Mercedes Lackey April

I don't know how I managed this (besides jumping right into my coffee and reading after work at 6am each day), but I managed to clean house with three Mercedes Lackey trilogy readings. It began with Tarma and Kethry adventures in Oathbound. This led to Oathbreaker and Oathblood. I've had the first two books on my shelf for over a year and bought Oathblood to round things out. Out of the three trilogies I completed, these ladies made my favorite party to keep company with. The books were fun; nothing deep nor complex. I learned reading Lackey's By the Sword that fantasy complexities and grandness weren't necessarily Lackey's edge. She does have charm. She is a storyteller. But epic? Nah. Especially when she constantly uses rape as a plot device. It almost took me chewing my teeth out not to throw her books when she does it. Nevertheless, Tarma and Kethry had some great adventures.

Ah. The Arrows Trilogy. I read the first book almost three years ago, and have been hesitant since. But I decided after completing Tarma and Kethry's stories I might as well keep the Lackey train going with Arrow's Flight and Arrow's Fall. Incidentally, the one I found most readers dislike the most was the one I liked the most. Can you guess which was that? It was Arrow's Flight, the second book. I won't get into the details as to why it is many readers' least favorite of the trio. The only thing I can attribute to my patience with the book is having read Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. If you can read those, you can tap into any reservoir of patience to get through a book you intend on getting through (as opposed to those you outright DNF for whatever reason).

Arrow's Flight was a character-centric experience. And Lackey does character mostly well. Or better than plot. And while Arrow's Fall did have the most plot of the three books, I was burnt out from the laborious romance back and forth. I swear, Mercedes Lackey almost had me with her books, but she always over or under served something!

Finally (and I stress "finally), I took on Vanyel's journey with Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage series. Gay male fantasy lead for the win. I am going to be 1000% real here when I state there were multiple times I put down Magic's Pawn (the first book in Vanyel's story) to whisper into the air how good of a book it was. No, for real. Magic's Pawn gripped the F*** out of me. The romance developed really quick, but I was used to Lackey's style with such things at this point. But how she developed and stressed and broke her protagonist Vanyel down was where the real business of the book lay. I didn't expect this to be so, but I really identified with many of Vanyel's struggles. Especially that need to completely stonewall and guard oneself against those who could potentially hurt us. There was a fascinating passage delivered by another character later in the book that really resonated with me. Regardless, Magic's Pawn was a rollercoaster ride. Not the greatest thing is written but filled with surprises and character moments that were worth the trip. Though, once again, Lackey severely underwhelms with her villains.

The second book, Magic's Promise, was a decent affair. It only really got good toward the end (as there is an investigation on hand). Nonetheless, my least favorite was the last book, Magic's Price. It was not Vanyel's known fate that bothered me. Lackey was dipping around in some unnecessary predatorial situations. I hated Vanyel's new lover because of this, and because I got sick of the character's name every five pages (think Dirk from the Arrow's Trilogy). Vanyel's new love was a letdown to me. The second thing that made me dislike this book was how Lackey decided Vanyel was going to treat his aunt, Savil. After three books, I loved Savil as a reader. And what a pitiful treatment she received from the nephew whose life she spent three books saving time and time again.

On that note, I was glad Vanyel's story was over with. Anyway, I learned then how terribly inconsistent Lackey can be with characters as well. That situation did not make any sense to me.

Anyway, I've read all of the Mercedes Lackey books I've owned for years now. I only have a stand-alone (The Black Swan) to read before I attempt to try something else by her.