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Mercedes Lackey

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 70.247.248.13 (talk) at 17:47, 25 August 2005 (Corrected series title to "Bedlam's Bard"; added missing book title; added information about origins of Diana Tregarde; added information about CDROM, omnibuses). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mercedes Lackey (born June 24, 1950) (also known as Misty Lackey) is a prolific American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels form a complex tapestry of interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores. There is a prominent theme of tolerance throughout, notably in the relative prominence of homosexual characters and the ethos of Valdemar: "There is no one, true way".

The other main world in which she writes is one much like our own, but also populated by elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. Some of the interlocking series in this world are the Diana Tregarde thrillers, the "SERRAted Edge" books about racecar-driving elves, and the "Bedlam's Bard" books, characterizing a young man with the power to work incredible magics through music. While the SERRAted Edge and Bedlam's Bard series are still in progress, she has declined to write further Diana Tregarde stories because of low sales. Lackey received harassment from a small but determined number of fans over the decision. She claims that the trouble escalated to the point where she and her husband received death threats and were temporarily forced to suspend their fandom activities. She resumed attending conventions by 2004.

There is a Mercedes Lackey fan group on Usenet. She keeps a tight hold on her copyrights, and no published fanfiction is allowed outside of her authorized fanclub. The fanclub, the Queen's Own, is named after Herald Talia's position in her books.

Her earlier novels are all solo projects, but later volumes in the Valdemar saga are illustrated by her husband Larry Dixon, and in many of her latest works he is also credited as co-author.

She and her husband Larry Dixon also work in wildlife rehabilitation, especially with birds of prey, and practice falconry. She often refers to her various parrots as her "feathered children". The afterwords to some of her books refer to rehabilitation and falconry, and it is clear that this interest has influenced and informed her writing.

Lackey has been active in the filking community.

Mercedes Lackey is a protegee of Marion Zimmer Bradley, and got her start writing short stories in Bradley's story collections.

In her use of female and homosexual protagonists, she is like Tanya Huff, although she lacks Huff's rather light tone.

Opposition

Some disparage her books as being about 'talking horses', though her works depict a wide range of cultures and environments.

Because of the prominence of female and homosexual characters in her high fantasy works, she has been criticized for writing "fluffy" fantasy novels which bear little or no resemblance to real or pseudo-real history. Given that fantasy is an escape from reality, the relevance of this criticism is somewhat questionable.

Published Works

Velgarth

Some of the trilogies follow on chronologically from each other. Others are set a considerable number of years apart from the others. Overall the books span some 3000 years of history. There is a significant gap in the middle which might some day be filled.

However Lackey has recently (October 2003) announced that she is taking a break from writing Velgarth books.

Heralds of Valdemar

This set consists of the original trilogy, the very first Valdemar books published, and a prequel trilogy, the most recent.

  • Prequels

These centre on the Weaponsmaster Alberich (in the first two books) and the thief Skif (in the third book), telling the stories of their not-entirely-voluntary enrolments as Heralds.

  1. Exile's Honor
  2. Exile's Valor
  3. Take a Thief
  • The original trilogy

These centre on the character Talia, from her first encounter with the Heralds to becoming the Queen's Own Herald.

  1. Arrows of the Queen
  2. Arrow's Flight
  3. Arrow's Fall

The Mage Winds

These follow on from the original Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, centering on Princess Elspeth completing her transformation from "the Brat" to a fully-fledged Herald. Secondary protaganists include Skif and a new character Darkwind.

  1. Winds of Fate
  2. Winds of Change
  3. Winds of Fury

The Mage Storms

These follow on again, centering on the characters Karal and An'desha.

  1. Storm Warning
  2. Storm Rising
  3. Storm Breaking

The Owl Mage

These take place some time later, centering on the character Darian.

  1. Owlflight (ISBN 0-88677-754-2)
  2. Owlsight (ISBN 0-88677-802-6)
  3. Owlknight (ISBN 0-88677-851-4)

The Last Herald Mage

These occur some centuries before the Heralds of Valdemar books, telling the life story of Vanyel Ashkevron; by the time of the "later" books he has become legend, thus explaining some of the small inconsistencies.

  1. Magic's Pawn (ISBN 0-61363-053-X)
  2. Magic's Promise (ISBN 0-61363-055-6)
  3. Magic's Price (ISBN 0-61363-054-8)

Vows and Honor

  1. The Oathbound (ISBN 0-88677-285-0), 1988
  2. Oathbreakers (ISBN 0-88677-319-9), 1989
  3. Oathblood (ISBN 0-88677-773-9), 1998

These precede the Heralds of Valdemar books, centering on the characters Tarma and Kethry, These characters appeared first in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series) and were revisited in subsequent short stories. Two of these short stories are woven into the Vows and Honor books as part of a longer narrative. The third volume is made up entirely of short stories in place of a longer narrative; with its publication, all the Tarma and Kethryn stories were available together. The original Vows and Honor pair of books were linked together with By the Sword (published long before Oathblood) as a trilogy.

