Book Review: The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey (Four Stars)

Book Review: The Lark and the Wren (Bardic Voices, #1) by Mercedes Lackey (Four Stars)

And I’ve been hungry, cold, nearly penniless. I fiddled for the Skull Hill Ghost and won. If the Ghost didn’t stop me, neither will Brother Pell.  No one will. Not ever.

Excellent light fantasy with strong female protagonist. Rune does the best she can with what she has, which is an amazing musical talent. Supporting and conflicting characters are well-developed, if stereotypical.

What is it about the Church that it spawns both the saint and the devil?  Then he shrugged. It wasn’t that the Church spawned either; it was that the Church held both.

Typical typecasting of church as evil, with enough redeeming characters to keep the story out of propaganda.

“Women,” he said, as if that explained everything, and then changed the subject. Just like a man, she thought with amusement, and let him.

Closes with a pleasant twist on stereotypical royal usurpation sub-plot.

Fear is worse when you don’t know what it is you’re afraid of.

Book Review: “The Guile” by Ian McDonald (Four Stars)

Book Review: “The Guile” by Ian McDonald

(Four Stars)

“We want wonder in the world; things we can’t explain. We want to be fooled, even though we know there’s no such thing as magic.”

Refreshing short story about who we really are. Lots of magic terminology. Spoiled only slightly by too much explaining at the end. As he said, we don’t want to know how the trick was done; sometimes we’d rather not know there was a trick.

“Make the audience walk as far as possible from the trick to the effect.”