Storm Warning, Storm Rising and Storm
Breaking
This was the first book I’d read from Mercedes
Lackey from her Velgarth universe. I was so impressed. I can enjoy things even
if they have a lot wrong with them (my review on the Icemark Chronicles
demonstrates that really well!) but my mind was, to excuse this expression, blown.
This was an outstanding piece of literature which I recommend to everyone.
*****SPOILERS*****
Storm
Warning
Karal, a priest from Karse, is secretary to
the priest Ulrich, Ambassador to Valdemar, a land that has been at war with
Karse for centuries. (Most of the books are from the perspective of Valdemar.)
The Mage Storms hit, echoes from the Cataclysm that ended the Mage Wars millennia
ago, which change, destroy and cause havoc. Karal is at the centre of fixing
this.
There
was nothing in this book that left me head scratching my head. There were
Firecats (reincarnations of Sons of the Suns, the Karsite leader), An’desha (a half-Shin’a’in;
Shin’a’in guard the Plains like their goddess the Star-Eyed dictated) who’s a
victim of possession, griffins (I LOVE griffins so I was very happy about
this), an assassin who kills Ulrich, setting Karal’s forgiving perspective for
the entire series... There was a lot to enjoy.
Karal
learns that the Heralds (the police/judges/helpers of Valdemar) aren’t hellsporn
and the Companions (white ‘horses’) aren’t demons, finding out that ancient
leaders in Karse took away the humanity of the Heralds (and Valdemar’s population
as a whole), seeing them as a type and not individuals, making them easy to
hate. Today in real life, people hate countries (Pakistan and Iran coming
straight to mind) but they don’t consider that the individuals of any country
don’t control the actions of their leaders: especially as they may not know
what has happened.
Karsites
and Hawkbrothers (clans of people who heal magically-tainted land after the
Cataclysm; they are kin to the Shin’a’in) are both described as angular and
both wear colourful clothing. This led me to wondering if they could be
related. Further, both the Star-Eyed and the Sunlord (whom the Karsites
worship) had consort deities in the past, and it’s heavily hinted throughout
most of Lackley’s work that the Star-Eyed and Sunlord were each other’s
consorts. Also, in the next book you learn that one of Solaris’ titles is ‘Falcon
of Light’. FALCON. A bird of prey. Like the clan name for Darkwind (and
Elspeth), the main Hawkbrother clan that the readers encounter.
Finally,
this one thing had me giggling. Karal was escorted to Valdmar’s capital by the
companion Rubrik, whose daughter Natolie becomes Karal’s love interest. Natolie
is an engineer, who deals with the rules of logic… one might say she deals with
rubric.
Post-finally,
Natolie is described as plain. Elspeth, ex-heir to the Crown of Valdemar, the
lead in the Mage Winds omnibus, is also described as plain. I need to
investigate to see if all the lead females are described as ‘plain’.
Storm
Rising
Tremaine, heir to the Imperial Throne and
ceasing the invasion of Hardorn (Valdemar and Karse’s neighbour), becomes
centre stage and you see him develop into an effective leader who protects him
men but also the people of Hardorn. Whilst he was behind Ulrich’s
assassination, I grew to like Tremaine.
Karal
became the Ambassador of Karse in Ulrich’s absence. He writes often to Solaris (Son
of the Sun) to relieve him of the duty because no one respects Karal (he’s too
young for the others to take seriously). Karal also continues doing his work as
secretary, but Solaris knew he was struggling, so even if Solaris wouldn’t send
another ambassador, she should have sent a secretary. But this seemed more a fault
on the part of the author, not Solaris.
Another
important observation this book makes is that people squeeze gods into people’s
narrow worldviews, and that people put words into the mouths of gods. It’s
always important to keep in mind that a leader of a religion, who makes new
doctrine, will often insert their personal views to make people believe what
they do. This means all faulty doctrine (such as violence) comes from people,
not religion.
