Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Mercedes Lackey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lackey's ornate, meandering third installment in her Five Hundred Kingdoms romantic saga (after 2006's One Good Knight) heralds the fair Princess Ekaterina, seventh daughter of the Sea King, whose magic enables her to surface from the watery deep and live on land as well. When her father dispatches her on a spying mission to the Drylands, she falls in love with the land-born seventh son of the king of Led Belarus, Prince Sasha Pieterovich, a Songweaver who calls on magic through music. But their steamy courtship is soon interrupted by an evil Jinn, who captures Katya and confines her to his castle along with dozens of other magically gifted females, whose powers he saps to enrich his own. But stealing clever Katya is a big mistake for the Jinn, as it leads to a pyrotechnic showdown—dragons and all—before the gifted couple continue on their path to wedded bliss. (Mar.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Luna; First Edition edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373802668
• ISBN-13: 978-0373802661
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mercedes Lackey is the acclaimed author of over fifty novels and many works of short fiction. In her "spare" time she is also a professional lyricist and a licensed wild bird rehabilitator. Mercedes lives in Oklahoma with her husband and frequent collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few good moments..., February 26, 2007

By 

lwd (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3) (Hardcover)

...and some boring ones. Unfortunately, I was bored, more than I was entertained. This is not a terrible book, just a rather bland storyline within the 500 Kingdoms. Better than One Good Knight, inferior to The Fairy Godmother.

Getting to know the characters in Fortune's Fool takes more time than usual, and that is not a plus for the story, because there is not a great deal to know about them. Katya, the Sea King's seventh daughter, is a sort of mermaid with legs but no tail, who can live on land as well as in the sea. She can read, write and speak the language of any entity, animal, fish, human or magical. She works as a spy for her father so he will know what's going in the "drylands". Sasha is the seventh son of the King of Belrus. By The Tradition, he is a wise fortunate fool and a songweaver (he can guide The Tradition toward moderate paths). Both are good, kind, gentle people, temperate in just about everything they say and do.

The villain of this piece is a Jinn, not terribly evil, just... there. Because the last bad guy who owned the castle collected young women, The Tradition has forced him to do the same (don't ask, it's "The Tradition"). Since the Jinn doesn't especially like women, he gives them the run of the castle, then basically leaves them alone to plan their escape and figure out how to put him back in his bottle. For the most part, he lurks, scowls a bit, and asks "what are you doing?" whenever any of the girls use magic. That's pretty much it for his villainy. His one truly unsavory deed is manipulated by the heroine, so he can't even be fully credited with that action.

Characters from The Fairy Godmother and One Good Knight make guest appearances, the other kidnapped girls are fairly interchangeable (you'll forget who's who quickly), trials and tribulations for the hero, a careful comeuppance for the Jinn, and they all live happily ever after.

Milktoast entertainment all around, sugar-sweet but not fulfilling. Enough sexual content to give it a PG-13 rating.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow Decline, March 14, 2007

By 

S. D'Anna (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I have been disappointed by some of Lackey's recent works, and this seems to follow an unfortunate declining trend. While the story is moderately interesting and covers some intriguing fantasy ground, the characterization and plot development feel underpowered as compared to works in her earlier series. The first book in this series, The Fairy Godmother, was truly engaging and I was eager to learn more about the 500 Kingdoms. One Good Knight, which followed, was difficult to get into at first, but rewarding overall. Fortunate Fool spends too much time rationalizing its own world to be really engaging as a fantasy exploration. If you'd like to explore Russian mythos via Lackey's hand, I'd recommend trying The Firebird.

I was also disappointed by the poor editing done on this novel, several noticeable inconsistencies arose within pages of each other, and obvious spelling and grammar errors knocked me out of the storyline. The book itself is printed in a very large, almost double-spaced font, which gave it a feeling of a 9th-grade English assignment. (If you don't understand this reference, you were a much better student than I)

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I might not be encouraged to read more by Mercedes Lackey if this were my first experience with her books, rather than my 300th (or so!). A definite buy for existing fans, new readers should try one of her other series first.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, March 16, 2007

By 

Persephone (Hanover, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Disappointing. I really loved her first book in this series, "The Fairy Godmother." The second one was enjoyable, but not great. This one was tough to get through. I'll give future books by this author a try, but wouldn't purchase another hardcover.