Black Swan, The (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1120)

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: As a moderate fan of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, I was interested in seeing what her other books were like. I had friends warn me against Gates of Sleep, so I picked up The Black Swan.

The book is wonderful. It is such a rich, multidimensional telling of the story of Swan Lake. The characters have true depth and development. Viewing the events from the pivoting standpoints of Odile, the black swan, and Prince Seigfried makes the story all the more interesting. We see Odette, the tragic Swan Queen only through the eyes of those about her.

Rating:
Summary: Not an exciting read
Review: Compared to some of M. Lackey's earlier works, especially her tales of Valdemar, but this book left me wanting. The characters were flat and the story was contrived and bland. The villian of the story was about the only character who remained consistent. The females of the book were often simpering and melodramatic. The "heroic" prince is a confused rapist who falls in love with a the leading fowl of the swan flock.

This story would have greatly benefited if the author had made her main character more independent and less of a (excuse the pun) lackey.

Rating:
Summary: not worth your money
Review: I am a very large fan of Merecedes Lackey, but this book was absolutely horrible. She spends forever on the exposition, forming an intricate plot that isn't actually all that interesting. The actual story of Swan Lake didn't begin until 2/3 into the book, when the prince finally gets around to going hunting and meeting Odette. I found that the uncanny way our heroine's name "Odile" was so close to Odette's, as well as the fact that they were look-alikes, was a little to coincidental to believe. The premise of the book, the Baron's (Odile's father) obsession with punishing all women who are unfaithful, untruthful, etc., is rather farfetched, as is his method of giving the evil queen her come-uppance. If you are in the mood for a Mercedes lackey book, I recommend her Heralds of Valedmar series, but avoid this book at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but....
Review: I'd never read anything by this author before but the book looked promising (I enjoy historical and fantasy works). The setting was very realistic, the plot interesting, the characters good and the writing good. However, it misses a 5-star rating becuase it felt like something was lacking. Somehow a distance is created from the characters. None of them feel very close to you or very easy to identify with. There is a general distant feel to the wiriting and the story as though you're watching the events from a distance rather than feeling like you're one of the characters (as some better books allow you to do...like the Mists of Avalon, etc.)

Rating:
Summary: Black Swan
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: The Black Swan..... To Read or Not to Read? Is that your Q?
Review: okay, so in this book, its pretty much that movie, The Swan Princess, but in my opinion, it was WAY better, its not all about Odette, poor innocent ODette,and no one else, it tells about darker stuff, its About Odile, ( who in my opinion is WAY better then Odette) and there is all this magic and other subplots going in all the time, ODette is trying to save herself and the other swan-maidens, who was ensorcered by the evil sorcerer, and Odile, evil sorcerer's daughter, who gradually becomes really nice, and eventually saves the day, and She falls in love with a prince, whose mother is trying to take over the throne forever by killing the prince "by accident" and Benno, the prince's best friend is trying to keep his friend safe, and the prince is trying to be good, and all this stuff happens, and its soooooooo cool, I read through the entire thing, I couldn't put it down, there were some slow parts, and in the beginning, you don't really like Odile, but you get to like her a lot, if you compared this book to tv it would probably be a soap opera. READ IT! I guarentee it will be worth it, especially if you like slightly older fairy tales. enjoy, and remember, THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ALL YOU FAIRY TALES FANS!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: not worth your money
Review: The Black Swan was the first Mercedes Lackey book that I have ever read, though her books seem to be everywhere. I thought it was a decent book; the characters were well-rounded, the plot sensible and the details of it all were quite beautiful.

The plot follows the story line of the fairy tale Swan Lake, with Odile as the protagonist. Odile develops very well through the course of the story and the swan maidens are well drawn. It bothered me, though, that Von Rothbart's hatred of women was never explained. The reader never finds out what happened to Odile's mother or why Von Rothbart has set himself upon this quest. Those missing details left the story feeling incomplete, in my opinion.

Lackey switches her point of veiw between Odile, Prince Seigfried, and Siegfried's mother, Queen Clothide. Queen Clothide was an interesting and well developed, if not particularly likable character. I could see why she made some the choices she did. It was very interesting to see things through both the eyes of Seigfried and his mother. Lackey did a wonderful job of portraying life through the very different eyes of her three storytellers.

Overall, the book was a nice little read. I enjoyed it quite throroughly, even if it did leave some questions unanswered. Lackey's characters and details are distinct and nicley drawn, and, after all, who doesn't love a good fairy-tale?

Rating:
Summary: A light romance-fantasy
Review: This was my first Mercedes Lackey book, and I want more! It's a female fantasy, kind of like a romance in a fantasy setting. Guys won't like it. (I know because my brother didn't like it and he's a fantasy nut.) It revolves mainly around Odile, von Rothbart's daughter. It also covered a lot of sexist issues in an interesting way, such as how men can cheat on women yet not the other way around. With some of the men in this book, it's a wonder von Rothbart is after only women!
The problem with the book was that I felt it was incomplete. For example, why is von Rothbart after women? What did his wife do and why? You never find out. Why does von Rothbart hate mirrors? They show the truth, but what is he hiding? You don't find out either. Odile has a scrying mirror, and spends a chapter speculating and studying, but never ends up using it to see into her past.
The romance is mainly about Odette, the swan princess, even though she is not the main character. The main character, Odile barely gets any romance, and she is the black swan.


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.