What do you think?
Rate this book
Valdemar: Mage Wars #1-3
La Guerre des mages, Intégrale
Un camp militaire, proche des lignes ennemies, aux premiers jours d'une guerre qui s'annonce épique... Magiciens, Empathes et Guérisseurs, tous combattent désespérément pour protéger leur pays. Et le plus admirable de tous est sans conteste Skandranon, le magnifique guerrier ailé, le Griffon Noir à la destinée hors du commun !
840 pages, Paperback
First published December 5, 2013
34 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
About the author
Mercedes Lackey
441 books9,529 followersMercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 2, 2017
While this was technically a reread, it had been some years since I read these books. And yet, Lackey's writing is as fresh and compelling to me in my 30's as it was in my teens and 20's. Vivid and vibrant, her larger than life characters practically jump off the page. And if she didn't remind you every now and then that much of the cast is non-human and magical, you could be forgiven for mistaking them as flawed, human individuals. One of her collaborations with partner, Larry Dixon, the Mage Wars trilogy covers the origins of a literally timeless evil and sets the stage for her Arrows of the Queen, Mage Winds, and Mage Storms trilogies. While her Last Herald Mage trilogy will always be my favorite, the Mage Wars will always be the first fantasy series I picked up on my own and hold a correspondingly exalted place in my heart.
September 6, 2018
This was a really enjoyable book, a good adventure story. It kept me entertained throughout and although a little predictable at times it had a nice feel good vibe to it with lots of weird and wonderful characters. The first first and the last book were the better 2 in my opinion but you really should read them all.
April 16, 2022
Useful background but... incisive editing needed
The actual, gripping action and the interesting background to the world of Velgarth / Valdemar could have been edited down to one satisfying book. Instead, the reader has to wade through page after page of self-obsessed, repetitive thoughts of each character when a single paragraph would have been enough to set the scene. By book 2 I was skimming through and skipping whole pages of internal dialogue by each of the main characters - each one interesting in their own way, but Lackey’s signature overuse of italics and repetitious thought-waffle really does these stories and her enthusiastic readers a disservice.
The actual, gripping action and the interesting background to the world of Velgarth / Valdemar could have been edited down to one satisfying book. Instead, the reader has to wade through page after page of self-obsessed, repetitive thoughts of each character when a single paragraph would have been enough to set the scene. By book 2 I was skimming through and skipping whole pages of internal dialogue by each of the main characters - each one interesting in their own way, but Lackey’s signature overuse of italics and repetitious thought-waffle really does these stories and her enthusiastic readers a disservice.
November 23, 2023
After having read the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, I was keen to start diving right into the history of this world – and that’s how I ended up here: right at the beginning! As the blurb says, this is set some three thousand years before the Heralds of Valdemar books, so I knew I’d been in for something quite different and probably something epic in a classical sort of way. Was I right? Yes – though not perhaps in the way I expected.
The title of the trilogy suggests something really quite grand and epic, but though this is true, the perspective of these novels really narrows the focus right down. We spend a lot of time with Skandranon – a gryphon – and this is in itself fascinating (it’s not often we see through non-human eyes). But we spend a lot of the rest of the time through the eyes of Amberdrake, who is a kestra’chern – somewhere between a ‘healer’ and a ‘companion’, but also a political advisor (with the skills of a masseuse thrown in for good measure). He’s quite a guy…
As with the Valdemar books, there are parts of this where the going is a little slow – in particular where the description and internal thought processes are really expanded upon. This is clearly an important part of the writing, and the characters are wonderfully developed, but at times it may be a little bit too much. The epic chapters are also quite daunting – most of them took me the best part of an hour to read, so not one to pick up and put down. That being said, when things kick off, they really kick off, so interest is piqued for sure.
The first book is the Black Gryphon and focusses on Skandranon, who is a gryphon and who is coloured (I bet you can guess this…) black. The black is important insofar as Skan is something of a stand-out gryphon with a big role to play in the ongoing ‘Mage Wars’. His good friend Amberdrake (the many-skilled man) is also key as both a healer, a political advisor, and something of a social detective. All in all, the war is going badly, and despite much effort, the much sought victory threatens to get away from Urtho, the Mage of Silence – which is where our heroes come in. Suffice to say, we end the book with a victory of sorts (though perhaps not as expected).
The White Gryphon is set about ten years later and still follows Skan and Drake (though now Skan is white from “shock”). We are now in a time of peace, and our protagonists have families to look after as-well as a city to govern. Unfortunately, their new neighbours aren’t happy with them just setting up a city in their territory, and though we don’t get to a ‘military’ situation, there is much tenseness. The book ends up with something of a detective feel to it, and I really liked the story – probably more than the first book, which I wasn’t expecting. The finale is a real corker.
Finally, we have the Silver Gryphon where Skan goes grey… I’m joking on that one. This third book actually focusses on the children some years later, and in particular the children of Skan and Drake who become ‘rangers’ and get their first mission. Suffice to say, things do not go well, and what we have is a survival novel – so quite different again! This is very cleverly done and really makes you think through a jungle survival problem like you’re there, but there are parts where perhaps it is a little too slow. That being said, the storyline is a good one and the climax excellent again – so I definitely enjoyed it overall.
So, there we have it – the Mage Wars. The wider series is definitely a series of books that I will dive into more in the future, and in fact after finishing this, I immediately went for the next book in the series. As it turns out though, the next trilogy is only “completing” later in 2023, so rather than jumping past it, I will leave the Valdemar books alone for a bit and go elsewhere. I will definitely be coming back to this series though – that’s for sure.
