R- "Oath" series (v,x,b), By the Sword (v,x), "Vanyel" series (v,x), "Winds" series (v,x), The White Gryphon (v-toture), "Diana Tregard" series (v,x,b), The Fire Rose (v,x), Born to Run (v,some x,b)
PG16- The Black Gryphon (v,some x), The Ship Who Searched (v,slight x), A Cast of Corbies (v,slight x), The Lark and the Wren (v,slight x), The Robin and the Kestral (v), The Eagle and the Nightingales (v-torture), Chrome Circle (v), Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (slight v,b?), Summoned to Tourney (v,b-scary), Chrome Circle (v,slight x)
PG13- "Arrows" series (v), Fortress of Frost and Fire (v), Freedom Flight (v)
Lackey is one of those many writers who started out with a bang and seems to be going out with a whimper. I find this saddening, given that she produced some of the best books for teenagers I have ever read. Most of these are rated "R" due to the inclusion of torture and/or sexual violence, but they tend to be aimed at the younger set anyway, especially in the beginning. Exceptions are the "Vows and Honor" series and By the Sword, which are much more adult in orientation. Lackey is extremely prolific, and finding her good stuff in the midst of the less than good is not that easy. Also, almost all of her books contain at least some gratuitous violence that seems to be included to heighten the suspense when the plot can't do it or to prove that the bad guys are really bad and unredeemable.
I will divide the following reviews by worlds : the "Valdemar" world (or "Velgarth"), the "Bardic" world, the "Bedlam Bard" world (or "SerrAted Edge"), the "Diana Tregard" detective series, and "other".
The Ship Who Searched was written with Anne McAffrey and is reviewed under her name. Rediscovery was written with Marion Zimmer Bradley and is reviewed under her name in the "Darkover" section.
This is Lackey's best world, I think. It is a fantasy world with a large pantheon of mostly ignored gods, a variety of lifestyles, and a distinction between mental powers like telepathy and true magic. It is also a scarred world that is trying to recover from a war fought almost 1000 years ago.
The first trilogy chronologically is the Gryphon one, in which we discover the origins of the geographic and social situations of the rest of her novels. When The Black Gryphon begins, two great mages are in the midst of a war encompassing most of the world. Both have massive armies of humans, mages, and mythical creatures such as gryphons. This is the end of the great magic. The story follows several friends in the army of the good mage in their desperate attempt to save something of his ideals from this destructive war. The Black Gryphon is very good, one of Lackey's best. Some of the side-plots are better than others, but almost all of the characters are more unique than Lackey's usually are, and they certainly make up for whatever failings the minor plots contain.
The White Gryphon is not nearly as good and has a plot remarkably similar to that of The Eagle and the Nightingale. The humans, gryphons, and anyone else who survived the war have scattered, with one group going far to the west to wait until the magical backlash from the war ends. There, they are hospitably welcomed by a nation with strange practices. All, of course, seems well until it turns out that the strange people have less than perfect intentions. The only parts that weren't ho-hum were basically lifted whole-cloth from other Lackey books. Even the characters that shined in the previous book seemed to lack some essential element that made them who they are.
I have not read The Silver Gryphon, because I disliked the second book so much.
Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price are three books dealing with the medieval country of Valdemar in the time of its last mage, Vanyel Ashkrevon (which is why I call this the "Vanyel" series). This is the story of a young man who is treated terribly by his wealthy family, when all he wants to do is become a Bard. But his father has other plans for him, and other concerns. The boy is sent to the city to live with his aunt, a notoriously no-nonsense woman. Yet in the city, Vanyel discovers his sexual orientation and, through an accident, his power to do magic. This is a heartbreaking trilogy about his mostly tragic life in the service of Valdemar and his quest to be understood and accepted by his parents. Includes an introduction to the Tayledras, the strange, elusive people who live in the mountains west of Valdemar. I think the first book is excellent, but the second two could have been condensed into a single novel, with some of the violence cut out. On the whole, though, this remains my favorite trilogy ever written by Lackey.
