Firebird
(Fairy Tales, Book 1)
Mercedes Lackey
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***+
DESCRIPTION: Illya is the middle son of greedy Ivan, a self-styled tsar in long-ago Russia. All of Ivan's sons hate each other, considering them rivals to be the
as-yet-unnamed heir to Ivan's fortunes, but they share a special distrust of Illya. He is the only one of them with much in the way of brains, having been taught by both Father
Mikail and Ruslan the Shaman in a variety of subjects. He doesn't even want to be his father's heir, preferring his solitude, his music, and his carvings, not to mention the
fair maidens in his father's dairy, but his cruel brothers beat him bloody at every turn. All Illya really wants is to get away, but with no horse and no means of support
beyond his father's home, escape seems impossible.
One night, a mysterious visitor begins stealing cherries from Ivan's prized orchards. The tsar doesn't believe in Mikail's demons or Ruslan's spirits, but something is making
its way past the guards to steal every ripe cherry from the treetops without leaving a trace. As brother after brother tries to catch the thief and fails, Illya's curiosity
is roused. He sneaks into the cherry tree orchard at night and becomes the first and only man to spy the invader: the legendary Firebird, immortal half-bird, half-tsarina. Illya
knows Ivan will never believe him, but his silence changes nothing, for those who see the Firebird find that their lives -and their luck - are forever changed.
REVIEW: I wasn't quite as swept away by this book as I have been by some of Lackey's other works. It took a while to get the story moving, and even then there was a strange restlessness to the plot, as if it kept wandering because it didn't know where to go next. That's not to say that it was poorly written. Illya's mystical Russia is nicely detailed, as I've come to expect from Lackey's fairy tale retellings. I was just expecting more to happen sooner. The blurb on the back cover gives away some of the plot twists, but at least it gave me something to look forward to when the story hit a lull, as it did more than once. The Firebird herself is hardly in the story, and Illya is about the only character worth sympathizing with. All in all, it's a good tale, but I can't in all honesty give it a top-notch rating because it could have - and should have - been so much more than it was. (I may be a bit lenient with my Good rating, here, but I read it after I read David Edding's Pawn of Prophecy, which made Firebird seem a very welcome breath of fresh air and originality.)
You might also enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (David Barry and Ridley Pearson, YA Fiction - An orphan boy becomes part a secret team that gathers fallen "starstuff," a magically potent substance that can turn men into gods or monsters)
The Sisters Grimm series (Michael S. Buckley, YA Fiction - Two girls learn that Grimm's stories were based on actual events)
The Furies of Calderon (Jim Butcher, Fiction - In another world, everyone has at least one elemental spirit, a fury, at their command... except one boy in the frontier region of Calderon)
Hatching Magic and The Dragon of Never-Was (Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A modern Boston girl's encounter with a medieval wizard's pet wyvern wakes her own latent powers)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism plunges him into the invisible war between London's statues and gargoyles)
The Dragon quartet (Marjorie B. Kellogg, Fiction - Elemental dragons and their human companions travel around the world and through time to avert a global catastrophe)
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Cinderella, with a heroine cursed by a fairy godmother's gift of compulsive obedience)
Fairest (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Snow White, with a homely-faced heroine)
Spindle's End (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - Inspired by Sleeping Beauty, a young fairy helps hide a cursed princess from a wicked fairy and a deadly fate)
The Unhandsome Prince (John Moore, Fiction - Based loosely on The Frog Prince, a determined girl frees a homely prince from an amphibious curse, but demands a more handsome husband than he)
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A modern boy learns that the Greek gods still exist, as do the monsters of myth)
Devil's Tower and Devil's Engine(Mark Sumner, Fiction - History changes forever when magic erupts during the American Civil War)
Sweep: Book of Shadows (Cate Tiernan, YA Fiction - A Catholic teen finds herself drawn to a new boy in school and the Wiccan rituals he teaches)
Mairelon the Magician (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A street girl in an elder-day London finds herself on the run with a fugitive magician)
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The Fire Rose
(The Elemental Masters Fairy Tale series)
Mercedes Lackey
Baen
Fiction, Fantasy
*****
DESCRIPTION: In turn-of-the-century Chicago, outspoken female scholars are hardly society's most valued members. Rosalind Hawkins is one such woman, steadfastly
refusing to subvert her innate intelligence and bend to the societal norm. But with the death of her father comes the harsh realization that the family fortune, and with it
the means to pursue her unladylike education, no longer exists. After the debtors finish with the estate, she is left with little more than the clothes on her back,
an unfinished doctorate... and a very peculiar job offer that seems tailor-made for her field of research. It would mean moving out to the unknown West, abandoning all she
has known to work for a total stranger, but what does she have to lose?
