Malekith, written by Gav Thorpe, is the third installment of the always great Time of Legends series from the Black Library and is the first book in the Sundering trilogy. Malekith tells the tale of Prince Malekith of Nagarythe, elven prince of the isle of Ulthuan, and his rise and fall to the dark powers. A brief summary: Malekith was the son of Aenarion, the first Phoenix King of Ulthuan, and as such was expected to rise to take up the crown of the Phoenix King after his father's demise at the hands of daemons of Chaos. Aenarion and his wife Morathi, the Seer Queen ruled Ulthuan in a time of war, and as such they raised Malekith to be a warrior and a conqueror. Unfortunately, the assembled nobility of Ulthuan were loath to see another Naggarothi take up rule over the elves and as such they voted to elect Bel Shanaar, another elf prince, in Malekith's place as Phoenix King. This act heralded the beginning of Malekith's fall to darkness. Malekith departed Ulthuan and returned to Nagarythe and for nearly two hundred years he roamed the world expanding his own kingdom and forming alliances with other races, the dwarves first and foremost, whilst leaving his mother Morathi in charge of Nagarythe. Upon his return to his homeland, Malekith discovered that his mother had changed his kingdom into a dark place of blood and sacrifice to the dark gods, and was forced to battle his own people for control of his lands. However, Morathi's corrupting influence tainted Malekith's soul, and he hatched a plan to depose the Phoenix King and take his place as rightful ruler of Ulthuan. This was to end in tragedy for Malekith, however, and in his place, a new creature was born...a being of terrible might and unspeakable power...The Witch King of Ulthuan.
As with the previous books in the Time of Legends series, I was very impressed with Malekith. Gav Thorpe's writing style is superb, as is true with nearly all of the authors of the Black Library books. He really makes you feel as though you are living thousands of years in the past and actually interacting with the great characters in the series. Thorpe's portrayal of Malekith as a noble yet tortured individual who only longs to live up to his father's example and who believes himself to be the rightful rule of the elves is spot on, and I really did feel empathy towards Malekith. Though his mother was an evil and twisted sorceress, Malekith was at heart a truly noble, if arrogant, elf, and he truly only wanted to bring peace to the elven lands of Ulthuan, and it is because of these qualities that I found myself drawn into his story. Though Malekith is portrayed by the rest of the elves as cold and murderous, he is capable of great compassion and kindness, as he demonstrated when he befriended the High King of the dwarves Snorri Whitebeard. Malekith truly cared about Snorri, and his loss drove Malekith into the deepest depths of grief. Because of these events, and because of the warping influence of his mother and his own ambitions, Malekith's once proud and beautiful soul became blackened by a need for revenge and power, and these factors drove him to murdering Bel Shanaar and attempting to become the new Phoenix King. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of the Time of Legends series or for anyone looking for a great fantasy novel.
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