Owlknight (1999)

This series was my least favorite of the Valdemar books. ( )

This series was my least favorite of the Valdemar books. ( )

Eh. This book was sort of muddled and overlong, and I think the entire "knight" subplot was created just so the title could rhyme with the others. (There is no indication in any other book that "knight" is an actual title used in Valdemar.) The actual adventure isn't bad, although the ending is a little too pat, but the fact that it didn't actually start until halfway through the book tried my patience.

Not the worst of the Valdemar books, and the Owl stuff isn't the worst trilogy, but it's really not up to par with the best of them, and it's more obviously aimed at a YA audience without really being short and punchy enough to play to that market's strengths. ( )

Yeah, that's good. It takes quite a while to get started - the first third or more is planning for and description of some complicated ceremonies, welcoming the Heralds who will be stationed in the Vale (including Shandi) while making Darian a knight of Valdemar and a brother of the Ghost Cat tribe. Then chance and choice combine and Darian learns that his parents are still alive, and far to the north. He and his friends set out to find them, with adventures of many sorts along the way - from encounters with yet more Northern spirit-totems to a battle with a cold-drake. What they find is all Darian could have hoped for, and more, and less; the final battle with the Eclipse Shaman is - almost a distraction from the real story. The ending always makes me cry, and laugh. And a proper happy-ever-after to round things out. Darian's story is much lighter, and smaller in scope, than some of the others; it's not one of my favorites, either, though quite enjoyable. But there are some scenes, mostly in this book, that are up to the best in the rest of the Valdemar stories. Good book. ( )

This is the concluding book in the Owl Mage series, that began with Owlflight and continues in Owlsight, so you should read those first. I'm a fan of Lackey's Valdemar books, and for a fan this is well worth the read.

What's best about it, I think, is the world-building. In this story we get to see more beyond the Heralds and horse-shaped Companions of the first Valdemar books, and it's fun to see the fleshing out of the Hawkbrothers, the gryphons, the dyheli; Lackey's good at giving a sense of an alien sensibility with those last, deer-shaped magical creatures. There's also innovative, inventive magic in this trilogy I appreciated.

I certainly enjoyed the novels, including this conclusion, and it's better than many a published fantasy out there. If I'm only giving this 3 stars, it's because I think there is better among Lackey's works, and Darian's story never quite touches me the way say Talia's and Vanyel's did. I doubt I'd ever want to reread the Owl trilogy. (Talia's story is the first of the Valdemar books, begun in Arrows of the Queen, and if you've never read Lackey's Valdemar tales, that's where I'd start. Or with Vanyel's story in Magic's Pawn, which comes earlier chronologically) ( )