Jason Cameron, a Western rail baron based near San Francisco, is also a Firemaster, a powerful magician. Disfigured by a spell gone terribly wrong, he reluctantly seeks
help from beyond his vast railway empire, run as much by magic as by his agents. His deformity left him unable to conduct the research required to determine what went wrong
in his spellcasting, let alone how to reverse it, and it isn't easy finding someone versed in the ancient languages his sources are written in... especially when revealing
any weakness to his fellow mages will almost certainly spell his doom. Bringing a headstrong lady scholar into his home to unknowingly help him search for a cure is risky,
but at this point it seems his only option. Neither Rosalind nor Jason could have fully anticipated the effects of their meeting, and neither could guess the dangers
that lay ahead for both of them.
REVIEW: This is a great version of the classic "Beauty and the Beast" story, filled with the intelligent characters that Lackey seems to like populating her stories
with. Very imaginative, well-written, and always interesting, this is not a book to pick up if you only have a few minutes to read - it will pull you in. Every time I pick it up
just to glance at a page or two, I find myself rereading it, though I can't explain why.
Oddly enough, while this is clearly a part of Lackey's growing Elemental Masters series, it doesn't seem to be officially acknowledged as such. Perhaps it's because
this book was published so much earlier than the rest. The subheading of "Fairy Tale" doesn't exclude it from the same universe, especially as she uses fairy tale
bases for the rest of her Elemental Masters books. Another mystery of authors and publishers, unfathomable to the lay reader, I suppose...
You might also enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (David Barry and Ridley Pearson, YA Fiction - An orphan boy becomes part a secret team that gathers fallen "starstuff," a magically potent substance that can turn men into gods or monsters)
The Sisters Grimm series (Michael S. Buckley, YA Fiction - Two girls learn that Grimm's stories were based on actual events)
The Furies of Calderon (Jim Butcher, Fiction - In another world, everyone has at least one elemental spirit, a fury, at their command... except one boy in the frontier region of Calderon)
Hatching Magic and The Dragon of Never-Was (Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A modern Boston girl's encounter with a medieval wizard's pet wyvern wakes her own latent powers)
Cold Magic (Kate Elliot, Fiction - A girl in an alternate Industrial Revolution-era Earth finds herself bound to a powerful cold mage, whose kind opposes scientific and social progress)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism plunges him into the invisible war between London's statues and gargoyles)
The Dragon quartet (Marjorie B. Kellogg, Fiction - Elemental dragons and their human companions travel around the world and through time to avert a global catastrophe)
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Cinderella, with a heroine cursed by a fairy godmother's gift of compulsive obedience)
Fairest (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Snow White, with a homely-faced heroine)
Spindle's End (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - Inspired by Sleeping Beauty, a young fairy helps hide a cursed princess from a wicked fairy and a deadly fate)
The Unhandsome Prince (John Moore, Fiction - Based loosely on The Frog Prince, a determined girl frees a homely prince from an amphibious curse, but demands a more handsome husband than he)
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A modern boy learns that the Greek gods still exist, as do the monsters of myth)
Devil's Tower and Devil's Engine(Mark Sumner, Fiction - History changes forever when magic erupts during the American Civil War)
Sweep: Book of Shadows (Cate Tiernan, YA Fiction - A Catholic teen finds herself drawn to a new boy in school and the Wiccan rituals he teaches)
Mairelon the Magician (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A street girl in an elder-day London finds herself on the run with a fugitive magician)
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Flights of Fantasy
Mercedes Lackey, Editor
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Anthology
***
DESCRIPTION: Fierce, proud, and majestic, raptors have captured our imaginations for countless generations. We revere them as messengers of the gods... and, of course, we can't help but imagine them into fantasty realms. This collection of fantasy stories about birds of prey, ranging from humorous to serious, was compiled by noted fantasy author and raptor enthusiast Mercedes Lackey.
