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Sea King #2
Mindbond
In this second volume of the Sea King Trilogy, Dannoc and Rad are on a quest that leads beneath the sea to the nightmare realm of the death goddess Mahela. She has stolen the beasts of the land and the creatures of the air. Now she wants Rad.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1987
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138 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Springer
197 books2,358 followersBIO -- NANCY SPRINGER
Nancy Springer has passed the fifty-book milestone, having written that many novels for adults, young adults and children, in genres including mythic fantasy, contemporary fiction, magical realism, horror, and mystery -- although she did not realize she wrote mystery until she won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America two years in succession. DARK LIE, recently released from NAL, is her first venture into mass-market psychological suspense.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Nancy Springer moved with her family to Gettysburg, of Civil War fame, when she was thirteen. She spent the next forty-six years in Pennsylvania, raising two children (Jonathan, now 38, and Nora, 34), writing, horseback riding, fishing, and birdwatching. In 2007 she surprised her friends and herself by moving with her second husband to an isolated area of the Florida panhandle, where the birdwatching is spectacular and where, when fishing, she occasionally catches an alligator.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 29, 2019
3 and a bit stars rated down.
Dannoc and his friend and bond brother Rad Korridun, king of the seal folk, have gained enchanted swords and mystic powers through the bond they share: they can share strength, speak telepathically and, in this volume, change shape. A quest to recover the soul of Dannoc's father and Kor's mother leads them to the underwater kingdom of Mahela, the goddess of death. There they discover that the goddess is insane, using her creatures, the devourers, to steal all the creatures of the land: all the lost animals, the wolves, the swans, the deer, the great cats and hunting eagles and even children. Only the legendary Sakeema, the mythical healer and redeemer, can help the world.
This was a competent enough story, but I felt it dragged a little, despite it being a slim book of some 240 or so pages. To be honest it all felt a bit unnecessary; if the author had found another way to summarise the information the characters gained, we could have skipped this volume.
Although the characters are still engaging, the abilities they're gaining are getting slightly absurd, and I really was getting pretty bored by the end. Still, I'm going to read the last book right now and then I might find another fantasy fan to give these a new home - I don't think I'll be re-reading them any time soon.
Dannoc and his friend and bond brother Rad Korridun, king of the seal folk, have gained enchanted swords and mystic powers through the bond they share: they can share strength, speak telepathically and, in this volume, change shape. A quest to recover the soul of Dannoc's father and Kor's mother leads them to the underwater kingdom of Mahela, the goddess of death. There they discover that the goddess is insane, using her creatures, the devourers, to steal all the creatures of the land: all the lost animals, the wolves, the swans, the deer, the great cats and hunting eagles and even children. Only the legendary Sakeema, the mythical healer and redeemer, can help the world.
This was a competent enough story, but I felt it dragged a little, despite it being a slim book of some 240 or so pages. To be honest it all felt a bit unnecessary; if the author had found another way to summarise the information the characters gained, we could have skipped this volume.
Although the characters are still engaging, the abilities they're gaining are getting slightly absurd, and I really was getting pretty bored by the end. Still, I'm going to read the last book right now and then I might find another fantasy fan to give these a new home - I don't think I'll be re-reading them any time soon.
January 13, 2020
I re-read Madbond before dipping into Mindbond. This was unnecessary, as the important bits of Madbond are hamfisted into Mindbond. Characters even theatrically re-tell stories of great importance to the plot.
Coming in hot off of Madbond also probably didn’t do Mindbond any favors. On my initial read-through, the shock of Kor dying in the first place lessened the unbearable sentimentality of his being cried back to life. Not this time.
Which meant that I was in a state of sentimental fatigue before I even opened Mindbond. This is not good, as it’s not a chapter or two in before another character is cried back to life. Never mind the fact that they become blood brothers by way of scars on their fingers and by touching said scars they get a surge of energy and the power of the two mystical heroes of lore.
So, so very much of Mindbond is Kor and Dannoc thinking or talking about their relationship. If this were a romance novel, I’d say they had a clearly unhealthy obsession with each other and that, for their own good, they should probably pop off to different sides of the world because there’s no way this relationship ends in anything other than a murder-suicide.
Which isn’t a spoiler, but damn if there isn’t a scene in Mindbond that comes close to proving me right.
And then there’s Tassida. I had hoped she’d take some the emphasis off of Kor and Dannoc’s relationship, but she only makes it worse. Not intentionally, but damn it all to hell, here comes the love triangle and now Kor and Dannoc have a wider range of feelings they can feel, discuss, and obsess over.
This is made even worse by the fact that Kor can feel Dannoc’s feelings. And it just keeps. coming. up.
Dan drifting off to sleep feels a twinge of lust for Tassida, then Kor feels Dan’s lust, then Kor feels sad, then Dan feels bad for feeling lusty and making Kor feel sad, then Kor feels bad that Dan feels bad and assures him it’s okay/natural, then Dan tries to feel better so that Kor won’t feel bad, but he doesn’t quite succeed …
It’s like an infinity room of feelings.
