This by far, is my favorite Guinevere story I've read in a long time. Lackey delivers a strong, warrior female, torn between her duties to her father and her need to be recognized as a woman by the man she desires. The story, never dull, ended well, but sadly, too fast. I enjoyed this tale so...
Very enjoyable :) I think this is my favorite out of the series yet. Mercedes Lackey wrote this one very well. The story had it's predictable moments, but not enough that I could figure out the details of what would happen. The female main character was strong. The romance was believable.I'd say ...
The following is as much rant as review, and contains SPOILERS, so continue at your own risk!While the proceeding two novels were far from the greatest books I've ever read, they were pretty good. The plot moved along briskly (and interestingly) enough to keep me intrigued, and the rules of magic...
Lackey's Valdemar books are my go-to for fluffy escapist reading. over the years I have slogged through some pointless stories that were apparently published for the sake of world-building.This is book 4 in the Collegium story arc, and eleventeen in the Valdemar series. It was the first satisfyin...
This book had a lot of great stories in it. Some of my favorite authors have stories in this collection this includes Tanya Huff, Rosemary Edgehill, Fiona Patton and Judith Tarr.I have a love hate relationship with Mercedes Lackey's work. I love the world of Vlademar as a horse crazy woman the co...
This is the first I have read Mercedes Lanckey books and I will be honest, I might not read any more if they are like this one. The story kept going and going, it had some real nice parts or some funny parts but it was boring, until the last 2 chapters and then it was great but for the rest it la...
Anyone else feel like Spirit is the Thelma in this Scooby Doo crew? While this book didn't resolve much, I felt like it at least moved in the direction of answering questions left over from book one. Spirit can get a bit annoying (although it hasn't even been a year since her family died and she ...
4 Stars *** No spoilers were harmed in the writing of this review *** While I must admit this book did suffer somewhat from the middle book syndrome of feeling like a "bridge" book (bridging the story line from book one to book three) I enjoyed Conspiracies quite a bit more then I did the fi...
This book was supposed to be the climax, and conclusion to the trilogy. I finished it feeling severely disappointed. Nothing happens. There were No epic battles, and no real focused goal or direction. Reading this book was the fantasy equivalent of watching the evening news each night. Same stuf...
When I read Foundation, I was excited to reenter the world of Valdemar. Companions, Heralds, yes even Bards were calling to me. I dug out my old Mercedes Lackey CD so I could import some of the songs into my iPod. The second book did not invoke the same feelings.First books usually don't get ve...
As expected with an anthology, the stories are a mixed bag. Several of the stories are sequels to stories from earlier Valdemar anthologies. I think there's a greater mix of time periods than usual and several stories actually use Lackey's characters, rather than just her world/setting.The unexpe...
Here's the thing. I was totally going to suck it up and finish this book just so that I could say that I have read Mercedes Lackey. But the thing is that I've decided I just don't care that much. This book just isn't holding my interest, and seeing that it was a random pick off the shelf at the l...
I loved this book, but the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 stars, it's because of how crunched the plot was. It was almost like Mercedes and James had a time limit, which they didn't do such a bad job with if they had one, but if they didn't have a time limit to finish this book? The plot, ...
I love the Diane Tregarde series, but this first short story in the trio was hard work to read. It's a prequel to the Tregarde series and I was quite looking forward to it. Sadly, the heroine was whiny (Look, a lot of us weren't overflowing with dates in high school and it wasn't because we were...
I LOVED this book! It was so awesome! So the reason I picked it out on my library's web page was because of the cool cover, I mean ships, swords and cool pseudo colonial outfits how awesome is that! So anyway it was written very well, I don't like third person books a lot of times because they of...
Love the stories of Mags and Amily. The Romeo & Juliet plot of this story twists and turns around accepted plot lines. Thankfully, there was not as much death in this story as there was in the original. Love to see Mags and Amily trying to make a difference in the city of Haven. Really like how M...