REVIEW: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I must suck at picking anthologies. Maybe I just don't like many short stories. Or maybe I get sick of the "name game": dropping names at the start of stories with some sort of context indicating that the authors are bestest buddies and/or longtime heroes of the editor, with the underlying message being that the only reason the editor included the tales was because of who wrote them. Anyway, none of these were terrible, but few linger long in the memory. If you like birds and fantasy, though, this is probably a great choice.
You might also enjoy:
Strange Happenings (Avi, YA Fiction - Five stories of lives transformed)
A Treasury of Witches and Wizards (David Bennet, editor, YA Fiction - Stories of witches and wizards)
Bruce Coville's Book of... Anthologies (Bruce Coville, editor, YA Fiction - Themed story collections)
Odds are Good and Oddest of All (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Short stories by the famed young adult author)
Cats in Space (Bill Fawcett, editor, Fiction - Sci-fi cat tales)
We Three Dragons (Bill Fawcett, editor - A holiday-themed trio of dragon tales)
Dragons: The Greatest Stories (Martin H. Greenberg, editor, Fiction - Short stories about dragons from popular authors)
The Anything Box (Zenna Henderson, Fiction - A collection of peculiar short stories)
Fantasy Stories (Diana Wynne Jones, editor, YA Fiction - Fantasy stories and story exerpts)
Catfantastic I-IV (Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg, editors, Fiction - Fantasy and sci-fi tales of cats)
Rogue Wave (Theodore Taylor, YA Fiction - Stories of the sea and military action)
Book of Enchantments (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - Short story collection)
Here, There be Dragons (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - Stories of dragons)
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The Serpent's Shadow
(The Elemental Masters series, Book 1)
Mercedes Lackey
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Maya Witherspoon is a halfblood, English on her father's side and high-caste Indian on her mother's. Like her father, she has aspired to become a doctor, a rare vocation for a woman of any culture in the turn-of-the-century British empire, but she has inherited more than just brains. Like her mother, she has magic in her blood, but though she pleaded long and often, her mom refused to teach her to use it. Maya's magic was the magic of her father's people, she would say. Though Maya learned what little she could from other sources and sheer instinct, she is far from trained in the Art... and, now, it seems she will remain so. A dark force killed both of her parents, bearing the taint of a dark breed of Indian magic. Maya flees to the distant city of London in her father's homeland, taking with her only her family's servants and her mother's peculiarly intelligent animal friends. In this foreign place, where pure English women are little better than ornaments and half-blood foreigners are even less, Maya hopes to be safe from the shadow... but the evil that hunts her knows no boundaries.
REVIEW: This is set in the same world as Lackey's The Fire Rose, a world with Elemental Masters of Western magic and strange, unknown powers from Eastern regions. It is also a fairy tale adaptation, this time a retelling of Snow White, with animals instead of dwarves. Personally, I liked the characters and plotting of The Fire Rose better. Lackey wanders off on a few tangents about the deplorable state of women's rights (or utter lack thereof) at the time in England and the brutal nature of late nineteenth century medicine, and the story therefore takes longer to jump into action. When it does, it doesn't deviate too far from what one expects. That said, I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I should have. The tangents nearly cost it another star in the ratings.
