Rating: 
Summary: GREAT!
Review: I found this book exciting and cute. My daughter had actually seen a disney movie that was either based on this book, or the book based on it. I LOVED it! It is a great retelling of swan lake and how Odette and Siegfried came to be together. I reccommend this book to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: The best of Lackey's so far
Review: I'll admit it. I'm not a huge Mercedes Lackey fan. She tends to have stereotypical bad guys with no reason for their actions. Her books often start out very well, but then around the halfway point deteriorate, making it seem as if she lost her inspiration and is just trying to finish up the book. That's what happened with Magic's Pawn and with the first Bardic Voices novel -- with the remaining novels in the series not even starting out well. I had thought I was done with Lackey, until I picked up The Black Swan at the library, and got into it.WOW! This novel is definitely the best I have ever read by her. The plot -- based on the ballet Swan Lake -- is rich and detailed, the characters not completely black or white, even the villains. The evil Queen was still human, and Siegfried, while a 'good guy', had been a rapist in the past, and definitely had bad qualities still in existence. The book, unlike others where I had to work to finish, was captivating and difficult to put down. This was an incredible book. I'd recommend it to anyone, not just my friends who adore Mercedes Lackey.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel of metamorphosis
Review: Mercedes Lackey's _The Black Swan_ is, fundamentally, about metamorphosis. On the surface level, it's a retelling of the story of Swan Lake, a tale of shapeshifting. Lackey moves further into the theme of change, as we follow the development of two interesting characters. She moves the Princess Odette into a more supporting role, focusing instead on Prince Siegfried and on Odile, the daughter of the evil sorcerer Rothbart. Siegfried is a chauvinist pig and a one-time rapist, in danger of becoming a true villain, when he goes through a haunting and a religious experience, and begins to try to live a better life. Odile is an aloof sorceress-in-training who initially idolizes her father and disdains Odette and the other swan-maidens; as the story progresses, she comes to know both Rothbart and Odette much better, and realizes who really cares about her and who does not. She opens up more to emotion, as she learns how to have friends. Oh, yeah, and besides all this stuffy English-major thematic stuff, I would like to mention that it's an immensely enjoyable book, and a lot of fun to read. Why not five stars? I subtracted a star because I don't believe the shapeshifting spell was described very well. The girls are supposed to remain swans unless Odette can keep a man faithful for a month--but on the day Siegfried first proposes, the girls talk about how this might be their last night under the spell. And the spell is supposed to change the swans back into maidens from moonrise to moonset--but Lackey always has them as humans by night ans swans by day. The moon rises at different times throughout the month; it's only at the full moon that it rises as the sun sets. So technically they should have transformed at different times of day throughout the month. But don't mind my nitpicking. It's a good story anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely
Review: I thought this was such as beautiful book. It is basically the movie "The Swan Princess" but WAY better. It is much darker and...better. Anyway,the main story is that Odette and her flock are enchanted by a evil sorcer, Baron Eric von Rothbart to be swans by day, and their true form, maidens, by night. Von Rothbart's daughter, Odile, is their "keeper." A queen, Clothilde, is planning to "accidentally" make her son, Prince Seigfried, somehow die. After many incedents, Odette and Seigfried meet and fall in love. Odette can remove the curse placed on herself and the flock if she can get a man (who is Seigfried) to fall in love with her and never cheat on her until her death. Seigfried promises this, but is tricked later, and...I'll leave the rest for you to find out. What is loved most about the book was the characters. I liked how Seigfried changed from a rapist to a devoted lover, and how perfectly EVIL von Rothbart was, and how Odile was a terrific, yet imperfect, herione. There were only two things I wished I could change about the story: I wanted to know more about Odette's feelings and such, and I wanted the story to go on longer.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: This book was great! I liked Odile's personallity, she seemed like a real person to me. The way she was in self denial about the way her father was useing her struck me as all too true a situation. I also loved Ms. Lacky's original ending much better than the traditional fairy tale one!
Rating: 
Summary: One of lackey's weaker works
Review: I wanted to like this, but it just didn't have much oomph to it. The characters were insipid and unbelievable, and the prose unexciting and predictable. Of course, this is Mercedes Lackey, so the writing itself isn't bad, but leave this one is strictly for Lackey fans. For new readers looking for books in this vein, try her title "The Fire Rose".
Rating:
Summary: a faery tale for grown-ups
Review: Reading this book was like being six years old and being read to. It was so much fun. Many novels that are expansions of traditional stories are epics of pain and suffering. (think Mists of Avalon, The Horse Goddess) This easily could have been as well, but Mercedes Lackey chose to take another road. Even in the sad parts, the world of Odile is filled with delight. The genius of this book is in the details. Lackey conjures up the feeling of home within the wilderness that make the reader feel warm and safe inside, much like in My Side of the Mountain.
