Customer Reviews

Music to My Sorrow (Bedlam's Bard)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mercedes Lackey and Baen Books have had a much publicized breakup. This is really bad news for Eric Banyon fans...this book, Music to My Sorrow might be the last one in the series.

If it is, the series will go out with a huge bang, not a whimper. This is, in many ways, the deepest and most complex of the Bedlam's Bard series.

Banyon, in his forties, is now finally growing up. His "apprentice" and newly minted Guardian, Hosea, is operating on his own.

Many of the threads of plot of the last three novels get tied up in Music to My Sorrow including the Heavenly Grace subplot, and Eric's parents. More and I'd be snerking...and urk, gurgle, gack, yeeeeeek! That collar gets tight, it does.

It's been hell waiting for this book to come out, so I could review it...as one of Misty's first readers I read it quite some time ago, and loved it as much as you will, when you part with your hard earned cash.

Buy this book, right now. Run out and do it. You won't regret it. Just think, you will be able to justify reading all the other Bedlam's Bard books in order again!

Walt Boyes
The Bananaslug. at Baen's Bar
and member of the Editorial Committee at Baen's Universe magazine

Music To My Sorrow (2005) is the sixth novel in the Bedlam's Bard fantasy series, following Mad Maudlin. In the previous volume, Eric Baynon had rescued his younger brother Magnus as well as Ace Fairchild from the streets of New York City. At the same time, Eric had offered sanctuary in Elfhame Misthold to Jachiel ap Gabrevys and his protector Rionne ferch Rianten. Since these Elves were from the Unseleighe court of Elfhame Bete Noir, there were some diplomatic aspects to the affair.

In this novel, Eric is called upon to inform Prince Gabrevys of the safety of his son and the desire of Rionne to remain in Elfhame Misthold for a while. Although Prince Gabrevys is not present in his court, Eric leaves his message with the Bard Jormin ap Galever. At Jormin's advice, Eric then leaves the Unseleighe court as rapidly as possible.

Magnus is having some troubles of his own. While he has some minor problems adjusting to the Coenties & Arundel Private Academy, the major problem is the tenacious efforts of their mutual parents to take back Magnus. Although now aware that Eric is not dead, their parents are ignoring his presence per se and concentrating on the circumvention of efforts for Eric to adopt Magnus as his own son.

Ace Fairchild is also having legal problems. She is now living with Ria Llewellyn, the head of a high priced law firm who has helped her file a Petition of Emancipated Minor Status. Unfortunately, her parents have been informed of her actions and have arranged a change of venue to Atlantic City where they are now living. Billy Fairchild is determined that Heavenly Grace will be returned, willingly or not, to continue to sing in his choir.

Unknown to Eric and his friends, Gabriel Horn of Billy's Heavenly Grace Ministries is really Jachiel's father, Prince Gabrevys. Now the Unseleighe has several reasons to force Magnus and Eric into his evil reconditioning program at Christian Family Intervention. He even has parental permission for this treatment, which frees him from the constraints of Elven laws. After soul-eaters have fed on their minds, these victims will not be able to raise any objections.

Ace would be the perfect instrument for implementing the prince's own plans against the humans. Feeding her to the soul-eaters would ruin her special talents, but binding her with ordinary Unseleighe magic would control her without destroying these talents. Of course, Billy Fairchild would have to die, but Gabrevys would not waste any tears over his death.

Parker Wheatley finds the Heavenly Grace Ministries to be a new source of revenue for his Defense Initiative. Wheatley has never really been certain of the origins on his enemies, so calling them demons is not too much of a stretch of the truth. Besides, it allows him to use the equipment that he appropriated out of the hidden cache for its intended purpose. Once he has gotten a foot in the door, Wheatley will screen the staff of the Ministries for demonic infiltrators.

This novel binds together several threads from prior works in this series. Indeed, most of Eric's foes have been brought under the same banner and arrayed against him. Still, there is a large potential for discord within their ranks.

Highly recommended for Lackey and Edghill fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of magic and adventure among contemporary Elves.