Oathbound and Oathbreakers are about two women who are nothing if not survivors. Tarma is the last of her clan, witness to their terrible deaths, rape victim, and now sworn to the warrior aspect of her goddess in a quest for revenge. Kethry is a beautiful mage with a haunted past she is trying to bury and an ensorcelled blade called "Need" which forces her to come to the aid of desperate women. Finally, there's Warrl, the wolf-creature as intelligent as any human, who is telepathic. Together, they wander around doing good deeds and getting into all sorts of trouble. I prefer the first book, but parts of the second are suitably traumatic. The characters explore their histories and try to learn to live beyond them (though they don't always succeed). The plots are slow in a couple of places, but the characters are cool enough to cover for that, usually. Lackey's preoccupation with torture shows up again in the second book, but if you read through it, you get to a very sweet love story, and a connection to Valdemar.
Tarma and Kethry return in Oathblood, the third book in the "Vows and Honor" series. This is a collection of short stories about the pair, from their first meeting to the establishment of their school. All of the stories have been published before (a couple of them in previous "Vows and Honor" books), except for the mini-novella at the end, which is about Tarma, Kethry, and several of their students, including Kethry's oldest daughter. As is usually true of collections, some of the stories are better than others, but anyone who has a soft spot for this unlikely duo should consider picking it up. However, anyone who hasn't read the other two books should probably try them first, as they stand on their own much better than this one.
I like By the Sword more than the "Vows and Honor" series in terms of plot. It's the story of Kero, Kethry's granddaughter, who saves her brother's fiancee and finds herself becoming someone she never expected to be: a warrior. So she goes to Kethry and Tarma, now oldsters, to get training. Then she spends most of her life as part of various mercenary units. A truly complex character with good and bad points (and almost no torture scenes!), Kero really is one of Lackey's better creations. This book also contains critical plot developments at the end if you want to follow the overall political arc of Valdemar at war. It also sneaks in some of the old characters from Vanyel- see if you can spot them. I reccomend this one right after "Vanyel" and Black Gryphon.
The first trilogy ever published about this world is "Arrows", which is tailor-made for 13 or 14-year-olds. I don't quite know why it appeals so much to them, but it caught me at that age, too, so there must be something to it. Older readers may not like it as much. The trilogy begins with Arrows of the Queen, wherein Talia escapes from home by climbing onto the back of a white horse that appears one day on the road. As an abused child, Talya finds it almost impossible to realize that she has been Chosen by this horse (who is not a horse) to become one of the Heralds, the special assistants to the Queen. In Valdemar, a unique political system has arisen in which certain horses (known as Companions) have the intelligence of humans and can use telepathy. These horses Choose people they think are good at heart and who have (often overlooked) talents to offer the kingdom, and these people become a special class of priviledged yet hard-working servants of the country. Only a Herald can inherit the throne; only a Herald can be Steward of the Kingdom. But Talia doesn't feel much like a Herald, and she doesn't think she's cut out for the job.
In Arrow's Fall, Talia goes on her first mission away from the city. She is to ride circuit on the northern border of Valdemar with Kris, helping the people in whatever way she can (mostly by delivering mail). But her latent magic which was brought out by her Choosing is not yet under control, and at times it threatens to destroy her and those around her. The northern border also has its own defenses, and if it sees Talia as a threat, it might do away with her entirely.
Arrow's Flight wraps up the story and links it into the growing trouble with the country of Hardorn, on Valdemar's east border. As the Queen's Own, a special rank held by one Herald who can be trusted absolutely, it is Talia's job to prevent a war, or, if she cannot do that, to make certain that Valdemar wins with as little loss of life as possible. But Talia still has a martyr streak, and if she can save Valdemar by sacrificing herself, she'll do it willingly. This book contains some of the torture scenes that turn me off of Lackey's work, not because they are gruesome, but because they are self-pitying and not psychologically interesting.