And Tassida is barely ever around. She’s convenient for the plot—she appears to help save the day—but she darts off the second her imperative task is accomplished.
She’s not the only one. Tertiary characters are all so damn convenient, providing exactly what Kor and Dan need at any moment, then disappearing or dying the next.
I almost quit Mindbond multiple times and set myself countless ultimatums: if you don’t like it by page 74, just call it quits. Okay, maybe page 88. Okay, page 115.
And yet I finished the book. I genuinely wish I could say that there was a good reason why.
The plot is a thin veneer applied to Kor and Dannoc’s relationship status.
The only real intrigue coming into Mindbond was the cause of the atrophying world, but that question is answered somewhat early on and no proper question or plot replaces it. And much like that rare Barbara Hambly series that I very much didn’t like, again the enemy is undefeatable. Kor and Dannoc’s only concern is survival … and their relationship. And not always in that order.
About the most positive thing I can say is that Nancy Springer’s technical writing is faultless and I find it relatively easy to read a book that is technically well-written even if I struggle with other aspects of it.
But that’s not the reason I finished Mindbond.
No, I finished Mindbond because I wanted to know if Kor, Dannoc, and Tassida have a threesome.
I mean, it makes sense to me. It’s impossible that Kor and Dannoc weren’t written with some latent gay feelings for each other.
I have receipts.
Okay, so they are totally in love with each other yet only seem to think that they love each other like brothers … even though Dannoc has a brother that he loves with none of the white-hot intensity of his feelings for Kor. They are both in love with Tassida, which—hear me out—feels to me like them taking baby steps to acknowledging that they are, in fact, in love with each other. They just had to, you know, bounce the signal off a satellite first. If they are in love with each other by proxy of Tassida that’s totally not gay, right?
Alas, there’s still the lingering jealousy. One might argue that proves that they’re not hot for each other, but I pose a counterpoint: what if most of that jealousy is that the other person is willing to be openly in love with Tassida—but not him? DUN DUN.
I thought this was just a stupid runaway thought until near the end of the novel, when,
Honestly, I’ll probably eventually read Heartbond or whatever the next book is called, but it’s not for noble or even reasonable … reasons. I’m just too curious about whether this threesome-watch turns into a threesome-warning and whether or not Kor and Dannoc ever realize that they’re in love … and absolutely, irrevocably, bad for each other.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
Coming in hot off of Madbond also probably didn’t do Mindbond any favors. On my initial read-through, the shock of Kor dying in the first place lessened the unbearable sentimentality of his being cried back to life. Not this time.
Which meant that I was in a state of sentimental fatigue before I even opened Mindbond. This is not good, as it’s not a chapter or two in before another character is cried back to life. Never mind the fact that they become blood brothers by way of scars on their fingers and by touching said scars they get a surge of energy and the power of the two mystical heroes of lore.
So, so very much of Mindbond is Kor and Dannoc thinking or talking about their relationship. If this were a romance novel, I’d say they had a clearly unhealthy obsession with each other and that, for their own good, they should probably pop off to different sides of the world because there’s no way this relationship ends in anything other than a murder-suicide.
Which isn’t a spoiler, but damn if there isn’t a scene in Mindbond that comes close to proving me right.
And then there’s Tassida. I had hoped she’d take some the emphasis off of Kor and Dannoc’s relationship, but she only makes it worse. Not intentionally, but damn it all to hell, here comes the love triangle and now Kor and Dannoc have a wider range of feelings they can feel, discuss, and obsess over.
This is made even worse by the fact that Kor can feel Dannoc’s feelings. And it just keeps. coming. up.
Dan drifting off to sleep feels a twinge of lust for Tassida, then Kor feels Dan’s lust, then Kor feels sad, then Dan feels bad for feeling lusty and making Kor feel sad, then Kor feels bad that Dan feels bad and assures him it’s okay/natural, then Dan tries to feel better so that Kor won’t feel bad, but he doesn’t quite succeed …
It’s like an infinity room of feelings.
And Tassida is barely ever around. She’s convenient for the plot—she appears to help save the day—but she darts off the second her imperative task is accomplished.
She’s not the only one. Tertiary characters are all so damn convenient, providing exactly what Kor and Dan need at any moment, then disappearing or dying the next.
I almost quit Mindbond multiple times and set myself countless ultimatums: if you don’t like it by page 74, just call it quits. Okay, maybe page 88. Okay, page 115.
And yet I finished the book. I genuinely wish I could say that there was a good reason why.
The plot is a thin veneer applied to Kor and Dannoc’s relationship status.
The only real intrigue coming into Mindbond was the cause of the atrophying world, but that question is answered somewhat early on and no proper question or plot replaces it. And much like that rare Barbara Hambly series that I very much didn’t like, again the enemy is undefeatable. Kor and Dannoc’s only concern is survival … and their relationship. And not always in that order.
About the most positive thing I can say is that Nancy Springer’s technical writing is faultless and I find it relatively easy to read a book that is technically well-written even if I struggle with other aspects of it.
But that’s not the reason I finished Mindbond.
