Customer Reviews

Firebird (Fairy Tales, Book 1)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Firebird was my first book by Mercedes Lackey and it was a wonderful introduction to her unique attention to detail and readability. The original fairy tale was full of cliches-- the beautiful but bland princess, the heroic young prince, talking animals and unlikely happenings. Lackey transforms these into a full-bodied and enchanting (though not very realistic) fairy tale set in a Russia filled with perilous magical beasts and sorcerers. One of Lackey's greatest talents is embellishing, and the many descriptions in The Firebird add to the charm and semi-believable fairy tale background. I loved the twist of the ending-- a just-right departure from the Grimm version.

If you like the Russian mythology and ambiance in The Firebird, Josepha Sherman's The Shining Falcon is definitely worth the find to read.

The Firebird is a book based on the classic Russian fairy tale of the same name. Ivan is a self-styled tsar who has many strong, trained, warrior sons, but none of them are very bright. Except for Ilya, the middle son. He is much smarter than his brothers so they naturally assume that he is a sorcerer and use every opportunity provided to beat him to a pulp and just generally make his life miserable. When someone steals Ivan's prize cherries, he sends his sons one by one into the orchard to discover who the thief is. Ilya knows who the thief is because he spied on the orchard and saw her. It was the Firebird. As a reward for not telling Ivan who was stealing his cherries, she gives him the gift of speaking to animals. As his older brothers fail to discover the thief, they become convinced that Ilya is the thief and give him the worst beating of his life. Ilya now fears for his life and can think of no other plan to save himself than to pretend that the beating addled his wits and turned him into a fool. However, not even his pretense protects him as his brothers continue to play cruel jokes - such as tying him to his horse and setting the dogs on him during a hunt. Using his newly acquired skill to communicate with his horse and the dogs chasing him, he is able to get away. However, when his horse is killed, he is lost out in the forest in the middle of winter with no supplies. A kindly ex-employee of his grandfather takes him in for a time and then Ilya becomes restless and follows the feeling of magic back into the woods. There he comes upon a giant maze which leads to an evil sorcerer's castle. After catching one glimpse of the 12 beautiful maidens that the sorcerer keeps captive, he falls in love with the lovely Tatiana. He decides to do whatever it takes to free her and to kill the evil sorcerer. But, with evil demons, a dragon, and other impossible tasks, can Ilya accomplish what so many other heroes could not?

I gave this book 3 stars because there was such slow story development that I almost set it aside. I usually finish books in a day or 2 and this one took me a week and a half to plow through. The characters were likeable enough and the story was fine, but Mercedes Lackey spent well over half of the book just setting up the story. The first part of the book just dragged by as the author described Ilyas terrible life and the horrible things that his family did to him. She weakly explained that Ilya didn't dare leave because he couldn't survive out in the forest alone long enough to get anywhere else where he could survive. But, if Ilya's home life was actually as bad as it was potrayed, Ilya definitely had enough backbone to leave - long before the whole cherry tree incident. By the time Ilya actually does leave his father's land, there isn't a whole lot of time left for the real action in the book. The reader is going along at a nice slow pace and then suddenly is raced through to the ending where everything changes and nothing ends quite the way it was set up to. The ending was quite abrupt and left the reader hanging, too. If this book was a duology or a trilogy, then it would be understandable that Lackey spent so long setting up the story line and left the reader hanging at the end, but, as far as I am aware, it is a standalone novel. Perhaps Mercedes Lackey was planning on writing another novel to follow this one and it never happened?

This is the second Lackey Book I read- THe first being the Black Sawn. I think that this one is definitley better. I loved Ilya as a character- he's an outcast who gets beat up all the time and only has a few friends. He gets cursed by the firebird and that leads him to his journey. He goes to face the villian in his fortress for (of course) the princess. I liked how the princess wasn't "perfect" in the end.

The story kept me reading and I thought that Ilya was an interesting character and so were his animal friends. It'sa great story and I'd recomend it to anyone who likesa good story.

