Ratings1
Average rating3
A civil engineer gets pulled into an elf body in another world where elves are an oppressed race. While the subtitle says to expect kingdom building, it takes two thirds of the book to get to it.
Elf Empire combines whimsy, modern American quips, and high fantasy.
* Whimsy: Leo befriends a dragon who acts like a large dog and there are humanoid rabbit folk.
* Quips: He introduces “that's what she said” to this world, among other things.
* High fantasy: Dragons, golems, orcs, wargs, elves, etc. All the staples.
The game system of this world isn't the default/generic type some LitRPG sticks to and Leo struggles to figure it out. It's creative and gives the “alien world” feel... but I tuned most of it out after a couple minutes of listing ability options at the first level. Most of the time the author sticks to detailing only the relevant parts, thankfully.
While the world starts fairly light, we soon get into very heavy topics including racism, slavery, genocide, sexual assault, ableism, and gruesome violence.
Audiobook: Characters yell at each other a lot, which the narrator depicts by yelling farther away from the microphone. It doesn't hurt your ears but it draws attention from the book to the medium itself. Each major character has a distinct voice and Leo has two - a posh British elf speaking voice and an American inner voice.
There are a few errors that made it into the audiobook recording, where “Leo” and “Lily” get mixed up. Always in a “you know what they mean” context but it will annoy sticklers.