Liked the story, hated the writing.

books:

	• Owlflight (Valdemar: Darian's Tale, Book 1) Mercedes Lackey DAW, 1998 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 56 reviews view larger image
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Great Story! Excellent Characters

Owl Flight is the story of Darian, a precocious teenager, unwillingly apprenticed to mage Justyn after his parents (trappers) fail to return from one of their extended hunting trips. Resenting Justyn and believing him to be incompetent senile old man, Darian 'acts out' by running away and slacking off on his daily chores. This causes trouble with the local villagers who believe Darian does not act appropriately 'grateful for the charity they have given him. The hostile environment makes Darian wish he could run away from his problems and do as he pleases.

Punished by his mentor, Justyn, for slacking off, he is sent into the woods one day to gather mushrooms, and his village is attacked by raiding barbarians. Darian is befriended by the Hawkbrothers (a tribalesque group of people), and forms a friendship with Snowfire, a Hawkbrother hunter/scout.

Together with his newfound friends Darian must find a way to free the village of Errold's Grove from the ruthless clutches of the Bear Clan barbarians.

While Darian's whining and self-pitying attitude can get annoying at times, I found Darian and his mentor Snowfire believable. I especially liked Snowfire and the other Hawkbrother characters and would like to learn more about him. I admit, I was pleased to read about a character that was not a herald, and it was nice to learn how some of the more provincial characters view things. I am anxiously looking forward to reading to picking up a copy of the sequel! Great Work MS. Lackey and Mr. Dixon!

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Could be Better

In this novel by Mercedes Lackey, a young orphan unwillingly Gifted with magic, sees his village demolished by barbaric men. Escaping into the Pelgaris Forest, Darian meets up with the legendary Hawkpeople, who help him overcome his pent-up grief. In my opinion, Darian overcomes his sorrow a bit too fast. In the beginning, Lackey makes an enormous deal about how tragic Darian is, and how misunderstood his entire life was. After a few days with the Hawkpeople, he seems as happy as you could wish. However, the plot is good (if not a little faulty) and the characters are usually quite convincing, especially the gryphon Kel. But I know Lackey has written better novels than this before.

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Another Valdemar trilogy to enjoy.

This book is about an orphan, Darian, who is apprenticed to a used-to-be wizard against his will. His parents were trappers, who one day went out during a mage storm and never returned.
One day, his village, Errald's Grove, was attacked while Darian was out picking herbs. The wizard Justyn, who did much but was not appreciated by the villagers, sacrificed himself so the people could get away.
Darian fled into the woods, and was caught by some of the enemy men. He was rescued by a Hawkbrother, Snowfire, and taken to his vale (the homes of the Hawkbrothers; there are many of them).
After a while, he was adopted into the clan as Snowfire's little brother. After another while, they found the villagers had not escaped, but were slaves of the ones who attacked the village.
Darian wants to go free the villagers, but will the Hawkbrothers help him?

If you have read other books in the Valdemar series and enjoyed them, then you will definitely enjoy the Darian trilogy. And if this is your first time reading Valdemar, this is a good trilogy to start off with, but it might be better to start with the Black Gryphon and/or Arrows of the Queen which come earlier in the series.

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Liked the story, hated the writing.

I'm a big fan of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, and this is the first one I read that was co-written by Larry Dixon. The story satisfied my hunger for more tales of Valdemar, but the language was difficult to process. I found myself reading passages over and over again to try to figure out what the heck was going on. It was very distracting. I'll read more of Darian's tale, but I know I won't enjoy it as much as the other trilogies.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Apprenticed to a venerable wizard when his hunter and trapper parents disappear into the forest never to be seen again, Darian is strong-willed and difficult--much to the dismay of his kindly master. But a sudden twist of fate will change his life forever, when the ransacking of his village forces him to flee into the great mystical forest. It is here in the dark forest that he meets his destiny, as the terrifying and mysterious Hawkpeople lead him on the path to maturity. Now they must lead the assault on his besieged home in a desperate attempt to save his people from certain death!.

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