From /tmp/sf.4191 Tue Aug 9 02:47:24 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!hudson.lm.com!epicycle.lm.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Lackey and Dixon: Chrome Circle Date: 20 Jul 1994 00:50:22 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Lines: 38 Message-ID: <30iaee$730@epicycle.lm.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: epicycle.lm.com I don't know why I do this to myself. The SERRAted Edge is something between a shared world and a coauthored series, consisting of novels written by Mercedes Lackey and assorted third-stringers, in a setting roughly consistent with the milieu/assumptions of Lackey's Tregarde novels. The quality of the writing has varied greatly with the skill of the coauthor, so it's doubtful that Lackey has been putting much time into these books. (Doubly doubtful, given her other writing commitments.) But Mercedes Lacky, on a good day, produces some of the best self-indulgence in the genre, and her previous work with Larry Dixon has shown more care and skill than her work with other junior coauthors, so I got "Chrome Circle". I think the series has well and truly run out of steam. The premise has promise: Tannim, whom we've met before, finally meets his destined love, about whom he's been dreaming for years, only she turns out to be a half- dragon-half-kitsune (fox-spirit) who is trying to kill him. The authors then proceed to make the most pedestrian use of their raw materials. The first half of the book is the setup: Boy meets girl, girl kidnaps boy, girl goes "oops" and gets him loose, boy and girl run for their lives. This isn't so bad, though it suffers from Lackey's usual tendency to push the plot where she wants it to go, no matter how improbably her characters have to behave to make it work. It's also somewhat weakened by an excessive and unnecessary reliance on earlier books in the series for background and atmosphere. The second half of the book is largely a sequence of small adventures as the two flee from one mythology's pocket world to the next, while their friends and enemies look for them. The sequence of adventures ends with everyone being in on the final climactic battle, which is resolved by the obligatory rabbit-out-of-a-hat. The book is cute in places -- but boring. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com dani@telerama.lm.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 2 16:39:50 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.news.gtei.net!netnews.com!ai-lab!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: hklaus6073@aol.com (HKlaus6073) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Owlsight - Lackey & Dixon Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 22 Oct 1998 16:34:45 -0400 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 40 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2138 OWLSIGHT by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon Review Copyright 1998 Harriet Klausner [May be considered a spoiler for the first volume in the series. --AW] Four years have passed since the Barbarians raided and plundered Errold's Grove (see Book I, OWLFLIGHT). The village has since recovered and actually is larger than it was before the disaster. Untrained talent, teenager Keisha Alder has become the town's unofficial healer. However, in spite of her immense innate skills, she struggles with helping others because she has never learned to block out her empathy towards the pain of her patients and their families. Even her own family, especially her sister Shandi is driving her crazy. Still, formal training is out of the question, at least for now, because the townsfolk have no one else to turn to for assistance. Four years ago, Darien left the village to receive healing training from the Hawkbrothers. He returns accompanied by his mentors to warn the villagers that the Barbarians are at the gate once again and razing Errold's Grove for the second time seems to be a foregone conclusion. The second novel in the Owl Fantasy trilogy, OWLSIGHT, is a well written tale as expected from the talented duo of Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon. However, this time the story lacks the vigorous action of the debut novel or Ms. Lackey's VALDEMAR series (same setting). This novel is more introspective, providing much insight, mostly through the filter of how Keisha sees and reacts to the noises that appears to be overwhelming her at any given moment. Fans of the series and fantasy tales in general will take pleasure from this book that offers a quieter glimpse of the Valdemar universe and will look forward to the final story, OWLKNIGHT. Harriet Klausner %T OWLSIGHT %A Mercedes Lackey %A Larry Dixon %I Daw %D Oct 1998 %O $24.95 %P 400 pp. %G ISBN 0-88677-802-6