You might also enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (David Barry and Ridley Pearson, YA Fiction - An orphan boy becomes part a secret team that gathers fallen "starstuff," a magically potent substance that can turn men into gods or monsters)
The Sisters Grimm series (Michael S. Buckley, YA Fiction - Two girls learn that Grimm's stories were based on actual events)
The Furies of Calderon (Jim Butcher, Fiction - In another world, everyone has at least one elemental spirit, a fury, at their command... except one boy in the frontier region of Calderon)
Hatching Magic and The Dragon of Never-Was (Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A modern Boston girl's encounter with a medieval wizard's pet wyvern wakes her own latent powers)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism plunges him into the invisible war between London's statues and gargoyles)
The Dragon quartet (Marjorie B. Kellogg, Fiction - Elemental dragons and their human companions travel around the world and through time to avert a global catastrophe)
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Cinderella, with a heroine cursed by a fairy godmother's gift of compulsive obedience)
Fairest (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - A retelling of Snow White, with a homely-faced heroine)
Spindle's End (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - Inspired by Sleeping Beauty, a young fairy helps hide a cursed princess from a wicked fairy and a deadly fate)
The Unhandsome Prince (John Moore, Fiction - Based loosely on The Frog Prince, a determined girl frees a homely prince from an amphibious curse, but demands a more handsome husband than he)
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series (Rick Riordan, YA Fiction - A modern boy learns that the Greek gods still exist, as do the monsters of myth)
Devil's Tower and Devil's Engine(Mark Sumner, Fiction - History changes forever when magic erupts during the American Civil War)
Sweep: Book of Shadows (Cate Tiernan, YA Fiction - A Catholic teen finds herself drawn to a new boy in school and the Wiccan rituals he teaches)
Mairelon the Magician (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A street girl in an elder-day London finds herself on the run with a fugitive magician)
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The Black Gryphon
(The Valdemar series: The Mage Wars trilogy, Book 1)
Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: The peaceful lands of Urtho, Mage of Silence, are peaceful no more. The power-hungry warlord Ma'ar covets the land, and his armies of humans and mutant makaar creep closer every day. With the old king dead and the Palace captured, Urtho himself reluctantly leads a tattered defense of humans and the other intelligent beings of the land, beings he himself created without ever intending them to face the brutalities of war. Proudest among these are Urtho's sapient gryphons, and proudest among them is the brave and cocksure black gryphon Skandranon. The gryph's best friend, the healer Amberdrake, worries that Skan's legendary luck may desert him, but Amberdrake has his own troubles to keep him busy, as he sees to the needs of a physically and emotionally taxed camp of warriors and refugees. If Urtho's forces fail, every one of them - human and gryphon - face the same dreadful fate at Ma'ar's sadistic hands.
REVIEW: This was a very, very close call, but I just couldn't give it that fourth star. One of my problems with this book is that it's clearly part of a larger series (Lackey's Valdemar books), and even though the Mage Wars trilogy predates the other volumes in the Valdemar timeline, Lackey and/or Dixon still seem to assume that readers already know pertinent points about the world's magical rules and intelligent races. Of all the ones listed in various parts of the story, in fact, readers only get to "see" details of the gryphons and the reptilian hertasi. The others remained indistict smudges in my mind's eye, without so much as a size or a shape to attach to them... a rather glaring oversight, considering the depth of detail lavished upon the gryphons. If anything, the authors go overboard on the gryphons, integrating knowledge gleaned from in-depth research on falconry and raptors. Nothing against the gryphons, naturally, but I still found it irksome to be left out of such a potentially interesting part of the world. Lackey (and/or Dixon) also spend too much time on banter and padding, relating conversations that go nowhere and characters that never amount to anything simply to avoid having the minor subplot of world-shaking war advance significantly. I suppose it counts toward character development, but I would've rather had some manner of plot development. As for Ma'ar, he's a generic villain straight from Fantasy Central Casting: Ma'ar has no real personality or motives beyond the obvious (megalomaniac sadist), his armies consist of masses of identically-uniformed brutes, and his makaar spend most of the book as yet more undescribed monstrosities. Likewise, Urtho seemed another cardboard-cutout Light Mage. But, then, they weren't the only characters who failed to come across as startlingly original creations, and the final breakdown of Good and Evil comes across pretty much as you'd expect it would from the get-go. This edition includes finely detailed ink illustrations of several characters, though I noticed several inconsistencies between the characters and the book descriptions. (I do have to give the illustrations credit for finally giving me a look at the hertasi and the makaar.) The images, alas, are far too detailed to survive downsizing to paperback format as anything much more than dark masses. On the plus side, I'm a bit of a sucker for gryphons, and the Valdemar gryphs pretty much set the standard for future incarnations of the noble beings. Of all the characters in the book, the gryphs come across as the most likeable, most distinct, and generally most intelligent of the lot. So, on the whole, I can't say I hated The Black Gryphon, but reading it felt like more of a chore than it should have. I might try the next book in the trilogy, but only if I find it cheap.
