There was a fantasy novel concerning elves living underground. There were entrances to their world in cellars and basements. Does anyone remember the title?
Not to sound too snotty, but there are about 12,000 fantasy books about elves, and bunches of them have the elves living underground (or Underhill). Many have the entrances to The Land of Elves (or Tir Na Nog, or others) in cellars or basements.
Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (or any other Narnia book) by C. S. Lewis
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
I’ll bet these are all wrong, but it’s what I thought of off the top of my head.
If you give a little more info, just the least little bit, someone will tell you exactly the book you want. Probably in about 10 minutes.
Um…LW&W has neither elves nor a cellar entrance…
It has plenty of other legendary/mythical creatures (Dwarfs, Satyrs, Dryads, etc), but no elves, and the entrance to Narnia is in a Wardrobe (whodathunk? ^__~) in an empty bedroom, not a cellar…
The same goes for the other Narnia books (except possibly the Silver Chair…still no Elves, but I don’t remember where the entrance to the underground world was…) - no elves, and while the method of going there changes, it’s not cellars - a painting in the children’s bedroom, a door in a crumbling wall, a magic ring, simply being summoned… (Giving any others at this point would be a spoiler…)
There was a mild drug culture thing. The “waybread of the elves” grew some kind of mold. There was, of course a damsel in distress. The guy was staring at tea leaves trying to find info. The above ground setting was, I think, the USA, maybe California.
Sounds like something Mercedes Lackey would write.
The Elves in Lords and Ladies don’t live underground. They live in a parasite universe attached to the Discworld at magic circles. (Blocked off with lodestone circles, because if elves hate iron they must really hate magnets, and DW elves are nasty, brutish and short.)
–John
I vaguely remember that they hated iron; that is why edged weapons were used, to keep them away.
Darn, I want to read that book again!
the hating iron bit sounds like Tom Deitz’s books, but there is no physical entrance there…just timeplaces* where the fabric of the universes touch and magic occurs.
e.g. present day Georgia, 17th century Wales, and a couple others I can’t recall.
On the OP, does anyone know the books wherein some fairies had the magic stripped from their world and in particular, there is a passage detailing the fairies having to march in shoes and on feet that were never designed to bear their physical weight…also, wood was used with the permission of the trees and when they encountered “woodworking” they were horrified…hmmm maybe Stephen Donaldson?
Oh, and can someone give me a list of Terry Pratchett to start on? It sounds good but there are a ton of books- where to start?
I know my books were all over the place, and not following the OP, but the shotgun approach works sometimes.
I can’t help get you what you want,carnivorousplant, but here’s more reading.
Charles De Lint has alot of elf in his books. I can’t think of one that matches the OP, but if you want a good mystic read, he does good. And he throws in a good dose of native American lore, too.
Elves show up alot in Shadow Falls by Simon Green.
The Pratchett books start with The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic and goes pelting away from there. You don’t have to read (most of) them in order, but sometimes it helps. The official website might help.
This sounds almost like the Darksword books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Except they weren’t fairies, they were humans on a magic-rich world. Everything was done with “Life” (magic) and technology was seen as a dark art, giving “Life” to dead things.
Did it involve a servant class that couldn’t use magic but was necessary to supply it to the rest of the people? That would definitely be Darksword.
a) That’s not the official homepage. The official homepage isn’t finished yet. A good page for references on the Discworld is http://www.lspace.org.
b) Almost anywhere is a good place to start with Pratchett. Guards!Guards! is said to be the best start, but good luck finding it in the States.
Mort is another good beginning, and Harper Collins just rereleased in February.
Don’t start with the Color of Magic; according to Pratchett himself, from Sourcery on, the books were the same world written by a better author. But seriously, you can jump in anywhere. Lords and Ladies and Soul Music require, at the beginning, a short summary of the previous book, which Pratchett includes.
There are 4 main story lines about sets of characters, plus 4 stand alone books. Starting with stand alones is also probably not a good idea.
The main story lines are:
Witches: about a coven of three witches keeping the peace in a small rural kingdom, lead by amazing badass Granny Weatherwax.
Books are:
Equal Rites (sort of… just an underdeveloped Granny)
Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords and Ladies
Maskerade
Carpe Jugulum
Rincewind: the cowardly and inept wizard, often used by Pratchett to explore the Discworld. Rincewind is always running away from trouble, into more trouble, but the neat thing is, he can run away from that too.
Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Eric
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Watch: Sam Vimes and cops try to keep the peace in a city where the laws don’t exist, the Guilds rule the town, and the racial tensions feature dwarves, trolls, and the Undead.
Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Death: The adventures of Discworld’s Death, a quiet professional who rather likes people, and his family. These tend to make you think about the nature of Belief and Duty.
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
The Hogfather
The stand-alones are:
Small Gods: about how a god tries to save himself and his religion with the last man who believes in him.
Pyramids: Dams in the flow of time, designed to stop time in the center. And now poor Pteppic find himself ruling the kingdom when it all falls apart. A hard job for a teen.
The Truth: It’s the first newspaper ever in Ankh-Morpork, the oldest, greatest and smelliest city in the multiverse.
Moving Pictures: Movies make it to the Discworld, where they don’t belong. The stability of the Universe is threatened. A cast of thousands.
I recommend reading whichever ones you can find in America, frankly. We don’t get enough to be picky.
–John