Rating: 
Summary: Later books are better?
Review: I started with A Cast of Corbies, which I liked a lot. In contrast, the Lark and the Wren was very slow-going, especially the first half (like other reviewers, I found a clear split between the 1st and 2nd half of the book). I thought the action picked up in the 2nd half (unlike other reviewers) but it didn't gel with the earlier part of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Midway between love and hate
Review: I was given this book by a friend who was certain I would love it with my interest in bards in mind.While the beginning is, as was stated previously, the cliché of the young girl under personal adversity who triumphs above all in her path... it was personally the better half of the book. The character development was handled rather smoothly, and one actually CARED for the main character, at least to any degree. At the very instant the trials for the bardic guild ended, the book started spiralling slowly downward. The main character lost any flair and PERSONALITY that she may have had previously. -- There were things I felt that were unneccessarily thrown into the mix. Some may like "random flings of passion", but the addition of them out of NOWHERE caused my stomach to turn. It was inappropriate and detracted from the story. The latter half of the book was absolutely rushed, and with the introduction of a slew of new characters, the old was pushed in the background to become static...never to be looked at as even the same character anymore. If she had not held the same name (and even that was tentative, as she was being known as "Lady Lark" not long after that point) I would not have recognized her as the determined young woman that I had known previously. Otherwise, the book splits off into another direction completely. In having read most of the second book so far, I can tell you that the beginning of the second was most certainly somewhere about 100 pages near the end of the first. I didn't like the transition. It seemed rushed, and random. I did, however, enjoy the insight into the life of a travelling bard and to the thought that goes into the workings of bardic magic. -- This is by no means an excellent book; worth a check-out at the library, and even though I am engrossed in the second book, it is due to the author's style and not the book itself.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book for music lovers!
Review: I've read this book three times. I play the guitar so it was interesting how it tyes in with my life. I couldn't put it down. It makes you wonder what you would do if you were Rune and if you would make it into the bardic guild.
Rating: 
Summary: Do a favor to the English language and skip this one
Review: Mercedes Lackey is one of those writers who can be pretty OK or awful. Unfortunately, she usually has a very interesting story to tell - she's just not very good at telling it. Her characters all tend to be the same, the dialogue and mental asides are often dreadful, and her sentences are cliched and weak.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the three books in the "Free Bards" series. Reading it, I often find myself actually wincing as Lackey repeats these literary offenses, over and over and over. By the 50th time one character completes another's sentence, accompanied by the sort of triumphant italics and exclamation points you usually only see in a 15-year-old's email, pointing out obvious points that the reader has already grasped three paragraphs ago, you'll be wincing, too. All too often, Lackey is overly impressed by her own cleverness, and she never lets pass an opportunity for a character to grasp some plot "intricacy" (it's usually anything but intricate) with glee and proceed to explain it, point by soporific point, to the other characters. Given that all the characters fall into exactly two personality groups - the good guys, typified by their wide-eyed enthusiasm, goody-goodiness, and the fact that they all like each other, and the bad guys, who are cruel without any motive, and would be sneaky if the plot were complex enough - the reason for these explanations is somewhat obscure.
Well, the plot, such as it is, of "Lark and the Wren", starts off well enough, with Rune, a provincial village girl who only wants to be a musician. She escapes her dull life and heads to the city, where she's aided by an improbable streak of good luck and sympathetic characters, until she's ready to try to join the Bardic Guild.
From there the plot devolves. The trials of a young girl, who we can at least identify with, are suddenly overshadowed by Lackey's lecturing on the dangers of greed, organized religion, sexism, xenophobia, etc, etc, etc. The plot serves as nothing more than a device to move Rune and her friends from place to place where they can be persecuted by the bad guys and/or meet more of the same good guys and/or save the world. The side-plots, rather than fleshing the story out, seem tacked-on, with no real bearing on anything. The characters are unbelievably boring, once you've met Rune, they're all exactly like her. Lackey's use of musical terms, again, is an effort to impress us with her own knowledge. And, if I see one more internalized monologue, I'm going to scream.
Read it if you must, as a Lackey fan, or if you can't pass up a book about musicians. But if good writing is at all important to you, save your teeth from the inevitable grinding that will accompany this one.
Rating:
Summary: Do a favor to the English language and skip this one
Review: Mercedes Lackey is one of those writers who can be pretty OK or awful. Unfortunately, she usually has a very interesting story to tell - she's just not very good at telling it. Her characters all tend to be the same, the dialogue and mental asides are often dreadful, and her sentences are cliched and weak.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the three books in the "Free Bards" series. Reading it, I often find myself actually wincing as Lackey repeats these literary offenses, over and over and over. By the 50th time one character completes another's sentence, accompanied by the sort of triumphant italics and exclamation points you usually only see in a 15-year-old's email, pointing out obvious points that the reader has already grasped three paragraphs ago, you'll be wincing, too. All too often, Lackey is overly impressed by her own cleverness, and she never lets pass an opportunity for a character to grasp some plot "intricacy" (it's usually anything but intricate) with glee and proceed to explain it, point by soporific point, to the other characters. Given that all the characters fall into exactly two personality groups - the good guys, typified by their wide-eyed enthusiasm, goody-goodiness, and the fact that they all like each other, and the bad guys, who are cruel without any motive, and would be sneaky if the plot were complex enough - the reason for these explanations is somewhat obscure.
