Jolene

It's been quite some time since I read anything by Mercedes Lackey, but while wandering around the bargain book section of Chapters, I stumbled on Jolene, the 15th book in her Elemental Masters series. I've only ever read one other book in her Elemental Masters series, The Gates of Sleep, so I'm not super familiar with the series, but I thought that Jolene sounded interesting and decided to give it a try (The Gates of Sleep was a long time ago, too - I wasn't writing this blog yet when I read it).

Jolene tells the story of Anna May Lewis, the daughter of a coal miner who has been sick since she was young. Her Aunt Jinny sends for her, telling her parents that she can heal Anna if Anna will come and stay with her for awhile. After a bit of convincing on Anna's mom's part, her dad agrees. And so off Anna goes, leaving the only home she's ever known. Under her aunt's house, Anna discovers that she has magic ("the Glory," as her aunt calls it), and Jinny starts training Anna in the ways of magic and potion-making (as well as farming). Along the way, Anna meets Josh, a young carver who lives next door and who takes a fancy to her, as well as Jolene, a mysterious red-headed enchantress who starts to teach Anna a few magical things as well. But when Billie McDaran, a local mine foreman with a twisted Glory of his own, takes notice of Anna's power, it will take the help of her friends and her magic to outwit him.

The one thing I realized fairly early on was that the main plot wasn't going to happen until the end of the book. I'm pretty sure that's what happened in The Gates of Sleep as well (though it's been a long time so I don't really remember The Gates of Sleep). But most of the book was Anna and her aunt figuring out their lives together, then Anna learning from people, and finally Anna and Josh getting closer and starting to court. I don't think Billie McDaran was even mentioned until about halfway through the book, and at that point he had no idea Anna even existed. So that was kind of annoying because it felt like the book's blurb wasn't completely honest about the story (even though the things it mentions do eventually happen, kind of - Billie McDaran's interest is very quick and sudden, there was no real build-up to it happening). 

Another thing that needs to be said: the accents are really, really annoying. Most of the time, people in the book talk with a really thick accent that can be tough to read (there were a few times where I was left puzzling out what someone was saying). Most of the time it's understandable, but I think a few select words would have better gotten the accent across, rather than the whole, thick, every-word version that Lackey went with. The book lost a star on my Goodreads rating for the accent alone, it was that annoying (if you're interested, I gave it a 4/5, rounding up from 3.5).

I did enjoy reading Jolene. There were some interesting things happening in the story, and I liked the characters. But it wasn't really anything exciting - it mostly felt like the story of a young woman falling in love (wow did she pine for Josh when she couldn't see him for a day or two) while also learning a few useful skills. I remember feeling like that with The Gates of Sleep, too; for that reason, I much prefer Lackey's Heralds of Valedmar books to the Elemental Masters ones that I've read.

In Celebration of Lammas Night

I can't remember exactly why I wanted to read In Celebration of Lammas Night.  But a long time ago I thought it sounded great and ordered it from online.  Then a few weeks ago I decided to finally give it a read.  The idea of this anthology is that Mercedes Lackey wrote a ballad a long time ago about a lady wizard who stays in the house of a male wizard who passed away.  Her presence awakens the spirit of the male wizard, who courts her.  In one of his spell books she discovers a spell to banish him.  But on the next page is an identical spell that has one different word; this second spell will bring him back to life instead.  Both spells must be cast on Lammas night.  And so she must choose.  Lackey's friends loved the ballad, and originally decided to write endings to it (the original song is ambigious).  But then they decided to write full stories instead and collect them into this anthology.  The whole thing sounds rather like Apocalypse Madness, so I was definitely intrigued as I began reading.

Unfortunately, these stories weren't really inspired by the ballad; almost all of them were the ballad in prose form.  They don't really add much to the story except maybe choosing whether to bring him back to life (most of them) or banish him (a few).  It makes the whole anthology a very tedious read.  So tedious that I had to split it up with stories from a different anthology a bit, just to make it through.  The absolute worst one was actually Lackey's own story, because it literally was just a prose version of the ballad, right down to ending without making a choice.  I usually love Lackey's writing, so this was extra disappointing because it was from her. 

I have no intention of going through all of the stories because really, they're basically the same thing.  A few of them made the lady wizard Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest ("Miranda" by Ru Emerson and "Miranda's Tale" by Jason Henderson).  That was interesting the first time, but I was bored of it when it came up again (even though the second story was arguably the better of the two).  A lot of the stories also had unnamed characters, which was rather annoying.  Stories with named characters tended to be better.