You might also enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain, Fiction - A girl finds a dying royal messenger, and must agree to take his final missive to the imperiled king)
The Sword of Shannara (Terry Brooks, Fiction - A boy from a small village may be the only one to stop a terrible enemy from destroying the land)
The Vlad Taltos series (Stephen Brust, Fiction - A finely crafted world serves as the backdrop for stories of a clever assassin and his dragonlike familiar)
Collinsfort Village (Joe Ekaitis, YA Fiction - A friendly griffin and a talking bear live near an American suburb)
King's Dragon (Kate Elliot, Fiction - Political unrest and inhuman raiders presage a greater evil)
Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind, Fiction - A cranky wizard, a woodland guide, and a mysterious woman face terrible dark forces)
Any of Elizabeth Haydon's works (Elizabeth Haydon, YA Fiction and Fiction - Epic fantasy and adventure in a well-realized fantasy world)
Dune (Frank Herbert, Fiction - The interstellar human civilization relies on life-extending spice from desert Arrakis)
Any of Robin Hobb's fantasy series (Robin Hobb, Fiction - Well-crafted fantasy tales in well-crafted worlds)
Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin (Diana Wynne Jones, YA Fiction - A wizard creates griffins, which he raises as his children)
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Diana Wynne Jones, Fiction - A humorous tour guide to epic fantasy worlds)
The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan, Fiction - Evil awakes and threatens a peaceful realm)
A Song of Ice and Fire series (George R. R. Martin, Fiction - World-spanning epic tale of wars and kings, good and evil, and a few dragons for good measure)
Lord of the Changing Winds (Rachel Neumeier, Fiction - A shy girl finds herself apprenticed to a powerful griffin mage)
The Tortall quartets (Tamora Pierce, YA Fiction - Tales of adventure in a magical world)
The Sword-Dancer Saga (Jennifer Roberson, Fiction - A slave-turned-swordfighter of the Southron deserts helps a determined northern woman seek justice)
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (J. R. R. Tolkien, Fiction - The classic epic tale of Hobbits, Elves, Men, wizards, and Middle-Earth)
The Death Gate Cycle (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Fiction - An epic fantasy spanning seven worlds)
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (Tad Williams, Fiction - The magical land of Osten Ard faces an ancient evil)
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Bedlam's Bard
(Bedlam's Bard series, Book 1)
Mercedes Lackey with Ellen Guon
Baen
Fiction, Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: Elves aren't just a fairy-tale invention. They're real, and through magical disguise they still walk among us in modern times. Some humans are privileged
enough to gain their confidence... while some end up entangled in their affairs whether they want to be or not. Eric Banyon is such a man, a down-on-his-luck musician gifted with
rare bardic magic who finds himself called upon to help save the elves of Los Angeles, and later San Francisco.
