The Black Gryphon (Mage Wars Series #1)

by Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101127292
Publisher:	DAW
Publication date:	01/01/1995
Series:	Valdemar: Mage Wars Series , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	19,145
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mercedes Lackey is a full-time writer and has published numerous novels and works of short fiction, including the best-selling Heralds Of Valdemar series. She is also a professional lyricist and a licensed wild bird rehabilitator. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots.

Editorial Reviews

Setting a story in prehistory suggests a enormous potential, a feeling that all is new and possible. Lackey's latest created world (illustrated by husband Dixon) predates the setting of her Valdemar series by a millennium but never quite lives up to its expanded possibilities. The gryphon of the title is the charismatic Skandranon, leader of the gryphons, a race of birds just evolving into awareness. After establishing this intriguing premise, however, the tale soon bogs down in fantasy cliches as the main characters fight a standard war against the forces of evil. Although some of the novel's elements, like Skandranon's human friend Amberdrake, suggest a possible complexity, the plot is predictable and the overwritten battle scenes are difficult to follow. In the end, the evil Mage of Black Fire is destroyed, nearly everyone else lives and the chaotic magic of prehistory is tamed. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As the tyrant-sorcerer Kiyamvir Ma'ar's forces sweep across the land in a relentless war of conquest, one man--Urtho, the Mage of Silence--arises as the leader of the opposition. Set a thousand years before the founding of Valdemar and the rise of the Herald Mages, the latest novel by Lackey and Dixon relates the story of the legendary black gryphon Skandranon Rashkae, his healer-companion Amberdrake, and the war that changed the face of a world forever. Featuring some of the authors' most endearing protagonists yet, this first in a projected dualogy is recommended for most fantasy collections.

Library Journal

The latest collaboration between Lackey and her husband is laid in the same world as her popular Valdemar books but a thousand years earlier. The focus is on Skandranon Rashke, the Black Gryphon of the title, and his only human friend, the healer Amberdrake. It is also the tale of Skandranon's secret missions in a war in which magic is used freely on both sides. Lackey has a complete command of the basics of storytelling, which she and Dixon display here and to which they add some nice satirical hits at psychiatrists. Although not the ideal introduction to Lackey, this is a well-told tale for the gifted and prolific fantasist's genuine devotees.

Roland Green