The highlights of In Celebration of Lammas Night were "Demonheart" by Mark Shepherd because it was told from the male spirit wizard's perspective (he was a slave to a demon named Demonheart who wanted the two of them to mate so it could claim their child's body).  "Sunflower" by Jody Lynn Nye was interesting because there was no external evil; the lady wizard's choice was completely due to the spirit wizard's character.  "Summer Storms" by Christie Golden was awesome because it didn't end with her making a choice; I wish it had been fleshed out into a full novel.  "The Captive Song" by Josepha Sherman had a very interesting twist to it that I enjoyed (she was courted by both a demon and a wizard and ended up choosing to bring the demon back because he was war weary like she was).  "Midsummer Folly" by Elizabeth Waters was a lot of fun!  A betrothed wandering mage ended up bringing the spirit wizard back for someone else.  What's more, he had lied to the woman who loved him, so she brought him back with the caveat that he needed to treat the other woman right.  "The Mage, The Maiden, and the Hag" by S.M. Stirling and Jan Stirling was easily the best of the lot.  This one had the lady wizard possessed by evil; the evil curses the male wizard to die.  It was so good, that I went and bought S.M. Stirling's short story collection on my Kindle after finishing reading it!  "Circle of Ashes" by Stephanie D Shaver took place in what felt like a very detailed world.  I would love to read a full novel set in this world (unfortunately nothing exists yet). :(  And "Lady of the Rock" by Diana L Paxson was set in our world, which made for a very interesting take on the story.  

While these eight stories were good, the other ten were not that great.  Coupled with that was the fact that even regarding the good stories, I was basically just reading the same story over and over again.  Some versions may have been great, others good, but most were mediocre.  Overall I found this anthology disappointing and didn't really think it was worth reading (although I found out about S.M. Stirling so that was a plus!)

Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar

I've had Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar for years. I loved reading Sword of Ice, which was the first collection, so when I saw this one (and pretty much all of the others in this series), I bought it. But then it sat on my shelf for years (this one was published in 2003 - I have probably had it for pretty much that entire time) along with the other ones.

"Errold's Journey" was written by a 10 year old. I thought it was a great story for someone so young. A group of people fleeing a mage war. They journey far away. A mage storm hits them even there. They make an alliance with newly changed cats and found Errold's Grove.

"The Cat Who Came to Dinner" is about a Vkandis Sun-priest named Reulan. When Reulan is sitting down to eat dinner after lighting the Night Candle, he is joined by a large, cream-coloured cat. Very quickly, the cat becomes his companion, accompanying him everywhere. But after it saves Reulan's life, the mtstery deepens: what exactly is this cat? Of course, I'm very familiar with the world of Valdemar, and knew exactly what was going on with the cat. But this was still an excellent story. :)

"Winter Death" was a long story. A bit hard to get into. But once I did, I loved it! It's the story of Kayla, a woman from the North who lost everything. She is Chosen by her Companion (whom she has long known in dreams) to save the Kingdom from a mysterious illness. I actually wish this had been a full novel rather than just a 50ish page story.

"A Herald's Rescue" is about Santar, a young stableboy who works at his father's stables with his six brothers and one sister. A Companion shows up without a rider and drags Santos off to rescue his Herald. Santor wants to wait to get others to help too, but at the Companion's insistence, Santor goes alone. This was a quick read that I really enjoyed.

"In the Eye of the Beholder" is another short one. But it's a really fun story all the same. Marra's village was burned by a lord named Darick. She manages to escape and makes her way through the woods, trying to find some authority to report the atrocity to. But she discovers she's being followed by someone...or some thing. And when that thing saves her from a monster's attack, she decides she has to help it.

"Trance Tower Garrison" is about the northernmost garrison in Valdemar. The garrison is under siege from an unknown army. They've sent people to warn the capital, but after a month has passed it's unlikely anyone got through. Then the night watch sees a white horse circling the garrison. And the defenders decide to fight their way through the invaders in the hopes of uniting the Companion with its Chosen.

I stopped reading this anthology part way through April of 2015. I finally picked it up again yesterday with the intention of reading one story before going to sleep. "Starhaven." "Starhaven" is about the Herald Vess who returns to the destroyed village of Starhaven in the Pelagir Mountains. He's in the area to investigate a healer girl. But something is not right with her gift... This one started off a bit oddly but it was super good! I really should not have waited like a year and a half to read it!

