Get rid of all the elves?

[maxonennis]

I forgot to mention that he cut the little mini skirt off of the Pink Ranger's outfit, and he still hasn't heard the end of it from Zoron. (They don't make power suits like they used to.)

[Dangerbutton]

I'm very impressed with the pink power ranger story. Well done.
However, something someone pointed out to me about the power rangers. When it first started, the Black Ranger was african american, the pink ranger a girl (well, she's always a girl), and the yellow ranger an asian. Suspicious. . .

[Necroben]

Jennifer Roberson:  Chronicles of the Cheysuli.  Off the top of my head.  I'll do some digging around in my library to see what else I can come up with.

Haven't read that one yet. Is it good and relatively clean (say at or above RJ level)?

From what I remember it's pretty clean.  It was an entertaining read and I enjoyed the story.  I can say though that if you like these, you'll love the sword dancer series she wrote.

[The Jade Knight]

when was the last time you read a fantasy that included elves or dwarves that wasn't copying Tolkien? I'd be quite interested in reading it, frankly.
The fact is that elves as we know them today were completely redefined by Tolkien. In his day, elves were the little creatures with pointy noses at Santa's Workshop, and practically indistinguishable from goblins and faeries. Dwarves have obviously changed less (their name does mean short after all) but they were practically the same except for their feuds with elves. I don't really believe anyone used them otherwise before the Lord of the Rings was published. Its not like anyone was writing serious fantasy before Tolkien, and perhaps Lewis, were published 

Read Elfquest!  Totally different elves, and I remember liking the series in High School.  Anyway, Tolkien's Elves were similar to Middle English Elves; he didn't "redefine" elves so much as "restore" them.  And plenty of people used Dwarves before the Lord of the Rings.  The problem is, Tolkienesque Fantasy didn't exist before Tolkien, and he essentially ushered in the modern genre: it will forever carry his genes, I think.

[The Jade Knight]

Every angle for vampires, elves, dwarfs, warewolves, orcs--powerrangers?--, has already been done. If none of these species were ever used in a book again it would still take you YEARS, probably more along the lines of decades unless that was all you did, to read all the books with just one of them.

Every single angle for humans has been done.  Every single plot has been done.  As another asked: why write?  Well, because there's more to a book than your particular take on a race.  There's more to a book than a basic plot outline.  My Name is Asher Lev is a book about a Jew, but does that mean it's going to be like any other book about a Jew?  I can tell you write now that I have never read another book similar to it...

[Miyabi]

I personally love reading a story where everything is new.  Sure it takes half the book to get used to, but it makes for a better story. (IMO of course)