Book Two of the Mage Winds, a Valdemar Omnibus.
***SPOILERS***
This was my
favourite novel in this omnibus (despite the shoddy paragraphing in places). It
was even funnier than the last. Darkwind and Treyvan train Elspeth in magic.
We meet Kaled’a’in, the clan
that the Talyedras and Shin’a’in both thought had gone missing at the Sundering
of the Clans.
A key reoccurring
feature in this novel is that relationships between people take the
centre-point in the narrative. Yet I find them problematic most of the time. The
story was phenomenal. The inventiveness with the magic was phenomenal. The
humour was phenomenal. But the relationships? Solid nope.
Although,
I will say Darkwind and Elspeth’s first kiss was beautiful. I usually don’t
fuss about romance, just reading it as background information, but the prose
leading up the kiss and surrounding the kiss was beautiful. In the lead up to
this moment, Darkwind complained (in his head) that he disliked Elspeth’s
attitude, that she was acting self-important. Elspeth explains this away as her
being royal. But Elspeth’s attitude and behaviour weren’t demonstrated at all.
It was tell rather than show. This bugged me throughout the book, though once
Darkwind and Elspeth became an item this problem dissipated.
Everything
was good between Darkwind and his father at the end of the last book yet
everything between them in this one becomes bizarre, uncomfortable and untrusting.
Maybe it was the excitement of having his father free from Falconsbane and the
endorphins (which produce trust) made Darkwind more sympathetic, and then as
time went on, the endorphins were gone so he returned to being untrusting. But
there was nothing, not even Darkwind making a mental note that things were
weird again.
I
was disappointed that Skif and Elspeth hardly interacted in Change. I think it
was a grand total of two interactions. Sure, Skif was out searching for Nyara,
but it was established that Skif would come back to the Vale every few weeks.
Considering Elspeth and Skif have been depicted as best friends and they seemed
to get over the whole crush thing, they would still interact and they would be
important interactions. This should have been shown. It would have been really
useful, for example, for Elspeth to brew over her feelings for Darkwind out
loud to her friend.
When out
scouting, Elspeth refers to ‘our mages’ (the mages of the clan) and then says
to Darkwind ‘your clan’. Is Elspeth still trying to figure out her place in the
clan, does she see herself as in a unit with the mage because they do the same
job yet not be a member of the clan, or is this a slip up?
‘Women’s magic’ is mentioned, in
that mages can sense both when magic has been used and whether it was male or
female in nature. This distinction is never elaborated on and I wish it was.
Also, is it about sex or gender? Where would intersex and non-binary mages fit
into this dichotomy? This has no bearing on the plot, admittedly, but rather
it’s my own curiosity.
To
talk about magic but not the avatars would be senseless. It did make me laugh
when Dawnfire confirmed that everyone (Elspeth, Skif, Darkwind, Treyvan, Hydona
and Tre’valen) was brought to Darkwind’s Vale on the purpose of the gods. So
much for Elspeth choosing her own path! In fact, what she ‘chose’ as her own
path was as predestined as the path chosen by the Companions.
Tre’valen, a Shin’a’in shaman tasked
with understanding why Dawnfire, a Hawkbrother from Darkwind’s clan (and an
ex-lover), was made by the Star-Eyed (their Goddess) into Her avatar. Tre’valen
states that Dawnfire is the first ever avatar of the Star-Eyed. Yet the first book
in this omnibus clearly made mention of avatars existing. It strongly implied
that avatars had existed before. Perhaps the world knew how to spot an avatar
if one ever came up?
Elspeth came up with a theory that
an individual could detect the magework in the area by a mage being aware of
the energy currants, like a spider on its web. Darkwind gets annoyed with it
because it was right and he’d never thought of it before. Yet in the first book
in this omnibus, Darkwind explained that mages could pick up when another
practiced magic in a manner identical to Elspeth’s explanation other than the
spider analogy. This analogy would not have been revolutionary enough to
promote this response from Darkwind.
Firesong, a Hawkbrother from another
clan who is very innovative with magic, takes over the teaching and helps heal
the Heartstone, the thing that powers and protects the Vale and is how
Falconsbane has been messing with Starblade and the rest of the clan. Firesong
is also a relative of Elspeth. Firesong is my favourite character. Ever. He is
fabulous. He is intelligent. He is magical to degrees beyond reckoning. His
creativity with magic and instinctive ability is beyond impressive. He found a
solution (in weeks if not days) to fix the Heartstone and find the rest of
Darkwind’s clan when neither side of the clan had figured out how over a couple
of years.
Back to the
bond birds. All of Lackey’s work with bond birds is fantastic.
First off, Hyllar, Starblade’s new
bond bird, is hilarious. I loved his character and this is the only book that
Hyllar appears in (for shame!) I adore him. Although the fact that he is unable
to fly and neither Starblade nor Kethra (a Shin’a’in shaman who is Starblade’s
healer/lover) can carry Hyllar, how he gets in and out of their ekele (essentially Hawkbrother homes in
the trees) when there’s only a rope ladder for access is beyond me.
Firesong, ever doing things
differently, made a firebird into his bond bird, being the first Hawkbrother to
do so. The beauty of a firebird fits in perfectly with Firesong’s ascetic.
Firebirds give off a phoenix-y vibe.
To begin with, Elspeth in unable to
hear the mindspeech between Darkwind and Vree (his bondbird). Elspeth gets
instructions from the griffins in mindspeech and their mindpseech was at a
higher pitch than that of a human. This enables Elspeth to hear the mindspeech
of Vree which is higher than a griffin’s pitch. This was very clever and I
appreciate that in writing.
As always,
Lackey produced an innovative piece of writing. There are issues, sure, but
what piece of writing doesn’t? This was my favourite novel in the Mage Winds
Omnibus. I’ve found that it’s my favourites that I criticise most which I think
is because if I like something more, I engage with it more fully and thus pick
out disparities more readily. It developed things I already loved and
introduced new elements that I fell in love with. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Reviews: Mage
Winds Omnibus (Mercedes Lackey)
Winds of Fate
(Book One)
Winds of
Fury (Book Three)
Review:
Mage Storms Omnibus (Mercedes Lackey)
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