Mercedes Lackey

[jbcohen]

These are question(s) for those that have read a lot of Mercedes Lackey's novels from one who has gotten a hold of his first Mercedes' Lackey book and has looked her up on Fantastic Fiction. I have gotten a hold of a book called Bedlam's Bard and from the looks of the fantastic fiction entry on her this is an omnibus of two of the Bedlam's Bard series of novels. Which books are gathered together in the Bedlam's Bard omnibus? If I like the bedlam's bard omnibus I might continue on to read the other ones in the series. If I decide to do this which book would I pick up with after the book Bedlam's Bard? Of all of the series of books that has written when compared against only other Mercedes Lackey books how good or bad is this series? Is it her best series or is it just so so? I also have books one and two of the Secret World series which I will have to sit down and read sometime. How does Bedlam's Bard compare in writing quality to that of the Secret World?

[HarryT]

Why not just look inside the book and see for yourself? It clearly tells you right there on the title page. The books are "Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" and "Summoned to Tourney" (which I notice is misspelt "Summoned to Journey" in the omnibus version). They are the first two books in the series.

I have mixed feeling about Lackey. She writes some pretty good books, but some truly awful ones, too (eg the later "Valdemar" books). She also agressively pushes a "pro-gay" agenda in some of her books with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. I have absolutely nothing whatsoever against gay characters in books, let me hasten to add - I just don't like having their gaiety (is that the appropriate word to use?) rammed down my throat in every paragraph of the book.

[JSWolf]

I highly recommend her Five Hundred Kingdoms series.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by HarryT

She also agressively pushes a "pro-gay" agenda in some of her books with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. I have absolutely nothing whatsoever against gay characters in books, let me hasten to add - I just don't like having their gaiety (is that the appropriate word to use?) rammed down my throat in every paragraph of the book.

I don't mind a pro-gay agenda. I don't mind books with gay characters that are about them being gay. However, her books (at least the couple that I read) are badly written with annoying characters. I couldn't go on with them. I believe the ones I read were Magic's Pawn and a few pages of its sequel.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

These are question(s) for those that have read a lot of Mercedes Lackey's novels from one who has gotten a hold of his first Mercedes' Lackey book and has looked her up on Fantastic Fiction. I have gotten a hold of a book called Bedlam's Bard and from the looks of the fantastic fiction entry on her this is an omnibus of two of the Bedlam's Bard series of novels. Which books are gathered together in the Bedlam's Bard omnibus? If I like the bedlam's bard omnibus I might continue on to read the other ones in the series. If I decide to do this which book would I pick up with after the book Bedlam's Bard? Of all of the series of books that has written when compared against only other Mercedes Lackey books how good or bad is this series? Is it her best series or is it just so so? I also have books one and two of the Secret World series which I will have to sit down and read sometime. How does Bedlam's Bard compare in writing quality to that of the Secret World?

Go to this link and download the cd iso, has 15 of her books plus 6 other books. Image is from before kindle so the prc file where for reading on PDA, I recommend useing calibre to do a prc to mobi convert.

Highly recommend The Philosophical Strangler, and The Chrome Borne.

bernie

[jbcohen]

Some of my pals have read a lot of a lot of different types of books, however I frequently find books that they have neglected to read something by that author. I think Mercedes Lackey is one of those authors that my pals have not read anything by her. However, when I mention a new author to my pals its often best to mention the name of his/her most famous novel or series. What book or books is Mercedes Lackey best known for?

[HarryT]

She's best known for the "Valdemar" series.

[pholy]

The easiest way to find out about her many series is to poke about her web site until you find this page - it list all her books in all her series... I like her Elemental Masters, Serrated Edge, Bedlam's Bard, and Bardic Voices best, although I have poked around in most of the others. Not surprisingly (although I don't know why - perhaps its just a matter of principle ), I disagree with JSWolf about the value of the Five Hundred Kingdom books; I find them to be uninteresting retellings of well-know fairy tales.

Just Kidding JS - I do appreciate hearing your opinions, even when I disagree with them.

[ATDrake]

I've read most of what Lackey's written, own a fair chunk of it, and enjoyed quite a lot. That said, some of her writing can get really rather bad with certain repetitive tics that keep showing up, and I think that overall it's a rather mixed bag, out of which her earlier stuff tends to be a lot better.

Best quality Baen recommends, IMHO:

• A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows in the Bedlam's Bard omnibus: a nifty old-school magic-is-really-real-in-the-modern-day hey-let's-go-save-the-world urban fantasy. Immediate sequel not as good (although the tie-in prequel by Ellen Guon which is a Baen Free Library book is pretty decent), and series reboot co-written with Rosemary Edghill goes in a completely different direction and renders some of the characters very... differently.

• The Lark and the Wren, 1st book in the Bardic Voices faux-medieval-ish post-apocalyptic rebuilt fantasy world with magic/free-thinking fun-loving spirits vs The Forces of Controlling Repression series is actually pretty good. But the follow-ups (each starring a different Bard) get progressively not-so-good and ranty. I still kind of like parts of them and consider TLatW worth a general recommend.

• The Ship Who Searched, co-written with Anne McCaffrey, struck me as a rather nice and well-done take on McCaffrey's Ship Who Sang idea.