In the books, Tarma is a sword-wielding Shin'a'in tribeswoman. Kethry is a magic-user who carries a sword with unusual properties. The nature of this sword, Need, is explored in later series set in Valdemar. At the time of the Vows and Honor books, all that is known is that it is magic, protects female bearers, and can pressurise its owner into assisting other women. The overarching goal for the two women is to accumulate resources enough to regenerate Tarma's almost-destroyed tribe. As the titles of the books suggest, emphasis is laid on the importance and consequences of oaths in at least one story from each book. The setting of the books is generally in the lands south of Valdemar such as Rethwellan, although there is a brief sojourn in Valdemar in Oathbreakers. Despite limited time in Valdemar, there were references in the first two Vows and Honor books to the Companions of Valdemar which laid early hints to their nature. The introduction of a four-fold deity (Tarma's Goddess) was something of a novel idea at the time of publication.

Kerowyn's Tale

This is a stand-alone novel which connects the Vows & Honor sub-series to the Heralds and other trilogies; it introduces the character Kerowyn who features therein. Kerowyn is the granddaughter of Kethry from the Vows and Honor sub-series.

The Mage Wars

These are set in pre-history, some 2000-3000 years earlier. They describe the events which set off The Mage Storms.

  1. The Black Gryphon
  2. The White Gryphon
  3. The Silver Gryphon

Miscellaneous

This is a stand-alone novel, set somewhere between The Last Herald Mage and the Heralds books; it describes another legendary character referred to in the latter, Lavan Firestorm.

Short Story Collections

Reference

Elves on the Road universe

Bedlam's Bard

Bedlam Boyz is a prequel to Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, detailing the origin of a secondary character in the series.

Diana Tregarde

  • Burning Water (1989)
  • Children of the Night (1990)
  • Jinx High (1991)

These books are set in the same real world as the SERRAted Edge books: that is, a real world with levinbolts and elves who drive racing cars. At least one character (Tannim) is seen in both sets of books. The main character, Diana Tregarde, is an American Wiccan witch who has access to more magical power than many by virtue of her position as a Guardian, but who is required to give her help when someone asks it of her. Her magical abilities do not pay the bills, however, and Diana is a genre (romance) novelist in her day job. In the stories, she must protect others from angry deities (Burning Water), vampires (Children of the Night), and a sorceress who intends to remain eternally young (Jinx High). The books were published under Tor's horror imprint rather than as fantasy. At the time of publication, positive depictions of what Wiccans and, more generally, neopagans believed and did were rare. In the mid-nineties, Lackey's books generally and these three particularly were regularly cited as examples of pagan-friendly fiction. ([1] (1992), [2] (1995)) Lackey has written that she has no plans for further books in the series because they did not sell well (and not, as some fans apparently believed, because she had come under pressure for stumbling "too close to the truth" of some supernatural conspiracy); nonetheless, she incorporated several elements of the Guardian mythos, including the apartment building where Diana lived, into later books in her Bedlam's Bard series.

The character Diana Tregarde first appeared in two short stories, "Satanic, Versus..." and "Nightside", which were originally written for inclusion in the Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic roleplaying game and subsequently featured in the short story collection Werehunter (1999). "Satanic, Versus..." is a humorous cautionary tale that demonstrates just what can happen when people who don't quite understand magic meddle with it, whereas "Nightside" is a preliminary version of what later became the novel Children of the Night.

The Serrated Edge

Born to Run and Chrome Circle were incorporated into an omnibus called The Chrome Borne. Wheels of Fire and When the Bough Breaks were incorporated into an omnibus called The Otherworld. The books were paired off by thematic content rather than order; thus readers wishing to read the series in chronological order would be advised to read the first half of The Chrome Borne, all of The Otherworld, and then the latter half of The Chrome Borne.

Mark Shepherd's solo books in this series are only thinly connected to the other books, and might more properly be considered a separate series of their own.

This Scepter'd Isle is a prequel set several hundred years prior to the other books in the series. The first printing of its first Baen hardcover edition included a bound-in CDROM containing ebook editions of This Scepter'd Isle as well as many other works by Lackey and other authors. As with Baen's other bound-in CDs, this CD included blanket permission to copy and share its contents noncommercially; thus it may be found freely circulating in peer-to-peer networks, as well as hosted on the world-wide web.

The Halfblood Chronicles

with Andre Norton

  1. The Elvenbane (1991)
  2. Elvenblood (1995)
  3. Elvenborn (2002)
  4. Elvenbred (?)

The Elemental Masters

  1. The Fire Rose (1995)
  2. The Serpent's Shadow (2001)
  3. Gates of Sleep (2002)
  4. Phoenix And Ashes (October 2004)
  5. The Wizard of London (October 2005)

Fairy Tale

  1. The Black Swan
  2. Firebird

Free Bards universe

Bardic Voices

  1. The Lark and the Wren (1992)
  2. The Robin and the Kestrel (1994)
  3. The Eagle and the Nightingales (1996)
  4. Four and Twenty Blackbirds (1997,ISBN 0-671-87853-0)

Bardic Choices

  1. A Cast of Corbies (1994)

The Dragon Jousters

  1. Joust (2003)
  2. Alta (2004)
  3. Sanctuary (May 2005)
  4. Aeyrie (?)

Heirs of Alexandria

  1. Shadow of the Lion with Dave Freer & Eric Flint
  2. This Rough Magic with Dave Freer & Eric Flint

Obsidian Trilogy

  1. The Outstretched Shadow with James Mallory
  2. To Light a Candle with James Mallory
  3. The Fall of Darkness with James Mallory

Bard's Tale universe

  1. Castle of Deception (1992) with Josepha Sherman
  2. Fortress of Frost and Fire (1993) with Ru Emerson
  3. Prison of Souls (1993) with Mark Shepherd

(comments by othes on the events at DragonCon)

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