Well, the plot, such as it is, of "Lark and the Wren", starts off well enough, with Rune, a provincial village girl who only wants to be a musician. She escapes her dull life and heads to the city, where she's aided by an improbable streak of good luck and sympathetic characters, until she's ready to try to join the Bardic Guild.
From there the plot devolves. The trials of a young girl, who we can at least identify with, are suddenly overshadowed by Lackey's lecturing on the dangers of greed, organized religion, sexism, xenophobia, etc, etc, etc. The plot serves as nothing more than a device to move Rune and her friends from place to place where they can be persecuted by the bad guys and/or meet more of the same good guys and/or save the world. The side-plots, rather than fleshing the story out, seem tacked-on, with no real bearing on anything. The characters are unbelievably boring, once you've met Rune, they're all exactly like her. Lackey's use of musical terms, again, is an effort to impress us with her own knowledge. And, if I see one more internalized monologue, I'm going to scream.
Read it if you must, as a Lackey fan, or if you can't pass up a book about musicians. But if good writing is at all important to you, save your teeth from the inevitable grinding that will accompany this one.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: My first M. Lackey book, but not my last. A very real heroine who knows what she wants, and eventually gets it! (Well, sort of) All set in a fantasy of Bards, Gypsys, and a little magic, Rune learns about life, and music.
Rating:
Summary: What a great book!
Review: One of Mercedes Lackey's best! I just love this book! Everyone read it! Rune loves music, and plays the violin well, but she's stuck at the inn in a small village! She has no money to leave, and tries valiantly to avoid the village boys, who are getting uncomfortably persistent. The answer to all her problems comes, unexpectedly, when she goes to fiddle for the Skull Hill Ghost-but this opens up even more problems! Intense, and very satisfying!
Rating:
Summary: Throughly Enjoyable!
Review: Rune was a self-taught musician who had great dreams. She wanted to be famous and play for the wealthiest men in the land who would shower her with riches and treat her like a queen. Too bad she was stuck in the middle of nowhere working in a run down tavern with her slutty mother making a play for the newly widowed owner. Rune was born out of wedlock and had no future in the village, but was content to stay and work hard at the inn to keep a roof over her head and a full belly. That is, she was content until the boys in the village tried to rape her and made it perfectly clear that she was just like her mother. Rune didn't know what to do, but, when she was caught in the middle of her grand boasts to Jib, her only friend, she felt that she had to follow up with her claims and determined to go and fiddle for the Skull Hill Ghost - and survive! Much to Rune's surprise, she did survive and the ghost even gave her a bag of silver to start her on her way. Rune couldn't be gone fast enough and immediately set out for the nearest city where she could get some training and learn how to read and write music. She was lucky enough to find Tonno, a great music lover who could never make it as a professional musician and a job playing music in the common room of Amber's, a high class whore house. Rune learned much more than music from Tonno and much more than the ways of men and women from Amber. By the time she was ready to leave to try out for the Bardic Guild, Rune was much more aware of what was going on around her and was determined to find a place for herself. Unfortunately, Rune was not quite as smart as she thought she was. When the judges of the Bardic Guild competition discovered that she was a girl, they broke her instruments and her arm and left her in the mud. The Free Bards, led by Master Wren or Talaysen as his friends call him, took her in and taught her that you didn't have to belong to the Guild to be a great musician and to write good songs. Rune desperately wanted to learn and enjoyed her lessons with Master Wren, quickly gaining the nickname Lady Lark, and fitting into the Free Bards with ease. Now if only she could convince Talaysen that she saw him as more than a teacher... I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't think that it was slow, as some other reviewers, but that it was really two books in one. It was like it was one story up until Rune tried out for the Bardic Guild and then another one altogether when she took up with the Free Bards, but, hey, two books for the price of one so I'm not complaining. I don't think that this is Mercedes Lackey's best book, but I definitely think its up there. Rune is a very likeable character who makes mistakes and has doubts as to her self worth, just as we all do, but continues to go forward and try to make her life better. All of the characters were fun and very individual and I think that Lackey has created a wonderful new world for us to explore.
Rating:
Summary: Finally! A cure for insomnia!
Review: Sigh. Why is Mercedes Lackey so popular? I got about half way through this book and lost interest. I could have summed up the entire plot using two paragraphs. The characters are one dimensional, the story weak and she rambles on and on....(Note: This review could be used to describe any of Lackey's books.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible story from the view of an amazing character
Review: The first of the Bardic Voices series, Lark and the Wren is impossible to put down, an original story that grips your emotions as Rune struggles to begin a new life for herself away from her past and towards her future. She must realize her potential and what she wants from life as she begins again in new places with new people and new goals. Mercedes Lackey is brilliant, creating a realistic character whose emotions become our own as you follow her adventures in her search for a new life following her passion of music. This book was inspirational and unforgetable.
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