The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsThe Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsThe Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

There are dozens of novels and stories set in Mercedes Lackey’s VALDEMAR universe. Most of these are arranged into trilogies that can be read by themselves without familiarity of the other VALDEMAR trilogies, though there are some overlapping characters and a shared history. The MAGE WARS trilogy (The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, and The Silver Gryphon), though published later in the series, takes place before Valdemar and its Heralds and Companions even existed, making it a prequel trilogy.

In The Black Gryphon (1994) we meet a large and powerful Gryphon named Skandranon (Skan for short) who was created by a good mage named Urtho. When the bad mage Maar declares war on Urtho, Skan is injured as he is spying for Urtho. As he recuperates in the healing tents of Urtho’s army’s camp, he is attended by his friend Amberdrake, a special type of healer called a kestra’chern who is a combination of physical therapist, masseuse, stylist, psychiatrist, and geisha. Amberdrake is also attending Zaneel, a suicidal female gryphon who lacks self-confidence and feels like she doesn’t fit in, as well as a young woman named Winterhart who is hiding from her past. As the war goes on, our small group of heroes must use all of their particular skills to help Urtho defeat Maar.

Mage Wars (3 book series) Kindle EditionAfter the exciting opening scene, there’s not a lot going on during the first half of The Black Gryphon. Mostly it’s about getting to know Lackey and Dixon’s characters and listening to them tell their histories, lecture about the importance of healing the whole person instead of just the physical maladies, and teasing each other. If you’re not as enamoured of them as they are of themselves (especially Skan, who keeps calling himself “vain bird”), or if you don’t think their banter is cute or witty, it’ll be slow going, though there are few nice discussions about prejudice, xenophobia, and the ability of people who have suffered to be more empathetic.

Finally things pick up as Skan starts to perceive that his species is being treated by their maker as slaves rather than people. He wants the gryphons to be free, but Urtho holds the secret to their fertility, so if they leave, their species will die. A quest for the fertility secret is launched and quickly resolved. Then, at the end of the novel, the war intensifies and all hands are on deck just to survive.

The Black Gryphon has some pleasant characters that are unique in fantasy fiction, and fans of VALDEMAR will enjoy getting a look at the world before the Heralds and Companions were created.

The book highlights some of Lackey’s writing quirks, such as the tendency to make her animal characters have the same kinds of thoughts and personalities as people do, the tendency to resolve tensions too quickly, and the tendency to over-do the villains almost to the point of comedy. Maar gets off on torturing innocent people just for fun. Most of Lackey’s villains do this; I guess it’s so we’ll know they’re the bad guys.

Something that annoys me is the way that Lackey’s characters help the narrator tell the story, sometimes even responding directly to the narrator. If I was dropped into the middle of one of Lackey’s books without seeing the cover, I’d know it was hers because of this pattern (though L.E. Modesitt Jr does it, too). Here’s an example:

The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviews

 

These issues probably wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t view them as pervasive pattern throughout Lackey’s work. I doubt they’re likely to bother most readers.

The audiobook version of The Black Gryphon was produced in 2018 by Tantor Audio and pleasantly read by Gary Furlong.

The next two MAGE WARS audiobooks, The White Gryphon and The Silver Gryphon, have just recently been released in audio format and I’ll read them next.

 

Published in 1994. It is an age when Valdemar is yet unfounded, its organization of Heralds yet unformed, and magic is still a wild and uncontrolled force. Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realm — a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar. Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho’s Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his own — cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them. And when one of Urtho’s Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar’s common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho’s powerful Spell of Silence.

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  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.