The Outstretched Shadow : The Obsidian Trilogy: Book One

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly long enough!
Review: I adore Mercedes Lackey's work normally but when she collaborates with others she seems to produce the most spectacular combinations of brilliance. This book sucked me in and spit me out a day later and left me wondering if I'd survive until the second book came out. The characters are amazing, the plots are interesting and the mythology of such overused being like unicorns and centaurs are completely entertaining and not at all boring or dry as they can become in other stories. I loved it muchly.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I found this book to be a very good read. Im a huge fan of fantasy novels and this one had me spellbound. I probably have a library fee of $30 because i dont want to take it back. i read all other reviews and have found that people dont like the descriptions. They paint a picture. In this book, i could see the world. i could see the intricate pattern on Jermayans elven armor, the beauty of Aremathelieh. Usually a book gives me an idea of what the scene is, but with this one, i knew exactly what it looked like. And ive also seen reviews complaining about the way that Lackey came back to Kellen's problems with Wild Magick. Thats an important part to the story. He live his WHOLE life where rules were everything and now there is no rules. Plus he is scared of the Taint and Mercedes only came back to this when there was something new to add about it. on the whole i definitly recommend and after i get rid of the bank loan im going to have to take out to pay the library fines, im buying this book and ordering the second. i cant wait

Rating:
Summary: Boring, predictable, and typical
Review: I had attempted to read Lackey's stuff before, yet could never get through even 1 chapter. This one I finished, but mainly because I made a bet w/ a friend to see if I complete this book within a month. I won, but felt that 1 dollar DEFINITELY wasn't worth it.

The characters in this book seem too typical, especially Kellen and his sister. Goody-two-shoes is the phrase for it. The plot? Too predictable. So predictable that I doubted it for the longest time. When is his sister going to betray him?! I kept asking myself. If you're looking for twists, this book doesn't belong on your bookshelf. The good guys are good guys, and the bad guys remain as bad guys.

Is it interesting enough? Not of its life depended on it. Took me over 100 pages to get into it. Descriptions are long. Not prose-like at all. But it doesn't finish, so if you're one of those people who hate unfinished stories even if you don't want to read them anymore, don't go read this at ALL.

Rating:
Summary: Blood, Guts and Gore
Review: I LOVE Mercedes Lackey's books but I don't think I ever read such bloody sections in any of her previous books. If this book had been in the horror section I wouldn't have been quite as surprised. I've never read James Mallory so maybe all the gore was his contribution.
The story does plod along, quite a few sections appear again and again. Some of the characters appear to made of cardboard. I honestly don't know if I'll buy the next two in this series.


Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: If you enjoyed Elizabeth Moon's 'Paksenarrion' series, you will definitely enjoy this start, to what one would hope to be much longer than a mere trilogy. Battle scenes are realistic, the emotions are right on target, and even contains humor!! This read would also appeal to those who eagerly await the next installment of the 'Green Rider' (Kristen Britain) series. My only beef is WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE JUST A TRILOGY?!!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book with Wonderful Authors
Review: Most of the reviews I have read about this book deal with the fact that there are some long descriptions in it. What I don't understand is that without the descriptions how would you be able to understand and visualize a world as complex as the one in this wonderful novel. The descriptions made me feel that instead of just reading another book I was with the main characters, seeing and feeling everything they saw and felt.
I have read many of Ms.Lackey's novels and I've yet to find one I don't like and this one is no exception. The main character Kellon starts out in the novel feeling dissatisied with his life but not knowing why until three special books find him and he realizes that there is more to the world than what he was taught. He ends up going on not just a physical journey, but a journey of self-exploration as well. He finds new family, friends, and a new way of viewing himself and the world.
I must also say that the way magic is portrayed in this series is very original and engrossing especially when it comes the Wild Magic. The very idea of being able to use the magic only by paying a cost of anything from helping someone to making the world around you a better place is a wonderful way to make the Mages seem more attuned to the world around them.
This is a great start to an exciting new series and I am eagerly awaiting the chance to read the books to come.

Rating:
Summary: Valdemar-like, some nice ideas, not enough editing
Review: The three-star rating is for general readers; for Lackey fans, I'd give it 4 stars. Not her best, not her worst, many fun and interesting parts if you can get past the tiresome bits.

The world built in this book has many obvious parallels to that of Lackey's Valdemar, complete with a whiter-than-white, intelligent, horselike animal much given to sardonic pronouncements that bonds in some way to the young hero. Also present is magic that comes from "Gods" who confer it and ordain its usage price in order to balance the world. A Lackey fan will also find much other familiar territory.

