Subject: Bardic Voices (Review) by Mercedes Lackey

From: [email-masked] (Subrata Sircar)
Date: 19 Dec 91 19:04:22 GMT

I picked this book up with trepidation; I have greatly enjoyed Mercedes
Lackey's writing in the past (particularly the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, which
I preferred to the Arrows books), but she seems to be taking on new projects
with ever-increasing frequency these days.  This book is billed as Book I of
The Lark and the Wren, and along with continuing her Valdemar books,
coauthoring another set and the Diana Tregard books, she's going to be writing
in her sleep for a while.  The good news is twofold:  a) this book is complete
in and of itself (although the direction of future books seems pretty clear)
b) this book isn't a drop in quality compared to previous works.  I enjoyed
this one, although it is far from her best.

The plot is fairly standard; mistreated child with musical talent runs away
from home to pursue her abilities and get away from misunderstanding parents
(just as every other Mercedes Lackey main character does, it seems).  Along
the way, she fiddles for a ghost, learns about the evil and corrupt Church,
and discovers that whores aren't always despicable.  After discovering
firsthand that Guild Bards aren't tolerant of women at all, she joins the Free
Bards, where (of course) most of the talented musicians are.  The main
difficulty I have with the plot is despite the number of wicked and evil
people in the world, Rune (the heroine) meets none of them.  She fiddles for a
ghost, who, instead of devouring her and sending her to Hell, give her enough
silver to run away and start lessons.  Upon entering the city, instead of being
mugged, robbed or cheated, she finds a helpful innkeeper who gives her plenty
of good advice.  When she looks for a music teacher, she just happens to find
someone who doesn't cheat her, finds her a place to stay *and* a good job.
When she gets beaten up and kicked out by the Guild Bards, a kindly Free Bard
just happens to pick her up and give her everything she wanted from the Guild
Bards.  And so on; Rune runs into nothing but nice people for the majority of
the book, and generally solves her problems with the help of good friends and
common sense.  Despite the various storm clouds on the horizon, most of them
stay away from Rune, as though she's walking on a safe path through a jungle.

The books saving grace is strong characterization and a reasonable pace (which
becomes forced at the end; the wrap-up is somewhat unrealistic, without
enough background to really anchor it) which meanders through some nice
descriptions of the culture and background.  It flows nicely and the characters
hold your interest; in some ways the lack of trouble for the heroine is nice as
it allows her to meet lots of interesting and kind people.  The book is
populated with enough characters to set up a universe, which evidently Ms.
Lackey is going to do.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book (although I would like more from this
particular author, as some of her books have really impressed me) and will
look out for the sequel.  I would recommend this to readers who like Mercedes
Lackey's books, but not to someone who hasn't read her stuff before.  For you,
I say "Go find the Last Herald-Mage books; they have all the strengths of this
book and fewer weaknesses."

Recommended: 6 out of 10.

          %A   Mercedes Lackey
          %T   Bardic Voices
          %D   January 1992
          %G   ISBN 0-671-72099-6
          %I   Baen Books, Baen Publishing Enterprises
          %K   Fantasy
          %O   Paperback $4.99
          %P   488 pages
          %S   Book I of The Lark and the Wren

-- 
Subrata Sircar [email-masked]|Prophet & SPAMIT Charter Member
	I don't speak for Princeton, and they don't speak for me.
"I wish people wouldn't instantly assume that I am an idiot." (Valentine)
"A restaurant is a whorehouse that does food instead of sex." (Roger Lustig)