This was originally published as two books:
The Knight of Ghosts and Shadows - Eric Banyon is a phenomenally talented musician, once praised as a prodigy and a prized student at Julliard. Now he's a drifter,
playing at Renaissance Faires and on street corners for cash, with a string of broken relationships and empty bottles behind him. After his latest breakup, he takes himself
and a quantity of alcohol into the old oaks at the Los Angeles Faire site. He inadvertently pipes a tune that awakens Korendil, an elven warrior long ago imprisoned in the
trees by an elven rival. The elf immediately takes to Eric, insisting that he has the rare gift of Bardic magic and imploring him to help save his fading species, threatened
by the destruction of the oak trees, which contain a magical nexus. The nexus is the source of all elven magic. Without it, the elves of Los Angeles will die, and they are
too long gone in the disconnected state of Dreaming to recognize the danger to their lives. Those not lost in the Dreaming willfully seek oblivion in the face of almost certain
doom. Even those of the High Court are lost in despair and self-destruction, guzzling the elven intoxicant caffeine to forget. The only other elf not lost in Dreaming or denial
is the powerful Perenor, the very elf who is engineering the destruction of the nexus and who originally trapped Korendil in the grove. Korendil cannot fight Perenor and save
the nexus alone, but Eric the Bard is too caught up in his own misery to believe the danger. Eric has been hiding from reality at the bottom of a bottle long enough; it is time
to wake up and accept some responsibility, before the elven population perishes.
Summoned to Tourney - Eric and his friends have relocated to San Francisco after the fireworks in Los Angeles (at the end of the previous story.) Here, still in the
company of local elves and the fringe-psychic community, Eric grows accustomed to his Bardic powers. When a government team starts abducting his gifted friends, he
fearlessly steps in, unwittingly releasing a great danger on the city in his attempts to rescue the imprisoned psychics and elves. The Nightflyers, shadow-beings from another
realm, seem to respond to his commands, but there is more in the labs than Eric realizes. The dark figures have long yearned to be free to feed on the misery and suffering of
those in this world, and Eric's summoning just may give them that chance. Can Eric stop the danger he brought to the world from turning California into an empty wasteland of
rubble and death?
REVIEW: In a way, I wish I had read this when it was two books. That way, I could give the first one the fair rating of Bad and the second one a Good. After
reading the first book, however, I would never have bothered with the second if it hadn't been packed between the same covers like it was here. I don't think Lackey
had anything to do with the initial story of Eric and the elves, other than the rough outline (perhaps), and Guon just isn't up to carrying a tale of this nature on
her own. It wanders around, with characters acting impossibly stupid and scenes drug out far beyond the point of exhaustion. It's a pet peeve of mine when authors have
characters act piggishly stubborn in refusing to accept something just to add page count. It's an urban fantasy. I knew there would be elves and magic when I bought it.
The extent to which Eric simply refuses to accept it - and the impossibly convoluted twists of logic the authors cram into his head to make him so dumb - gets very old
very fast, and even when he does accept some of the truth, he is so dumb about other aspects that it was incredibly hard to swallow. The story wallows in scenes for
unnecessarily long times, presenting the same scant few ideas and notions many times from multiple characters' views before finally allowing the story to advance an
inch or two, only to wallow around again. The ending was oddly anticlimactic for all that was supposedly at stake. Things seemed to be happening, but I didn't feel any
particular sense of tension or urgency.
The second part/book, on the other hand, moves much faster, and actually convinced me to care about the main characters and what they were going through. More of Lackey's
hand was evident here than the first volume, or at least her writing partner showed more talent. There is at least one more book in the series, but I'm wary of Lackey's
wavering quality of late. (Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure how much of Lackey's books are her and how much are her co-authors; her quality varies so much that I'm
tempted to say the lion's share of "her" books aren't hers at all, but the oft-changing other writers' efforts. Maybe she's just a name to sell books these days, and
even her share is done by a ghostwriter. But I digress...)
