Trio of Sorcery

I had never read anything by Mercedes Lackey before, so I figured this collection of novellas would be a good place to start instead of jumping into a series. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing and how much I enjoyed the stories. The three stories all featured a female protagonist who is capable of performing magic. They were all intriguing and well written with different settings both in geography and time.

I enjoyed the first story the most where the protagonist was a Harvard college student who was helping the police investigate a missing girl. What I liked most about it was the collection of characters and how Diana, the story’s protagonist, used these non-magical people to help her in her investigation. The show more second story, with a Native American ghost controlling a woman was also neat. The least of stories was the final one where a Wendigo was taking over a video game and threatening to enter the real world. In that case, believability was a serious issue and I had a hard time buying into the story, but I still enjoyed reading that one as well. I give this collection a thumbs up and would definitely read Mercedes Lackey again.

Carl Alves - author of The Invocation show less

I read this backward - saving the best (Diana!) for last. Ghost in the Machine - I like this a lot. The story, the characters, and the universe - I'd like to see more. VR and magic mixing in fascinating ways, and a techno-shaman working on regulating it. A wendigo; Chinese gold farmers, in a reasonable extension of current practices; lots of neat stuff. More, please. Drums - yay, more Jennie Tallfeather! I enjoyed Sacred Ground a lot. This one's neat - not a lot to it, but fun and interesting. More about various tribes - Dineh (Navaho), Chickasaw, and Osage. And an interesting background on an 'Indian legend' - I love getting the real story behind a myth. Neat. Odd that Jennie didn't recognize Begay as a common Dineh name, though. show more Arcanum 101 - yippie, more Diana! Love it. The beginning - well, early on, anyway, and some flashbacks to the real beginning - of Diana's story. Now I need to look up which of the Spook Squad became a cop - I know about Itzaak, and probably Em and Emory - hmmm. So I guess it's Marshall, unless they recruited some others later. Still. I want to read all the other Diana stories again, with this new insight. Interesting story in itself, too - fake psychic who wasn't all that fake, a kidnapping, a nice example of Diana working with the cops...lotsa good stuff here. And after reading Diana Tregarde Investigates - nope, aside from the one reference to Itzaak (which is slightly contradictory to Arcanum 101), none of the original Squad members are ever mentioned. The characters in Burning Water and Jinx High came along later. show less

I'm a a Lackey fan from small, so it was nice to dip back into familiar worlds. The Diane Tregarde story was fun, and exactly what I was expecting... but I felt the Jennifer Talldeer story was inappropriate. I enjoyed reading Sacred Ground, the Talldeer novel, back when I first came across it, but these days First Nation and Native American groups have made their feelings about cultural appropriation very, very clear. Ms. Lackey has an incredible imagination, and I would have rather hear something more original, or at least notes on the different cultures she uses for this story. I didn't find the technomage story very interesting, it was pretty standard fare.

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
www.allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com

Mercedes Lackey is an author responsible for a number of my firsts. Diana Tregarde was probably the first the urban fantasy series I ever read, and she mixed magic with police interceptors much to my delight. I also know for a fact that Jennifer Talldeer, in SACRED GROUND, was the first character I ever read who used a condom in a love scene (a realistic, compelling, touch). Both Diana and Jennie have new stories in TRIO OF SORCERY, as well as a new character, Ellen McBridge. All three characters left their mark on me for better or worse in this anthology, and not in the way I expected.

Diana Tregarde’s story in Arcanum 101 works well for those familiar show more with her previous books, but can also serve as a good introduction to the series. Featuring a witch/romance novelist, I love the trademark Lackey touch of mixing magic with practical concerns (like getting a job or figuring out bus schedules). While being a Guardian does give Diana a bump up in magical power, she’s not above further augmenting that power with research, martial arts, and the fastest get away car she can bum a ride in. Reading this origin story whetted my appetite to go back and re-read all of those Diana Tregarde books I remember enjoying so much.

