Man is a cancer that crawled from our womb.
We are watching. We are aware. We are the sea.
The earth does not belong to Man.
We are merely tolerated.
For now.
BY MORGAN LLYWELYN FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES
Bard
Brian Boru
Etruscans (with Michael Scott)
Finn Mac Cool
Lion of Ireland
Pride of Lions
Strongbow
1916
1921
1949
The Elementals—a unique environmental fantasy from the legends of our ancestors and the fears of our children.
“A roaring good read … no mere modern retelling of ancient saga. This time, indeed, a truly remarkable author has ambushed us. Profoundly.”
—Turlogh O Faolain
“Reading The Elementals is an intensely rewarding, startling experience … startling because at first it ‘just’ seems to be an engrossing, yet essentially familiar fantasy adventure, but soon the reader is hurled into a mighty odyssey crafted as skillfully as a Chopin etude and culminating in a powerful ecologic warning.”
—Marvin Kaye
“Never does Llywelyn neglect her storytelling in order to make her point. Each novella is compelling, and as they came to an end I found myself wishing that she had lingered and told more; and yet the headlong rush through time and across the generations is part of the effect she was trying for, and it works. This is fantasy at its best. The societies and characters are real; the magic does not take over the story, but rather underlies it like a living foundation that every now and then shrugs, shaking all that is built upon it. This is the first of Llywelyn’s fiction that I have read; I was astonished and faintly embarrassed that somebody this good could have escaped my attention for so long…. Reading The Elementals was, for me, a wonderful introduction to Llywelyn’s work. Go thou and do likewise.”
—The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
“As in much environmental fantasy, there are overtones of Gaian mysticism in the book … [but] Llywelyn draws less on current political issues than on her demonstrably superior talents as a historical novelist. When there is a past or exotic world to be conjured up, she does it with great skill.”
—Booklist
“Compelling reading about the powers of the earth with a contemporary environmental message.”
—VOYA
When the ice cap melted, the seas rose.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE ELEMENTALS
Copyright © 1993 by Morgan Llywelyn
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Book design by Maura Fadden Rosenthal
eISBN 9781429983525
First eBook Edition : February 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Llywelyn, Morgan.
The elementals / Morgan Llywelyn.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-85568-0 (he)
ISBN 0-765-30697-2 (pbk)
I. Title.
PS3562.L94E4 1993 93-12760
813’.54—dc20 CIP
First Hardcover Edition: June 1993
First Trade Paperback Edition: June 2003
The Elementals Page 31