Reprint from Inksome: Back to the Tor Stash

[kayshapero]

ConChord is over, and though I have to make up another Kazoo award for the category where there were two (and take the opportunity to decoupage the labels onto the bases of the awards whose winners weren't present and thus will have to have them mailed)... I still have time to do some reading.

So I just finished The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.


This one is part one of "The Obsidian Trilogy", and properly labeled as such. Nice to have warning.

We've seen this plot before - young and insecure lad in city with a really bad case of cultural ossification discovers Forbidden Magic and gets himself tossed out of town, at which point his real adventures begin. In the process we find out why his home city is in such a wretched state, who the Bad Guys are, what they're up to, and how the rather interesting magic system works. He also is sent on a quest, which sets up the rest of the trilogy from the looks of it. Leastwise it touches off the war you've been expecting since you found out about the Bad Guys. Well, yeah, it's Lackey, Our Hero has a bit of a tendency to angst, but not quite to excess - and he actually has considerably more common sense than you might expect at first. And goodness knows he does have a reason to feel incompetent and insecure at first. In any case, I found it enjoyable enough to keep reading and will likely read the rest of this out of the library.

Rate this one readable.
Next I'm reading book two of Jane Lindskold's Wolf's Eyes series, courtesy of the LASFS library.