Victories is an excellent wrap up to a good four book series. The authors did an excellent job tying up loose ends and making clear everything that had gone on in the previous three books. I thought the previous books dragged a bit as they focus primarily the insecurities of a bunch teenagers. ...
One Good Knight / 978-0-373-80260-9I rather enjoy the Five Hundred Kingdoms books - starting with "The Fairy Godmother" and continuing to the recent fifth book "The Sleeping Beauty". The tales are something of a mixed-up fairy tale due to the unique backstory: a powerful and impersonal force call...
Four word summary: Better than I expected!So while my wife, Millie, was in labour with our daughter, I read four books (it took a while). It's been a bit trickier to find time to get those four books reviewed since then (we also have a hyper toddler). I doubt many people will read Aerie without h...
This isn't really the final book, since she then went back and wrote a fourth one, but since the threat of wild horses couldn't entice me to continue reading once I found a good stopping place, I might as well use this as my conclusion. It was, after all, only meant to be a trilogy.She finally e...
Fun fairy-tale retelling for older teens as well as adultsEkaterina, "Katya" for short, is the seventh daughter of the Sea King's fourteen children. Her father is a very wise man who has brought peace rather than endless war to his kingdom. He believes that all his children should have useful wor...
When Isabelle's heart was broken by David Alderscroft, a young Elemental Master who was rising in his power and fame within the magical society of London, she fled to India where she found true love with a commoner like herself. Now, she and Frederick have returned to London where they've opened...
After the great spell of Kindolhinadeltil’s Mirror, Kellen learns that Wild Magic and High Magick working together will kill the immortal Demons. With the harshest winter in a very long time only half over, the war is harder to battle and win.Kellen is still strongly attracted to Vestakia and bo...
So the elemental masters can join the dark side. There were lots of dark beasties in this one, which was different, though not nearly as maliciously fun as it could have been; and for a while I thought Alison was going to be the most challenging villian yet (I am reading the series in order, tho...
Another rather dull synopsis from GoodReads, and something of a misleading one. Selenay isn't so much struggling to bring about an alliance with Karse as she already has one, as evidenced by the envoy, Ulrich, and his secretary, Karal, staying at the palace. Better to say that the story actually ...
As a dragon enthusiast I jumped for joy when I found this book on the bookshelf at my local bookstore. After I read it I couldn’t help but think that this was what a dragon book should be. Mercedes Lackey has always been one of my favorite fantasy writers and in this book she proves why she deser...
The third instalment of the 'winds' trilogy starts out better than the other two. For awhile there, I was starting to worry I'd actually LIKE a book with Elspeth as the protagonist.Elspeth has finally matured to the point where she's bearable, I'll give the book that. The plot is also more intere...
Out of all of the Valdemar books, the Mage Winds trilogy - of which this is the first volume - is my most favorite.The book takes place in the reign of Selenay, where war with a formerly friendly nation is taking its toll. Herald Elspeth, heir to the throne, rides off with her companion at her si...
"I liked it."I'm not sure just how much I have to say about this book. It was better than Joust, but also a lot less fun. It was nice to see some of the old-fashionned Mercedes Lackey style 'killing off a character you never thought she'd kill moments after you thought everything was gonna be oka...
I'm cursed with the need to complete a series once I start it, even if I don't enjoy it. And so I continue to slog through Lackey's Mage Storm trilogy. The only interesting thing she does is to depict the struggles that Karal has to establish himself as a viable ambassador. And even though he ...
Even though it is lacking in the detailing of the battle scenes, and of the graphic killing and maiming, with its well thought out civilization of Elves and Centaurs, and its perfect conflict of Light against Dark and Wild Magic against High Magick, 'To Light A Candle' belongs in any and all fant...
Recently, I was talking to Hubby about preferred reading order. A series as prolific as Valdemar certainly has a timeline, but there are a number of reasons to read the books in publication order. Not the least of which being that, well... in chronological order, the somewhat clumsy and overly ea...
Actual rating: 3.5 I originally read this series back in high school and I discovered it in a way that was incredibly similar to how Kellen discovers his magic book. I found them at a book sale and the three books just popped out at me. Recently, I found out that there is a spin-off series to thi...