Rating:
Summary: A dazzling retelling of Swan Lake!
Review: I've always loved the story of the beautiful princess who was turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer and permitted to retain her true form only in moonlight. The Black Swan is a wonderful retelling of the Swan Lake fairy tale, with ideas from the animation version, The Swan Princess. Mercedes Lackey produces a detailed and thorough account with insights on the characters - mostly of Odile, the daughter of the evil sorcerer von Rothbart (left out in The Swan Princess), Prince Siegfried, and Queen Clothilde (his mother), the ones that are generally overlooked. Odile is portrayed as an intelligent young woman, neglected by her father, whose only wish is his love and approval. However, von Rothbart cares little for her, especially since she is so clever and seemingly about to exceed himself. She is in charge of the flock of women-turned-swans, and finds friendship in them. Siegfried is a selfish lecher, until his actions come back to haunt him. (I thought that that was a shocking and revolting stage and I was really relieved when he changed his ways, though the transformation was a bit odd and sudden, and he didn't give up all of his bad habits.) Clothilde adds excitement to the story, a factor new to the whole Swan Lake plot. The scheming queen will do anything to ensure that the throne is hers alone. Though I appreciated the elucidation of the characters surrounding the story, I was kinda bummed that Odette was pushed to the very back and we are given almost no details on her character, except in a rare occasion through Odile. I wanted to know a bit more on her past and her development - she is after all, the "main attraction", the center of the story. Nevertheless, The Black Swan is a really satisfying retelling of Swan Lake. I'm glad that it still followed the main story line and wasn't too much of a heavy fantasy (I can never make out the weird names, kingdoms, and magical aspects). This is a great book for mature readers (I say this because the content is a bit dirty at times), especially fans of fairy tales and fantasies!
Rating:
Summary: "Swan Lake" Revealed
Review: When I first saw "Black Swan" my first thought was, How dare they! I am an ardent ballet fan and dancer, "Swan Lake" is one of my favorite ballets, and the thought of anyone meddling with that story was infuriating. But within ten minutes I had decided I had to read the book--the thought of seeing my beloved characters in real, everyday life was too tempting--and I didn't regret it. I've never read Mercedes Lackey before, and in my opinion this was a FANTASTIC book. The plot of the ballet was wonderfully developed, as were the characters. I had not wanted to like Odile and had not planned to--after all, I have never seen her as anything but the wicked sorceress--but I ended up liking her almost against my will, and any writer who can make me do that is doing a very good job. As guardian of the swan-maidens and eager-to-please daughter to von Rothbart, this enchantress turned out to have a true heart and genuine feelings, and I appreciated this very much. I greatly enjoyed the numerous subplots, which kept the book from becoming too tedious and gave me insight into the other characters, something I appreciated, as I feel I know these characters personally through my long love of ballet and wanted to get to know them better. The Queen Regent's position as a jealous, heartless throne-covetress attempting to "coincidentally" murder her son was extremely well written--you can't like her from the first word you read about her. The only thing about the book I really didn't like was the portrayal of Prince Siegfried as (to put it kindly) a playboy, but I have to admit that this made his oath of fidelity to Odette doubly significant and very, very touching. I might have liked to see Odette a little more developed, but the book was so wonderful as it was that I'm certainly not complaining. I had hoped at first that the book would end as the ballet had ended, but I was extremely pleasantly surprised by the wonderful "happily-ever-after" ending that was close enough to the ballet's ending to please even me--I actually liked it better, because I found it deeply satisfying; no one was left without their due. I am very, very hard to please where my beloved ballet characters are concerned, and Mercedes Lackey has done an admirable job. If you are not familiar with the plot and characters, this book may not be very interesting to you, but I very highly recommend it to all dance fans. "Black Swan" comes dangerously close to being the best book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: I'd give it a B--worth a read for fantasy and lackey fans
Review: Although I agree somewhat with reviewer Kali Tal [Odil finds out her Socerer Dad is evil?! You mean the 26 ensorceled gals entrapped in the backyard didn't clue her in?] but I did find it an entertaining read overall, as fantasy fiction goes. I kept thinking that, along with the depth Ms. Lackey delved into the other characters, we'd come to find some depth to the Evil Sorcerer, i.e.: his motivation for entrapping unfaithful gals is because Odil's Mom ran off with the milkman and isn't dead at all [thus setting up a potential sequel, since we all know she loves to write in three's]. If you're a Mercedes Lackey or fanstasy fan, this one's for you. If you are more into Tolkein, et. al, this may be a bit more fluff than you'd care for.
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