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The Black Gryphon

di Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon

Altri autori: Vedi la sezione altri autori.

Serie: Valdemar : Mage Wars (1), Valdemar: Chronological Order (500 BF [1000 BF]), Valdemar: Publication Order (13)

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
2,749245,195 (3.75)54
Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:It is an age when Valdemar is yet unfounded, its organization of Heralds yet unformed, and magic is still a wild and uncontrolled force.

Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realmâ??a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar.

Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho's Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his ownâ??cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them. And when one of Urtho's Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar's common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho's powerful Spell of Silence… (altro)

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A decent, low-stakes genre fantasy. Probably the least favorite I've read of Lackey's Valdemar series thus far, but it's not bad. Most, if not all characters are removed from any high-stakes action that happens, so it feels a little boring until the very end when the characters are finally involved.

Probably would only suggest picking this one up if you've read other Valdemar books and are looking for lore. I feel like the next two books in this trilogy will have a lot of good lore, even if this one was skimping on that. ( )
  zozopuff | Dec 19, 2022 |
Set in a world of mages, healers, empaths, gryphons, and common soldiers, this first in a fantasy series details a massive war between two powerful mages, told through the viewpoint of a few of the people - and magical creatures - fighting on the side of the 'good' mage.
It's an interesting story with well-drawn characters, and I enjoyed it. I liked the world building, the idea behind the creatures, such as the gryphons, being created by the mage and then straining against his control while still feeling loyalty and love toward him, and I appreciated that I felt immediately drawn into the world and story, which is frequently something I struggle with when starting a new fantasy book or series. ( )
  electrascaife | Mar 27, 2022 |
One of my favorite books. Love the characters in it. ( )
  MinaSmith12345 | Jan 26, 2022 |
I like the books Mercedes Lackey writes, she is good at creating a believable world and people to populate it. While her writing is not the strongest I do find it engaging ang and enjoyable. I like a series I can live inside of and her books are ones that have characters I feel invested in and a world I believe could exist.
( )
  KateKat11 | Sep 24, 2021 |
This takes place during the war between Urtho and Ma'ar, which began for reasons I can't recall (because Ma'ar wants world domination?). Most of the book is focused on life in one of Urtho's army's camps, far enough away from the fighting that no one there is in immediate danger but filled with humans and nonhumans healing from injuries and dealing with PTSD.

Urtho used his magic to create gryphons to help him in the war, and Skandranon (Skan), the "Black Gryphon," is one of the best of them. His closest friend is a human named Amberdrake, a kestra'chern (an empath/healer who uses a combination of methods to heal others emotionally and physically). The book follows their life and the development of their relationships in the camp, as Urtho attempts to figure out how to turn the tide of the war against Ma'ar.

This was my first time listening to this in audio form, although I had previously read the book quite a few times - it was the first Valdemar book I'd ever read, back when I was a teen obsessed with gryphons, and it became one of my comfort reads, although it's probably been at least 10 years since I last read it.

I was interested to see how well this would hold up after all this time, but I don't know that audio was the best way to do that. Gary Furlong pronounced most of the names and fantasy words differently than I'd imagined they would sound, and his narration gave the slower parts of the book more weight and made them more noticeable than they might have been if I had been rereading my old print copy. It wasn't bad (except for maybe the gryphon hisses - Furlong tried, but those weren't designed for audiobook narration), but it was definitely different.

I remembered most of the characters and their relationships, as well as most of their backstories (Amberdrake was the one character whose backstory I completely forgot). What I did not remember was how little on-page action there was. This was technically a war story, but it was so focused on characters' thoughts and emotional turmoil that it was easy to forget that there was fighting going on elsewhere. For example, Amberdrake tried his best to be everyone's rock while in reality he was one bad piece of news away from completely falling apart, and Winterhart seemed heartless and brittle but was eventually revealed to be a mass of guilt and anxiety.

Lackey spent a lot of time on character relationships: Amberdrake's friendship with Skan (which had some issues because Skan is not the sort to sit down and talk about feelings), Amberdrake helping Zhaneel to increase her self-confidence, and the budding romances between Amberdrake and Winterhart as well as Skan and Zhaneel. It was all blended with information about the war - for example, in an effort to increase her confidence and catch Skan's eye, Zhaneel created and worked out on obstacle courses that led to her being given an important role in one of the battles. Still, there were times I found myself thinking that the story was extremely slow, and I wonder how much of that was this reread (enough time for me to not be so affected by nostalgia?) and how much was due to the audio format making the pacing more obvious.

During this reread, I found myself viewing Urtho's army from more of an organizational leadership perspective. I imagine Urtho had a limited number of people he could promote or demote without risking further problems among his ranks, but there were at least a couple characters who were perfect examples of why it's dangerous to just shuffle toxic employees around. It was frustrating to watch.

All in all, I enjoyed seeing Amberdrake, Skan, and Zhaneel again, but this didn't work as well for me as I remembered. At some point I'll have to reread my paper copy to see if that makes a difference, and then continue on from there to The White Gryphon and The Silver Gryphon, which I don't think I've ever reread.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )
  Familiar_Diversions | Jan 11, 2021 |
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» Aggiungi altri autori (3 potenziali)

Nome dell'autoreRuoloTipo di autoreOpera?Stato
Lackey, Mercedesautore primariotutte le edizioniconfermato
Dixon, Larryautore principaletutte le edizioniconfermato
Barber, JohnImmagine di copertinaautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Lee, Jody A.Immagine di copertinaautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
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Dedicated to Mel. White, Coyote Woman A legend in the hearts of all who know her
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Silence. Cold wind played against Skandranon's nares-a wind as frigid as the hearts of th killers below.
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Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:It is an age when Valdemar is yet unfounded, its organization of Heralds yet unformed, and magic is still a wild and uncontrolled force.

Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realmâ??a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar.

Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho's Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his ownâ??cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them. And when one of Urtho's Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar's common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho's powerful Spell of Silence

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