Not-so-good-quality-but-you-can-try-them-for-free-from-the-BFL/CDs "recommends":

• Lackey's SERRAted Edge series of race-car driving elves and mages saving abused kids is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. Despite its flaws, I still really like Born to Run, the 1st book (in Chrome Borne omnibus and also a BFL standalone), though I was hugely disappointed in its direct sequel Chrome Circle which was very promising for the first 100 or so pages, and then went off the rails into Ye Olde Road Trippe Thru Mary Sue Idiot Ball Land where people kept doing increasingly stupid things to advance the increasingly stupid plot direction. Books may be a difficult read due to the child abuse rescue subplots.

• A prequel series, "The Doubled Edge" co-written with Roberta Gellis, which has the same elves in Elizabethan times, pretty much contradicts everything established in the original books and is rather infodump-y and could use a good edit, but I still like some of it anyway, and it's reasonably fun if you happen to like elves meddling in Tudor politics and don't mind infodump-y writing which could use a good edit.

Non-Baen stuff:

• The "Diana Tregarde" series of paranormal investigative urban fantasies is quite good for the first book, Burning Water, reasonably good for the second book, and sloppy-but-mostly-entertaining mind candy for the third book. The recent prequel novella in the Trio of Sorcery mini-collection is merely okay if you liked the original books.

• Similarly, her standalone Sacred Ground featuring Native American private investigator and medicine woman Jennifer Talldeer provides a pretty good adventure if you liked the Diana Tregarde ones. Sequel novella in the same collection as the one for DT is better quality.

• I personally liked the Halfblood Chronicles elves-and-dragons books she co-wrote with Andre Norton, but they kind of fell apart after the first one, Elvenbane, and I don't recommend looking up the rest unless you really enjoyed the 1st or you can read them free from the library and are curious what happened next.

• The fairy-tale-based Elemental Masters series of Victorian/Edwardian urban fantasy started with Baen before moving to DAW. Mostly middling-good-ish and volumes vary in quality, but can be read standalone although some recurring characters guest. Best ones IMHO: The Fire Rose (from Baen), The Serpent's Shadow.

• The "Obsidian" books she co-wrote with James Mallory are kind of another guilty pleasure of mine. The 1st in the original trilogy, The Outstretched Shadow, was offered as a Tor.com freebie back when they originally rebooted their site, so you may have it if you've been collecting sf/fantasy e-books that long.

I actually don't like the horribly angsty and whiny teenaged main hero (he does grow up eventually, kind of), but the supporting secondary characters are mostly considerably more engaging and enjoyable (especially when they twit the main about being angsty and whiny), and the setting and details of the world are interesting, and it's got a decently plotted-out epic fantasy gathering-war-against-evil overarching arc. That said, the 1000-years-later sequel trilogy was a massive letdown and not really worth it unless you're morbidly curious or really, really loved the setting enough to want to see more regardless. I'm still looking up the 10,000-years-earlier prequel trilogy once it hits the library shelves, though.

• Probably the best books in the Valdemar universe are the "Vows & Honor" mini-series (the Tarma & Kethry books) and By the Sword: lots of fun with mercenary women; original series is standalone and has nifty road travel adventures with a swordswoman teamed up with a sorceress, BTS is a semi-sequel a few generations later which hooks up to the Valdemar books. Some of Lackey's most enjoyable and coherent writing in these.

Out of the Valdemar books, I'd say that the original "Arrows" trilogy featuring Talia is quite good, and the "Last Herald-Mage" trilogy featuring Vanyel has its flaws but aside from annoyingly angsty main character does a decent job in setting up some of the essential backstory underpinnings of Valdemar proper.

Okay but not as good, "Winds" series starring Elspeth and Darkwind which brings the Tayledras from the Vanyel story into the equation (first book has a slow and annoying flipping-viewpoint start, but 2nd and 3rd books definitely improve to tell some pretty good continuations), "Storms" trilogy which you need to read the Winds trilogy to really get (all volumes of approximately even quality, will either like or be indifferent to), and "Owl" trilogy which it would mostly help to read the "Storms" trilogy to get (lots of whiny angsty teenage protagonist in this one, but gets somewhat better after the first).

Good mostly-standalone, "The Black Gryphon" pre-history volume from the "Mage Wars" trilogy. Sequels not as good but reasonably readable. IMHO crappy backstory fillers: Burning Bright "Lavan Firestarter" standalone, Take a Thief "Skif" standalone, Alberich "Exile" duology (a shame, because he's an interesting character and deserves better, but it's almost always a bad sign when an author writes in a majorly supporting secondary character based on an thinly-veiled avatar of themself as The Love Interest) and the current "Collegium Chronicles" post-Vanyel not-a-trilogy which is seriously stretching out the main overarching "sinister strangers with mysterious intentions" plot over 4 books thus far.

I have not read 500 Kingdoms, Joust/Alta, Heirs of Alexandria, Karres, or Secret World series yet, which is why I do not mention them, in case anyone was wondering if the omission was because they were somehow too bad to bother with.

Hope this helps.

[jbcohen]

I have seen her web site however sometimes I like to judge an author by their best work thats why I asked the question about which series is she best known for. I think that when I have dragged down my to be read list some I will go try the Vadmar series.

[ebusinesstutor]

I love Mercedes Lackey's works.

The Valdemar series is one of my favorites and Joust is also excellent. The funniest fairy tales ever can be found in the 500 Kingdoms novels - I loved One Good Knight.

I think the Valdemar series is a good place to start.

[pwalker8]

The Arrows trilogy is one of those series that I tend to re-read, the Lark and the Wren also fall into that category. Lackey's books are pretty far ranging. She does have a tendency to repeat herself from time to time and like most prolific authors, some books are better than others, but she's definitely a talented author.