Subject: _Winds of Fury_, by Mercedes Lackey

From: [email-masked] (Sean Eric Fagan)
Date: 23 Jul 93 01:10:21 GMT

_Fury_ is the third book in _The Mage Winds Trilogy_; the first two were
_Winds of Fate_ and _Winds of Change_.

_Fate_ was, *I* think, pretty obviously written during the period when
Lackey had overextended herself, and was writing, or collaborating, on
too many books, most of which were not very good.  _Fate_ was one of the
"not very good" ones, so I was somewhat leery of _Change_.  To my delight,
however, _Change_ was a better book than _Fate_.  It was not a *great*
book, but it was, at least, a decent, or maybe even good, book.

Happily, _Fury_ continues the progression.  It *is* a good book, and
much in the tradition of Lackey's original Valdemar novels, although a lot
less depressing (read:  we do not get such wonderful descriptions of
rapings, and none of the characters mopes for the entire length of the
book).

I read _Fury_ in one sitting; even given that it is a relatively short
book (I've been rereading Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series again...), that
is still a pretty good indicator.

As I sit here writing this, parts of the book, I just realized, make me
think of the recent song, "Hero" ("It was one of those great stories /
That you can't put down at night: / The hero knew what he had to do, /
And he wasn't afraid to fight").

If you are a Lacky fan, this is a *good* book, and worth the cost.  If
you've been disappointed by her books from a couple of years ago, this
will probably do a lot to restore your faith in her.  If you're not
a Lackey fan, well, you shouldn't really get this book, as it's part
three of a trilogy, and was set up by nine other books (_The Last
Herald-Mage_, _Arrows of the Queen_, _Vows and Honor Duology_, and
_By The Sword_, the first two being trilogies in and of themselves).

If you've read the _Arrows_ trilogy, then you can read this trilogy
right now (although reading the rest would help).  Fortunately, the
other two books in the series are now out in paperback.

If I were to rate this, I would probably give it a +3 on a -5 to +5
scale.

%T Winds of Fury
%A Mercedes Lackey
%C New York
%D July 1993
%I DAW
%O hardback US$20.00
%G ISBN 0-88677-562-0
%P 384pp