Book #69 of 2023: Arrows of the Queen | DNF: Tanager's Fledglings

[thistlechaser]

Arrows of the Queen (The Heralds of Valdemar, Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey.

During the first half of this book, I thought it was going to go onto my list of best books I've ever read.

I think most people know the Valdemar series, but in case anyone hasn't: The 48 book series is set on a fantasy world, magic and magical creatures exist. One of those creatures is called a Companion. Basically a pure white horse, as smart as a human, and psychic. They bond ("Choose") one person to spend their life with.

Talia was born in a part of the country where men have the final say on everything. Each man has many wives, and woman have zero rights, no power at all, they aren't even supposed to learn to read. Talia is different and she doesn't fit.

When she turns 13, she's called in front of her father's wives and told she's going to be married. She runs away, a Companion finds her and Chooses her, and carries her off.

She had barely heard of a Companion, and knew nothing of them Choosing people, and so she was really confused.

The first half of the book was so wonderful. A smart girl, but she knew nothing of the world outside her little town, she was scared of all men, she thought she had stolen her Companion, it was just such an interesting story!

But the second half went downhill pretty fast, I'm sorry to say. As Talia settled in, she became perfect. She was "beloved by all". She had a magical power (a "Talent") that let her say exactly the right thing whenever someone was felling bad.

As a side note, I've read thousands of books by this point in my life. I think "Always says the perfect thing at the perfect time" might be the most BS magical power I've ever encountered in a book.

I don't like to toss the label "Mary Sue" around, but sadly it really fit in this case. She was just so perfect, she succeeded at everything, every single person loved her... It was just way too much. (And she was only 13 years old!)

I started the second book, but I suspect I'm going to end up DNFing it.

In Mercedes Lackey's defense: This was her first book and she got a lot better as she went on. (Edit: I should also add that for a book published in 1987, this one had really positive messages about sex and love! There were same-sex relationships in it.)

DNF #136: Tanager's Fledglings (The Tanager Book 1) by Cedar Sanderson. Less than a chapter into this book I was bored, so I checked the Goodreads reviews to see if I should keep going. Before I even reached them, I saw this:

About the author:
Cedar Sanderson
91 books

91 books?! Stephen King, who has been writing for 50 years, much of that time writing as his full time job, has written "only" 65 books. Sanderson is not a full time author, she offers a bunch of other services, and she has a regular job as well. She's been writing for just over 10 years and somehow has 91 books?! I really hope that's a mistake on Goodreads's part.

Anyway, on to the plot: Set in the distant future when humans had spread far through the universe, the story followed a young man who inherited a spaceship and soon after was gifted a dog. The story followed his travels between planets (he was a trader).

After initially checking Goodreads, I had decided to stick with the book. The story had its ups and downs, but I ended up skimming a lot, and finally DNFed it at 65%. It wasn't a bad book, I just wasn't interested enough to want to spend a couple more hours finishing it.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Andrew Wareham has been writing for ten years, and has just finished his 100th book.

https://andrewwarehamauthor.com/books/

[resonant.livejournal.com]

(although his recent books are getting really repetitive. Someone says what he is going to do, then he describes it as he does it, then he tells someone what he does, then that person tells someone else what was done).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow that's pretty impressive!

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I know I tried one of Mercedes Lackey's books about that world with the white psychic horses, long ago when I was a teen. The covers at the library looked so compelling, and of course I loved the idea of a magic horse that could talk to your mind. I don't even remember how far I got in the book- something about her writing styles really BORES me. I did read two all the way through more recently- one about dragons and another was a beauty and the beast retelling. I am sorry to say I didn't really enjoy either one. My older kid is a real fan of her books, but the tone and way things are so plainly described (all tell, not shown if I recall) just doesn't work for me.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently one of her biggest issues (is? was?) "all tell, not shown". I haven't read her latest books, but as much as she writes, I'd hope she'd have gotten over that by now.

I hadn't known she rewrote Beauty and the Beast, so I looked it up. The Fire Rose, published in 1995. The reviews of it are pretty bad, not surprised it didn't work for you!

Eventually I might try one of her latest books and see if she's gotten better.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow, after leaving my first comment, I went through my reviews to see if I had read anything else by her.

2017 I read Sword of Ice: And Other Tales of Valdemar (Valdemar Anthologies) — I disliked it.

2020 I read the The Mage Wars (Black Gryphon/White Gryphon/Silver Gryphon trilogy). Liked Black, HATED white, didn't bother with Silver.

2021 I read Owlflight. I really, really did not like it.

2021 I read Winter Moon. My review matches your opinion! "Why in the world did I love Lackey when I was a teenager? Okay, talking psychic white horses are a really cool idea, but I hate her writing style."

I can't believe I read so much of her stuff without remembering I did...

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Oh, yeah. Exactly! It must be you forgot them all because they're so (ahem) poorly written. It's the ideas that make them so popular, I think. I kept looking at copies of ones my kid brought home from the libarary- about a young woman in some fantasy world that had a magic power to talk to all these wild exotic animals- it looked really cool but I resisted, just knowing I'd get irritated at the writing style.

Yep, I gave Fire Rose 2/5 on my blog, which is just a notch above saying this was so bad I couldn't read it