{"id":2385,"date":"2011-05-31T20:20:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T01:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=2385"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:50:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:50:37","slug":"lark-and-wren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2385","title":{"rendered":"Lark and Wren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lark and Wren<\/a><\/em> (1992) Mercedes Lackey<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I read a LOT of Mercedes Lackey when I was in my 20s. Then, several years ago (and several years after I’d fallen off reading Mercedes Lackey) I all but stopped reading epic\/high fantasy. Was there a single reason? Not really. The fact that high fantasy books tended to be in never-ending series full of cliffhangers was part of the reason, but I think something in my tastes changed as well. I just haven’t been able to get into it.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the reasons, when I came across the Baen Free Library<\/a> and saw Lark and Wren<\/em>, which I had read probably when it came out, I decided to get it another try. I remembered the basics of it, but it had been a long time, so I decided to try it again.<\/p>\n

Rune is a bastard child who works in the inn where her mother–claiming to be a widow (a claim no one believed)–found a job soon after Rune was born. The inkeeper’s wife liked Rune, and gave the young girl a fiddle after seeing her many attempts to play the instruments of the wandering minstrels who came to their inn. Unfortunately for Rune, the innkeepers wife dies, and Rune’s mother decides she would like to be the new wife of the innkeeper, so things start to get unpleasant for Rune–whose only dream was to become a musician and eventually a bard.<\/p>\n

Things happen, and Rune strikes out in her own to become a bard.<\/p>\n

I’d forgotten that this book basically reads like two separate stories: the first half, and the second half. The first half where Rune learns to become a musician, the second half where she has become an accomplished musician, finds true lurve, and another completely different adventure happens.<\/p>\n

It’s not that the two halves of the book are bad mind you, it’s just that the story takes a definite change in feel once Rune comes into her own musically. The first part is a coming of age story, the second part is a magical adventure story.<\/p>\n

I definitely prefer the first half of the story. Not that the second half is bad per se, it’s just a romance adventure which is OK.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I can hardly complain about having downloaded and read the story for free, can I?
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lark and Wren (1992) Mercedes Lackey I read a LOT of Mercedes Lackey when I was in my 20s. Then, several years ago (and several years after I’d fallen off reading Mercedes Lackey) I all but stopped reading epic\/high fantasy. Was there a single reason? Not really. The fact that high fantasy books tended to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,48,291,26],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-female","category-paper","category-romance","tag-mercedes-lackey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-Ct","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2398,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2398","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":0},"title":"Nightside","author":"Michelle","date":"June 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Nightside (1989) Mercedes Lackey Diana Tregarde and Andre are investigating a terrible something that is eating the souls of it's victims. Another disappointment. Rating: 5\/10","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2396,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2396","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":1},"title":"Satanic, Versus","author":"Michelle","date":"June 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Satanic, Versus (1990) Mercedes Lackey As with the previous Diana Tregarde short story I got, it was ultimately disappointing. Diana and Andre go to a romance convention masquerade and trouble happens. I think that the root of the story would have been interesting if it hadn't been wrapped in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2381","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":2},"title":"Killer Byte: A Diana Tregarde Short Story","author":"Michelle","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Killer Byte: A Diana Tregarde Short Story (1994) Mercedes Lackey A really long time ago--a lifetime ago it sometimes feels like--I read the Diana Tregarde books. And was quite disappointed when Mercedes Lackey stopped writing them. But as I didn't have ready access to MZB's Fantasy Magazine, I missed all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/killer-byte.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/301","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":3},"title":"Winter Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Winter-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":341,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/341","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":4},"title":"The Serpent’s Shadow","author":"Michelle","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Serpent's Shadow (2001) Mercedes Lackey 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Serpent's Shadow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/Serpents_Shadow.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10917,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10917","url_meta":{"origin":2385,"position":5},"title":"By the Sword","author":"Michelle","date":"June 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By the Sword (1991) Mercedes Lackey It's been decades since I last read this book. Partially because I haven't been much in the mood for straight-up fantasy, partially because I didn't have it as an ebook, and partially because I was afraid it wouldn't live up to my memories of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/By-the-Sword.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}