"Mage Winds" (Winds of Fate): The eldest daughter of Queen Selenay (the story of her father and step-father having been told in By the Sword) is Elspeth. Once a willful, spoiled brat, she has turned into something of a superfluous princess. Though Chosen, she does not wish to Queen, much to everyone's relief. But what's a royal Herald out of the line of succession to do? Go on a quest, of course. Meanwhile, Darkwind K'Treva of the Tayledras has problems of his own with his father, so he's gone off into the woods to live alone. The fact that he and Elspeth are obviously fated to meet doesn't stop Lackey from taking most of the book to get there. Side characters include Skif, Elspeth's childhood friend, Nyara the cat-woman, and a pair of gryphons Darkwind is trying to protect. While this book contains interesting camios of familiar characters, Pelegirs oddities, and countries previously seen in other novels, it takes a bit too long to get to the point without truly surprising the reader along the way.
Winds of Change: The adolescent Elspeth is finally growing up, which is good, and she and Darkwind have started to discover that they are up against a truly powerful and evil mage, but the highlights of this book are the interations between Darkwind, Elspeth, and Firesong, the mage-healer brought in to help Darkwind's clan repair their hearthstone. Humorous and romantic situations endear the characters to the reader, and the plot becomes slightly unpredictable and intriguing, but only toward the end. The first half or so is taken up with very normal behavior and almost no angst- a drastic change for Lackey. Though this book was certainly better than the last one, it felt a bit like two different books, the first one of which could have been much shorter. At the end, I felt the book could have finished the entire plot in 50 or fewer pages, but that wouldn't make the series a trilogy, would it? The surprise introduction of another old favorite did not really add to the story, in my opinion, but this trilogy has had to depend on its characters more than its plot to get by so far, so perhaps that was Lackey's reasoning.
Winds of Fury: Having completed her training, Elspeth takes Darkwind back to Valdemar to meet her family. Of course, she brings Firesong with her to liven up the court a bit ^_^. However, the enemy they thought they had destroyed wasn't quite dead yet, and now he was helping Valdemar's old enemy Hardorn. Overall this book was at least as good as Winds of Change, since the characters were mature and the villian actually became somewhat complicated, a rare treat in a Lackey tale. If you've made it through the second book, please go ahead and read this one, as you may actually gain some sense of conclusion and satisfaction despite the nagging feeling that this entire trilogy was only written to set up the next two. On the strength of the newly mature Elspeth, the still-going-strong Darkwind, and the flamboyant Firesong, Lackey manages to build a story the reader can care about. Too bad it took three books to do it. If you like your Valdemar novels with plenty of plot, you'll enjoy it.
This world started out well, but it has gone downhill since. In it are books of Bardic Voices and Bardic Choices. Each book stands alone. It is a fantasy world with a powerful Church and a practically non-existant king who allows smaller kingdoms to run themselves. There are also elves, ghosts, and gypsies galore. In short, a fairly standard fantasy setting. All of the books contain romantic plots.
The first book, The Lark and the Wren, was pretty good. It was the story of a young woman, a musician, trapped in a mundane life she hates. To escape it, she goes up to Ghost Hill, a haunted place where no one has spent the night and lived. There, she challenges the ghost to a contest- if she can fiddle all night and keep him entertained, he owes her a bag of gold. If she can't, she owes him her life. But this is just the beginning of her wild life as a Free Bard trying to fight the control of the Church which wants to do away with all magic entirely. It also contains a cute love story. This book is a decent read with a sympathetic main character, but not as good as some of Lackey's earlier novels.
The Robin and the Kestral is the next one in the series, and it is not quite so good. In it, two characters from the first book go off on a quest of their own, running from the church and people who want to kill them. Along the way, they find a man with the strangest carriage in the world- it's his house, and it seems to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. He's from a near-mythical city where machinery is everywhere. Together they discover a small kingdom in deep trouble, and must untangle a dangerous plot before they become its targets as well. Unfortunately, this was not a particularly memorable book, so I can't really recall anything else to say about it.
