Larry Dixon (1)Critiques
Auteur de Les Hérauts de Valdemar, trilogie de la guerre des mages t.1:Le Griffon Noir
Pour les autres auteurs qui s'appellent Larry Dixon, voyez la page de désambigüisation.
Critiques
Gryphon in Light par Mercedes Lackey
These include, most notably for this book, gryphons. And specifically, Kelvren, a wingleader of the Silver Gryphons, part of the k'Valdemar Vale, which is allied with but not part of Valdemar. After intervening to help Valdemaran troops in a battle against merchants motivated solely by greed to secede from Valdemar and stop paying taxes (it's more complicated, of course, but that's the basis of it), Kelvren is very badly wounded. Since this is a Valdemaran troop far from k'Valdemar, and somewhat undersupplied because of the many challenges the kingdom is facing, there's only a "herb and knife" Healer, who does his best, but is not trained at all in caring for gryphons. Kelvren, like his Valdemaran tentmate, Hallock Stavern, Second of the Sixteenth, is unlikely to survive.
But Kelvren does have healing magic, not enough to heal himself adequately, but enough, if he gives it all, to heal Hallock. So he does, and therein, in many ways, lies the start of his problems.
An appropriately Gifted person, more knowledgeable about gryphons, does arrive in time--Treyvan, one of the two gryphons acting as ambassadors to the royal court at Haven. He gets Kelvren flying and accessing magic again, albeit at risk of bursting into flame if he's not careful. He returns to k'Valdemar, undergoes an ordeal he's only barely willing to tolerate, and restrictions he isn't willing to tolerate for long. He has to learn a completely new way of thinking and behaving.
So does the Mage, Firesong, who's helping him, though Firesong is slower to realize it. Though Firesong does come up with the excellent idea of getting Kelvren out of k'Valdemar and the restrictions he has to deal with, by setting out to deal with a problem left over from the Mage Wars, near Lake Evendim.
In k'Valdemar and on the expedition, we meet other magical creatures--the bondbirds (adapted from raptors, and bonded with the Hawkbrothers), the kyree (who might be related to wolves), the tervardi, human-sized, flightless beings adapted from songbirds, and others.
Also, more gryphons arrive, from Iftel. Heavy wing gryphons. Sort of like heavy cavalry rather than the Silver Gryphons' light cavalry, except that's wildly inadequate. Oh, and they have a message from two of the gods.
The fate of the world is at stake, and all stops are to be pulled out in dealing with it. And Kelvren is the gods' choice to lead the expedition.
This is the first of a trilogy, and while I found the introduction to the new state of the world of Valdemar, and the new peoples in that world, and especially the characters completely enthralling, this is part one of three, and at the end, they're making new discoveries of just how complicated this will be and just how much they don't yet know what's going on.
Did I mention the boy whose facial disfigurement has made him an outcast in Valdemar, who wants to learn to care for gryphons? Did I mention the Companion who comes to k'Valdemar to make an unusual choice of a new Herald?
Did I mention the Firecat?
No? I didn't mention any of those? Along with Kelvren and the very difficult Firesong and his lover, Silverfox, and Kelvren's trondi'irn Nightwind, and Ayshen, Silverfox's hertasi (lizard-adapted) assistant, they're among the excellent reasons for digging into this book and getting acquainted.
Worldbuilding and character development are a big part of the joy of reading for me, as long as it's going some place, and this is.
It's a lot of fun.
I received a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
The beginning of a new series centered around the gryphon Kelvren, wing leader of the gryphons of k’Valdemarr.
Nicely setup to include the many and varied inhabitants of the Valdemar world. Rogue Barons are looking to secede from Valdemar. A problem when they’re going about it in entirely the wrong way. This is a coup supplied by seized goods from honest tradesmen. That the crown cannot allow so forces have been detached to dissuade the Barons.
We open in the healers tents with a badly injured Hallock. Hallock gives permission to house a wounded gryphon in his tent.
I really like Hallock Haven of the Sixteenth Guard Regiment, and his wife Genni. The waif, the younling Jefti, is another character with promise.
The making of a legend is not all it’s cracked up to be as Kelvren learns. But a disparate group is assembled to take up a quest, a journey to a lake at the center of the change circle area at the behest of the gods. No one turns the Gods down!
Some excellent threads are being interwoven in this fresh Valdemar novel, some from the past and some new strands.
A very strong beginning!
A DAW ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
While this book may be a bit overwhelming to those new to Valdemar, they won't be unfamiliar with the world for long as the author does a brilliant job of explaining the characters and making each one unique. Needless to say, this is a delightful treat for longtime fans, and my only regret is now I have to wait for the next one. But that's a small price to pay to be able to visit Valdemar once again.
The gryphon Kelvren is joined by a cast of old friends and new, to go on a quest to solve a monumental mystery at the center of Lake Evendim the site of Maar's tower during the Mage Wars and the 2nd site of the cataclysm that created the lake itself and set off the mage storms.
I am thrilled to return to the world that is Valdemar! As always Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon bring their signature excellent world-building, magic, wonders and fantastic characters, both human and not, to us in this volume.
I love going back to the Valdemar books again and again and am already eager for the next part of the series.
This is a satisfying read full of magic, wonders and fantastic characters both human and not. Understandably 'Gryphon in Light' does end in a bit of a cliffhanger, since it is a quest trilogy, but it didn't dampen my enjoyment at all.
Mark your calendars for the release date - July 25 2023
I recommend this book and the whole series.
I received this ARC from DAW and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you so much.
#GryphoninLight #NetGalley #Valdemar
Probably would only suggest picking this one up if you've read other Valdemar books and are looking for lore. I feel like the next two books in this trilogy will have a lot of good lore, even if this one was skimping on that.
It's an interesting story with well-drawn characters, and I enjoyed it. I liked the world building, the idea behind the creatures, such as the gryphons, being created by the mage and then straining against his control while still feeling loyalty and love toward him, and I appreciated that I felt immediately drawn into the world and story, which is frequently something I struggle with when starting a new fantasy book or series.
Screw this mind-fekkery. I am DUN at 73%!
FREEEDOOOM!!!!
And I am giving this book a new rating: 2 Supermassive Black Hole Stars .
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ONE STAR, cause there are no negative stars on GR
This book is one long INFO DUMP. It's so polluted with unnecessary details, it's almost unreadable. I would not have survived the printed version and I am barely surviving the audio one. It's a wonder I haven't fallen asleep at the wheel ...yet.
I am having a strong urge to DNF at 67%. So far only two things had happen: the invasion of Darion's village at 40% (-ish) and dog/griffin fight at 66%. There is no plot to speak of.
POVs jump around, at one point dissipating into nothingness and what we have on our hands is a long, boring, overly descriptive bestiary; long, boring overly descriptive history of each and every other creature we encounter; a good 10 minutes on potion making (why???); pages and pages on analyzing the poor, emoitonally abused boy's predicament ...and so on.
Will not continue with the rest of the trilogy. As a matter of fact, I don't think I will read another ML's book in the near (or not so near) future.
Urtho used his magic to create gryphons to help him in the war, and Skandranon (Skan), the "Black Gryphon," is one of the best of them. His closest friend is a human named Amberdrake, a kestra'chern (an empath/healer who uses a combination of methods to heal others emotionally and physically). The book follows their life and the development of their relationships in the camp, as Urtho attempts to figure out how to turn the tide of the war against Ma'ar.
This was my first time listening to this in audio form, although I had previously read the book quite a few times - it was the first Valdemar book I'd ever read, back when I was a teen obsessed with gryphons, and it became one of my comfort reads, although it's probably been at least 10 years since I last read it.
I was interested to see how well this would hold up after all this time, but I don't know that audio was the best way to do that. Gary Furlong pronounced most of the names and fantasy words differently than I'd imagined they would sound, and his narration gave the slower parts of the book more weight and made them more noticeable than they might have been if I had been rereading my old print copy. It wasn't bad (except for maybe the gryphon hisses - Furlong tried, but those weren't designed for audiobook narration), but it was definitely different.
I remembered most of the characters and their relationships, as well as most of their backstories (Amberdrake was the one character whose backstory I completely forgot). What I did not remember was how little on-page action there was. This was technically a war story, but it was so focused on characters' thoughts and emotional turmoil that it was easy to forget that there was fighting going on elsewhere. For example, Amberdrake tried his best to be everyone's rock while in reality he was one bad piece of news away from completely falling apart, and Winterhart seemed heartless and brittle but was eventually revealed to be a mass of guilt and anxiety.
Lackey spent a lot of time on character relationships: Amberdrake's friendship with Skan (which had some issues because Skan is not the sort to sit down and talk about feelings), Amberdrake helping Zhaneel to increase her self-confidence, and the budding romances between Amberdrake and Winterhart as well as Skan and Zhaneel. It was all blended with information about the war - for example, in an effort to increase her confidence and catch Skan's eye, Zhaneel created and worked out on obstacle courses that led to her being given an important role in one of the battles. Still, there were times I found myself thinking that the story was extremely slow, and I wonder how much of that was this reread (enough time for me to not be so affected by nostalgia?) and how much was due to the audio format making the pacing more obvious.
During this reread, I found myself viewing Urtho's army from more of an organizational leadership perspective. I imagine Urtho had a limited number of people he could promote or demote without risking further problems among his ranks, but there were at least a couple characters who were perfect examples of why it's dangerous to just shuffle toxic employees around. It was frustrating to watch.
All in all, I enjoyed seeing Amberdrake, Skan, and Zhaneel again, but this didn't work as well for me as I remembered. At some point I'll have to reread my paper copy to see if that makes a difference, and then continue on from there to The White Gryphon and The Silver Gryphon, which I don't think I've ever reread.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
The story was OK. not as good as I've come to expect. Having the same character complain about being in charge and wishing he wasn't too complain about losing the leadership halfway through was created conflict that wasn't necessary.
The story was OK. not as good as I've come to expect. Having the same character complain about being in charge and wishing he wasn't too complain about losing the leadership halfway through was created conflict that wasn't necessary.
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