Of course, after finishing "Starhaven" I just kept going. "Rebirth" is about a Herald mage who gives his life for his queen. As he dies he is given a vision of her soul being destroyed and everyone else in Valdemar being enslaved. So he steals some time to return to her and save her once again. "Rebirth" was just okay. I wasn't super enthralled with the afterlife world. But I did feel like I enjoyed the story in the end. That Herald was willing to give everything to save the woman he loved.

"Brock" is the story of a Herald named Jors who meets a Moonling named Brock who thinks he's also a Herald. The townspeople make fun of him, telling him he can't be a Herald for any number of reasons. But as Jors discovers, not all Heralds wear their Whites on the outside and are Chosen by a Companion. "Brock" is an awesome story by Tanya Huff showing how we all need to look passed a person's appearance.

I have to say, I'm pretty sure I read "Brock" before. The ending, where the Companions always seek him out even though he has never been Chosen was so familiar to me! But I'm not at all sure where I would have read it (it was also published in Tanya Huff's short story collection Finding Magic, but I don't recall reading that).

Anyway, "True Colors" is about Rin, an eighteen-year-old conman impersonating a Herald in the north of Valdemar. When he finds a couple of children on the road being chased by brigands, he is given a choice: save himself, or help them. Choosing to help them changes his life forever. "True Colors" is a cute story (and the ending also seemed rather familiar...).

"Touches the Earth" is a quick story about Anya, a Healer in training who hasn't been able to use her Gift to its full potential. When a girl from her village goes missing, Anya and her teacher go to find her. Their journey of course results in Anya finally surrendering herself to her gift.

"Icebreaker" is the story of Elidor, a Journeyman Scribe. After his family perished in a fire he was sent to the Library at Talastyre. Elidor longed to be Chosen by a Companion. But when a Companion comes and gets Elidor to follow him and help save his Chosen, Elidor realizes that maybe a Herald's life isn't for him; maybe he is exactly where he needs to be.

The final story, "Sun in Glory," is by Mercedes Lackey herself. It was the only one I actually read today. "Sun in Glory" is about the Queen's Own Herald, Talia, becoming a Priestess of Vkandis the Sun Lord. Vkandis is the God worshiped in Karse, Valdemar's bitter enemy. But with the crowning of a new Son of the Sun (who happens to be a woman), Karse is trying to root out the corruption in the ranks of its Sun Priests and reforge old alliances (particularly since together, Valdemar and Karse will be able to stand against a grave threat, but separately they will both perish). So the new Sun of the Son sends her close friend to make an offer of peace between them. Vkandis himself suggested that the Queen's Own Herald be made into one of his Priestesses to actually cement this tie between the two nations. "Sun in Glory" was told from Alberich's point of view, which was interesting but particularly apt. Alberich is one of my favourite characters, a Karsite who becomes a Herald of Valdemar after his Companion smuggles himself into Karse, and then gets Alberich out of Karse. So when the Son of the Sun's envoy approaches Alberich, there's a lot more going on since he may finally be able to go home without being killed as a traitor. I have to agree with many of the other reviewers of this book on Goodreads; I wish this story had been longer (it honestly could have been a full novel in its own right).

But like a few of these other stories later in the collection, "Sun in Glory" seemed so familiar.  So now, having finished reading the anthology, I'm wondering if I've read it before?  I honestly don't remember doing so though.  But whatever, I've definitely read it now!

Sun in Glory was an entertaining enough read.  I don't know why exactly I put it down when I did, since the majority of the remaining stories were really, really good.  Some of the stories in this collection aren't amazing (I'm looking at you, "Rebirth") but overall the collection is pretty solid.  It was wonderful to be back in Valdemar after so long (I haven't actually read anything set in Valdemar since before this blog was created in 2008!)  And I was glad to revisit some of my "old friends" like Alberich in "Sun in Glory" at the very end.  :)

The House of the Four Winds

Huh.  So apparently it's been over two years since I last read something by Mercedes Lackey.  While you can't tell from this blog, seeing how I've only reviewed four of her books here, she's one of my favourite authors.  That being said, I've never read any of the books she co-wrote with James Mallory (The Enduring Flame, The Dragon Prophecy, etc).  Not for any specific reason.  I was just super caught up in first Valdemar, then the 500 Kingdoms.  (I also didn't really like the Owl Mage Trilogy, which she co-wrote with someone, so I wasn't super keen on jumping into another series that was co-written by someone else, even knowing that James Mallory was NOT the one who co-wrote the Owl Mage Trilogy).  But of course, The House of the Four Winds caught my eye.  It has a super attractive cover (I found this noted in a few Goodreads reviews I read earlier today).  And it sounded really great: a princess pretending to be a boy goes on a swashbuckling adventure!  Featuring pirates!  Mutiny!  Love!  All that fun stuff.

