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Merecedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite fantasy authors, but I've been slightly disappointed with some of her recent novels. As mentioned in my previous review, I found Beauty and the Werewolf okay but slightly meh. And I just finished reading the latest book in her Valdemar universe, Redoubt, the fourth book in the Collegium Chronicles trilogy.
While I did enjoy it, I found it slightly frustrating, since an entire chapter consists of material lifted pretty much verbatim from the first book. There is some justification for it: the main character Mags is having a series of drug-induced nightmares in which he is reliving his childhood as a slave in the mines before he was Chosen by his Companion and rescued from that life. I get it that Lackey wants us to feel Mags's horror of being trapped in that hellish part of his past, but it goes on for way too long; it kind of felt like the endless camping trip in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, except that at least JKR wasn't recycling over twenty pages of old material from a previous book. And apparently Lackey has done something similar in Home from the Sea, the latest book in her Elemental Masters series. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but reviewers on Amazon have complained that it contains a significant amount of material from an earlier book in the series, The Wizard of London. (Two of the characters in Home from the Sea first appeared in that book). Some of those reviewers have accused Lackey of lazy writing and complained about feeling cheated by the amount of recycled material. I certainly don't think that Lackey is deliberately trying to cheat her fans--perhaps it might just be a poor stylistic choice, putting in too much background info for new readers who might be picking up these books without having read the previous ones? Or just getting carried away and carrying on Mags's nightmare sequence for too long when just a few pages would have sufficed to get the message across? Still, I can't blame the readers for feeling disappointed, since I was, too.
I also was frustrated that we still haven't found out the mystery behind the orphaned Mags's parentage, since Lackey has been dragging it out over four books now with only tantalizing little hints being given here and there. We get a bigger hint dropped toward the end of Redoubt, but we still don't know their names or even what country they came from, and I'm beginning to wonder if we're ever going to learn the truth or if Lackey is just going to drag it out indefinitely.
OTOH, it wasn't all bad--I love the Heralds and their Companions (essentially, intelligent telepathic horses that bond with a rider, somewhat like Anne McCaffrey's dragons), and I love exploring the Valdemar universe. And I'm a sucker for stories about orphans who have to make their own way in the world (#2 on my list of narrative kinks)! I enjoyed Mags's adventures in Redoubt, aside from the endless nightmare scene, and I even enjoyed the Kirball scenes that most of the reviewers seem to loathe--but I'd like to see him making more progress in finding out who his parents were and where they came from, since it's been made out to be so significant in the novels, with people trying to kill or kidnap him because of it.
So...I think from now on, I will borrow Lackey's books from the library before deciding if I want to buy them or not (as I did with Redoubt). I will probably pick it up when it comes out in paperback--even with its flaws, I still think it's worth spending seven or eight dollars, but I don't think it's worth the hardcover list price of $25.95 or even the current Amazon discount price of about $15 unless you're really a diehard Lackey fan who must buy the books as soon as they come out.
While I did enjoy it, I found it slightly frustrating, since an entire chapter consists of material lifted pretty much verbatim from the first book. There is some justification for it: the main character Mags is having a series of drug-induced nightmares in which he is reliving his childhood as a slave in the mines before he was Chosen by his Companion and rescued from that life. I get it that Lackey wants us to feel Mags's horror of being trapped in that hellish part of his past, but it goes on for way too long; it kind of felt like the endless camping trip in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, except that at least JKR wasn't recycling over twenty pages of old material from a previous book. And apparently Lackey has done something similar in Home from the Sea, the latest book in her Elemental Masters series. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but reviewers on Amazon have complained that it contains a significant amount of material from an earlier book in the series, The Wizard of London. (Two of the characters in Home from the Sea first appeared in that book). Some of those reviewers have accused Lackey of lazy writing and complained about feeling cheated by the amount of recycled material. I certainly don't think that Lackey is deliberately trying to cheat her fans--perhaps it might just be a poor stylistic choice, putting in too much background info for new readers who might be picking up these books without having read the previous ones? Or just getting carried away and carrying on Mags's nightmare sequence for too long when just a few pages would have sufficed to get the message across? Still, I can't blame the readers for feeling disappointed, since I was, too.
I also was frustrated that we still haven't found out the mystery behind the orphaned Mags's parentage, since Lackey has been dragging it out over four books now with only tantalizing little hints being given here and there. We get a bigger hint dropped toward the end of Redoubt, but we still don't know their names or even what country they came from, and I'm beginning to wonder if we're ever going to learn the truth or if Lackey is just going to drag it out indefinitely.
OTOH, it wasn't all bad--I love the Heralds and their Companions (essentially, intelligent telepathic horses that bond with a rider, somewhat like Anne McCaffrey's dragons), and I love exploring the Valdemar universe. And I'm a sucker for stories about orphans who have to make their own way in the world (#2 on my list of narrative kinks)! I enjoyed Mags's adventures in Redoubt, aside from the endless nightmare scene, and I even enjoyed the Kirball scenes that most of the reviewers seem to loathe--but I'd like to see him making more progress in finding out who his parents were and where they came from, since it's been made out to be so significant in the novels, with people trying to kill or kidnap him because of it.
So...I think from now on, I will borrow Lackey's books from the library before deciding if I want to buy them or not (as I did with Redoubt). I will probably pick it up when it comes out in paperback--even with its flaws, I still think it's worth spending seven or eight dollars, but I don't think it's worth the hardcover list price of $25.95 or even the current Amazon discount price of about $15 unless you're really a diehard Lackey fan who must buy the books as soon as they come out.