Winds of Fate (1991)

I customarily skip the Mage Winds books when reading through Valdemar. They're pretty terrible, for the same reasons the Gryphon books are terrible. That reason is Larry Dixon. He's uncredited on these, but his atrocious writing is unmistakable. (I have been harsh on some of Lackey's work too, but her failures are in completely different directions.)

The Elspeth and Skif chapters are marginally ok - if they were the whole of the book, I'd probably give it three stars. The mock-romance is annoying, and the whole Destiny thing really wasn't developed enough to be interesting, but the core is there. The Darkwind chapters are just bad. Tedious, poorly written, overly reliant on As You Know, Bob and magically induced flashbacks to dump way more info than I care about, and with characters that all tend towards the whiny.

My vague memory suggests that this isn't actually the worst of the three (and the third is substantially better - I do reread that one sometimes) but the only reason I reread this one is because I am doing A Thing and refuse to cheat. ( )

I really enjoy this book. I've read it half a dozen times, easily. That does make it a little hard to review - I have to remember where this book stops, in the story. So...This is Elspeth's story - Princess Brat has grown up, in several meanings of the term. And as she reaches an age to start acting on her own, Valdemar faces a new crisis in the war with Hardorn - their ancient defenses against magic are weakening, faster than the forgetting-about-magic part of it. There are magic attacks being made within Valdemar - within Haven itself - and too many of the people who should be devising defenses are literally unable to remember that magic is any more than a bards' tale for more than a day or two. Elspeth seems to be immune to this, or at least less bound by it; this, among other things, convinces her that she needs to be the one to go out and find them a mage who can help them devise defenses, and possibly even find Heralds and others who have the Mage-gift and can be trained. She more-or-less gets her way, and heads out accompanied by her Companion, Skif and his Companion, and the sword Need. Things are going along swimmingly...and then Elspeth decides, apparently accurately, that she's being herded along the path of Destiny, and she wants no part of it. Then things start getting interesting.
Alternate chapters of the book, from the beginning, have been telling the story of Darkwind, a Hawkbrother from a clan that's in serious trouble. They're under overt and covert attack by a powerful, evil mage, and some of his early work against them is harming them now. Darkwind, with help from various sources, has just figured out what sort of attack is being made on them, and stopped one of the primary weakening agents - when these weird people all in white show up and claim that they want to help in return for lessoning in magic. Oh, did I mention that Elspeth turns out to have a very strong mage-gift herself? The book ends with a semi-successful ambush of the evil mage, and Darkwind agreeing to teach Elspeth as he renews his own lessons. Next, please! ( )

There are two real parts, by my way of figuring, to the Valdemar continuum. There's the main story, the 'modern' stuff, which is written about in the Arrows trilogy, the Winds trilogy, and the Storms trilogy. The rest is history, elaboration of side stories, and all the other books that make up the tapestry of the history of Velgarth. But those three trilogies all take place around the same time period, involving the same characters, and are interlinked so that they're the central column of the Valdemar series.

Winds of Fate is the first book of the Wind trilogy, and the one where Lackey takes back her original vow of not having large casts and not having magic be central to the Valdemar stories. After first having been introduced to the character of Elspeth in the Arrows books, we now see her grown up, willful and stubborn, and facing her destiny as the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel. Not only that, but she's the one who gives herself the task of going out and finding somebody to train Valdemaran mages, in an effort to defend Valdemar against Ancar of Hardorn's attacks.

No easy feat.

Interwoven with Elspeth's part of the story is that of Darkwind, Tayledras mage-turned-scout, who's trying to defend a weakened Vale against threats from both outside and in.

Naturally, the stories converge, they end up meeting, and Darkwind is just the one to train Elspeth in the art and science of magic.

It's not exactly a surprise when that happens, but it's still all interesting to read about.

If there's one thing that Lackey is skilled at, it's making a rich and interesting world, and in providing a wonderful amount of detail about the various cultures within. In this book alone, we see glimpses of life as a highborn Valdemaran, a Shin'a'in shaman, a Rethwellan mage, various Tayledras, and some who don't fit into any real category except perhaps "exotic misfit", and seeing their lives from their point of view, even for a short chapter, is always interesting.

The Winds trilogy is not my favourite, but I can't deny that it's good, it's engaging, it's deep and developped, and it's an integral part of the story that is Valdemar. ( )

If you're new to Lackey and the Valdemir series, I wouldn't begin with this book: I don't think the book, or the trilogy it is a part of, is the strongest in this series, and it would be a spoiler for the earlier trilogy that starts with Arrows of the Queen. Go back and read those first, and if you like them, I think you'll enjoy this tale of Elspeth, a character in earlier books, coming into her own. I enjoy Lackey's "Vows and Honors" series as well with Tarma and Kethry, and in the precursor to this book, By the Sword she melds the two series. So I'd recommend reading those, too, beginning with The Oathbound because for me a lot of the fun of this book is how Elspeth deals with the demanding sword, Need, that is important in those books. I also enjoyed how this book opened up the world Lackey created, with Elspeth in her quest having to deal with the Tayledras, an interesting magical world in its own right. A good read and a good beginning to an enjoyable trilogy. ( )

Elspeth comes into her own. With Valdemar threatened by Ancar and whatever barrier to magic the kingdom possessed beginning to fail, Elspeth sets out to find what may be Valdemar's only hope: mages.

As the Heir, a Herald, and a well-trained swordswoman with a mage-possessed blade, she feels she's the best for the task and hopes to have little trouble finding an adept-class mage or two to agree to return to Valdemar with her. Of course, you just know it's not going to be that simple.

Meanwhile, far, far away among the Tayledras, the legendary Hawk Brothers, one young ex-mage turned forest scout is facing his own set of seemingly insurmountable problems.

A good solid story. My only quibble? Skif comes across as slightly whiny and unexpectedly jealous - out of character for the man who championed Talia so valiantly. Both Elspeth and Darkwind are a bit more wooden than I'd have expected given Lackey's usual dab hand with her characters. Still enjoyable, though. ( )