-Arthur W. Jordin

The Bedlam Bard books have it all---believable paranormal juxtaposed with "real" life; beloved characters who grow and change; characters to loathe; plot lines that you don't see coming...they are wonnnnnderful. If you're new to them, start from the beginning and work your way to this one.

It's a bummer to read other reviewers and see that this may be the last in the series. That will suck. However, if this IS the last one, it did a great job of wrapping up long time characters' issues...

These characters have stayed with me for years...love them! Even the "car elf" Tannim shows up in this one! And Ria Llwellyen is used perfectly...alot is revealed about her and yet she doesn't figure nearly as prominently in this book as others.

Fantasy fiction just doesn't get any better. Mercedes Lackey rocks.

This book is simply excellent. Eric's maturation process is fully complete in this book, Ria has gone from an unpredictable hybrid to a focused she wolf, and the world itself is so rich it just begs you to read the book again and again.

The plotting is _taut_, the characters on both the good and bad side do make mistakes, and pay for them. One of the best books I've read in a long time.

I simply can't say enough good things about this book.

I was excited to get this as an early holiday prezzie. True to my expectations, I read it in less than 24 hours (mostly by staying up til 1:30). I now want to go back and read all the other books in the series. My only complaint is that the book really feels like the authors were trying to wrap up all story lines by the end of the book. The way they did it was good, but it felt like this is the last book of the series.

With her character of Eric Banyon, Lackey has created a world that is self consistent and entertaining. A world in which Elves move behind the scenes interacting with humans with who they can relate. Evil elves work with bad people who want to spread violence. Good elves work to save children endangered by uncaring or self absorbed parents.

If this were the first or second book in the series I'd be loving it, but the problem is it isn't and you can only read so many of these where the villains are self deluded, right wing Christian extremists and parents who fail to treasure their children. We've seen this all before, often and after a while it just isn't worth the game to read.

The parts with Eric, his brother Magnus, his apprentice Hosea and his half elven paramour Ria are fun and a great read but Lackey jumps around to different view points and every time we get to some self aggrandizing villain who self justifies their actions, it grinds to a freaking halt. There are only so many times you can read someone justifying their actions with the same words before you want to throw the book at someone. It's dull, it's boring, it's repetitive and we've heard it all before, often in the past few books.

I will also say Lackey's ongoing crusade against Christian fundamentalists is bordering on a prejudice. While I agree the sort of hypocrites she depicts in most of her modern books are sickening and should be opposed by any decent person, it is almost as if she is unable to write a sympathetic Christian character. In her world, someone who goes to church regularly seems invariably a fool or manipulative.

On its own this would be a great read, but as a part of an ongoing series, forget it. the lead character is a bard and like a has been of long ago, he's just playing variations on the original theme without bringing anything new to the party.

This book really satisfied my curiosity about what happens next for a lot of characters I am fond of. It's the characters that I like in this series. Though I'd prefer less about the elves (having OD'ed on them), the Gabriel Horn part was complete without excessive elvishness. Ace is one of my favorite characters, as are Hosea and Eric, so this book, which focused on all three, was a real pleasure.

Plot: In this final installment of "Bedlam's Bard," three teens, two of whom are mortal and one an elf, struggle to become emancipated from their dysfunctional families. Magnus, a teen with Bardic talent who intends to become a drummer in a rock band, wants to live with his older brother Eric, the titular bard of the series. Their parents have hired an unscrupulous "Christian Family Intervention" program to retrieve them. Ace, a runaway, wishes to escape from her evil, evangelist father. And Jaycie, an elf who has spent time in the mortal world, has ssues that could result in a messy conflict if not handled delicatetly. Other characters from the series such as Ria, Kayla, Hosea and Janette also become involved when the protagonists discover that Ace's minister father is involved in a more sinister than usual scheme that will result in a body count if successful.

Questions that the reader might have had about previous books, such as Kayla's apparent lack of aging, are addressed in this final volume. Also much fewer loose ends are left dangling. At first, I thought this book, as compared to the others, was more preachy than usual, but at second glance, I decided the amount was about the same. If you don't mind very blatant messages - and why would you be reading this series if you didn't - then you should enjoy the book.