As several other posters have noted, this book suffers grievously from inadequate editing. It will lose many readers in the first few chapters, in which the hero is introduced and the awful relationship with his father and the duplicity of the magic-workers in his city are dwelt on and pummeled on and dragged on for what seems like forever. Any possible shades of gray in relationships are ruthlessly stamped out - everybody is either goody-good or evily-evil. As if even the authors suspected it might be over the top, there's even a little exposition on how, if Dad had been a bit nicer, maybe everything would have turned out badly and the world would have been destroyed. Insufficient excuse, if you ask me.

For anyone who perseveres past the point where the hero finally leaves home, things do pick up. The pace is still slowed by the oddly chosen points in which long, descriptive passages are inserted; my preference would have been to have fewer of these and have them chosen more carefully by subject and timing. My patience was especially tried by the repeated attention to the minutiae of torture by the bad guys. Enough, already! We know they're bad! Then too, there are some "Huh?" moments; for example, it isn't clear to me why the bad guys can't wipe out the heroes in the last scene. Overall, the book does feel padded, like there was an order for so many pages by such-and-such a date and the crank was turned.

As others have mentioned, this book is appropriate for children 10 and over; in fact, the frequent focus on the feeeeeelings and uncertainties of the teenaged hero make this a book that wouldn't appeal to most adult readers.

For all of this, I did enjoy reading the book (once I got past the first chapters and skipped through especially egregious parts), and I look forward to reading the sequel. In fact, the story does end abruptly, so the plot feels incomplete in the first book. It's too bad that so many fantasy books are published as trilogies, when the story would be better served by editing to one or two books.

Rating:
Summary: great new fantasy series
Review: This is a great beginning of a fantasy series. It had similarities to Valdemar and maybe a little Harry Potter thrown in. The plot flowed smoothly and left the reader wanting more. There were nicely developed characters, and an overall plot that would encompass an epic series. I truly enjoyed this read.

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Beginning
Review: This novel is very long. It hasn't been well edited. These two comments seem to sum up the majority of other reviews of this work. I will concede that this book is long, but it was not poorly edited. Any time that you have two authors collaborating on a given work, that book will be longer than one written by either of them individually. Yes, there are aspects of the story that seem to plod along, but I feel that the overall story is well worth the slower sections. As far as the suggestion that this work was badly edited goes, let me say that I can close my eyes and recall the images that the authors created with their words, even though I read this book 8 months ago! That's not bad editing, people, it's called attention to detail!

I have been reading sci-fi and fantasy novels (and playing related role playing games) for almost 25 years, and the concept of "magic" as presented in this novel is the most original one that I have encountered in probably the last 20 years. The overall concept rivals the originality of the trilogy, "His Dark Materials," by Philip Pullman. Personally, I am more than willing to read a few (slightly) long-winded descriptions in return for that. I am anxiously awaiting the second book in this series....in fact, I think it's about time for me to re-read this book, just to make sure I'm ready.

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed...
Review: Whenever I pick up a newer book from an author that's well-known from previous works it seems that I'm disappointed. This happened when I read Timeline by Michael Crichton and the same thing has happened now, reading Mercedes Lackey with The Outstretched Shadow.
Now, I'm a fairly easy audience. If a character hooks me then I'll keep reading. So, I'm not sure why I struggled through this book. I guess I just kept thinking that it HAD to get better but about halfway through I was just annoyed. Bar none, this is the sloppiest edited book I have ever read, to the point of entire passages being repeated a page later, and more often than just once. I also just found the writing gratuitous, as if something wasn't drilled into the reader ad nauseam, then they wouldn't get what the concept was, or what the book was saying.
The protaganist, Kellen, is an okay character... though I would've liked to see him be a little more emotional than he was, considering all that he goes through in the book. Another part of what was missing throughout the book was tangible relationships between the characters. Perhaps those will be better fleshed out in the second book but then I'll say that's just too long to wait. After 600 pages I want some real bonds with these people, and they were so slight, I just found myself irritated. While I found some interest in a couple of the other characters, again, they were just so on the surface that I just couldn't get attached.
I'm also not a fan of torture, and there was a fair amount of (mostly implied) torture so I skipped quite a few pages. I don' think you necessarily need to have the bad guy torturing someone (or something) to show just how bad they are.
I must go back to the sloppy editing because it was so apparent and so repeated, I was just shocked. How can a book get released with so many errors? It felt like I was reading a not necessarily a first draft, but let's say a first revision that still needs some work. This threw me so much in my reading that I found myself wanting to reach for a highlighter and go to town, then mail it to the editor.
Anyway, it's too bad because I had high hopes for a rich world and great characters with meaningful relationships and I was left wanting.