You might also enjoy:
The Alexander Cold trilogy (Isabel Allende, YA Fiction - A modern American teen finds adventure and mysticism alive and well in the remote regions of the world)
The Everworld series (K. A. Applegate, YA Fiction - Four Chicago teens are pulled into a world of elder gods and magic)
Dragons Wild (Robert Asprin, Fiction - A college slacker learns that he and his sister are dragons, about to develop their potent "secondary gifts")
Faerie Wars (Herbie Brennan, YA Fiction - A boy finds a faerie prince in the garden)
Finder (Emma Bull, YA Fiction - In Bordertown, between the human world and faerie realm, a boy with a special gift tracks down a killer)
The Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer, YA Fiction - Deducing the existence of the ancient underground Fairy nation, a boy criminal mastermind sets his sights on fairy gold)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - An angry boy's act of vandalism puts him in the middle of the unseen war between London's statues and gargoyles)
Stardust (Neil Gaiman, Fiction - A young man crosses the border into Faerie to find a fallen star)
Fairest (Gail Carson Levine, YA Fiction - In a land where song and beauty are prized virtues, a girl's angelic voice clashes with her homely appearance)
Eccentric Circles (Rebecca Lickiss, Fiction - A woman finds a fairy world through the back door of an inherited cottage)
The Harper Hall trilogy (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the world of Pern, harpers preserve history through their songs)
Song for the Basilisk (Patricia McKillip, Fiction - After surviving the slaughter of his family, a boy plans to use his bardic gifts to exact vengeance)
The Fablehaven series (Brandon Mull, YA Fiction - Two kids find a magical sanctuary on their grandparent's vast estate)
The Death Gate cycle (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Fiction - An ancient race of wizards sundered the earth into seven realms; on four of them, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves coexist in various degrees of discord)
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The Elvenbane
(The Halfblood Chronicles, Book 1)
Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
*****
DESCRIPTION: The near-immortal elven lords rule over enslaved humans and the weaker of their own race with cruelty and massive magical abilities. Despite their
iron-fisted control, one message of defiance, in the form of a prophecy, is still whispered in the deepest corners of the slave barracks. It tells of the Elvenbane, a half-elven
wizard, who will lead humans and halfbreeds alike in a great rebellion. The elves fear the powers of the halfbloods and the prophecy, groundless though it seems, so all half-elven
children and their human parents are put to death immediately upon discovery. Inevitably, some manage to escape detection, joining bands of free humans hiding in the countryside
or living under magical disguise among the very elves who hate them. Unfortunately, none so far has proven themselves anything close to the dreaded Elvenbane.
A human mother of a halfbreed, formerly the favorite concubine of the powerful Lord Dyran, escapes into the desert, but dies shortly after childbirth. The baby girl is found by
Alara, a dragon shaman, and taken back to her Lair... much to the fury of her fellow dragons, who have carefully hidden all trace of their existence on this world. Though
the dragons often appear in human or elven form to meddle in the affairs of the "two-leggers," they do so for personal amusement only, with little thoughts of the consequences
to those they deceive. But times are changing for all races, and the child Leshara has a destiny to fulfill as the Elvenbane - if she can only keep from being killed by rival
dragons... or dying in the desert... or from being betrayed by the halfblood wizards in exile, who have grown accustomed to Their Way of Doing Things, a way which bears a marked
similarity to the elf-lords' lifestyle.
REVIEW: This one reads fairly fast, without lingering too long on any one scene or predicament. The characters have both integrity and brains, and act as you think they would act. Not that it was predictable in the least, but Shara always acted as Shara, her spiteful dragon-sister Myre was always Myre, and so forth. Some authors give us intelligent characters who are set up to follow a particular false path just to the writer can jerk them around at a climatic point. The people (including, of course, dragons, halfbloods, and elves) in this book manage to figure things out on their own pretty well, and get on with deciding what to do with that information instead of hemming and hawing forever. All of the characters, good and evil, are capable and competent, without the standard plot-extending stupidity. I really liked the dragons, especially Keman, Shara's foster brother. Fear of change is at least as great of an enemy here as Lord Dyran and the elven High Lords, and that fear is embodied in members of every race. This is a great fantasy story, setting up what looks to be a great series.
You might also enjoy:
Zorro (Isabel Allende, Fiction - A child of privilege from Spanish California becomes a hero to the masses)
Dragons Wild (Robert Asprin, Fiction - A college slacker never believed in dragons living among us, until he learns that he is one)
The Last Dragonlord (Joanne Bertin, Fiction - Near-immortal dragonlords, twin souls of human and dragon, can shapeshift at will)
Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger (Jeffrey A. Carver, Fiction - A human rigger, capable of navigating interstellar ships via lucid dreaming, may fulfil a prophecy among the embattled dragons who live in subspace)
The Rhapsody trilogy (Elizabeth Haydon, Fiction - The epic tale of three unlikely allies and their prophecised destiny in a fractured land)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles (Robin Hobb, Fiction - A clutch of malformed dragons must rely on human assistance to reach the capital of their ancestral homeland)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where humans have been enslaved by dragons, one dragonslayer resists)
Witch & Wizard (James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet, YA Fiction - Two teens in a modern dictatorship are imprisoned for powers they don't know they have)
Rampant (Diana Peterfreund, YA Fiction - A teen girl learns that unicorns are real, and they're much nastier than storybooks let on)
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Elvenblood
(The Halfblood Chronicles, Book 2)
Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Shara and the halfblood wizards, along with some freed human magicians, have lived through the second Wizard War and won the right to live in peace in the uncharted regions beyond the elven lands. No sooner do they and the rebel dragons construct a new Citadel than old grudges resurface. Many of the senior wizards resent having to give up their lives of relative luxury for a network of caves in the middle of nowhere, and place the blame for their less-than-grand new lifestyle squarely on Shara's shoulders. After all, they reason, it was because of the Elvenbane that they were chased out of their old home. Seeking new trading allies, Shara, her dragon-brother Keman, the halfblood Mero, and the eldest of dragons, Kala, leave the new Citadel and stumble across the Iron People. Ages ago, when the elves first invaded this world, the human Iron People escaped into the wilderness. Today, though they are less than legends in modern elven society, they're still quite real. Living a nomadic life, protected by magic-blocking iron, they still harbor great resentment towards the invading elves. Can Shara convince the Iron People that she and her companions are not the same "green-eyed demons" who rule in the north, before the fearful elves break their own treaty and come after the infighting wizards?
REVIEW: I docked this one a star for pulling a Whoops, Guess You'll Have To Read A Sequel, Sucker! ending. Few things tick me off like writers (or is it
publishers?) who don't tell you that a book is part of a series, or how long that series is likely to be. At the very least, I'd think they'd know if it was supposed to be a
trilogy. The first Halfblood Chronicles book left things open for a second book, but wrapped up enough that I felt that I'd read a complete story. This one left a few
too many loose ends for my liking. I sure hope there's a third book in the works, or I'll be one hacked-off reader! Other than that, it's every bit as good as the first story.
Once again, fear of changing the status quo, and the greedy nature of certain individuals in power, figure in as the real enemies.
(The third and final book in the trilogy is finally available, but I haven't found time to get to it yet. Given Lackey's deteriorating writing quality, I admit I'm hesitant to
pick it up; I so enjoyed the first two that I'd hate to spoil them with a substandard conclusion.)
You might also enjoy:
Zorro (Isabel Allende, Fiction - A child of privilege from Spanish California becomes a hero to the masses)
Dragons Wild (Robert Asprin, Fiction - A college slacker never believed in dragons living among us, until he learns that he is one)
The Last Dragonlord (Joanne Bertin, Fiction - Near-immortal dragonlords, twin souls of human and dragon, can shapeshift at will)
Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger (Jeffrey A. Carver, Fiction - A human rigger, capable of navigating interstellar ships via lucid dreaming, may fulfil a prophecy among the embattled dragons who live in subspace)
The Rhapsody trilogy (Elizabeth Haydon, Fiction - The epic tale of three unlikely allies and their prophecised destiny in a fractured land)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles (Robin Hobb, Fiction - A clutch of malformed dragons must rely on human assistance to reach the capital of their ancestral homeland)
Bitterwood (James Maxey, Fiction - In a world where humans have been enslaved by dragons, one dragonslayer resists)
Witch & Wizard (James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet, YA Fiction - Two teens in a modern dictatorship are imprisoned for powers they don't know they have)
Rampant (Diana Peterfreund, YA Fiction - A teen girl learns that unicorns are real, and they're much nastier than storybooks let on)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
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