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strigine's review
3.0
My relationship with Lackey's work, particularly the Velgarth setting, is...complicated. I had bailed on it after the Winds trilogy, aside from the Skif book and the first Mags novel. But people I trusted said the Storm trilogy was good, and I decided to give it another shot. And it was enjoyable! A bit more complex than some of the previous books, especially in regards to more complicated villains. Still kinda...blunt about How The World Should Be, but not as thuddy. I'll pick up the next book as part of my summer-break comfort reading binge.
kivt's review
3.0
I like Karal's character but I wish he were allowed to actually struggle with his ideology instead of instantly shedding it.
gbaty's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
grace_b_3's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and War
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty
mamap's review
2.0
well? what did you expect? it's a mercedes lackey. the gay love thing is annoying. the young man who is the main character in this series is interesting.
kmoses87's review
adventurous
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
I believe this was the first Mercedes Lackey book I read years ago that got me hooked on her writing. She is great at developing a world that draws you in.
bibliophilicwitch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I had the Mage Storms trilogy marked as read, but that was an error. I enjoy revisiting Valdemar, but I definitely have my favorites, so I've been making a point over the last few years to reread as well as pick up the spare few I have not yet read. While I've reread the original trilogy a handful of times, I reread Mage Winds for the first time this past year and this is my first time reading Mage Storms.
I didn't care for Mage Winds much because, in my opinion, the plot was convoluted and ridiculous - even for a tropey fantasy I just read for the vibes. Mage Storms picks up shortly after the events of Mage Winds with one of our two main characters, An'Desha, being from the thick of those events and having to heal and grow from those experiences. I didn't enjoy the chapters from An'Desha's perspective and really only wanted to read the other character, Karal's, chapters as his perspective was that of a Karsite novice of Vkandis traveling to Valdemar as a secretary for the Karsite envoy. About halfway through the book Karal is introduced to An'Desha and a group of engineer and mathematician Blues and those relationships as well as the growing tension of the Mage Storms makes the second half of the book much more enjoyable imo. Both characters also see a lot of obvious and well-written growth, so while I felt the first of the book was a bit weak the second half made up for it.
I didn't care for Mage Winds much because, in my opinion, the plot was convoluted and ridiculous - even for a tropey fantasy I just read for the vibes. Mage Storms picks up shortly after the events of Mage Winds with one of our two main characters, An'Desha, being from the thick of those events and having to heal and grow from those experiences. I didn't enjoy the chapters from An'Desha's perspective and really only wanted to read the other character, Karal's, chapters as his perspective was that of a Karsite novice of Vkandis traveling to Valdemar as a secretary for the Karsite envoy. About halfway through the book Karal is introduced to An'Desha and a group of engineer and mathematician Blues and those relationships as well as the growing tension of the Mage Storms makes the second half of the book much more enjoyable imo. Both characters also see a lot of obvious and well-written growth, so while I felt the first of the book was a bit weak the second half made up for it.
lovelybrains's review
5.0
Great insight to an enemy country and it's people, in the world of Valdemar. One of my favorites.
ielerol's review against another edition
3.0
I've read and re-read all my comfort staples too many times over the last four years, I wanted something else unchallenging and familiar but not too familiar. So I thought, I haven't read a Valdemar book in like 15 years, why not revisit what was my favorite Valdemar trilogy back in middle school?
Well, it turns out it's hard for me to separate my feelings about this book from my feelings about the kind of person and reader I was when I first loved it. The prose style is much more utilitarian and, at times, sloppy (awkward repetitions, "from whence", enthusiastic use of italics and exclamation points outside of dialogue just in case you might miss a Very Obvious Point) than I usually have patience for now, and like, it's very white person 90s fantasy! Everyone is lily-ass white aside from the Shin'a'in and Tayledras who were described as "hawk-faced" and "exotic" entirely too many times. All the countries are described as having "a type" except for Valdemar, where I guess the white people come in many different hair colors and heights and chin shapes? Because no one's type includes skin darker than "golden."
And yet, this book, and the whole series, does actually lay out with a lot of sensitivity some very difficult and important emotional situations, and shows people working successfully toward solving their problems and healing from (really awful) trauma. And at age 13 I really needed some stories that would be extremely detailed and explicit about emotions the way these books are. So did I roll my eyes kind of a lot reading this? Yes. Did I also cry when Tremane's "little birds" found some of their marks? I sure did.
Also the Valdemar books were by far the gayest media I was consuming as a kid, and Firesong is the queeniest of queens, which is still pretty great.
Well, it turns out it's hard for me to separate my feelings about this book from my feelings about the kind of person and reader I was when I first loved it. The prose style is much more utilitarian and, at times, sloppy (awkward repetitions, "from whence", enthusiastic use of italics and exclamation points outside of dialogue just in case you might miss a Very Obvious Point) than I usually have patience for now, and like, it's very white person 90s fantasy! Everyone is lily-ass white aside from the Shin'a'in and Tayledras who were described as "hawk-faced" and "exotic" entirely too many times. All the countries are described as having "a type" except for Valdemar, where I guess the white people come in many different hair colors and heights and chin shapes? Because no one's type includes skin darker than "golden."
And yet, this book, and the whole series, does actually lay out with a lot of sensitivity some very difficult and important emotional situations, and shows people working successfully toward solving their problems and healing from (really awful) trauma. And at age 13 I really needed some stories that would be extremely detailed and explicit about emotions the way these books are. So did I roll my eyes kind of a lot reading this? Yes. Did I also cry when Tremane's "little birds" found some of their marks? I sure did.
Also the Valdemar books were by far the gayest media I was consuming as a kid, and Firesong is the queeniest of queens, which is still pretty great.