Book Three of the Mage Winds, a Valdemar Omnibus.
***SPOILERS***
Elspeth,
Darkwind, Firesong, Skif, Nyara, Treyvan and Hydona go to Valdemar, start
teaching those with the Mage Gift, start training with the other forces in the
Alliance, learn Falconsbane has been captured by King Ancar of Hardorn, and
then slip into Hardorn to get rid of them both. This was perfect for the story
and I don’t begrudge the decision in the slightest, yet I missed the Vales and
Talyedras culture a lot in this one.
The readers
finally got to read Ancar’s perspective. It was interesting to learn his
background and see how and why he reacts in the way he does.
There
was an exploration of blood magic and glyphs. Seeing how both of these worked
and how they affected the use of magic was really fascinating. Ancar used these
not only to capture Falconsbane but we witness exactly how both of these mages
use blood magic to restore their own power. There was talk in the previous two
books of blood magic being able to do this but this was the first time how this
happened was demonstrated to the reader (in this omnibus).
Ancar’s tactics in the war changed
near the end of the book and Elspeth and co. deduce that it must be the
influence of Falconsbane. Kero, the mercenary captain of the Skybolts and a Herald,
wonders how a mage would know anything about tactics. Darkwind responds that
these decisions aren’t tactical but they will win the war. Firstly, Ancar is a
mage, Kero has mages in the Skybolts, and the mages of the Alliance are helping
with Valdemar’s tactics, so the idea that a mage knows about tactics shouldn’t
even be questioned. Secondly, if the decisions are used to win the way, they
are tactics.
Ancar moans (and really, he properly
moans) that Hulda (an old, powerful Adept mage) has far too much power in
ruling the country. Later in the book, Falconsbane listens to servants who give
the impression that Ancar is the absolute ruler. Yet Ancar really hates that
Hulda gets what she wants. Whilst this could be evidenced as an inconsistency,
I think something else is going on: it means that Ancar is skilled enough to
hide Hulda’s control, impact and manipulation from not only the populous of
Hardorn but from the palace staff as well. That’s impressive.
There were
various issues in this book.
Elspeth
was surprised when Gwena revealed that she’d also used the hot springs in the
Vale, but in the second book, it was noted that the Companions used the hot
springs, too. A bizarre inconsistency to let slip by.
All
of the time, a theme from the last book, about making sure Valdemarians didn’t
know about Elspeth and Darkwind being a couple, was revisited time and time
again. The issue was that Elspeth, as Crown Princess, needed to wed someone to
form an alliance… but why not an alliance with the Hawkbrothers and, by
extension, the Shin’a’in and the Kaled’a’in? It seems odd that this wasn’t even
considered, especially considering that every character in the books think
through many possible scenarios and outcomes before making a decision or taking
an action. Further, a wedded alliance with the Hawkbrothers would guarantee
that they would continue to help the magical endeavours of Valdemar.
Skif,
seeing Ancar’s large map, goes to the stables to get horses and a wagon with
which to transport the map back to Valdemar. The reader watches Skif go into
the stables and look around, even noting that other people had the same idea
about looting the stables. Yet it’s the Companions that carry the map back with
mention of neither horses nor wagon. So then what was the point of mentioning
the horses and wagon? If Skif had just said the stables didn’t have what he
needed or he wanted to leave everything that for the benefit of the Hardorn
residents, that would’ve been fine. To not include something like this leaves
an area of discontinuity in the narrative.
An
issue for this entire series was that Hydona (the female adult griffin) wasn’t
developed as a character at all. She was treated more like an important object,
needed and used often but not given any life or personality. Every other character,
even the minor ones, were given a strong sense of character (which is beyond
spectacular for an author to spend that amount of time on auxiliaries) but
Hydona wasn’t. Being in the front line of the action, Hydona should have been
given the same treatment.
The
Kaled’a’in created the Gates between the Vale and Valdemar. A Gate, when
created, drains its creator of energy. The Kaled’a’in, however, developed a way
for two people to create a Gate which not only halved the fatigue of both
creators but doubled the strength of the Gate, too (thus meaning a longer
Gating distance). Using energy costs fatigue. So: for each creator to have half
the fatigue, they would each use half the energy which would equal one
normal-powered Gate; for the Gate to be double the power, each creator would
each need to use full power, which would mean each creator would experience
full fatigue. Two Gate makers really can’t be both half-fatigue and double-power
concurrently.
When the crew were Gating to
Valedemar, they were stolen and ended up in the Forest of Sorrows (northern
Valdemar) which wasn’t their original intention. They learn that they were
stolen by Vanyel, the last Herald-Mage of Valdemar and common ancestor to both
Elspeth and Firesong. Vanyel was the person who set up the web that makes
people in Valdemar unable to use, or think about the existence of, magic in the
present. (This web breaking down was the reason why Elspeth went on this journey
in the first place.)
Darkwind
finds the Kaled’a’in weird. Elspeth notes that this is because Kale’a’in
culture is very similar, but not quite identical, to Talyedras culture. This is
a valid point. It can be seen between cultures, religions, sports, countries
etc. Perhaps a clearer demonstration would be pointing out that the
denominations within a religion will often have more to say about other
denominations within their religion rather than with an external religion
(Roman Catholics vs. Protestants vs. Eastern Orthodox vs. all others). If there
is another religion one religion has an issue with, it’s quite often one with a
very similar background (Christianity vs. Islam or Hinduism vs. Sikhism). Or a
fan of Bath Rugby has a lot more to say to a fan of Gloucester Rugby than to a
fan of a football club. There are, of course, exceptions (Buddhism vs. Islam in
Myanmar/ rugby vs. football for example) but when two things are fundamentally
different, they can declare them ‘foreign’ and not have to think about it, but
when two things have similarities, people will often point to any differences
and claim them to be incorrect in order to ‘correct’ them.
Lackey
exceeds the writing abilities of most authors I’ve encountered and it is
Lackey’s works that I use to introduce people to fantasy. Each and every page
is impressive and thought-provoking. There were problems but the enjoyment far
exceeded the issues these brought up: they were only minor and didn’t actually
impact the story in any negative way (and they aren’t things the majority of
readers would pick up on). Besides, it’s encouraging to see a fantasy writer
develop their world with innovative thinking, have an interesting plot and
characters, and be very funny all in one.
Reviews: Mage
Winds Omnibus (Mercedes Lackey)
Winds of Fate
(Book One)
Winds of
Change (Book Two)
Review:
Mage Storms Omnibus (Mercedes Lackey)
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