Storm Breaking | ||||||||||||
Mercedes Lackey | ||||||||||||
DAW Books, 463 pages | ||||||||||||
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A review by Todd Richmond
Storm Breaking is the third book in The Mage Storms
series by Mercedes Lackey. The beginning of the book has an official
timeline that places the books of the Heralds of Valdemar series
in their correct chronological order. If you are wondering, The
Mage Storms trilogy takes place in the Reign of Selenay,
the very last chronologically. The book is basically divided into
three parts. The book begins with Karal, a Channel, and a group
of his friends and comrades at the Tower of Urtho, Mage of Silence,
attempting to excavate his legendary Vault. They hope to discover
a tool there that will allow them to halt the deadly mage storms
which sweeping across their world and threatening to destroy it.
The mage storms are never really explained in this book, perhaps
because they have been thoroughly explained in the previous books.
Karal is recovering from being used as a Channel, because in the
second book they presumably succeeded in breaking the mage storms,
at least temporarily.
The second part of the book is about the Herald Elspeth and the
Hawkbrother Darkwind and their journey to Hardorn to act as envoys
to Grand Duke Tremane. Tremane had been sent by the Emperor Charliss
to conquer Hardorn for the Empire of the East. His conquest had
been halted however and his army abandoned by the Emperor. Tremane
and his army revolted and now, seemingly, he wishes to make amends
for what he had done.
The remainder of the book concerns the intrigue and manipulation
taking place at the Emperor's court. Charliss is slowly going
insane and blames Valdemar for the mage storms, thinking that
they are some sort of magical weapon aimed at his Empire. He is
also enraged by the desertion of Tremane, whom he once considered
appointing his Heir, and wishes revenge upon him. He declares
Tremane's name anathema and appoints Count Baron Melles his Heir,
awarding him all of Tremane's lands and possessions. Melles is
not content waiting for the Throne, however, and begins his plans
to become Emperor by removing Charliss.
Storm Breaking is a good book, but not one that should
be read without reading the others. It fails to stand on its own
because there is just too much background that isn't covered.
The plot is fairly complex and it is obvious that Mercedes Lackey
has a very rich background of people and places to base her stories
on. But that richness and complexity also makes it impossible
to just pick up one of her books and fully appreciate the story.
The mage storms, the very thing that Karal and the others are
trying to stop from destroying their world, are never really explained.
Some of the underlying principals of magic and how it works are
brought up, but never in detail. I assume that's because the other
books have explained it and shown how magic works. Heralds and
Hawkbrothers are not explained either. It is obvious from the
reactions of the characters in the book that the Heralds are something
special, but unfortunately I couldn't determine how or why. For
the most part the intrigue at the Emperor's Court stands alone,
mostly because it does not depend on what has happened previously.
We can all understand why Melles is impatient to rule.
I enjoyed Storm Breaking, but I don't think that I will
run out and pick up the first two books in series. I think that the book
ended far too quickly, and I feel sorry for those that waited three books
for it. I'm sure Mercedes Lackey fans will want to finish the trilogy, but
I don't think I can recommend it to those who aren't fans already, or those
who haven't yet started the trilogy.
Todd is a plant molecular developmental biologist who has finally finished 23 years of formal education. He recently fled Madison, WI for the warmer but damper San Francisco Bay Area and likes bad movies, good science fiction, and role-playing games. He began reading science fiction at the age of eight, starting with Heinlein, Silverberg, and Tom Swift books, and has a great fondness for tongue-in-cheek fantasy àla Terry Pratchett, Craig Shaw Gardner and Robert Asprin. |
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