Plot introduction
The principal protagonist in Strands of Sunlight is Natil the elf, though its multiple narratives follow several important secondary characters. The story takes place in 1990's Denver, USA. It concerns several humans who have had ancient Elven blood in their veins awaken and begin making them Elves.
There are seventeen Elves in Denver when the story starts, though only 15 are named: Natil, Hadden, Wheat, Marsh, Kelly, Bright, Lauri, Raven, Heather, Ash, Web, Fox, Dell, Alessandro, and Tristan. Two humans also figure heavily in the story line: Sandy Joy, an abuse survivor from Los Angeles, and T.K., a black military veteran missing a leg.
The story follows three major arcs: Natil trying to guide the new Elves in what it means to be an Elf; Sandy Joy's search for safety and acceptance; and T.K.'s search for hope and a sense of belonging.
Plot summary
Natil is a gardener at Kingsley College, a private university in Denver. She has found a small group of people who have started transforming into Elves and need guidance, though she has not revealed many details of the early portions of her existence, nor has she revealed the divine vision she once had but now cannot even describe to them.
In one narrative thread, Sandy Joy comes to Denver at the invitation of a man named Terry Angel. Exploiting the weak emotional condition of the Dean of Kingsley College, Maxwell Delmari, he has been given free rein to set up a sham program, named Hands of Grace, that purportedly uses music to heal people. Referring to obscure or bogus publications and fake references, Terry has hidden the fact that there is no program and no factual basis for his work.
Thoroughly insane and plagued by fleeting partial visions of a hidden higher power, Terry tortures himself with self-mutilation in an effort to finally see this higher power. When Sandy states that she has had a vision of a higher power, he comes to envy and loathe her. After she realizes the falsity of his convictions and tries to distance herself from him, he attacks her, slashing her hands with a knife. Fighting for her life, she sprays him in the face with oven cleaner, blinding him.
In another narrative thread, T.K. has just recently returned from Desert Storm missing a leg. A Vietnam War veteran and a black man, he has been marginalized his entire life and is now working at the same security firm that once employed George Morrison, who is now the elf Hadden. Living in Denver's projects, he sees a crack house operating every day just down the street from him, and he is powerless to do anything about it. Finding employment at Treestar Surveying, he finds his barriers eroding as he comes to realize that he is becoming an Elf too and is no longer subject to the same hopeless future he once had.
After Heather, one of the Elves, is shot by drug dealers for TK's efforts at evicting the crack house from his neighborhood, he steals military ordnance and demolishes the crack house with two pounds of C4 after a desperate gun battle that destroys his artificial leg. Concluding his transformation into an Elf while he sleeps a few nights later, he wakes up the following day whole, his leg intact, having finally discharged his last tie to his old life. When the police come to question him about the pieces of his artificial leg, which he left at the ruins of the crack house when Sandy drove him to safety, the presence of both of his legs deflects their attention away from him.
As both narrative threads come together, Sandy is held by the police for assault after Terry lies and says that Sandy attacked him first. Out on bail, Sandy's overwhelming grief at her predicament serves as the final catalyst for helping all of the Elves finally learn how to draw strength from the patterns and use all of the powers at their disposal. Natil, seeing no choice, strikes a deal with Terry and uses her regained powers to heal Terry's eyes so that he will tell the truth of what happened to Sandy. Consumed with shame and grief at the banality of bargaining her healing powers for the truth from Terry and knowing that he will soon commit suicide because of what she has done for him, Natil finally gives up her immortal existence of four and a half billion years and fades from the earth. The others search for her and finally find her grieving in the land of sunlight with the Lady.
Finwë and Míriel are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Finwë is the first King of the Noldor Elves; he leads his people on the journey from Middle-earth to Valinor in the blessed realm of Aman. His first wife is Míriel, who, uniquely among immortal Elves, dies while giving birth to their only child Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils; her spirit later serves the godlike Vala queen Vairë. Finwë is the first person to be murdered in Valinor: he is killed by the Dark Lord Morgoth, who is intent on stealing the Silmarils. The event sets off the Flight of the Noldor from Valinor back to Beleriand in Middle-earth, and its disastrous consequences.
Lúthien and Beren are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth. Lúthien is an elf, daughter of the elf-king Thingol and goddess-like Melian. Beren is a mortal man. The complex tale of their love for each other and the quest they are forced to embark upon is a story of triumph against overwhelming odds but ending in tragedy. It appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, the Grey Annals section of The War of the Jewels, and in the texts collected in the 2017 book Beren and Lúthien. Their story is told to Frodo by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.
A half-elf is a mythological or fictional being, the offspring of an immortal elf and a mortal man. They are often depicted as very beautiful and endowed with magical powers; they may be presented as torn between the two worlds that they inhabit. Half-elves became known in modern times mainly through J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings but have origins in Norse mythology. A half-elf appeared in Lord Dunsany's 1924 book The King of Elfland's Daughter.
