Guess the Title- Elves: Rise of the TaiGethen

This week you may have spotted a competition on the blog: Guess the title, win the book!

The rules are as more or less exactly as you’d expect; we give you a few clues and if you were one of the first people to correctly email us the title we’d send you a copy of the book . . . right up until we run out of books! We had five copies to give away this week, and your fiendish clues were:

# An extract from the book, with a few key deletions
# The book we’re looking for is (or was) published by Gollancz in trade format between the 22nd of August 2011 and the 22nd of August 2012.
# This (fantasy) author talks almost as much about sport as about the genre
# His debut novel was first published by Gollancz in 1999
# This new book has a four or five word title . . .

Of course, we could have supplied some slightly different clues! Did you know that this author:
# Was invited to open the Felixstowe Carnival in 2011
# Is a trained, Equity Card carrying actor
# Is a supporter of Ipswich Town FC
# Wrote the brilliant Raven novels, which are being reissued by Gollancz later this year with the most brilliant new covers. Watch this space for more details!

. . . and so the only question is: what was the book! We’re delighted to finally tell you it was . . .

Elves: Rise of the TaiGethen by James Barclay!

Interested in hearing a little more about the book? Well read on:

THE ELVES ARE ENSLAVED
Calaius is occupied by an implacable, relentless enemy. The great elven cities are little more than prison camps. Elven slaves are forced to destroy their beloved rainforest to harvest timber for their masters.

The enemy has no mercy, no honour and little skill in battle. The enemy is Man.
Those few elves who remain free are fragmented, in squabbling factions, and they must unite before they can take a stand against Man. Many believe that the battle is already lost, but Auum is not one of them. He knows Men’s numbers are great but their tactics are weak; he knows Men think the Elves are already beaten; he is convinced that his people must fight now, or see their race destroyed.

Takaar disagrees. He believes Elven salvation lies in unlocking their magic, not in fighting pitched battles against Man. He is determined to save his people too, but his tactics are entirely different . . . and if some Elves must die now to ensure Calaius will be free of Man in the future, it’s a sacrifice he is willing to make.
The Elves must choose their sides. Whatever they decide, victory will win their freedom . . . and failure will mean extermination . . .

James Barclay is in his forties and lives in Teddington with his wife and sons. He is a full-time writer, and you can learn more about him and his novels on his website www.jamesbarclay.com, or follow @barculator on Twitter!