Customer Reviews

The Silver Gryphon (Mage Wars)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I've been a Lackey fan for years, and this is by far her worst book ever. I've always loved the Valdemar universe and I had been excited when the "pre-history" series was coming out. I don't know if it's the influence of her husband as a co-author, but this trilogy is one that I don't think I can bear to read a 3rd time. I only read it twice because I couldn't believe it had been as awful as I'd recalled.

The characters in the 3rd story are so hard to care about that it becomes nearly impossible to care about anything happening in this book. The book seemed rushed - almost as if it had been thrown together to complete the trilogy.

I'd recommend reading ANY of Ms. Lackey's books before these. I still think she's a wonderful author, but don't let this trilogy be your first experience reading her work.

I feel like Larry Dixon must have written most of this book. This acts like there was one event, and they tried to turn it into a whole book. There is little or nothing about the Black griffon and his mate in this book, and it does not add to the story line. The black griffon was an excellent read, and if you like it, you won't like this book. I think this was the first time I returned/traded off a M. Lackey book.

That said, this author is one of my favorites, with series I read and re-read over and over, discovering new things each time. Please check out the first book in this series, or any other of her books.

It has been twelve years since the city of White Gryphon became a part of the Haighlei Empire. The kestra'chern Amberdrake and his friend, the gryphon Skandranon, and their families have lived in relative peace. Amberdrake's daughter, Silverblade, and Skan's son, Tadrith, have grown up and are now members of White Gryphon's elite guard, the Silver Gryphons. They are given their first assignment: a remote rain forest post on the Haighlei border. Despite their parents' misgivings and concern, the two set out. Along the way, a mysterious force suddenly sucks the mage energy out of their equipment, causing Blade and Tad to crash. Injured and unable to call for help, will the two be able to outrun and outwit a deadly enemy they have never encountered before?

"The Silver Gryphon" is the third book in Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon's Mage Wars Series. As with the previous two books, Dixon's influence on the text will be apparent to Lackey fans. It is easily the weakest of the three, although it is still a worthwhile read for experienced Valdemar fans.

I really enjoyed the characters, especially Tadrith. He was a lot of fun and demonstrated all of the entertaining male gryphon quirks that have been present in Skan and Treyvan of Mage Storms and Mage Winds. I didn't like Blade so much at first, mainly because I was hoping she'd be more like Amberdrake (one of my favorite Valdemar characters), but she grew on me as the story went on. I came to appreciate her strength and courage. And of course it was a pleasure to read about Amberdrake and Skan again, even if only for a relatively small portion of the book.

The action in this book was quite good. There was ample suspense as Blade and Tad were chased and hunted (I won't mention by what as some other reviews have because I feel it ruins the surprise). The climax was also very tense and exciting.

My major complaint (and it really is a trend in Lackey's books) is the rushed feeling I came away with after completing the book. However, this book felt even more rushed than the others. I think this is mostly because I was expecting it to be the concluding book of a series. It really wasn't. These three books can be treated almost individually, unlike the Arrows books or Last Herald-Mage books.

Bottom Line: Good for its action and suspense, but lacking in the pacing of its ending. I would really only recommend this to readers familiar with Valdemar.

Having read and enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy, I was really looking forward to the conclusion. I needn't have bothered. Somehow I got the feeling that Lackey was just churning this one out to get it done. It was very poorly written. My advice: get it from the library if you really want to read it. You'll be glad you didn't waste your money on this one.

Well, I did remember this one the best, but I'm surprised that I thought that I would like it the least of the three. It was VERY exciting! And, yes, I did remember quite a bit... right down to the details, but it was still a pleasure to read. I think I liked it the least when I was younger because Skandranon and Amberdrake did not feature very prominently and poor Kechara wasn't more than mentioned. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it this time around.

If you like Mercedes Lackey and if you like Amberdrake and Skandranon from the earlier books in this series, read this third one. Drake and Skan are in it, albeit briefly, and it's a good "here's how the story ends" type of book. Everybody needs closure, right? In fact, I guess it's safe to say that, really, if you've been reading a series ... you should probably continue right on through the last book. Did you really need someone to tell you that???

The series is pretty much worth the read (*she typed grudgingly*) ... but the first book is the best - best characters/character development, best plot, etc. Don't expect the second two to be quite as good.

i think that the characters are a bit too boring and quite unintersting. the plot is too contrived but i feel that the explosive ending is applaudable. it managed to make this book an okay read. i like that in the end, both children managed to set their differences aside and see who their fathers really are and that they indeed wanted the same thing the children wanted : acceptance. amberdrake is the most pained here, especially since his daughter blade seems to alienate herself from her parents, especially to amberdrake. it's really sad to see that he couldn't have a common ground with his own child, and him being a kestra'chern seems to make it worst. however all is solved at the end and it's the end that truly becomes the saving grace of this effort.

If one is a fan of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, "The Silver Gryphon" is helpful only insofar as you will be able to say that you own all of her books set in that world (barring the recent Owlflight books which seem to be merely another method of "milking a long dry cow" as it were). The characters are the "scions" of the previous two novels - and rather whiney characters at that. They spend their time lost in a jungle, afraid. The reader spends his or her time lost in the doldrums, bored. If one is an illustration flipper, like me, who tends to look at all the pictures before reading the plot, the "magic eating creatures" are already revealed. There are very few books that I cannot finish - this nearly became one of those (except that I had purchased it, I certainly would not have finished). If you enjoyed her Valdemar series thus far, if you read that series merely to puzzle out her world, then consider your puzzle complete and leave "The Silver Gryphon" on the shelves.

This was not the best of Mercedes Lackey's books, true, but it was better than most of the people have said. I think it explains some qeustions I've had about the wyrsa, like why the ones that Tylendel summoned in "Magic's Pawn" were different than the ones in the Winds series that Skif and Wintermoon (?) fought. I think that there should be a sequel to it, but that would upset the balance of her series of trilogies. ;-)

The idea of magic being sucked out of something is a good one, and I think that by making Tadrith and Silverblade's stalkers have that power and also draining the magic from the surrounding area was a nice touch. I did want to see the Outpost, though . . .

The descriptions are wonderful. They let me feel the exact feeling of the forest and air around me. I think that Skan captured a real parent's feeling, but I wouldn't know having never been a parent. :-

I have read many of her works; this is the only one I sold due to its extreme poor quality and its moral depravity. I realize that most Lackey books are light fun and occasionally you get a gem like Magic's Pawn. Not only is this particular book badly written and kind of dull, it shows two good characters from earlier books as horribly callous. Her healer character threatens to use confidential information to blackmail his former friends. Said healer and the black gryphon, protagonists and "good guys," blithely let their companions die in the woods and judge them worthy of this fate because of their supposed incompetence, even though the two "heroes" plainly contributed to the debacle. This is supposedly OK because they are only responsible for people they care about. After saving their own skins and those of their children, we have a happy ending despite the consequences to others. Read the first two books in this triology, plus the Pawn trilogy and the Arrows trilogy. Give the other Valdemars a pass unless you are an addicted fan.