Into the West

 Into the West (Founding of Valdemar #2) - Mercedes Lackey

Rating: 📚📚📚

Release Date: December 13, 2022

Synopsis: Baron Valdemar and his people have found a temporary haven, but it cannot hold all of them, or for long. Trouble could follow on their heels at any moment, and there are too many people for Crescent Lake to support. Those who are willing to make a further trek by barge on into the West will follow him into a wilderness depopulated by war and scarred by the terrible magics of a thousand years ago and the Mage Wars. But the wilderness is not as empty as it seems. There are potential friends and rapacious foes....

....and someone is watching them.

____________________________________________________

In the sequel to BEYOND, Mercedes Lackey picks up pretty much where Book 1 left off. Baron Kordas and his people have fled the Empire and are now looking for a new home where they aren't going to dispossess anyone already living there. Most of the book felt very much like a 'bridge' book, that awkward book between where things start and how things end that doesn't quite know how to keep up the pace. It is character driven, alternating between Kordas and Delia as each of them becomes used to their new lives on the move, how best to do what needs to be done in order to survive, and what their new role really is in everything. I liked seeing behind Kordas' facade: seeing his concerns and flaws and how very human he is, how unsure he is of what he's doing and how much trouble he has delegating things to others because of how much responsibility he feels. If you've read other trilogies in the Valdermar cannon you know that the myth of the first King is him being pretty much perfect, so it's good to see the human truth behind that myth. Delia was a bit more annoying for me. Her crush on Kordas felt forced, especially since he's married to her sister. But I liked seeing her growing up and coming into her own with her Gift.

The pace was really slow for about 3/4s of the book, with little side quests and plenty of repetitious speeches about who they should strive to be as a people along the way. Then, right when I didn't think I could handle anymore, BANG!, everything changed and I couldn't put the book down.

*Warning: Mild spoilers ahead*

A touch of 'deus ex machina' suddenly makes anyone familiar with the cannon reevaluate everything they've been reading when the HawkBrothers arrive with the perfect place for our refugees to live. If you haven't read the others, that's ok, you're mostly just missing 'Easter eggs'. Now things go from plodding to the more interesting how-to-turn-a-Vale-into-a-city, meeting people who use amazing amounts of magic, different sentient species, and you see how Valdemar is going to start coming together. 

I admit, I am still not a fan of Lackey's 'newer' style of writing, which uses a more relaxed writing style, more rambling and tangents, plenty of 'now's and 'well's, as if we are listening to someone talking or thinking out loud even when we aren't. But it has been her style for long enough now that I've learned to deal with it, even though I prefer her older writing style better. The basic plot is still interesting enough that I want to find out what happens and how it will happen.

I definitely recommend reading BEYOND first, as Book 1 in the series will help you get invested in the characters and their journey beforehand.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Bartered Brides

The Bartered Brides (Elemental Masters)- Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books/Penguin Group
Release Date: October 16, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: The threat of Moriarty is gone—but so is Sherlock Holmes.

Even as they mourn the loss of their colleague, psychic Nan Killian, medium Sarah Lyon-White, and Elemental Masters John and Mary Watson must be vigilant, for members of Moriarty’s network are still at large. And their troubles are far from over: in a matter of weeks, two headless bodies of young brides wash up in major waterways. A couple who fears for their own recently-wedded daughter hires the group to investigate, but with each new body, the mystery only deepens. 

The more bodies emerge, the more the gang suspects that there is dangerous magic at work, and that Moriarty’s associates are somehow involved. But as they race against the clock to uncover the killer, it will take all their talents, Magic, and Psychic Powers—and perhaps some help from a dearly departed friend—to bring the murderer to justice.

________________________________________________________________

Returning to the world of Elemental Magicians, psychics, and Sherlock Holmes, The Bartered Brides takes the series to its next logical step: what if Professor Moriarty had a necromancer in his organization and, after Reichenbach Falls, that necromancer tried to bring Moriarty back in a new body?  With Holmes in hiding to keep up the presence of being dead so he can track down remaining members of Moriarty's crew, it is up to the Watsons, Nan Killian, Sarah Lyon-White, the parrot Grey and the raven Neville to deal with a case Sherlock wouldn't be able to handle anyway.  But can they track down the villain who is murdering innocent girls to power seriously dark magic before he can bring the Napoleon of Crime back from the dead?

The idea behind The Bartered Brides is a classic, and fits perfectly into Lackey's Elemental/Holmes universe.  It also provides a good showcase for John and Mary Watson, who get overshadowed in the more 'traditional' Holmes world.  As Elemental Masters, John and Mary have always worked to deal with the cases Holmes couldn't, and to try to provide magical insight when his own cases seemed to need it.  Here they are recognized as powerful Masters in their elements, willing to take risks when needed and devoted to hunting down the man responsible for headless corpses turning up in the Thames.  Brides in particular also celebrates the close bond between them.

