as developed as a Sunday Sauce simmering for hours, far exceeded my expectations.

I would happily return to this well for more.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the novelization of a series of comics that started in the 80's which covers the journey of the Wolfriders from their Holt in the woods to the desert village of the Sun Folk.

The writing is very well done, well paced and full of additional details so that fans of the comics can gain something new from reading but also highly accessible so that it stands alone and readers who have never seen the original source won't feel left out or that they are missing something.

One of the best novelizations for another medium that I have ever read

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ordered this book by mistake thinking I’d found one of the comics. At first I was disappointed that the novel came instead, but I enjoyed reading this because it gave me clearer insights than I got from the comic book alone.

[Lucy Skeldon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel version is good well-conceived fantasy, and gives a little more textual information, but the graphic novel is the Real Thing.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly thought the book was rather slow in the beginning, however I greatly enjoyed the scenes between Cutter and Leetha.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the comic and loved this book.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a kid. Good story and lovely pictures.

[Tracy]

One of the worst fantasy books I've ever read, and that includes the execrable Urshurak by the Brothers Hildebrandt. Just because you're a comic writer doesn't mean you can craft a novel.

[Zechy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun