Beyond World's End

Rating:
Summary: Not Up to Par
Review: To be frank, _Beyond World's End_ disappointed me. I was introduced to Mercedes Lackey via _Bedlam's Bard_ some years ago, and immediately fell in love with the characters and the storylines. The trials and tribulations of Beth, Kory, and everyone's favorite flautist, Eric Banyon, were enough to compel me to read the entire book overnight. I didn't sleep until I had finished the entire six hundred-page text and the story left me aching for more.

Now that I have it, I almost wish that I did not. I had always thought that the whole "cops are after us, let's hide" plot in _Bedlam's Bard_ was a bit contrived, but I hadn't let it affect me. To learn that Eric and company escaped Underworld afterwards struck me as out of character. For one, though Eric did indeed need training in his Bardic abilities, he has had bad experiences with Underhill and never struck me as likely to wish to retreat there. Kory spoke again and again about how much he loved the human world and to have his fight to protect the elves' right to stay there disregarded was a shock. However it was Beth's plight that caused me to really wonder about the story. Beth, such a strong woman in the first two novels, being unable to deal with the events of Bedlam's Bard is highly unlikely. Seeing Beth, strong, capable Beth, so weakened seemed incongruous. She seemed a diminished shade of her former self.

From the start I had problems with _Beyond World's End_. Even beyond having two of my favorite characters almost completely written out of a saga where before they had been principle players, many of the new events and characters seemed contrived. Greystone, the gargoyle, had potential to be a highly enjoyable creature, but his stereotypical name made it harder for me to like him. The watchers are interesting people...but in their own series. A mention of how the SERRA elves are doing would have been great, seeing as occasional tidbits of info are scattered through both sets of books about the two Coasts' elves. Ria's character seemed different, somehow, not the vivid woman she had once been. There is virtually no mention of how she healed, or what caused it. The return of old faces such as Kayla and Elizabet would have been wonderful.

It is these implausibilities that caused me to dislike _Beyond World's End_. How Eric could have reinstated himself at Julliard, a place that he swore up and down that he would never, *ever*, return to, without qualm or confusion on the part of his professor's surprised me. Likewise, Ria's sudden reanimation, (in convenient timing with Eric's return to the Mortal Realms) is farfetched. It was nice to see Eric come into himself, and to know that he isn't going to make any more fool hardy choices like those that filled _Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_ and _Summoned to Tourney_. Eric has much more control over his abilities than before, and his growing relationship with Ria was fun to watch, so long as I put Beth and Kory out of my mind.

Suffice to say, _Beyond World's End_ had a great deal of potential that simply wasn't lived up to. Beyond World's End picks up in a place so radically different from the end of Bedlam's Bard that a book sandwiched between the two would not have been amiss. I probably could have handled Eric's dwindling relationship with Beth and Kory had there been something to suggest to me that their love wasn't a solid one. Insight on Eric's actual training would have been great as well. Instead we are subjected to all of this information, stuffed sans detail in a very short amount of time. Though the story later picks up, and I did find the drug ring scenario very interesting, (...) First time readers, stick with _Bedlam's Bard_. Those who read the first adventures, go find _Bedlam's Boyz_, Ellen Guon's take on Kayla and Elizabet and the Sidhe, a story written wonderfully with an intriguing plot that doesn't fail to follow through. Only if you are a true lover of Eric Banyon do I recommend buying _Beyond World's End_. Even so, I suggest waiting for the paperback version. I wish I had.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Up to Par
Review: To be frank, _Beyond World's End_ disappointed me. I was introduced to Mercedes Lackey via _Bedlam's Bard_ some years ago, and immediately fell in love with the characters and the storylines. The trials and tribulations of Beth, Kory, and everyone's favorite flautist, Eric Banyon, were enough to compel me to read the entire book overnight. I didn't sleep until I had finished the entire six hundred-page text and the story left me aching for more.

Now that I have it, I almost wish that I did not. I had always thought that the whole "cops are after us, let's hide" plot in _Bedlam's Bard_ was a bit contrived, but I hadn't let it affect me. To learn that Eric and company escaped Underworld afterwards struck me as out of character. For one, though Eric did indeed need training in his Bardic abilities, he has had bad experiences with Underhill and never struck me as likely to wish to retreat there. Kory spoke again and again about how much he loved the human world and to have his fight to protect the elves' right to stay there disregarded was a shock. However it was Beth's plight that caused me to really wonder about the story. Beth, such a strong woman in the first two novels, being unable to deal with the events of Bedlam's Bard is highly unlikely. Seeing Beth, strong, capable Beth, so weakened seemed incongruous. She seemed a diminished shade of her former self.

From the start I had problems with _Beyond World's End_. Even beyond having two of my favorite characters almost completely written out of a saga where before they had been principle players, many of the new events and characters seemed contrived. Greystone, the gargoyle, had potential to be a highly enjoyable creature, but his stereotypical name made it harder for me to like him. The watchers are interesting people...but in their own series. A mention of how the SERRA elves are doing would have been great, seeing as occasional tidbits of info are scattered through both sets of books about the two Coasts' elves. Ria's character seemed different, somehow, not the vivid woman she had once been. There is virtually no mention of how she healed, or what caused it. The return of old faces such as Kayla and Elizabet would have been wonderful.

It is these implausibilities that caused me to dislike _Beyond World's End_. How Eric could have reinstated himself at Julliard, a place that he swore up and down that he would never, *ever*, return to, without qualm or confusion on the part of his professor's surprised me. Likewise, Ria's sudden reanimation, (in convenient timing with Eric's return to the Mortal Realms) is farfetched. It was nice to see Eric come into himself, and to know that he isn't going to make any more fool hardy choices like those that filled _Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_ and _Summoned to Tourney_. Eric has much more control over his abilities than before, and his growing relationship with Ria was fun to watch, so long as I put Beth and Kory out of my mind.

Suffice to say, _Beyond World's End_ had a great deal of potential that simply wasn't lived up to. Beyond World's End picks up in a place so radically different from the end of Bedlam's Bard that a book sandwiched between the two would not have been amiss. I probably could have handled Eric's dwindling relationship with Beth and Kory had there been something to suggest to me that their love wasn't a solid one. Insight on Eric's actual training would have been great as well. Instead we are subjected to all of this information, stuffed sans detail in a very short amount of time. Though the story later picks up, and I did find the drug ring scenario very interesting, (...) First time readers, stick with _Bedlam's Bard_. Those who read the first adventures, go find _Bedlam's Boyz_, Ellen Guon's take on Kayla and Elizabet and the Sidhe, a story written wonderfully with an intriguing plot that doesn't fail to follow through. Only if you are a true lover of Eric Banyon do I recommend buying _Beyond World's End_. Even so, I suggest waiting for the paperback version. I wish I had.

Rating:
Summary: Not What It Could Have Been
Review: When I first heard about this book, I had hopes that it would be something special. Mercedes Lackey has been a long-time favorite of mine, but I've been a little disappointed in her most recent works. I thought that perhaps the talents of Rosemary Edghill could balance this out, and together the two writers would come up with an amazing novel worthy of both. Unfortunately, I don't think they've done so here. Not quite.

_Beyond World's End_ has problems. Its lack of consistency alone costs the book a star; besides enough small errors to make me wonder whether an editor ever actually looked at this, there's a big issue with how time works. Eric's been Underhill for twenty or thirty mortal years, yet the professors at Juilliard aren't surprised that he's back and looking twenty-five at most? Ria Llewellyn's come back from healing Underhill for as many years, and yet when she returns to her company it's as though she's been gone for just a few months? What gives? This paradox took my suspension of disbelief by the scruff of its neck and shook it until the spine snapped, and that didn't make staying in the story very easy.

Second, the first half to two-thirds simply disappointed me. Too much text space was set up establishing details that were later unimportant. Lackey and Edghill might as well have not bothered with the entire Juilliard storyline; it trailed off ingloriously long before the story was over. And this first big slice of text is full of elements that readers of Mercedes Lackey will probably recognize. Gorgeous young hero stuns everyone with how mature and powerful he's become, over and over again. He meets up with a band of potential allies who, despite being powers in their own right, are oddly clueless and need the hero to tell them what's going on all the time. (Really, the book would've been better in my opinion if the Guardians had just been left out. I don't think it would've hurt the plot any, since they didn't seem to *do* anything.) Everyone worships and fawns over him and his talents. Sound familiar? I was getting _Lark and the Wren_ flashbacks all the time I was reading. Now, I love Lackey's work, and find nothing wrong with a little wish-fulfillment now and then, but _Beyond World's End_ had me ready to yell, "Enough is enough!"

