Black Gryphon

The Black Gryphon (Mage Wars Book 1)- Mercedes Lackey
DAW/Penguin Group
Release Date: January 1, 1995

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realm--a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar. 

Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho's Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his own--cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them. And when one of Urtho's Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar's common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho's powerful Spell of Silence.

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Before Valdemar, there were the mages.  Urtho, the Mage of Silence, created wonderful new creatures like gryphons and seeks knowledge to help others. The Mage Maar seeks power above all things.  Slowly Maar has taken over lands and people, until only those who stand with Urtho are left.  The Black Gryphon takes place at the end of this war, as people and gryphons try to claim small moments of joy and peace among the relentless grind of war and death. Skandranon, the Black Gryphon, and his close friend Amberdrake serve in Urtho's armies in their own ways.  Skan on the front lines, fighting the enemies and getting into and out of impossibly dangerous situations; Amberdrake among the Healers, working to keep mind, body, and soul together for the fighters. But among those loyal to Urtho are traitors, and even the Black Gryphon and the Mage of Silence may not be enough to stop Maar's terrible forces.

 Focusing on those trying to create lives in the midst of death, Black Gryphon shows both the best and the worst humans have in them.  Amberdrake in particular is a deeply sympathetic character, trying to bear his own emotional burdens as well as those others have confided in him, working to remain strong when grief or exhaustion overwhelm him. Seeing behind the facade Amberdrake and Skan show the world, you see how true leaders and good people are forged in the heart of adversity. 

 The Black Gryphon is a fast-paced, deeply emotional, and tightly written adventure. A fantasy novel both high fantasy lovers and those new to the genre will appreciate, and a book that stands up to many re-readings and the test of time.  Among Lackey's best!