Mercedes Lackey
By the Sword and her Last Herald Mage Series are some of my favorite high fantasy/adventure books to read and re-read. However, I have been disappointed in some of her more recent books. Her character development, especially in her earlier books, is excellent, but her later books seem to continue the same theme.
Her urban fantasy is quite good, and I really liked the Diana Tregarde series, however, it's a very short series.
Oathbound, Oathbreakers, and Oathblood
Reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series put me in the mood to read about Tamra and Kethry. The characters remain the same, but the three books are quite different. The first book, The Oathbound stems from Mercedes Lackey's short story sale to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress III, and contains reworked versions of short stories about Tamra and Kethry, and other short tales, reworked into a novel. Oathbreakers is a single tale, and Oathblood is a collection of short stories ranging from the first story published in S&SIII to tales taking place years after the end of Oathbreakers.
Having recently read some of the Tamra and Kethry stories in S&S, I skipped them the books, even though they were slightly different, they were not enough so that I wanted to immediately re-read the story. Given my druthers, I think I prefer the short stories to the novels. Not quite sure why, although I do have a fondness for short stories (which would explain my love for S&S as well as 'Thieves' World')
I really like Tamra and Kethry, though I have to say that I prefer Tamra the fighter to Kethry the mage. Call it personal preference if you like, or perhaps the fact that I find a sword fight is more interesting to read than a mage duel. It could also be due to the fact that Tamra has no romantic interests at all, so you don't have to worry about her getting all mushy and turning a proper adventure into a romance.
What I think is interesting about these stories is the way that she gets around the problem that some fantasy books (and many movies and TV shows) have, of the hero taking grievous wounds and walking away undaunted. yeah, you don't want to spend chapters with your hero convalescing, but it is also unrealistic and ridiculous to have the hero always escaping her adventures unscathed. The sword Need and her healing abilities are a nice way around this, although she does write in the grit and the pain and the injuries.
All in all it was a pleasant couple hours of escape.
Winter Moon (2005) Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and C.E. Murphy
Winter Moon contains three novellas all centered around the moon: Moontide by Mercedes Lackey, The Heart of the Moon by Tanith Lee, and Banshee Cries by C.E. Murphy. Moontide and Heart of the Moon are traditional fantasies, while Banshee Cries is an urban fantasy set in the modern world where magic--or power--is just out of the sight of most people.
Mercedes Lackey's Moontide tells the story of Moira, whose father sent her away to Countess Venerable to be finished because he had no interest in dealing with her himself. But now she has been recalled to her fathers keep, and so she must determine why she has been called back, and whether her father is involved in treachery.
It's been several years since I've read a Mercedes Lackey book, and somehow I had managed to forget how much I enjoy her writing. What I particularly liked about this story was the way that the keep became a character in the story. The stone building is as integral to the story as Moira. But most important is Moira. Although she has some power, as a female she is very much at the mercy of her father, and must use cunning and wit to circumvent him. Like other books in the Luna line, this is a romance, except that the fantasy is primary and the romance is secondary. And it isn't a kissing story.
In Tanith Lee's The Heart of the Moon, Clirando has been betrayed by her lover and the woman she considers her sister. Her reaction to the events--and the result of those events--cause her to be sent to the Moon Isle for the Seven Nights.
I initially didn't care much for this story. I hate the main characters name--I kept reading Cilantro--and I just didn't care much about her. But eventually the story drew me, and although I never developed much of a liking for Clirando, I did like the characters she met, and her adventures were intriguing. And although this was supposed to be a romance, the romance portion of the story was a problem for me. I just didn't buy that this bitter woman could so easily fall in love. But the fantasy part of the story was interesting enough that I could ignore the mushy bits.
Although C.E. Murphy's Banshee Cries continues the story of Jo Walker, I was easily able to slip into the tale and into the world, despite having not read the previous tale. I liked Jo Walker, although I initially found her resistance to her powers confusing (it became more clear as the story progressed, and I would think that having read the first book would have made it more clear.) And this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.
The only thing I find it important to mention is that these three stories are quite different. They are a good overview of the scope of the Luna line, but the thing holding this collection of novellas together is the theme of the winter moon. Not a similarity in theme or style.
If you have not read a Luna book before, I would highly recommend Winter Moon. This stories in this book are a good overview of the variety in the Luna line, and although not everyone will enjoy all three stories, there is such a variety in these stories that most readers should find something here to enjoy.
Rating: 7/10
The Serpent's Shadow (2001)
Myra Witherspoon is half-Indian and half-English, and has followed in her father's footsteps to become a doctor. Unfortunately for her, both her race and her gender work against her, in a society where women are still little more than possessions, and India remains a British colony. It is her determination and her magic that allow her to survive--even thrive--in a place so unlike where she grew up. The place she had to escape if she wanted to survivie.
There was so much about this book that I did like, I found it frustrating that overall the book left me with a sense of mild disappointment. I loved the integration of different mythologies and folklore: the mythology of India, the folklore of western Europe. Little bits and pieces were pulled into the story, yet managed to remain a coherent whole, just as Myra, with all her disparate parts, remains a coherent whole.
So, I liked the different bits that were added to the story. I liked the heroine, Myra. I liked the hero, Peter. The dialog was fine, as was, for the most part, the pacing of the story.
However, I hated the villain. Despite the multiple explanations, I never really saw why she did they things she did. She seemed to be acting evil solely for the sake of acting evil. Her motivations for her behaviors were unconvincing, and so I found her entire portion of the story both unbelievable and frustrating.
The same goes for the male "villain" who wasn't so much a villain as an annoyance. He was flat and uninteresting; a spoiled brat who did things because he could, and got away with them because he was rich. He was boring.
So despite the many things I did like about this book, in the end, I didn't particularly enjoy it, because the bad guys annoyed the crap out of me. There were no surprises--everything worked out precisely as I expected it to. All in all, the story just didn't hold my attention or interest.
Rating: 5/10
Books by Mercedes Lackey:
The Last Herald Mage: Magic's Pawn (1989), Magic's Promise (1990), Magic's Price (1990)
Vows and Honor: The Oathbound (1988), Oathbreakers (1989), Oathblood (1998), By the Sword (1991)
The Heralds of Valdemar: Arrow's Flight (1987), Arrow's Fall (1988), Arrows of the Queen (1987)
Mage Winds: Winds of Fate (1991), Winds of Fury (1993), Winds of Change (1993)
Mage Storms: Storm Warning (1994), Storm Rising (1995), Storm Breaking (1996)
Mage Wars: The Black Gryphon (1994), The White Gryphon (1995), The Silver Gryphon (1996)
Diana Tregarde: Burning Water (1989), Children of the Night (1990), Jinx High (1991)
Bardic Voices, Halfblood Chronicles (with Andre Norton)
The Serpent's Shadow (2001)