However, there are saving graces which make this a book worth reading--a book worth buying, for that matter, though I'd wait for it to come out in paperback. The subplot involving the psychotropic cocktail experiments was genuinely creepy and very well-written, with a solidness to it that seemed lacking from the rest of the text. At least in that first half to two-thirds. It's important to make the distinction, because after a point the story and pacing picked up enough that the whole thing finally started coming together. Eric, Ria, and Jeannette became very interesting; the conflict was absorbing; I couldn't put the book down until I'd reached the end. True, the climax did go very quickly and was a letdown after so much build-up, but if the rest of the novel had possessed as much energy and drawing power, it would've been one heck of a book instead of just a fairly good one.

In short: this is worth checking out if you've already read _Bedlam's Bard_ (or its two component parts, _Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_ and _Summoned To Tourney_) and want to know what happened to Eric & Company. It may even be worth trying if you haven't, though without some knowledge of Lackey's urban fantasy world it would be easy to get confused. But keep in mind that it isn't a story that is apt to draw you in or take off from the get-go; perseverance is needed to get the most out of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Not What It Could Have Been
Review: When I first heard about this book, I had hopes that it would be something special. Mercedes Lackey has been a long-time favorite of mine, but I've been a little disappointed in her most recent works. I thought that perhaps the talents of Rosemary Edghill could balance this out, and together the two writers would come up with an amazing novel worthy of both. Unfortunately, I don't think they've done so here. Not quite.

_Beyond World's End_ has problems. Its lack of consistency alone costs the book a star; besides enough small errors to make me wonder whether an editor ever actually looked at this, there's a big issue with how time works. Eric's been Underhill for twenty or thirty mortal years, yet the professors at Juilliard aren't surprised that he's back and looking twenty-five at most? Ria Llewellyn's come back from healing Underhill for as many years, and yet when she returns to her company it's as though she's been gone for just a few months? What gives? This paradox took my suspension of disbelief by the scruff of its neck and shook it until the spine snapped, and that didn't make staying in the story very easy.

Second, the first half to two-thirds simply disappointed me. Too much text space was set up establishing details that were later unimportant. Lackey and Edghill might as well have not bothered with the entire Juilliard storyline; it trailed off ingloriously long before the story was over. And this first big slice of text is full of elements that readers of Mercedes Lackey will probably recognize. Gorgeous young hero stuns everyone with how mature and powerful he's become, over and over again. He meets up with a band of potential allies who, despite being powers in their own right, are oddly clueless and need the hero to tell them what's going on all the time. (Really, the book would've been better in my opinion if the Guardians had just been left out. I don't think it would've hurt the plot any, since they didn't seem to *do* anything.) Everyone worships and fawns over him and his talents. Sound familiar? I was getting _Lark and the Wren_ flashbacks all the time I was reading. Now, I love Lackey's work, and find nothing wrong with a little wish-fulfillment now and then, but _Beyond World's End_ had me ready to yell, "Enough is enough!"

However, there are saving graces which make this a book worth reading--a book worth buying, for that matter, though I'd wait for it to come out in paperback. The subplot involving the psychotropic cocktail experiments was genuinely creepy and very well-written, with a solidness to it that seemed lacking from the rest of the text. At least in that first half to two-thirds. It's important to make the distinction, because after a point the story and pacing picked up enough that the whole thing finally started coming together. Eric, Ria, and Jeannette became very interesting; the conflict was absorbing; I couldn't put the book down until I'd reached the end. True, the climax did go very quickly and was a letdown after so much build-up, but if the rest of the novel had possessed as much energy and drawing power, it would've been one heck of a book instead of just a fairly good one.

In short: this is worth checking out if you've already read _Bedlam's Bard_ (or its two component parts, _Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_ and _Summoned To Tourney_) and want to know what happened to Eric & Company. It may even be worth trying if you haven't, though without some knowledge of Lackey's urban fantasy world it would be easy to get confused. But keep in mind that it isn't a story that is apt to draw you in or take off from the get-go; perseverance is needed to get the most out of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and unpredictable action
Review: While Beyond World's End is a sequel to Bedlam's Bard, familiarity with its predecessor is not required in order to thoroughly enjoy this as a stand-alone story. Magician Eric is hoping to settle down peacefully in the earth realm - but his apartment turns out to be a haven for occultists, and an attractor of evil forces which involves Eric in yet another struggle. Gripping and unpredictable action.