Fortune's Fool

I do like these tales. They'd be perfect for a young girl (say, ages 13-15) reading above her age level because the heroines are courageous and feminine (or tomboyish, as suits), the heroes are kind and masculine, the villains are treated with whatever respect is due them. In fact, the villains are rewarded with mercy - because the good guys are truly *good* and are so noble they deserve to win.

I also would have loved the romance in these as a young girl, as it would have taught me 'the birds and the bees' the way no clinical book, awkward parental monologue, or schoolyard gossip could have. It's passionate, stimulating, and true to honest love. And the couple will, of course, get married, but they'll live not happily ever after, but show more adventurously ever after.

There's plenty of humor, too. And the details of the world-building & rules of magic and the whole underlying force of The Tradition are marvelously done. Lackey includes important tropes and motifs, but never stoops to cliches. Well-done. May she magically become immortal and write a book this creative and satisfying for every one of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. show less

This book proved my theory that starting with the second book in the sequence was just the wrong way to do it. I found this one entertaining, the worldbuilding consistent and clever, and the characters, if somewhat out of Lackey's stock of feisty princesses and goodhearted princes, fun to read about. I still need to get my hands on the first one, but I am totally reconciled to the Five Hundred Kingdoms now.

It was really weird. I was sitting in the bookstore reading this and had gotten to the bit where Sasha is on a ship and a storm comes up - and the music playing in the store was _perfect_ for that. Dramatic swirls - I could _hear_ the thunder and the waves roaring, then as he went over the rail and started to drown it got tenser, and as he was grabbed and 'rescued', it lightened up! I have no idea what the music was - it's usually vocal pop, so I don't know why they were playing that - but it was _great_. This one really is my favorite of the three 500 Kingdoms books so far. Possibly because both Sasha and Katya are much more proactive than Elena or Andie - they know about the Tradition and are used to making it do what they want from show more the start.
Love this. I only just got it and this is my third (fourth?) re-reading (I read it from the library and the bookstore before). I still got lost in the story despite having to jump up and deal with other things constantly. show less

NOTE: Actual personal rating is 1.5 out of 5.

I have nothing against beach-reading. Most of what I read could probably be classified as 'escapist, wish-fulfillment fluff.' And I'm OK with that. However, I prefer my books to possess some sort of internal logic and cohesive world-building. In Fortune's Fool, I felt as though Lackey threw out anything resembling conflict because that would be *bad* and scary and perhaps give this morass of a story some sort of palatability.

Chapters one through five made this unbearable. Seriously? Did we just spend five chapters creating a freaking origami crane as our deus ex machina? The author decided to just establish a whole minor society and throw them away just so the protagonist could have the show more magical equivalent of e-mail.

I finished Fortune's Fool, so I feel bound to round up my rating to a 2/5. After all, I found it readable -- even if I did have to quell an urge to toss the book across the room every 20 minutes. show less

The seventh son of a seventh son and the Sea King's seventh daughter, Sasha and Katya are fated to the be traditional Fools of fairy tale reality. As such, both have very specific roles to play, because in the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Tradition reigns supreme, backed (and sometime thwarted) by the Godmothers. But both Sasha and Katya have learned to deal very well with the often tricky workings of Tradition - bending it to their wishes as much as it is possible to do. Now the pair will have their work cut out for them: Katya has been taken prisoner by an evil Jinn, and Sasha and two very unlikely Champions may be her only hope.

I've always liked Lackey's work, but this particular tale doesn't stand up well to the tight writing and show more suspense of the majority of her Valdemar novels. Nor does it use the many layers of folk mythology packed between its pages as well as her earlier Five Hundred Kingdoms books. It really feels more as if she was trying to stuff in creatures and bits from as many traditions as she could - and possibly as if she'd been up way too late watching InuYasha reruns. This particular tale just isn't up to par. show less

Lackey's third book in the "Tales of The Five Hundred Kingdoms" series, is similar to the previous two, yet falls just short of their success. In Fortune's Fool we meet Sasha the seventh son of the King of one of the dry land Kingdoms. He is known as his traditional role as the Fortune's Fool...the joke of the kingdom who also falls into luck often. We meet Katya, the seventh daughter of the Sea King, who is a spy and gets to go on many adventures for her father. She has a rare ability to be able to walk on dry land as easily as she can swim through the seas. Katya enjoys her missions as much as Sasha enjoys his rounds of the kingdom for his father, the chances to get away from the act he has to employ as the "fool". Katya and Sasha no show more sooner meet and begin to court, than she is called away on another mission from her father. When she is kidnapped, Sasha begins his own rescue mission to find her. This is a fun, quick read that I actually saved for awhile, knowing it would be good. And I wasn't disappointed. I liked the characters and the story was much in the same pattern as the previous two. However, the story did fall slightly short. I think that the couple's courtship was far too short before she was taken away. I also think Sasha could have benefitted from more adventures on his way to find her. The resolution was fun, but also too short and sweet. The epilogue was the best part of the story and I would have been happy to have seen some of the things discribed in the epilogue in more detail as well. Still, this remains a fun, strong series. I hope Lackey plans more books after the fourth "The Snow Queen". show less

A nice little romance. I enjoyed the humor in the way the book uses fairytale clichés, but the story and storytelling are a little too simplistic. This gives the book a sort of childish charm but gets annoying, especially at the end where the "and they all lived happily" stuff is told in a little too much detail.