An’desha
says that the Moonpaths (kinda like a realm for divine communication, I guess)
are only for shamans, Swordsworn and Goddesssworn, so he might not be able to
get on them. Yet in the Mage Winds, shamans can access the Moonpaths anytime,
Swordsworn any night, and any Shin’a’in during the full moon. Plus An’desha in
Storm Rising says a few pages later that any Shin’a’in is allowed! How the
editors didn’t pick up on this inconsistency is beyond me.
One thing I
adored was Tremaine’s desk with a hidden compartment, an inheritance from his
aunt, a devotee of the Little God of Lust. This aunt is only mentioned over
two/three pages, but I love her! Anyway, Tremaine keeps a copy of the Imperial
Seal (VERY illegal) that he made himself in his desk. At first, this doesn’t
seem to fit his personality. However, the Empire is full of intrigue, so the
fact that Tremaine was first-choice heir necessarily mean that Tremaine had a
scheming mind frame and ambition to improve his standing and power. Having a
copy of the Imperial Seal does that job nicely.
Storm
Breaking
Melles, the new imperial heir, is more
diabolical than Tremaine but I adore him even more. At one point, someone (I’ll
call them ‘the Employer’) sent an assassin to kill Melles. Easily, Melles kills
the assassin, then dumps its dead body into the crib of the Employer’s baby and
then gives the baby the broken blade of the assassin to play with. This was
genious.
Firesong
(another Hawkbrother) says to Need (a magical sword with the spirit of a
priestess inside) that she’d never put herself in non-female hands before. Yet
in the Mage Winds, which I red after the Mage Storms but was released and was
set before the Mage Storms, Firesong uses Need at Need’s bidding.
The
magical border to Iftel lifts and some griffins come to Tremaine to off their
help. This border must have protected Iftel from the Storms because the Iftel
griffins suffer badly with the Storm’s effects, saying they couldn’t stand the
storm. We learn the border was moved from Iftel to around Karse. As the barrier
protects from Storms, and the barrier was around Karse, surely Karse would be
protected from Storms? But no, Karse did need protecting. Why?!
The
100 Little Gods is said to be a round number, not an exact number. In Hinduism,
the common saying is that there are 33 million gods, which isn’t the case, but
the high number is used to symbolise that there are A LOT. So the 100 Little
Gods mirrors this and that makes me happy.
Griffins
are known to pronounce S and R really long (‘sss’ and ‘rrr’). The first
instance when an Iftel griffin speaks, he does this. But whenever S and R are
used again by him, he doesn’t prolong the sounds. Why is there a lack of
consistency here? One could say the griffin switched languages, but the fact
that other griffins who use every other language prolong S and R in whatever
language they speak.
Further, by
ordinary griffins, when a word is used in any language with S or R (let’s use ‘speak’
as an example), it is still pronounced with the prolonging (‘sssame’). But
different languages would have different sounds for the word ‘same’, so it’s
not feasible that it would have a long S in every language! But that’s my
linguistics bias for you.
Tremaine was magically connected to the Earth of Hardorne, being an ancient tradition used to keep the king faithful to his land. The Alliance (Valdemar, Karse, Hawkbrothers, Shin'a'in, Kaled'a'in, Rethwellen, Hardorne and Iftel) liked this because it meant Tremaine's ambition to conquer lands for the empire are now finally finished.
Another thing
that confused me was that Solaris tells Elspeth to use Solaris’ name, not the
title ‘Son the Sun’ because Elspeth ‘deserved it’ and Solaris calls Elspeth ‘sister’.
Before this point, the two haven’t been shown to interact and neither have
other characters remarked on the Elspeth-Solaris relationship. So I’m confused
with what has happened to justify this bond.
The ending to
this series was amazing. The characters that interact do so very well (even in
death) and the entire thing was crafted really well. I will be honest and say
this was the most satisfying end to a series that I have ever read. I wasn’t
disappointed. I wasn’t bored (how writers usually end a series is so same-same
and that bores me SO much). It was, frankly, perfect.
Reviews: Mage
Winds Omnibus (Mercedes Lackey)
Winds of Fate
(Book One)
Winds of
Change (Book Two)
Winds of
Fury (Book Three)