Out of all the novels in this trilogy, this has to be my least favorite. But I still enjoyed it, and the series, a lot, so my saying that it’s my least favorite isn’t something bad, really.In this installment of the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, Talia is sent out on her 18 month intership and the ...
I read a section from this book years ago, and have been looking to read it since. I have enjoyed everything else by Ms. Lackey that I have read, so when I found this at the local used book store I bought it.The story could have easily been a trite washed over coming of age female empowerment st...
Fantasy is my favorite fiction genre. I picked up the bardic voices books because of the music theme. I enjoyed all of them, but this book stood out to me. It successfully mixed fantasy and detective genres together into a fantastic novel. I have read the book on a number of occasions and it'...
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series provides one of the cornerstones of my reading history. After discovering her when quite young, I still follow new additions to the series - nearly twenty years later! I read and re-read these books over and over again throughout my youth, but I haven't re-read t...
2.5Generally a character becomes more likable as a series goes on. But Vanyel actually seems to get worse or at least he doesn't much change as he gets older. It is one thing to see those things in a neglected, abused boy, but they become very unattractive in an adult man. I think part of the ...
Absolutely thrilled with this stand alone book.After finishing up "The Oathbound" and "Oathbreaker" instead of reading "Oathblood", I picked up this little gem at the local library, figuring it was good after reading The Arrows trilogy and since Kerowyn was Kethry's granddaughter, it had to be go...
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series provides one of the cornerstones of my reading history. After discovering her when quite young, I still follow new additions to the series - nearly twenty years later! I read and re-read these books over and over again throughout my youth, but I haven't re-read t...
As Storm Breaking opens, the western allies, led by Karal, Karsite Sunpriest and delegate to the Valdemaran Court, and the Adepts Firesong and An'desha, have traveled deep into the Dorisha Plains to locate the ancient ruins of the Tower of Urtho, Mage of Silence, creator of the gryphons. Legend h...
I feel the need to explain myself. First, I read this when I was fifteen. The rating I gave it is the one I gave it when I first read it. And I admit, I still love it, even though I am a more discerning reader and can tell it's really not as great as I thought it was when I was only a squealy ...
This one was probably the weakest of the entire trilogy; it's set twelve years after Pawn. Since the end of book one, Valdemar has become involved in a war with Karse, it's Southern-most neighbor. We never get told why, who started it, or anything else. It's just a fact that there's a war goin...
At the time I first read it, this was the first Mercedes Lackey book set on Velgarth I'd come across. I would later pick up Arrows of the Queen, but at that point all I'd read of her work was the Bardic Voices series - which I'd quite enjoyed.As introductions to fantasy worlds go, this is by and...
***Crossposted from 'Outside of Dogs: a Reviewer's Blog'***I'm often wary of collaborations, but in this case as I was reading I kept forgetting that the book has more than one author, no mean feat, in my opinion.I picked The Shadow of the Lion from the Baen Free Library, I was intrigued by the p...
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar is a brightly drawn, vivid world, perhaps not terribly unique in its particulars, but remarkable enough in terms of its social & magical structures. Unfortunately, at least in the case of Brightly Burning, the world is populated by flat, unlikable, and inconsistent cha...
I originally reviewed this book on my blog - The Cosy Dragon. For more recent reviews by me, please hop over there.Nightingale has travelled on her own for a long time. Now she has been set by three people to do a seemingly impossible task - work out what is wrong with the High King of the Twenty...
This is the third book in Ms. Lackey's series of retelling fairy tales with sensible, modern women who happen to be Elemental Magicians. In this "Sleeping Beauty" adaptation, Marina Roeswood has a curse put on her in infancy and is sent away to live with three Elemental Masters, the closest frien...
That's it? I first read Rediscovery years ago, and all I remembered before I reread it this time was that the Terrans set a whole forest on fire and...no, that was it. I didn't remember any of the characters or anything else that happens, and now that I've reread it, it turns out that's because n...