Those Who Hunt Elves is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yu Yagami. The plot revolves around three travelers, the eponymous "Elf Hunters", and the elven sorceress Mistress Celcia. The anime was released in North America on VHS and DVD by ADV Films and later re-released by Sentai Filmworks.
Tanis Half-Elven is a fictional half-elven character in the Dragonlance series of books, which were published by TSR, and are now published by Wizards of the Coast. He is first introduced in the book Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, in Chapter 1: "Old Friends Meet. A Rude Interruption." They introduce him saying that he was half-elven, armed with a longbow and a sword and wearing leather armor.
Strands of Starlight is a novel written by Gael Baudino and published in 1989. It is the first in the Strands of Starlight tetralogy. The other novels are Maze of Moonlight, Shroud of Shadow, and Strands of Sunlight.
Maze of Moonlight is a novel written by Gael Baudino in 1993. t is the second in the Strands of Starlight tetralogy. The other novels are Strands of Starlight, Shroud of Shadow, and Strands of Sunlight.
Shroud of Shadow is a novel written by Gael Baudino in 1994. It is the third in the Strands of Starlight tetralogy. The other novels are Strands of Starlight, Maze of Moonlight, and Strands of Sunlight.
The Talismans of Shannara is a fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks, the fourth in his tetralogy The Heritage of Shannara.
The Elves of Cintra is a fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks, the second in his epic fantasy trilogy The Genesis of Shannara. The series bridges the events of Brooks' Word & Void series with his acclaimed novel The Sword of Shannara and the subsequent trilogy. It immediately follows the novel Armageddon's Children. It details events during the Great Wars, a historical conflict referenced frequently in the Shannara books. The conclusion to the trilogy and the sequel to The Elves of Cintra is The Gypsy Morph, which was released in August 2008.
"Tidings of Comfort and Joy" is a fantasy short story by Gael Baudino. It concerns Julianna, a Wiccan living in Denver, and her otherworldly encounter with her friend Paul, who is a priest, and her undead ex-husband Bob.
A Folk Tale is a ballet in three acts, created in 1854 for the Royal Danish Ballet by the Danish ballet master and choreographer August Bournonville to the music of Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann and Niels W. Gade. The first performance took place on 20 March 1854. Set in the Middle Ages, the ballet tells the story of a changeling living among the trolls and elves. Bournonville declared the ballet "The most complete and best of all my choreographic works."
In J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, Elves are the first fictional race to appear in Middle-earth. Unlike Men and Dwarves, Elves are immortal, though they can be killed in battle. If so, their souls go to the Halls of Mandos in Aman. After a long life in Middle-earth, Elves yearn for the Earthly Paradise of Valinor, and can sail there from the Grey Havens. They feature in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Their history is described in detail in The Silmarillion.
Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom is a British preschool animated television series. The show was created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker, and produced by Astley Baker Davies and by Entertainment One. Many of the voice actors who worked on Peppa Pig have lent their voices to the show; these include John Sparkes, Sarah Ann Kennedy, David Rintoul and Jeff Bennett. The music is produced by Julian Nott, who is noted for his Wallace and Gromit, Bing and Peppa Pig scores. Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom is the third show to be produced by Astley Baker Davies.
Amulet is a graphic novel series illustrated and written by Kazu Kibuishi and published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic. It follows the adventures of Emily, a young girl who discovers a sentient and autonomous magical circular amulet in her great-grandfather's house, and consequently is tasked with protecting an entirely new world from a ruler known as The Elf King.
The Shepherd's Crown is a comic fantasy novel, the last book written by Terry Pratchett before his death in March 2015. It is the 41st novel in the Discworld series, and the fifth based on the character Tiffany Aching. It was published in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2015 by Penguin Random House publishers, and in the United States on 1 September 2015.
Lego Elves was a Lego product line produced by The Lego Group that was launched in 2015. The product line was based on the storyline of accompanying animated series on Disney Channel, the Lego YouTube channel, and Netflix which follow the adventures of a character named Emily Jones who travels to a magical land called Elvendale. The theme aimed to introduce a fantasy element to girl-focused Lego products. It was discontinued in 2018.
Bright: Samurai Soul is a 2021 Japanese-American adult animated action film and a spin-off of Bright directed by Kyōhei Ishiguro from a script by Michiko Yokote and starring the voices of Yūki Nomura, Daisuke Hirakawa, Shion Wakayama, Miyavi, Maaya Sakamoto, Kenjiro Tsuda, Chafurin, Mamoru Miyano, and Kenichi Suzumura while the English dub consists of Simu Liu, Fred Mancuso, Yuzu Harada, Matt Yang King, Victoria Grace, Keone Young, and Paul Nakauchi. The film was released by Netflix on October 12, 2021.
