Matthew Hunter

This is the follow-up to Smoke and Shadows, and while much of the prior criticism remains the same, there are some good points this time around. The plot is something one would expect to see in a really bad horror movie: while filming an episode of the vampire detective show in a haunted mansion, the crew gets trapped inside by some evil power, and must survive until sunrise. Another formula plot, though the author pulls it off as well as can be expected.

Take a Thief is a standalone novel that functions as a biography for Skif, one of the supporting characters in Lackey’s Heralds of Valdemar series. It’s a return to a previous time in the Valdemar universe, filling out events and characters previously only hinted at. Both the characters and the events benefit from a fresh look by a writer whose skill has grown substantially since the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, and fans of the series will enjoy a look at Valdemar’s criminal underclass – something which the majority of Lackey’s books mention only in passing.

A Talent for War is McDevitt’s latest novel, this one beginning a new series. The main character, a dealer in antiquities, is bequeathed a large inheritance when his uncle, an amateur archeologist, passes away. Along with the inheritance comes a lead on a discovery of great significance. The trail leads straight to the legend of Christopher Sim, a legendary commander whose guerilla tactics bought time to unify the planetary Confederation into a single force to oppose encroaching aliens.

The Stone of Farewell suffers from the usual problems of a middle book in a trilogy; the characters are caught midway between their youth and their maturity, the plots of evil seem ascendant, and neither the beginning nor the end are entirely satisfactory. Still, this is by no means a poor example. Simon’s quest to recover the sword Thorn from beneath the Rimmer’s tree has succeeded, at the cost of some lives and much trouble.

Arrows of the Queen is probably Mercedes Lackey’s first published work, or close to it, and that shows; although it’s well written for a first novel, it has the rough edges of inexperience, and a certain naive simplicity that renders it eminently suitable for children (really, young teenagers) and sometimes less engrossing for adults. All her works tend to have a touch of those qualities, but Arrows of the Queen is an explicitly escapist fantasy: a young girl’s dream of magical horses to cure her loneliness and carry her away from all her troubles.

Vanyel Ashkevron, Herald-Mage of Valdemar, has faced the worst that the world can throw at him. Karsite demons, enemy mages, creatures from the Pelagirs; he has faced and defeated them all. The bards he once aspired to join now sing songs of his exploits to a rapt nation. Young women worship his image while fearing to approach a legend. Even his teacher, Savil, acknowledges that Vanyel’s talents have exceeded her own in many areas.

Having made their reputation as independent mercenaries, Tarma and Kethry set out to advance their careers by joining an established mercenary company. Their hope is simple enough: work hard, rise up through the ranks, and eventually, attract the attention of a noble with land to grant and some need that only Tarma and Kethry can soothe. For values of soothing that involve swords and sorcery, of course. As with all of Lackey’s Valdemar novels, the characters end up finding what they were looking for.

Valentine Michael Smith was the first human born on Mars, and shortly thereafter the crew of the first exploration vessel to Mars died, leaving the infant in the hands of Martians. As a young adult, Michael is discovered, ‘rescued’, and brought back to earth - where he unknowingly causes a storm of political turmoil by being the only living heir of a huge corporation - and the potential ‘owner’ of Mars itself.

By The Sword, sometimes called Kerowyn’s Tale, is the first of what I call the Heraldic Biographies – by which I mean stand-alone novels describing an individual Herald’s life from the moment of being Chosen to the completion of their life’s main adventure. Kerowyn’s story substantially predates the rest, and ends up being vital to later events. But first, who exactly is Kerowyn? Simple: the granddaughter of Kethry (from the Vows and Honor sequence), Kerowyn is the eldest daughter of a minor noble whose marriage to Kethry’s only utterly brainless daughter was his one and only big lucky break.

Startide Rising picks up about 200 years after Sundiver left off. The first mostly-dolphin starship crew is assembled and sent on a survey mission. Upon finding a huge derelict fleet of unknown origin and sending a message home about it, several hostile races hound the small survey craft until she crashes in the ocean of a metal-rich waterworld. Apparently, the hostiles are all quasi-fanatical races who believe in the eventual return of the Progenitors, the race or races who began the practice of Uplift.