The Eagle and the Nightingales was a bit of a disappointment, given the character set-up of Nightingale in the earlier books, but it took the plot of The White Gryphon and did a much better and more believable job with it. It also had nice interludes, and I suppose the characters were pretty decent. It just wasn't a crowning achievement for the series, though it works as a nice bedtime story on winter nights. It also contains the requisite torture scene, mercifully brief. Plot-wise, it follows Nightingale on her trip to a new city, where she finds herself somehow embroiled in political mishaps and trying to defend Eagle, a Bard from the race of bird-men.
Finally, I read A Cast of Corbies and almost wished I hadn't. Set in a city's theater with both normal players and Bards, it's a mystery of sorts (like all of them, come to think of it). Someone doesn't want the theater to succeed, and that same person seems to have something against the mistress of the local Duke. Though a few of the minor characters are pretty cool, the whole thing has the feel of a fantasy soap opera, complete with grief, moaning, wailing, and a couple that should have gotten together from day one except they were busy biting each other's heads off. I have to say I don't particularly recommend this one, though if you just loved the other Bardic novels, go ahead.
This is an urban fantasy world that might as well have been our own (that might be the intention). The settings are extremely accurate in local terms. The focus of this world is on Elves, who have adapted to our times and live half Underhill and half in the mortal realm. They seem to enjoy stock racing, while the bad guys like kiddie porn. Interesting, isn't it?
There are some pretty decent books in this series- and some real bummers. I've never quite figured out why. The ones with a real purpose and strongly character-based plots seem to do well enough, but the cookie-cutter plots of some of them get on my nerves. After about 20 or so Lackey books, though, you tend to be able to predict them to a painfully surprising degree; therefore, I tend to praise those that I can't predict much more than those I can.
The Bedlam Bard series begins with A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (with Ellen Guon and Larry Dixon). Eric, a lonely Bard, is out playing flute one evening when his world starts doing some funny things, including dumping on his hands a beatiful Elven prince named Cory, who was trapped in a grove. However, Eric soon realizes that the prince is competition for Beth, the witch who is helping them both solve the mystery of Cory's entrapment and the dilemma of his people. The ending would have been a surprise if it hadn't been so heavily foreshadowed. The characters were really the only interesting part of the story. If you like group relationships, go ahead and pick it up. Otherwise, skip it.
The sequel is Summoned to Tourney, a much darker story about Eric and company after they have fled to San Francisco. An evil music has been awakened, and it wants Eric to play to complete the fate of the city- a fate worse than death. While the descriptions of music are good and the horror is scary in a couple of places, this book disappointed me because it cut out the strong relationship angle that was the saving grace for its predecessor. Sure, there's more of a plot here, but it's hard to get worked up about a plot with only one strong (slightly neurotic, slightly self-pitying) character to hold the reader's attention.
One of the earlier SerrAted Edge books is Born to Run (with Larry Dixon), starring Tannim and three runaway kids who have survived on the streets of Savannah through prostitution. Some evil elves are into kiddie porn, and they want the kids for their movies, while Tannim will do anything to save them. While I enjoyed the details about Georgia and Savannah (which were mostly accurate), I find it hard to believe some of the action of the story, based on the layout of the city. I can't make this argument about every Lackey book, since I don't know ever city she sets them in well enough, but this one has surface detail but missed the character of the setting completely. It's a cheap thrill, dark brain candy sort of book. If you're addicted to the stuff, go ahead.
The best book of the SerrAted Edge series was Chrome Circle (with Larry Dixon). This time, Tannim is hit on his home turf, while he's at home in the midwest visiting his parents. The descriptions of the setting are much better than in the last book. Also, Tannim finally gets a strength of character that I can admire. The plot involves some scheming but friendly kitsune (Japanese fox-spirits), a lengthy trip Underhill, and a potential girlfriend for Tannim, if her father doesn't kill him first.... Overall, I reread this book once, so it was worth buying, doubly so for those who like Lackey brain candy. I still would not recommend it to those who miss her old style.