Misty is my second fav author (number 1 being Tamora Pierce) and the Bard series is one of many great works by Mrs. Lackey.

This book number eight in the series I believe returns us back to New York. We meet Eric and everyone else who have stuck by him (Kayla, Ace, Ria, etc.). More humor is abound as well as more detailed info on the teen dark elf that Gus met in book seven. And of course old enemies come back to bite poor Eric on the backside. That is not all. Remember a Bard can be evil or good it's their choice so (grins) the fun begins when good Bard vs. bad one. All that I can say is it's about time!

Laughs. You will enjoy the book if you try not to dissect it too much. It has its writing faults but I try to overlook them. Overall, a good read with a satisfactory ending.

Co-written, like its three predecessors, with Rosemary Edghill, this fast-moving, compulsively readable book is the seventh novel in the adventures of Eric Banyon, Bedlam's Bard, a Juilliard-trained classical musician and elven-sponsored magickal Bard. At the heart of the complex plot are three disputes over child custody. Eric is fighting to adopt his brother Magnus, fearing that if he fails their parents will turn the younger boy into the "trophy son" they tried to make of him--or else lose him altogether, as they did Eric when he ran away from home. Ria Llewellyn, the half-elven woman who runs one of the richest and most powerful corporations in the world, is helping Heavenly Grace Fairchild, known to Magnus and his friends as Ace, fight for Emancipated Minor status so that she can be free of the exploitation of her father, evangelist Rev. Billy Fairchild. What neither Ace nor the Banyons know is that Fairchild's most trusted advisor, Gabriel Horn (whom Ace fears for reasons she doesn't understand), is really Gabrevys ap Ganaliel, an Unseilighe Sidhe (Dark Elf prince) whose young son Jachiel has rejected his father's dark magick and sought sanctuary at the Seilighe court of Eric's elven sovereign, Prince Arvin. While Arvin is perfectly willing to grant Gabrevys supervised visitation rights, Gabrevys wants his son back--and he's convinced that Eric is somehow responsible for Jachiel's defection. Using both magic and his power in Fairchild's organization, he plans a horrific revenge--with Eric's and Magnus's parents as his unknowing pawns.

Despite the multiplicity of plotlines, Lackey and Edghill contrive to keep all their threads straight and tie everything together without a single loose end, while maintaining an almost breakneck pace that's at the same time clearly marked out and full of thrills, chases, revelations, near misses, twists and turns, and a smashing climactic confrontation between a Dark Sidhe Bard (disguised as a Christian-rock singer) on one side and Eric, Magnus, Ace, their Healer friend Kayla, and Eric's apprentice-Bard, the Appalachian-born Guardian Hosea, on the other, musically duelling for the safety of a mob of young music-lovers who, unknown to themselves, are threatened by a bomb planted by Gabrevys. Their picture of Fairchild's sect and organization is enough to make any reader scared to the marrow of any Christian fundamentalist church, as they show how very easy it is for even a man who began with the best intentions to be led astray by those he trusted. Their characters--heroes and villains alike--are three-dimensional and excellently drawn, with even the minor ones, like Adam Jedburgh and his son Douglas (who give the quintet a much-needed lift on the highway, and of whom Adam turns out to have known Hosea's grandfather in the OSS--the hints given here may well turn out to be the foundation of the next book in the series, if there is one), seeming entirely real. But their greatest gift lies in their ability to make their world--the mystical Guardians, the New York apartment called Guardian House where they and many artsy types live, the intearction between Faerie and the mortal world--seem completely plausible. Though by no means short, the book is so well paced that I got through it in less than eight hours' reading time--and felt completely satisfied. Like all the urban fantasies set in Lackey's SERRAted Edge and Bard series (which intertwine and occasionally share characters), this is a first-class example of its subgenre and one that shouldn't be missed by anyone who loves the concept of elves and other fantastics interacting with modern mortals.