The Red Wyvern

Young Lillorigga possesses a terrifying, untamed talent for prophecy and magic. Her cruel mother, Merodda, forces Lilli to use her gifts to serve her own scheming agenda in the kingdom's civil war. Lilli eventually breaks free, aligns herself with the rightful king's forces, and begins studying under the mysterious dweomermaster, Nevyn.

1116-1117 - The conflict echoes onward. Lillorigga is reincarnated as Niffa, who attempts to live a peaceful life with her love, Demet. Their happiness is tragically cut short by the return of Merodda's reincarnation, Raena.

Evandar, the astral Lord of Harmony, seeks to guide souls and thwart his disruptive brother, the Lord of Havoc.

The 900th installment in the never-ending Deverry cycle of novels. Not really, but sometimes it feels that way. This is partly due to the long, very drawn out plot which seems to go on and on, and partly due to the nature of the series. It is mainly about a small group of kingdoms where events revolve around a small set of souls that keep reincarnating over and over. These souls all have some Wyrd that returns them to life until it is complete, but what that is, we don't know. Only one, the herbalist and sorceror Nevyn, keeps recurring, along with several long-lived elves and some other spirits. I enjoy these books as the story is well written and I like the setting and the characters, but sometimes it seems to drag on and on.

This is the first book in a new cycle of novels set in Deverry by Katharine Kerr, and as such new readers can start out at this point. I would recommend vehemently, though, that they do not since a number of storylines from prior novels come together or are referenced in this novel.

For the first time we drift in time forwards rather than backwards, albeit for a short time, when we discover that Haen Marn is adrift in time as well as space. A soldier from a more modern Scotland is cast into the mythical isle for a night, showing us in the process that Angmar is pregnant with Rhodry's child.

The majority of the novel takes place in the past though, taking us to a continuation of the tale of the civil war that tore Deverry in two - where show more Maryn becomes the High King under Nevyn's tutelage. The story is concentrated on Lillorigga (who we know in the current times as Niffa, the ratter's daughter) and her mother Lady Merodda - the person who becomes Raena, the Black Raven, and causes Rhodry such heartache. Here we discover why Raena and Rhodry's Wyrds are so tangled.

This is a great return to form for Kerr. I was somewhat disappointed in the last few novels she turned out - she seemed very much to be writing by the numbers. Here her writing comes alive again - with intrigue, scheming, battle, fair maidens, dweomer mysteries, and high adventure. I loved the character of Lillorigga, who came blessed with good sense and honour.

I was somewhat annoyed with Kerr's descriptive passages that seem lifted from one book to another. On the one hand you could say that it reinforces the effect she wishes to create, but I find the copy and paste technique a little lazy.

Once again I sighed and slowed down my reading during each portion of the book that dealt with Evandar and his brother Shaetano, who has now taken over where Alshandra left off. I can understand that the Fae - as these Guardians seem based on - live in a dreamlike Otherland, and I accept that Kerr might well be writing about them in a capable manner, but it slows the book down and I find myself bored of their antics. I am particularly frustrated with Evandar's endless scheming that (as Dallandra says) brings naught but hurt to the people they affect.

In fact, all of the book that has dweomer in it directly, I find fairly tiresome. I strongly believe that Kerr's strongest ability is to bring to very vivid life the Celtic medieval world. She writes extremely capably about life in a dun; her battle scenes are fascinating and realistically chaotic; and her strong female characters are countered heavily by the responsibilities they hold in earlier times (e.g. never being part of councils, doing all the sewing for the people of the dun, always being above reproach in terms of producing an heir for their lord).

This book dealt greatly with that element of Kerr's writing and hence I award it four stars, and look forward again to the next in the cycle. show less

9/10
The ninth book in the Deverry Cycle and the first of a sub series, the Dragon Mage trilogy, The Red Wyvern spends most of its pages filling in the story of the True King, Maryn, and how he came to power at the end of the Civil Wars in about 849. In doing so, it also gives us the backstory of Raena, a reincarnation of a troublemaker in Maryn's time who continues to cause problems for other characters in the "current" time of 1116.

Kerr continue just enough of the ongoing "current" story to keep our interest in Dallandra, Evandar, Rhodry, Jhado, Niffa, and others, while giving us a much fuller accounting of Caradoc, Maddyn, Branoic, and Nevyn during the final stages of the Civil Wars as Maryn battles his way to the throne as High King show more of Deverry.

Solid entry in the Deverry Cycle. Looking forward to continuing the series. show less

I picked up this book many years ago, not realizing it was part of a trilogy inside a larger series. I've never read anything else about the Deverry characters, but I found this series very easy to get into. I could tell there was backstory that I wasn't learning about, and that the characters had a lot of past that I was unaware of, yet I never once felt lost or clueless.

The main thread of this story follows Lilli, a young mage of sorts, through her trials with her clan. It also darts back and fourth in time to follow various characters, some of which are the reincarnated forms of characters from another time. At first it was a little hard for me to remember who was who (because it does affect the story), but I got used to it. I found show more the plot and characters to be very engaging and had a hard time putting the book down.

This is the second time I've read this book (and I'll continue on to the other two again), but I don't remember much from when I first read it, except that I really enjoyed the series. I still really enjoy it, and I hope to someday start at the beginning of the Deverry series. show less

An OK read. Not the utter genius I was expecting, as I know kerr has a colossal following.

On the positive side, the characters were interesting, and it was nice to see some strong female characters for a change :) It was also a pleasant change to pick up a fantasy novel that comes in at under 600 pages.

On the negative side, the language iritated me throughout…my teeth are often set on edge by American writers trying to do the Celtic thing, often it just doesn’t read correctly to me. I probably need to get used to her style more, and to read something of her’s that’s better and more engaging than this one in order to get past this.

On the whole, some nice touches, but she hasn’t come anywhere near setting my world alight

this book made me want to hunt up the previous books in the series and get re-aquainted. It is a Deverry book and it does follow previous series but it's the start of a new cycle.

Again Rhodry appears, still a member of the Silver Daggers. Magic still figures in his life as do previous lives and previous events.

This story focuses three hundred years before when a young woman, Lilli, the very young king's cousin, is being used by her mother to scry for information to help her mother's schemes. It both continues the story and sets up the next stories in the series. Somewhat confusing sometimes, it almost needs a what went before summary to help readers catch up.