Arcanum 101 was followed by Drums, taking up the story of Jennie Talldeer and David Spotted Horse where SACRED GROUND left off. Of the three stories, Drums was the weakest in the triology. It felt unfinished on the edges, awkward at the beginning and vague at the end. Given how vividly I remember Jennie and David’s relationship, I didn’t like how Lackey raises questions between them that were never resolved in the scope of this story. I’d be willing to forgive, however, if this means more stories featuring these characters will follow.

And finally, set in present day, Ghost in the Machine was definitely my favorite story (and not just because it deals with an on-line computer game very similar to World of Warcraft). Ghost in the Machine introduces a fascinating concept of how magic might collide with our modern world. Usually short stories leave me wanting in the character development department, but the techno-shaman Ellen McBridge and magically augmented AIBO were a pair that I would love to read more about.

Thoughout these three stories, Lackey emphasizes this passage of time by prefacing each story with a primer on the technological and social norms of the day. While I enjoyed these prologues, I would have enjoyed the stories themselves more if Lackey had used a lighter hand with these time period markers. I felt like many of the “period references”, were rather clunky and unnecessary for the story itself.

Over all, this trio was a pleasant trip down memory lane, as well as a sweet showcase of Mercedes Lackey’s portfolio. I only hope that these stories are the seedlings of new full length books.

Sexual Content: None show less

I really have missed reading ML's strong women. Once again, she reminds us not to bring a knife to a gunfight. You know, unless you've brought a gun, too. No spoilers, but think about how often in her books people who "dabble" in magic get their butts handed to them on a regular basis... she hasn't altered that philosophy.
I hope that writing these three shorts hasn't gotten the characters "out of her system" and that she revisits them again, someday.

I really enjoyed all three of these stories. Some of Mercedes' more recent stories feel very regurgitated to me, having many of the same elements, the characters and the way their stories are told, so similar and lacking in the depth I've come to appreciate in many of her older novels. The three stories in this book successfully brought that depth back for me, and I would love to read new full-length novels in all three of these worlds.

One book, three novellas, two of which deal with characters familiar to fans of Lackey's overall work. Diana Tregarde and Jennifer Talldeer make their comebacks, much to the delight of many.

Arcanum 101 was a prequel to the Diana Tregarde novels of so long ago, set during the 1970s. To younger readers, this must honestly seem like a different world, a world of partly-line phones, hippies, and a stunning lack of international familiarity. Combine that with an "X-Files meets Scooby Doo" feel with a supernatural mystery, and you've got this story in a nutshell. Interesting to read, and interesting to see a piece of Diana's history.

Drums is one that I don't feel completely qualified to comment on, because although it was interesting and fun show more to once again see a character I haven't seen in a while, most of the plot is centered around aspects of Native American mythology and rituals that I am unfamiliar with. I can't say that Lackey's research was superb or lacking, because I simply don't know. On its own, though, it's a good tale, though I do admit that reading this one immediately after Arcanum 101 left me with the sense that Jennifer isn't very different in personality than Diana, although perhaps a little less abrupt. They could be cut from the same cloth, so to speak.

Ghost in the Machine brings us to the modern age, having traveled through the 70s and the 90s in the two previous stories, and gives us a look at how magic and technology can combine in terrifying ways, especially when it comes to the fantasy worlds of online games. It asks the question of just how virtual a world is when so many people place their belief in it and invest so much time in it, and then goes a step further and asks what happens when a creature who's gained self-awareness in the game learns of the world beyond it, and wants out.

Overall, these stories were fairly light reading, nothing disturbing but definitely thought-provoking, and it was kind of fun to take a step back in time and see the world the way it once was. This definitely isn't the book to pick up if you haven't read the Diana Tregarde books or Sacred Ground, as the full effect of the stories with those characters will undoubtedly be lost. Definitely one for the fans. show less