While John and Mary shine here, Nan and Sarah- the theoretical heroines of the series- fade a bit.  Unless they are using their particular talents (Nan as a mind reader, Sarah a medium) the two girls are pretty interchangeable in Brides.  They think the same way, act the same way, plot the same way, and half of the time I could only remember who was who because of the birds.  As brave and dedicated as all the heroes were, Brides pretty much stars the necromancer Spencer.  Our heroes chase leads and dead ends while Spencer gets all the action.  The reader is horrified by what Spencer is doing, and cheers his (eventual) failure, but he is still the stand out in the book.  I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen.  Which was also what our heroes were doing for most of the book.  With what seemed to me a rather uncharacteristically hurried ending, I didn't feel like I got quite the payoff I was hoping for.

Unlike Lackey's earlier books (The Black Gryphon for example) Brides spends most of its time wandering.  Loosely written, with largely mediocre and forgettable characters (although I greatly enjoyed meeting Caro!), this was not one of Lackey's best efforts.  Devoted Mercedes Lackey fans will be willing to spend an afternoon with these familiar characters and in this familiar world, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for those new to the works of a usually stellar author.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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.

___________________________________________________________________

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! 

Closer to the Chest

Closer to the Chest (The Herald Spy #3)- Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books
Release Date: October 4, 2016

Rating (Out of 5):
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Herald Mags, the King of Valdemar’s Herald-Spy, has been developing a clandestine network of young informants who operate not only on the streets of the capital city of Haven, but also in the Great Halls and kitchens of the wealthy and highborn.  In his own established alternate personas, Mags observes the Court and the alleys alike, quietly gathering information to keep Haven and the Kingdom safe.
 
His wife Amily, is growing into her position as the King’s Own Herald, though she is irritated to encounter many who still consider her father, Herald Nikolas, to be the real King’s Own. Nonetheless, she finds it increasingly useful to be underestimated, for there are dark things stirring in the shadows of Haven andup on the Hill.  Someone has discovered many secrets of the women of the Court and the Collegia—and is using those secrets to terrorize and bully them.  Someone is targeting the religious houses of women, too, leaving behind destruction and obscene ravings. 
 
Mags and Amily take steps to minimize the damage while using both magic and wits to find the evildoer.  But just as they appear to be on the verge of success, the letter-writer tires of terror and is now out for blood.  Mags and Amily will have to track down someone who leaves few clues behind and thwart whatever plans have been set in motion, and quickly—before terror turns to murder.

_______________

Closer to the Chest follows Herald Mags and his wife Herald Amily as they grow into their roles within the King's Court.  The roles of not only Heralds, but Herald-Spy and King's Own.  They are thrown out of their depth with a new mystery: someone writing Poison Pen letters to women at Court.  Things get even more serious when it seems that the same mysterious writer is destroying religious houses devoted to women.  Will they catch the mysterious villain before things escalate to murder?

People who have read Lackey's Collegium Chronicles in the Valdemar series (Foundation, Intrigues, Changes, Redoubt, and Bastion) will already be familiar with almost all of the characters.  That series followed Mags and his friends as they came to the Collegia for school and, in Harry Potter-like fashion, had adventures that shaped them into the adults we see in The Herald Spy series.  That said, there are definitely references to events that a reader starting off with Closer to the Chest will not get.  I don't think it would affect enjoyment of the story, although probably going back and reading the Collegium Chronicles series (as well as the first two Herald Spy books) would enhance Closer to the Chest.

The Valdemar series continues to have everything a fantasy reader would want to see: magic and mystery; royalty, nobility, and peasants working together (or not!); and, of course, the magical, horse-like Companions.  Closer to the Chest is a bit slower paced than Lackey's usual books and has a more relaxed style of writing than her earlier works.  I find I still prefer her earlier books to these later ones with the different writing style, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying them.  Chest contained more repetition than I think was necessary- there are only so many times I need to be told that this was the hottest heat wave in memory for instance.  

However, Closer to the Chest was a fun, light read.  I enjoyed following characters I already knew and watching them grow into their new roles as adults and their new responsibilities, and when the mysterious Poison Pen letters begin to escalate to worse and worse things the mystery picked up and got interesting.  Fans of Mercedes Lackey will enjoy returning to the world of Haven.  Fantasy lovers and Harry Potter fans looking for their next series will enjoy a good introduction to Mercedes Lackey- and hopefully get hooked into reading the rest of the Valdemar saga! 

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.