Owlflight

Rating:
Summary: Not just for the younger crowd
Review: I just finished reading the other customer reviews of this entertaining tale. It sounds like most of them haven't read enough of this type of book and don't hang out with teenagers enough. It was a very satisfactory read and I did finish it in a little more than one sitting. Again I don't understand what people expect from fantasy. It shouldn't try to solve all the problems of the world, it should just be a good way to spend time. I enjoy most of the Lackey/Dixon books and am looking forward to more of the Valdemar history. I must admit I do love those grphons.

Rating:
Summary: Could be Better
Review: In this novel by Mercedes Lackey, a young orphan unwillingly Gifted with magic, sees his village demolished by barbaric men. Escaping into the Pelgaris Forest, Darian meets up with the legendary Hawkpeople, who help him overcome his pent-up grief. In my opinion, Darian overcomes his sorrow a bit too fast. In the beginning, Lackey makes an enormous deal about how tragic Darian is, and how misunderstood his entire life was. After a few days with the Hawkpeople, he seems as happy as you could wish. However, the plot is good (if not a little faulty) and the characters are usually quite convincing, especially the gryphon Kel. But I know Lackey has written better novels than this before.

Rating:
Summary: Decidedly mediocre
Review: "Owlflight" isn't the worst fantasy novel that I've ever read, it's just the most unnecessary one. Rebellious thirteen-year-old Darian is an apprentice wizard in the remote village of Emmond's Grove. One day the town is attacked by barbarians, and Darian barely manages to escape after his mentor, Justyn sacrifices himself to delay the approaching army. Fleeing into the woods, Darian meets a band known as the Hawkbrothers. They talk for awhile, there's a climactic battle, and, needless to say, Darian's courage and new magic powers turn out to be the key to defeating the bad guys, after which everybody lives happily until the sequel. The point is that we've seen this entire book before, countless times. The authors are utterly unable to dredge up as much as one unique element in the entire story. The characters, plot, settings, and everything else seem like they were borrowed from earlier works, and everything is completely predictable, to the point where you're almost able to predict exactly how many paragraphs will be spent on each blazingly obvious plot point before moving on to the next one.

I'll admit that the authors do a reasonably good job of capturing the emotional turbulence of an teenager who's lost his parents, but other than that, the writing in "Owlflight" is embarrassingly bad. The dialogue never even comes close to sounding like normal conversational speech (how many thirteen-year-olds do you know who say 'intoxicated' rather than 'drunk'?) Also, the authors don't maintain a good balance between internal introspection and plot movement. "Owlflight" is 350 pages long and contains only three action scenes. Most of the space in between is spent on characters endlessly wondering what they should say or do, wondering how other people will react to what they say or do, wondering how people have reacted to what they just said or did, and inevitably taking ten pages to communicate even the simplest point.

Some people might defend "Owlflight" on the grounds that it's aimed at a 'young adult' audience, and thus shouldn't be judged by the same standards as real fantasy novels. My response to this is that there are plenty of authors out there who are capable of writing books that appeal to all age groups. I've never understood why some people insist that anyone under the age of fifteen should be satisfied with inferior work. Readers in that age group are actually capable of distinguishing good and bad books. If they get fed only predictable, mediocre nonsense like "Owlflight", they're likely to quit the fantasy genre before they even have a chance to read some of the world's greatest books.

Rating:
Summary: good, but not near as good as her others
Review: I love Mercedes Lackey books very much, but this series just isn't as good as the others. I've re-read every other book abut 5 times at least, this series I've only read once or twice. Darian is backwater and nobody really wants to read his story. I want to read about heralds or the Hawkbrothers or more about Rethwellan or Karse. I almost agree with some of the others, the writing is better when its only Ms. Lackey writing it without her husband. Its a good book don't get me wrong, but not near as wonderful as the Last Herald Mage tril. or the Arrows of the queen tril. I want more about headstrong women doing what they do best, and the exotic hawkbrothers way of life. Magic and excitement, not a backwater kid whos way out of his depth. Please, Ms. Lackey, write more like the other tril's. What was Urtho like? There is a tril from people who lived with him, but what about from his POV? Or maybe a story a Campanion's POV.

Rating:
Summary: Decidedly mediocre
Review: "Owlflight" isn't the worst fantasy novel that I've ever read, it's just the most unnecessary one. Rebellious thirteen-year-old Darian is an apprentice wizard in the remote village of Emmond's Grove. One day the town is attacked by barbarians, and Darian barely manages to escape after his mentor, Justyn sacrifices himself to delay the approaching army. Fleeing into the woods, Darian meets a band known as the Hawkbrothers. They talk for awhile, there's a climactic battle, and, needless to say, Darian's courage and new magic powers turn out to be the key to defeating the bad guys, after which everybody lives happily until the sequel. The point is that we've seen this entire book before, countless times. The authors are utterly unable to dredge up as much as one unique element in the entire story. The characters, plot, settings, and everything else seem like they were borrowed from earlier works, and everything is completely predictable, to the point where you're almost able to predict exactly how many paragraphs will be spent on each blazingly obvious plot point before moving on to the next one.

