Review - Troublesome Neighbors, by M. K. Theodoratus

The world created by Theodoratus is a pleasant one; earthy enough to be believable, with realistic characters. I enjoyed the story. The writing is smooth, although there were a few places where I felt more rigorous editing would have been beneficial. There is obviously a rich backstory to it, but this was well handled and at no time was the reader left wondering who someone was.

I did like the pigs. They gave a lovely down-to-earth flavour to the story, and beautifully offset the air of effete prissiness that, absent efforts to the contrary, always seems to attach to elves, ever since that unfortunate casting of Legolas in the Lord of the Rings films.

The ending was a little abrupt; a bit more space devoted to the final events would have given a more satisfying conclusion in my opinion.