Winds of Change
Mercedes Lackey
“The last Herald-Mage gave his life to protect his kingdom from destruction by dark sorceries. But now the protective barrier set so long ago over Valdemar is crumbling, and with the realm imperiled by the dark magic of Ancar of Hardorn, Princess Elspeth, Herald and heir to the throne, has gone on a desperate quest in search of a mentor who can teach her to wield her fledgling mage-powers and help her to defend her threatened kingdom.”
This novel details Elspeth’s learning of magic, and Skif’s finding of his cat girl. It’s quite slowly paced, but fills in a bunch of interesting details. Elspeth and Darkwind both mature in this novel. Elspeth is pretty awesome anyway, if I do say so myself, but it’s cute to see the romance happening.
This history covered in this novel is of the Vanyel and Brightly Burning variety. Ah, my favourite! I can’t say I liked Firesong much, but I did respect him. His character is explored more in the Mage Storm books and again in the Owl Knight trilogy.
It’s interesting that this Ma’ar has been able to survive. You wonder whether Urtho might have done something similar. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you need to read the Gryphon series that details those points in time.
I left this novel before reviewing it. Oops. Naughty me. I’ve reread this novel less than most of the others in this series, and I have to say I probably have a reason for that – I just didn’t like it as much as others.
