A review by shadowcas
The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon
4.0
The Black Gryphon was the first Mercedes Lackey book I had ever read. I chose it off the library shelf solely because of the cover and I was hooked. Jody Lee was the artist behind the cover art and frankly, I love it. It doesn’t really have much to do with the actual story, other than featuring one of our heroes, Skandranon, and the anatomy is questionable. But I couldn’t help but be intrigued.
One of the biggest things that makes The Black Gryphon so unique is the fact that it’s focus is war times told through the eyes of the civilians, soldiers, and healers. It doesn’t dwell so much on the battles being fought, rather the story spends more time on the battles’ aftermaths. It’s a perspective that doesn’t get a lot of attention and is still very important. Most war stories don’t spend pages on the downtime for the soldiers and finally, the readers get a bit of an idea of what may actually happen. Unfortunately, with the lack of battle excitement, the story tends to drag at times and it definitely isn’t a story that races forward. The lack of real progression made it seem to go a lot slower than it actually was. Lackey and Dixon spent a lot more time world and character building than actual plot movement. With that being said, once the story took off it moved almost too fast to keep up with.
And something should be said for the characters themselves. Their distinctive personalities were engaging and interesting even when they’re development was sometimes cookie cutter and predictable. The typical finding confidence, accepting leadership, and finding the One are universal for most character development but they are wrapped in such amazing packages that it seems to be an entirely new creation. The POV switches also work to make the story interesting even at it’s slowest points.
One of the biggest things that makes The Black Gryphon so unique is the fact that it’s focus is war times told through the eyes of the civilians, soldiers, and healers. It doesn’t dwell so much on the battles being fought, rather the story spends more time on the battles’ aftermaths. It’s a perspective that doesn’t get a lot of attention and is still very important. Most war stories don’t spend pages on the downtime for the soldiers and finally, the readers get a bit of an idea of what may actually happen. Unfortunately, with the lack of battle excitement, the story tends to drag at times and it definitely isn’t a story that races forward. The lack of real progression made it seem to go a lot slower than it actually was. Lackey and Dixon spent a lot more time world and character building than actual plot movement. With that being said, once the story took off it moved almost too fast to keep up with.
And something should be said for the characters themselves. Their distinctive personalities were engaging and interesting even when they’re development was sometimes cookie cutter and predictable. The typical finding confidence, accepting leadership, and finding the One are universal for most character development but they are wrapped in such amazing packages that it seems to be an entirely new creation. The POV switches also work to make the story interesting even at it’s slowest points.