Mercedes Lackey

[Zealith]

Thanks. *wanders off to look them up*
Yeah, one of the first shortstory collections I bought. My favorite stories were WereHunter and the one with Diana at the romance writer convention.

[Patti L.]

Ah, yes, 'whoopie witches'.  You can imagine how they'd go over with the TriCities' resident witch. . . .

[Zealith]

*Snicker*
I liked the crazy spells. "You nuns are in the mail!"

[Patti L.]

Well, as long as he's young & handsome, with a full head of hair, you can afford to put off mailing your nuns. . .

[Zealith]

[berneynator]

"One Good Knight",and the reason I didn't like it was that it was so...Feeble. "

I agree. Fortune's Fool was great, as was The Fairy Godmother, but a great idea go flattened here.

[Grey Drakkon]

"Fortune's Fool" is the third one right?  Still need to read that one, but I'm glad it didn't fail like the second book. 

[Cerulean]

I just started re-reading one of her few standalone books, Sacred Ground. Here's the blurb from Amazon. It says it's a YA novel, but I think it's accessible to any age.

Native American Jennifer Talldeer is a private investigator who usually deals with mundane cases of divorce, insurance fraud, and missing persons. Her cantankerous grandfather is teaching her the skills of a shaman and the magic possessed by warriors. When she is hired by an insurance company to look into the bombing of a shopping mall where fragments of Indian artifacts are discovered, both of these interests come into play. The burial ground of her ancestors has been destroyed as well as the mall site, freeing evil spirits who hinder the investigation and threaten to destroy her and the entire world. Jennifer must also deal with the return of her former lover, David Spotted Horse, who is an Indian activist and a prime suspect in the bombing. Skillfully weaving a tale of fantasy, mystery, and Native American folklore, Lackey has written a unique novel sure to appeal to YA fans

[Patti L.]

Strange to hear they're marketing it that way, I've always seen it in regular F/SF shelves.  And as best I recall ( and I don't remember the mall), the content was no more than 'R', but a bit heavy for YA fantasy.

[Cerulean]

Exactly, Patti - I don't think it's YA at all.

[charmed]

OK, wandering slightly OT here, but I haev seen some Charles DeLindt books shelved as YA; wtf?

Hmmm, maybe we need a new topic in Odds and Ends.

[Demeter]

I have not read Sacred Ground, but am not surprised to hear it's being marketed as YA - as are quite a lot of books with fairly mature content. There's a Joan D. Vinge (Catspaw) that was originally marketed as YA, although the author never intended it.  Probably a topic for another thread, but interesting and I think it speaks to our time...

As for Mercedes Lackey, she is definitely one of my favorite authors, though I agree that some of her books really fall short.

One Good Knight had some major disappointments (how fast did that romance get resolved?! Made my head spin!) but what I really liked about it was how it slowly dawned on the reader (at least this one) that the protagonist, Andie(?) was "supposed" to be evil.  Her kingdom is a dark little evil one.  I thought that was an interesting choice and nicely done.

I really like the Elemental Mage series - Serpent's Shadow and Phoenix and Ashes are my favorites. I'm glad to hear that there is a new one coming out (I never buy hardback, so I'll be waiting)  It sounds more like the Red Shoes than Puss in Boots to me but I would expect Lackey to choose just one fairy tale for the Elemental Mage series - it's only the 500 Kingdom books that have multiple fairy tale influences (that I've seen)

As for the Obsidian Trilogy - Agreed that Kellen is one of the stupidest heroes of all time, I found his thick headed, short sighted, unimaginative person to be very annoying,  and I think his sister would agree.  Of course she is pretty stupid herself in a lot of ways (at least with regard to her romance)  What I found very interesting and enjoyed (in a horror sort of way) was the depiction of the Endarkened.  I think the demons are very well done.  A good combination of truly horrific, but with a sort of evil beauty that makes their ability to seduce humanity still seemed convincing.  Unfortunately it seems like that city might just deserve to get taken over.

I have not read any of the modern race car driving elf series, nor the Diana (Treegarden?) series.  yet:)

[Cerulean]

I only got a couple chapters into Sacred Ground before I had to laugh - there's a part where a character thinks about those newfangled cellular phones and thinks he should've invested in one. Then another character says she needs a new word processing package. It is a *little* outdated technologically! Hmm, maybe an idea for another thread?

[Demeter]

It is a *little* outdated technologically! Hmm, maybe an idea for another thread?

Well, it was published in 1995, and as horrifying as it is to realize it, that was over a decade ago and cell phones were big ol' clunky things that were more likely to add to the geek-o-meter, rather than make you seem cool.

Want to see out dated technology (though still quite forward thinking for its time)?  Watch Desk Set with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.  Best way to see it is with a bunch of reference librarians    I had a great time at a Special Library Association meeting where we all had popcorn and hot dogs and laughed at the use of natural language queries of a computer that filled a large room.  'nuff said.

(I'll keep eye out for that other thread!)

[charmed]

It is a *little* outdated technologically! Hmm, maybe an idea for another thread?

It is a *little* outdated technologically! Hmm, maybe an idea for another thread?

(I'll keep eye out for that other thread!)

Go for it ladies! If you are talking about outdated tech stuff in books, put it in Odds and Ends; if talking about outdated technology in general then either Chat or Whatever.