No, I finished Mindbond because I wanted to know if Kor, Dannoc, and Tassida have a threesome.
I mean, it makes sense to me. It’s impossible that Kor and Dannoc weren’t written with some latent gay feelings for each other.
I have receipts.
I truly felt it. Him. In me. Or had I been taken into him?
"Dan, do you know how long it’s been since you handbonded me willingly?"
"You want me to—to enter into your being?"
“You scamp,” I told him huskily. I was not the only one who could love forever. Love without end, boundless as the sea.
Okay, so they are totally in love with each other yet only seem to think that they love each other like brothers … even though Dannoc has a brother that he loves with none of the white-hot intensity of his feelings for Kor. They are both in love with Tassida, which—hear me out—feels to me like them taking baby steps to acknowledging that they are, in fact, in love with each other. They just had to, you know, bounce the signal off a satellite first. If they are in love with each other by proxy of Tassida that’s totally not gay, right?
Alas, there’s still the lingering jealousy. One might argue that proves that they’re not hot for each other, but I pose a counterpoint: what if most of that jealousy is that the other person is willing to be openly in love with Tassida—but not him? DUN DUN.
I thought this was just a stupid runaway thought until near the end of the novel, when,
Honestly, I’ll probably eventually read Heartbond or whatever the next book is called, but it’s not for noble or even reasonable … reasons. I’m just too curious about whether this threesome-watch turns into a threesome-warning and whether or not Kor and Dannoc ever realize that they’re in love … and absolutely, irrevocably, bad for each other.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
March 31, 2018
This review is for the whole series-
This is quite a bit different than book of the Isle series. It still has the trademark Nancy, deep love and affection, conquering your fears, acceptance, bromance, horses (always horses) but it’s post-apocalyptic (generations later) with more of an Native American tribe inspiration which is quite refreshing. It’s also a little more adult as there is a bit of sex.
The series begins with Dan from the tribe of the Red Hart tribe awakening, captive in the Seal Kindred tribe…. or somewhat captive; he’s been restrained for his own and everyone else’s protection. He doesn’t remember what happened to get him where he is, as he was quite mad at the time.
Kor the King of the Seal tribe befriends him and they embark on journey to find the God Sakeema, to bring him back to help them conquer the Death Goddess Mahela and return the creatures of the world that she has stolen.
They are joined by Tassida a wandering horse rider, whom both the men love.
This is classic fantasy- a time when God’s wander the earth and the world is full with colorful people(literally) lore, songs, animal transformations and magic. This series as a whole is beautiful and is a quick read and by today’s standards this easily would have worked as one novel, instead of three and is probably the only issue I had with it. Each novel alone felt a little… well, I hate to say lacking, because the story was still enjoyable and I couldn’t put it down, but I also kept wondering where it was going and why it was split into three books.
So, as a whole, this series would be 5 stars. But as individuals I am going to have to say more like 3-4.
This is quite a bit different than book of the Isle series. It still has the trademark Nancy, deep love and affection, conquering your fears, acceptance, bromance, horses (always horses) but it’s post-apocalyptic (generations later) with more of an Native American tribe inspiration which is quite refreshing. It’s also a little more adult as there is a bit of sex.
The series begins with Dan from the tribe of the Red Hart tribe awakening, captive in the Seal Kindred tribe…. or somewhat captive; he’s been restrained for his own and everyone else’s protection. He doesn’t remember what happened to get him where he is, as he was quite mad at the time.
Kor the King of the Seal tribe befriends him and they embark on journey to find the God Sakeema, to bring him back to help them conquer the Death Goddess Mahela and return the creatures of the world that she has stolen.
They are joined by Tassida a wandering horse rider, whom both the men love.
This is classic fantasy- a time when God’s wander the earth and the world is full with colorful people(literally) lore, songs, animal transformations and magic. This series as a whole is beautiful and is a quick read and by today’s standards this easily would have worked as one novel, instead of three and is probably the only issue I had with it. Each novel alone felt a little… well, I hate to say lacking, because the story was still enjoyable and I couldn’t put it down, but I also kept wondering where it was going and why it was split into three books.
So, as a whole, this series would be 5 stars. But as individuals I am going to have to say more like 3-4.
April 21, 2010
This is fantasy. Maybe at its very best.
It is a romantic, yes thrilling series of three books. The main three characters all have their nicer and uglier qualities.
The story is not the usual in fantasy. It follows a bit different path than hero-magic stone-fighting evil-happiness forever.
I recommend this series to all fantasy-fans everywhere. Just maybe not to the youngest. It is pretty sexually explicit at some points.
It is a romantic, yes thrilling series of three books. The main three characters all have their nicer and uglier qualities.
The story is not the usual in fantasy. It follows a bit different path than hero-magic stone-fighting evil-happiness forever.
I recommend this series to all fantasy-fans everywhere. Just maybe not to the youngest. It is pretty sexually explicit at some points.
August 11, 2011
I loved this book. I have been hunting for another copy to put back into my library. This was an intriguing book that I just happen upon on day at the bookstore. I read it when I was around the age of 11 and I still remember the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews