Valdemar: Mage Wars by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

 

The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon in the first book The Mage Wars, which is the first trilogy in a massive epic saga called Valdemar. Valdemar has a total of 38 books in it (and books are still coming out), so it could be my job for the next two years to read these books if I wanted. You can either read the Valdemar saga in the publication order or you can read them in the internal chronology of the world. I have chosen to read in the internal chronological world and we shall see if I have made a huge mistake in this choice. These books have thousands of reviews on Goodreads and most of them have average star ratings over 4, so I'm quite intrigued by this.

I listened to the audiobook because I ran out of podcasts. Since my job is really, really slow these days, I have way too much time on my hands to walk the dog and do housework and when I'm doing these things, I always listen to audio and my podcast queue is just not long enough. This will change inevitably when I change jobs, but I'm okay with listening to audiobooks in the meantime. Gary Furlong read this book.

Since I have no other knowledge about Valdemar, I can be absolutely straight and say I adored this book. The first chapter or two were not exactly the most riveting ever and for the first half hour or so of the book, I was tempted to quit because this is a book about war (of course it is! the title of the trilogy is The Mage Wars!) and it started with a mini-battle scene and then went to an army camp and I wasn't sure if it was the right fit for me.

But pretty soon the characters won me over and the worldbuilding started to make sense and I was inventing things to do so I could listen to more. You guys, I voluntarily cleaned the shower.  

Skandranon* (Skan) is a gryphon. Can you hear me over here squealing in excitement over magical creatures? Gryphons were created by the mage Urtho and Urtho is leading a fighting force against the evil mage Ma'ar. This book focuses on Skan and his friend Amberdrake, who is a kestra'chern, which is a counselor of sorts that does physical, spiritual, and psychological healing that can (but doesn't have to) include sexual gratification.  Skan meets another brave gryphon named Zhaneel and Amberdrake falls in love with a mage named Winterheart. Those are the characters.  The plot is all about Urtho defeating Ma'ar and magical weapons and battle strategies and boring stuff like that.

There are some legitimate criticisms of this book. Urtho is kind of a bad guy for being the hero we're all following into war. He's keeping information from the gryphons about how they can reproduce, he's got a mentally handicapped gryphon captive in the Tower, and he's not a great military leader because bad harassment is happening under him, but somehow everyone loves him and forgives him. It's ridiculous. I never figured out where that loyalty was coming from. It's pretty black and white, with our good guys having explanations for any bad behavior and our bad guys just being real bad. 

But, and I mean this sincerely, I really enjoyed listening to it. I loved the magical creatures. I loved the worldbuilding. I loved the characters, particularly the gryphons. I enjoyed the narrator's reading of what seem to be quite complex words (kestra'chern, for real!). I have read a bit that the magical creatures don't actually play a huge role in the entire saga, but I guess we'll see how it goes. For a start to what I imagine will be a sprawling enterprise, I have to say I really enjoyed it and can't wait for more.

4.5/5 stars

*Since I listened to this, I had no idea how any of this was spelled, so I had to look up a lot of these words on fan sites. If any of them are misspelled, I apologize, but I don't have a physical copy of the book.

As soon as I was done with The Black Gryphon, I immediately downloaded the audiobook of The White Gryphon onto my phone. Same authors, same narrator. 

I have a lot of questions about this cover, but the most pressing one is why this guy is shirtless. He's not shirtless in the book. As a matter of fact, his fashion sense is an important part of the plot. It's confusing.

In this book, the survivors of Urtho's Tower collapse have founded a city called White Gryphon, named after our friend Skandranon. It's ten years later and Skan is bored with the realities of running a city, out of shape because he never has time to fly or train, and is honestly a little whiny about all the responsibility of being him. But then it turns out that White Gryphon is on the edge of an empire and they have to negotiate with the emperor to maintain their city's progress. So Skan, Zhaneel, Winterheart, and Amberdrake all travel to Haighlei.  (It turns out Amberdrake's mentor from before the War is there, as well, and it's important in this book, but I don't know if it's important overall, so I'm including it here in case I need it later. Her name is Silver Veil.) When they get there, though, murders start happening in the Court and it's clear that whoever is committing these murder is trying to frame the foreigners from White Gryphon.

What a strange divergence from the first book. The first book was all about political maneuvering and strategy and war and this book is a murder mystery. And, to be honest, not a particularly compelling one since we know who did it from the first chapter. I think that the authors would have been better off if they had not introduced the killer until much later, but who am I to make these types of decisions. This book continues in the YA mode of good guys are good and bad guys are bad, too, so if that black and white thinking is a problem for you, be aware.

And boy was Skan a pill in this book. He's so whiny and takes offense at everything. What a weird bird.  

Regardless of these criticisms, I do find this world intriguing and am happy to jump in for more.

3.5/5 stars

No idea who this guy is. What weird covers.

Well, I obviously immediately listened to The Silver Gryphon, same authors, same narrator. 

We speed ahead in time about twelve years. The children are getting older. Amberdrake and Winterheart's daughter, Blade (human), and Scan and Zhaneel's son, Tadrith (gryphon) have trained to be part of the law enforcement arm of society and have been sent on a mission to the furthest outreach in the empire. But on the way there, everything goes awry and Blade and Tad have to survive in the wilderness without magic while they await for help.

The first part of this book was a real slog. Everyone was all woe is me. My children are leaving! My dad is famous! No one understands me! I was less than patient with this. But at about a third of the way through, the journey begins and then it was so much fun. I like reading how they survive in the wilderness and I enjoyed the relationship between Tad and Blade. I also really like this world and am excited to see how it further develops.

4/5 stars

Overall, I ended up really liking this series and will definitely read more of Valdemar.