Clarice Swansgaarde is the oldest princess of twelve. Her country is tiny, and giving all twelve daughters a dowry would bankrupt the treasury. So her family agrees that on their eighteenth birthday, each princess will go into the world and make her own fortune with her chosen skill. In Clarice's case, she has chosen to master the sword. And so she decides to become a sword instructor. But first she wants to have adventures in order to build her reputation. Deciding travel will be difficult as a lady, she masquerades as Clarence Swann. Heading to the New World on adventure, she books passage on Captain Sprunt's ship where she meets Dominick, the navigator.

Although Clarice and Dominick become fast friends, the voyage is difficult. Sprunt has been inciting the crew to mutiny. And when they do revolt, and Clarice kills him to save Dominick, the remainder of the crew must turn pirate to survive. Knowing that they are in danger if they head home, they decide to follow a magical map Sprunt had, they find themselves at a mysterious pirate port called the House of the Four Winds on the island of Dorado. And they will have to use all of their wits to survive, especially when Shamal, the Lady of the House enchants Dominick and takes them all to the ends of the earth for a magical treasure that will make her the most powerful mage in the world.

I'm not going to lie: I enjoyed The House of the Four Winds, but it didn't wow me. Although it's not a long book (about 330 pages), it feels like it takes a long time to get to where it's going. The characters all seemed rather mediocre in character. For a swashbuckling tale, not a whole lot of swashbuckling really took place. And while the stuff with Shamal was somewhat interesting, in the end it was rather confusing and somewhat fell flat, much like the end did. I would've loved to know what happened once the crew got back to a civilised port (and what exactly Clarice would tell her parents).

Oh yeah, and how exactly did Clarice make it through almost the entire book without ANYONE realizing she was a girl? I thought that at least Dr. Chapman would've figured it out!!!

So overall, while enjoyable enough to read, The House of the Four Winds is by no means a favourite of mine. It didn't even make me want to read any further books in the series (if/when they come out).

Beauty and the Werewolf

I knew when I started reading Mercedes Lackey's Beauty and the Werewolf that there was a very good chance I wouldn't really like it.  A friend of mine at work read it and told me the main character is pretty annoying.  When I first started reading, I thought Isabella (or Bella for short) wouldn't be too bad. I mean, she was taking care of her stepsisters and seemed to have a good relationship with them (which is very much at odds with a fairy tale type story, especially one set in the land where the Tradition pushes your life into a tale for good or ill).  But then Bella gets bitten by a werewolf and the king sends her to live in seclusion with said werewolf for three months in case she was infected.  And that's when she starts getting really whiny and annoying!  Whenever she distracts herself in some fashion, she wasn't too bad.  But whenever she stopped to think, she'd just start feeling sorry for herself.  It was really annoying to read that sort of thing over and over again for the first half of the book.

Another issue I had was with the villain.  It was super obvious who it was pretty much from the beginning.  I kept hoping that I was wrong, that something would happen and the villain would turn out to be someone else.  But no such luck. 

I feel like I should give a bit more of the plot here, but there really isn't much to say.  The beginning is a bit Red Riding Hood, where Bella goes to visit a wise woman in the woods (conveniently named Granny), who trains her in herb lore and the like.  The werewolf attacks her on the way home.  Then, as I already mentioned, she is sent (or "kidnapped" as she keeps calling it) to the home of Duke Sebastian, the werewolf who bit her.  The house is full of invisible servants who can only speak by writing things on chalkboards.  The only other human in the house is Eric, Sebastian's half-brother (unacknowledged by their father) who works as the Gamekeeper and keeps everyone off the land so Sebastian won't accidentally kill someone should he break free.  Bella had a couple of run-ins with him before coming to the house.  So now Bella has to adjust to being away from her household and family, learning to live with Sebastian and Eric (again, for only three months if she doesn't become a werewolf herself).

I gave this book only 2 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.  I originally gave it a 3 because I like Lackey's writing style.  But this is not one of her better books.  The Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms overall has been kind of hit and miss, and in my opinion this was the worst of the misses.  The plot was too predictable in most regards (I think the biggest mystery for me revolved around the invisible servants, and that didn't really develop throughout the book) and I couldn't stand Bella through a good chunk of the book (as M- says in her review of the book on Goodreads: "the heroine is a spoiled manipulative child with flagrant Mary-Sue tendencies," which is unfortunately quite true).  Unless you're a super dedicated Lackey fan, you'll probably want to give this one a miss.

