OVERALL
CONCLUSION: Not at
all a bad book as Lackey's volumes go, but
with structural problems and some minor errors
of real-world fact.[1] Worth
buying if you're already a fan, but i'd
recommend, say, "Arrows of the Queen" or "By
the Sword" as a first experience with Lackey's
work.
REVIEW: There are a number of problems in
writing a long series of books set in a common
history but out of order -- and one of the
biggest is that you may find yourself
handcuffed by something that seemed like a
good idea when you mentioned it in passing
twenty-odd (some of them very odd) years ago.
In the intervening time, unfortunately, your
own perception of your setting and characters
may have changed significantly, or you may
find youself stuck with having to actually
write events that you merely alluded to in the
earlier work.
In this book, Lackey finds herself stuck with
having to relate the story of the unfortunate
(to say the least) first marriage of Queen
Selenay of Valdemar, alluded to way back in
her first book, "Arrows of the Queen" and in
later books in the series.
While she was merely alluding to te marriage
and summarising some of its aspects to set up
plots in other books, all was well.
Now she has to actually write about
the marriage, and convince the reader that
Selenay could be so deceived and taken in by
an out-and-out bounder who is a tool of a plot
to sieze power; the probelm here is that, for
me and others with whom i have discussed the
book, she simply doesn't make it.
Granted, Selenay, having recently lost her
father in war, has ascended the throne while
in her teens and has to deal with a Council
which, in pushing her to marry and produce an
heir, is producing numerous Totally
Unacceptable (to her) possible grooms.
To justify what a total doofus the Demon Lover
who sweeps Selenay off her feet is after their
marriage, contrasted to his suave and polished
approach and courtship, Lackey literally has
him following a written script prepared for
him by a skilled seducer, and has Selenay fall
for it, big time.
Even ten or so years younger, the Selenay
presented here is just not the Selenay of the
earlier books.
That's a problem.
Also, the chronology of the marriage doesn't
match the chronology established in earlier
volumes.
A not-quite-a-problem but nonetheless a bit
jarring, is alluded to in this review's title
-- "Mary Sue" is a term coined originally in
"Star Trek" fandom to describe a fan fiction
story in which a shy, unassuming minor
character -- who just happens to closely
resemble the author -- is the Only One Who Can
Save The Day, and in the process, earns the
undying gratitude (if not love) of The Dashing
Captain (or perhaps The Vulcan Science
Officer).
Lo and be held, in
this book we have the reappearance of
Herald-Chronicler Myste, who, it turns out,
takes an interest in Weaponsmaster Herald
Alberich that goes beyond their mutual
intelligence work together. "Myste"? Hmmm.[2]
That said, the teamwork of Alberich and Myste,
and their gradual discovery of the plot
against the Queen and Valdemar itself, is the
primary focus of the book, and is well-enough
told that i feel justified in awarding the
three stars that i have, as opposed to the one
or two that the "Selanay's seduction" and
"Mary Sue"-ish elements ought to rate.
{Another possible name coincidence i like
is that the actor who specialises in
athletic roles in which he uses extravagant
and mostly-bogus fighting styles is named
"Norris"...}
====================================================
[1] The
punishment of a couple of students who break
an incredibly-expensive full length mirror in
the salle is being sent to pump bellows and so
on for some months at the glassmakers' guild's
main manufactory until the replacement mirror
can be made.
In the course of setting this up, Lackey has
the Master Glassmaker repeat the widely-held
belief that glass slowly flows and that older
panes of glass are thicker at the bottom than
at the top because of this.
That just isn't true -- a quick websearch led
me to this page, which
thoroughly debunks this myth -- and also, in a
quick mention, leads me to the second
"everybody knows" about glass that Lackey
mentions:
That cheap "bullseye" glass panes (thicker in
the center than at the edges, distorting
anything seen through them), used in windows
in poorer dwellings or taverns, are made in a
mold. Well, this may well be true for
reproduction bullseye panes made nowadays --
but, if you were makng glass for windows in a
mold, wouldn't you try to have it of more or
less uniform thickness, without circular
ridges that distort vision?
In fact, bullseye panes were/are made by
spinning a glob of molten glass to cause it to
flatten out in a disc shape (thus explaining
the extra-thick center and the circular
patterning around it), a technique discovered
by the Romans about 100AD, as detailed here. [Click Here to Return to Text]
[2] At
least they aren't lifemates yet; Lackey [as
also Miller and Lee in their "Liaden" stories
(q.v.)] is fond of
telling us how rare true lifemate bondings
are, but it seems as if, in her writings, all
it takes is for two characters of
romantically-compatible gender to shake hands
and they're lifemated... [Click Here to Return to Text]
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