I'll admit that the authors do a reasonably good job of capturing the emotional turbulence of an teenager who's lost his parents, but other than that, the writing in "Owlflight" is embarrassingly bad. The dialogue never even comes close to sounding like normal conversational speech (how many thirteen-year-olds do you know who say 'intoxicated' rather than 'drunk'?) Also, the authors don't maintain a good balance between internal introspection and plot movement. "Owlflight" is 350 pages long and contains only three action scenes. Most of the space in between is spent on characters endlessly wondering what they should say or do, wondering how other people will react to what they say or do, wondering how people have reacted to what they just said or did, and inevitably taking ten pages to communicate even the simplest point.

Some people might defend "Owlflight" on the grounds that it's aimed at a 'young adult' audience, and thus shouldn't be judged by the same standards as real fantasy novels. My response to this is that there are plenty of authors out there who are capable of writing books that appeal to all age groups. I've never understood why some people insist that anyone under the age of fifteen should be satisfied with inferior work. Readers in that age group are actually capable of distinguishing good and bad books. If they get fed only predictable, mediocre nonsense like "Owlflight", they're likely to quit the fantasy genre before they even have a chance to read some of the world's greatest books.

Rating:
Summary: Another Valdemar novel to enjoy.
Review: This is about an orphan, Darian, who is apprenticed to a used-to-be wizard against his will. His parents were trappers, and one day went out during a mage storm and never returned.
One day, his village, Errald's Grove, was attacked while Darian was out picking herbs. The wizard Justyn, who did much but was not appreciated by the villagers, sacrificed himself so the people could get away.
Darian fled into the woods, and was caught by some of the enemy men. He was rescued by a Hawkbrother, Snowfire, and taken to his vale (the homes of the Hawkbrothers, their are many of them).
After a while, he was adopted into the clan as Snowfire's little brother. After a while, they found the villagers had not escaped, but were slaves of the ones who attacked the village.
Darian wanted to go free the villagers, but would the Hawkbrothers help him?

Rating:
Summary: Great Story! Excellent Characters
Review: Owl Flight is the story of Darian, a precocious teenager, unwillingly apprenticed to mage Justyn after his parents (trappers) fail to return from one of their extended hunting trips. Resenting Justyn and believing him to be incompetent senile old man, Darian 'acts out' by running away and slacking off on his daily chores. This causes trouble with the local villagers who believe Darian does not act appropriately 'grateful for the charity they have given him. The hostile environment makes Darian wish he could run away from his problems and do as he pleases.

Punished by his mentor, Justyn, for slacking off, he is sent into the woods one day to gather mushrooms, and his village is attacked by raiding barbarians. Darian is befriended by the Hawkbrothers (a tribalesque group of people), and forms a friendship with Snowfire, a Hawkbrother hunter/scout.

Together with his newfound friends Darian must find a way to free the village of Errold's Grove from the ruthless clutches of the Bear Clan barbarians.

While Darian's whining and self-pitying attitude can get annoying at times, I found Darian and his mentor Snowfire believable. I especially liked Snowfire and the other Hawkbrother characters and would like to learn more about him. I admit, I was pleased to read about a character that was not a herald, and it was nice to learn how some of the more provincial characters view things. I am anxiously looking forward to reading to picking up a copy of the sequel! Great Work MS. Lackey and Mr. Dixon!

Rating:
Summary: Liked the story, hated the writing.
Review: I'm a big fan of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, and this is the first one I read that was co-written by Larry Dixon. The story satisfied my hunger for more tales of Valdemar, but the language was difficult to process. I found myself reading passages over and over again to try to figure out what the heck was going on. It was very distracting. I'll read more of Darian's tale, but I know I won't enjoy it as much as the other trilogies.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but not up to par
Review: I am a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey, especially the Valdemar novels, but I have no desire to continue this trilogy. I was entertained, yes, because I like the book's setting. However, I found myself not really caring what happened to the characters. (Very atypical of a Lackey novel. Including the Gryphon series, which was also co-written with Larry Dixon.) This might not be a bad place to start the Valdemar novels, but I would reccommend starting with "Arrows of the Queen."

Rating:
Summary: Not up to her usual standards....
Review: Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors - her books are, on the whole, wonderful. Not deeply philosophical or anything, but great, creative fantasy. Reading that is relatively light, but still of high quality. Understandable and high-quality and yummy for teenagers and adults alike. In general. Owlflight, however, is really not. It feels like it was aimed strictly at kids age, maybe 8-12. Honestly, that really got to me. It felt almost like it should've been called "A children's guide to Valdemar". It was better then a lot of "young adult" fantasy - but not at ALL up to her usual standards. Please, please, if you want to read her books, PLEASE read other ones instead. The Last-Herald Mage trilogy is wonderful, as is the Mage Winds trilogy, Bardic Voices, etc.