You can tell by the way the men have balls and the wenches have boobs that this isn't the 21st century. It's not earth either, nor is it a polite tale about fantasy folk, pretty elves and fancy fairies. What we do have is a medieval fantasy romp about four odd young people - a lively mage, a beautiful and adventurous athlete, an elven Knight (he's actually a very pretty elf) and a serious elf with a sword and an over-long name. They live in Mer'edrynn, a land of feasting, fighting and ... the other one. The Mother or the Lady Merrie, goddess of love, life and fertility rules generously, although occasionally savage tribes from Shirewood invade. Mostly it's peaceful. It's a land of goodly ale and maypoles to dance around for fertility festivals before the young dash off into the forest for a night of ... well, you know the sort of thing. Naturally there's a horrible baddy, of the typical death cult sort, who wants to take over, destroying all the old peoples, elves, dryads, dwarves, mages. This new religion demands women must be put in their place, and men i.e. human males, rule absolutely. The name of this not particularly nice example of humanity is Mordecai von Adamm: speaks for itself. Bit clichéd, but we always need a baddy. The first part of the novel/saga introduces our four heroes, and the hunt for the stone in the sword. (Yes, you read that the right way round). The second part involves us with the war, as the Adammites encroach more and more upon the land and our heroes need help from the indigenous peoples to fight. There is also an ongoing love story, but that's somewhat complicated. Warning: mature content.