This was the first of Lackey's books that I read, and to this day it remains my favorite. The story is fairly simple, and the motivated reader can probably get through it in one or two sittings. While in most books this probably wouldn't add to the story, it works for Firebird, because from the first couple pages, Lackey draws the reader into a unique world, with an ambience all its own.

I also fell in love with the characters. Ilya is likeable, but he's also a typical boy of that age: generally good-hearted, but also honest in his desires. The people around him are unique and have quirks all their own, and they come to life on the page.

I must have read Firebird seven or eight times by now, and I'm still not tired of it. I fell in love with it back before I became jaded by what the technical details of a fantasy novel should be, and whenever I read it, it reminds me why I love reading in the first place: I love hearing a good story. It will always remain one of my favorite books, and I'm enthusiastically giving it five stars.

I have enjoyed Lackey's work ever since I started with her "Arrows" trilogy, some twelve years ago. When she's in top form, Misty can create a world full of characters so rich and vibrant, you truly can feel what they are going through. In the aforementioned "Arrows" books, as well as in "The Last Herald-Mage" series, Lackey has shown that she's capable of moving readers to tears.

With "Firebird", there was no need for kleenex.

Not that it wasn't good. Lackey's take on the Russian fable was interesting. Readers are given a good overview of medieval life under the boyars and Great Tsar (Ilya's interaction with the "bannik" in the steambath was both humorous and insightful).

The detailed descriptions of various environments (i.e. going from Ivan's palace, to the woodsman Yasha's simple home in a maze, to the grandeur of the Katschei's estate) helped in developing the novel's changing atmosphere in general, while illustrating changes in Ilya's physical and emotional state in particular. Lackey has a real talent for placing her characters in situations of danger/momentary safety/back to danger again.

The criticism lies in that Lackey tends to let her characters overthink certain situations. She sometimes has Ilya pondering his next decision for several pages, when a couple of tightly written paragraphs would have sufficed. It seemed to take Ilya a mighty long time to leave his abusive father, whereas Ilya's brother, Pietor, heads out after one very well-plotted scene. Ilya's time as a "monster"/spy in the Katschei's palace seemed to take forever as well. While Lackey probably wanted to make sure her character saw the situation from all possible angles, the story's pacing suffered because of it.

Again, on an up note, I did like the final chapter and how Ilya had to deal with his own "happily ever after" scenario. It's definitely a "be careful what you wish for" situation!

I do recommend the book, but there are others of Lackey's that I would put ahead of this one.

I love fantasy and have read many different books and authors within the genre. This is one of the better ones...I read it twice!

Lackey describes an interesting world. The setting and even the plot are original and different from most fantasies I've read. The book has almost a magical quality...I read the book in an almost dream-like state. Her descriptive style is very good and her story telling is quaint and original.

Only one complaint: The ending...it seemed as if Lackey ignored the book after its climax. The ending feels like a poor, slapped on post-it note in comparison to the rest of the richly told story. Otherwise, I give this book a thumbs up.

Although the Firebird story isn't well known to those outside the ballet community, it still is considered a fairytale. And all fairytales are bound to get upended.

Lackey stays fairly close (yet seiously expands on) to the original story up until the end where she gives the reader what they were hoping for. I hate books with bad ending and luckily this book did not disappoint. It's a thouroughly enjoyable read (if a bit too long at times) and is sure to transport the reader to a different place.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read quite a few of Lackey's books. I agree with the other comments. That the ending was good, but lacking in Lackey detail. I was not disappointed though. If you like her fairy tales and have not read them. I suggest the Elemental series.

This book is filled with lots of yummy little details, and I enjoyed the characterization of various characters. Lackey did a good job here, though I must admit, the ending disappointed me. (hence, I took away one star for the rating). I would love to see a sequel to this book.

It was OK but I'm use to realling being captivated by her writing. It was interesting but not up to her normal standards