The Sleeping Beauty

After reading Snow Crash, I had to read something that I knew would be all around more appealing to me. So today I read Mercedes Lackey's The Sleeping Beauty, which I have been hoarding since it was published last year. And now that I have the sixth book, Beauty and the Werewolf, now was a good time to get caught up with my reading!

The Sleeping Beauty is the retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and the story of Sigurd and Brynhild all rolled into one (with even more fun!) It begins with the Princess of Eltaria, Rosamund, fleeing an evil Huntsman and being enslaved by dwarves. Rosamund's mother was killed and her father hastily remarried an "evil" sorceress. Rosamund believes that the Huntsmen was sent to kill her by her new Stepmother.

Unknown to Rosamund (and the Kingdom), the new Stepmother is actually Lily, the Fairy Godmother of Eltaria. Lily married the King in an effort to stop the Tradition, the magic of the land, actually forcing Eltaria's king down a dark path. While maintaing the ruse to fool the Tradition, Lily works to save the Princess. But all is almost foiled by the appearance of two men: a roguish middle son, and a Hero who is trying to escape his Doom (and the woman who keeps appearing, asleep in a ring of fire....) Add to that the unexpected death of the King, which leaves Rosamund and Lily scrambling to save Eltaria from invasion.

As usual, Lackey has a wonderful assortment of characters. Rosamund and Lily are both strong heroines; I loved reading about their adventures. Siegfried and Leopold were a lot of fun to follow. And I can't leave out mentioning Luna, the unicorn with the lisp!

The Sleeping Beauty was another hilarious romp through the Five Hundred Kingdoms. I absolutely loved it (especially the end of Chapter 14! I laughed extremely hard when I read that!); The Sleeping Beauty was exactly what I needed to read after being so disappointed by Snow Crash.

Gwenhwyfar: the White Spirit

It's been a long while since I have read a Mercedes Lackey book (in fact it's been even longer than I thought- the last one I read was The Snow Queen, back in 2008 when I started this blog). I've been hoarding The Sleeping Beauty, which is the fifth book in her Five Hundred Kingdoms series (side note: I just found out the sixth book is coming this fall! I'm excited!) But my copy of The Sleeping Beauty is hard covered, so I didn't want to bring it out to camp. But then I discovered that Gwenhwyfar was also on the List. And so, since my copy is soft-covered, Gwenhwyfar accompanied me out to camp.

Gwenhwyfar tells the story of Arthur's third queen (by a twist of fate, all three have the same name). Gwenhwyfar is the third of four daughters to King Lleudd Ogrfan Gawr. As a child she has Power, and assumes she will follow in her mother's footsteps by joining the Ladies of the Cauldron. But there is another fate in store for her. For Gwen is also blessed by Epona, the horse goddess. On the advice of her hero, a female chariot driver named Braith, Gwen finds herself training to be a warrior. She falls into this life with a passion, determined to become one of her father's war chiefs.

But it is only after she has achieved all that she dreamt of that fate conspires to make her Arthur's third wife. As the daughter of a king, she always knew that such could be her fate, and so she bows to it. But how can a warrior turn her back on the life she loves?

It took me a bit to really get into Gwenhwyfar. But once I did, it was well worth the read. Gwen is a wonderful character who I really found myself empathizing with, especially when she was required to become more womanly as the High Queen. While I am not a warrior, I understood what she felt when she was confined within the palace. Someone like her will never be happy, no matter how comfortable and pretty the cage is. She needs to be free.

Something that Arthur says near the end beautifully summed this up: "I tried to make you - what you were not. I took a warhorse, and tried to fit it to a plow" (397). Gwen tries - and fails - to be what she is not in order to please everyone else. And in the end this fails because she is not meant for ploughing.

Gwenhwyfar was a beautiful book, especially for anyone who has ever struggled with trying to be something they are not.

The Snow Queen

I finished Mercedes Lackey's The Snow Queen last night at about 3:30 am. I just didn't want to put it down, I enjoyed it so much! It was a really happy read, a love story, where everything turns out alright in the end (well, it IS based off of Fairy Tales....most of which turn out alright in the end). There were some parts that were really predictable (a lot of Mercedes Lackey books are like that), but others really took me by surprise. I also really liked that this was the first Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms that featured a different Godmother than Elena (although Elena is still in the book of course). This was an excellent read...and it makes me want to reread the actual fairy tale The Snow Queen to see how much of it Lackey used!