Diana Tregard is a detective of the supernatural. As a Romance novelist, she has time to wander all over the country and help people with their little problems. The two books I read from this series were both bad in their own ways, but I have heard that the first book, Children of the Night, is much better. I haven't read it, so I don't know.
In the second book, Burning Waters, Diana goes to Texas to see a friend of hers in law enforcement. He actually turns out to be a pretty cool character. Apparently, someone has been sacrificing people in the area in particularly gruesome ways. The officer is concerned that a new cult is in the area. The book becomes progressively more gory as the protagonists get closer to the truth. While Lackey tries to keep the reader from empathizing with the victims too much, she can't keep us from being ill at the amount and brutality of the violence she describes. Although the research is excellent and the characterization was fairly decent (better for some characters than others), the novel left a bad taste in my mouth. If you don't mind gore (or even like it), and if you really like reading about the Southwest, Mexico, and Native Americans from that region, you will probably like this book. If blood makes you queasy, stay far, far away.
Jinx High is the third book, and it is a sad rendition of the usual "something's gone terribly wrong at this 80's style high school" genre. This novel was not as bloody as the second one, but it had more twisted sexuality. It also raised my hackles, but not because I was scared. Diana enters the scene when she is invited to give a lecture on professional writing to the student body. She makes contact with some outcasts, and they explain what they've seen. The bad guy is completely evil with almost no complications (the complications, in fact, make her even more evil). The only redeeming feature of this book for me was the ending. But it didn't really make up for the predictability of the rest of the story.
The Fire Rose: Rosalind was a poor young lady, well-educated but without prospects in a time when few women worked outside traditional occupations. When she receives a request to become a reader for a mysterious employer, she accepts. Jason, her employer, has his own problems. He refuses to allow her to see him, letting her read through an old-fashioned intercom instead. Basically, this is a retelling of beauty and the beast in a reasonably interesting and new way, though I still think McKinley did it better. Magical beings, a truly evil enemy, and some good, old-fashioned history help flesh out the book, but the main characters were not quite as sympathetic as I would have wished. Nevertheless, this is worth your time if you're a history buff or a B&B junkie.
Set in the Wing Commander game universe, Freedom Flight with Ellen Guon was greeted by many fans of the game and series as one of the best books ever written in it. On the other hand, I found it hard to drop into the series without knowing any of the other material, including the game, and my perceptions of the characters suffered because of this. The story focuses on a planet being attacked by the Kilrathi Empire, and it contains the seeds of several good ideas, including a reasonably interesting alien species that never gets enough sociological or psychological attention. This is definitely an action adventure. The plot moves at a relatively fast pace, and I didn't have a problem with the blending of Lackey's and Guon's styles (in fact, they seem to work well together). In general, however, I found this book every bit as shallow as large portions of game-derived fiction. If that's your thing, go ahead, but I recommend getting some of the first few books under your belt first.
Yet another game-derived work is Fortress of Frost and Fire with Ru Emerson, based on the game "The Bard's Tale". This was rather better than Freedom Flight, if only because the characters weren't as cookie-cutter. Also, there was a reasonable amount of interaction between the characters, giving the traditional quest-group a reasonable fascimile of believability. The story itself is about a Master Bard who used to be a Necromancer (and will always be a Dark Elf) and his young apprentice Gawaine. The bardling wants to find Truth; the Bard wants to shake such romantic notions from his head as fast as possible. They set out in search of a particular adventure, and step right in it from the beginning, with a motley band of ex-slaves. Yes, most of the plot was very predictable, but some of the specific solutions the characters ame up with were actually interesting, and some of the running gags were pretty funny. In a nutshell, it's game-based fiction, but certainly not the worst of its class.
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