The title of the trilogy suggests something really quite grand and epic, but though this is true, the perspective of these novels really narrows the focus right down. We spend a lot of time with Skandranon – a gryphon – and this is in itself fascinating (it’s not often we see through non-human eyes). But we spend a lot of the rest of the time through the eyes of Amberdrake, who is a kestra’chern – somewhere between a ‘healer’ and a ‘companion’, but also a political advisor (with the skills of a masseuse thrown in for good measure). He’s quite a guy…
As with the Valdemar books, there are parts of this where the going is a little slow – in particular where the description and internal thought processes are really expanded upon. This is clearly an important part of the writing, and the characters are wonderfully developed, but at times it may be a little bit too much. The epic chapters are also quite daunting – most of them took me the best part of an hour to read, so not one to pick up and put down. That being said, when things kick off, they really kick off, so interest is piqued for sure.
The first book is the Black Gryphon and focusses on Skandranon, who is a gryphon and who is coloured (I bet you can guess this…) black. The black is important insofar as Skan is something of a stand-out gryphon with a big role to play in the ongoing ‘Mage Wars’. His good friend Amberdrake (the many-skilled man) is also key as both a healer, a political advisor, and something of a social detective. All in all, the war is going badly, and despite much effort, the much sought victory threatens to get away from Urtho, the Mage of Silence – which is where our heroes come in. Suffice to say, we end the book with a victory of sorts (though perhaps not as expected).
The White Gryphon is set about ten years later and still follows Skan and Drake (though now Skan is white from “shock”). We are now in a time of peace, and our protagonists have families to look after as-well as a city to govern. Unfortunately, their new neighbours aren’t happy with them just setting up a city in their territory, and though we don’t get to a ‘military’ situation, there is much tenseness. The book ends up with something of a detective feel to it, and I really liked the story – probably more than the first book, which I wasn’t expecting. The finale is a real corker.
Finally, we have the Silver Gryphon where Skan goes grey… I’m joking on that one. This third book actually focusses on the children some years later, and in particular the children of Skan and Drake who become ‘rangers’ and get their first mission. Suffice to say, things do not go well, and what we have is a survival novel – so quite different again! This is very cleverly done and really makes you think through a jungle survival problem like you’re there, but there are parts where perhaps it is a little too slow. That being said, the storyline is a good one and the climax excellent again – so I definitely enjoyed it overall.
So, there we have it – the Mage Wars. The wider series is definitely a series of books that I will dive into more in the future, and in fact after finishing this, I immediately went for the next book in the series. As it turns out though, the next trilogy is only “completing” later in 2023, so rather than jumping past it, I will leave the Valdemar books alone for a bit and go elsewhere. I will definitely be coming back to this series though – that’s for sure.
April 4, 2021
Absolutely wonderful series that follows Skandranon and his friends on several adventures. Very easy to read, surprisingly deep at certain parts, and has captivating characters from start to finish, especially Skan, who's a personality all on his own that warrants a completely separate review just for him.
My only issue with the series is that I feel like the ending of the 3rd book was a little too abrupt and sudden, and left a lot to be desired (literally, I wanted more, but it ended so suddenly).
That's just a minor issue though, would still wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who love fantasy and gryphons.
My only issue with the series is that I feel like the ending of the 3rd book was a little too abrupt and sudden, and left a lot to be desired (literally, I wanted more, but it ended so suddenly).
That's just a minor issue though, would still wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who love fantasy and gryphons.
to-read-whenever
July 6, 2017The Black Gryphon Exciting, fascinating, fantastic, human. (Despite many of the characters being non-human, the story was very human.) 4 stars
The White Gryphon
The Silver Gryphon
The White Gryphon
The Silver Gryphon
September 5, 2019
I own the three hardcovers instead of this omnibus, but if you can only afford one book, this is hte way to go.
October 23, 2016
I have to start this review with an apology. I tried, I really did – a number of times – but I couldn't get into this very large book (and that was part of the problem).
I wouldn't say I'm a fan of fantasy novels but I prepared to give them a try. Fantastical creatures with amazing powers who relate to humans I can accept – I've seen enough films to have an ability to suspend disbelief. The problem here was that I couldn't get any further than page 52, after a number of attempts.
Here we have Gryphons as allies to a human army. But because we are in an invented time and place we have strange names (to provide that separation from what could happen on Earth) as well as a use of English which is either archaic, very rarely used together with possible new inventions. All this made it difficult to really get to grips with the story.
Added to this there wasn't a great deal of action at the beginning. Quite the reverse there was a great deal introspection. That's OK during a break in action but when we have doubt at the very beginning it doesn't encourage a reader to keep on – or at least it didn't encourage this reader.
That might have been tolerable if I only had that particular novel in my hand (the first in a trilogy) but here I was presented with an omnibus edition. That could have been a bonus if I was able to get into the story but as I didn't the weight of 782 pages in my hands just seemed to make it an almost insurmountable task.
Lackey obviously has an ability to take a story into a series (the aim of many fantasy writers but I'm never sure how many actually have the staying power to achieve it) but because it was so slow at the start I had no enthusiasm to carry on.
Sorry, again, but I did try – honest.
I wouldn't say I'm a fan of fantasy novels but I prepared to give them a try. Fantastical creatures with amazing powers who relate to humans I can accept – I've seen enough films to have an ability to suspend disbelief. The problem here was that I couldn't get any further than page 52, after a number of attempts.
Here we have Gryphons as allies to a human army. But because we are in an invented time and place we have strange names (to provide that separation from what could happen on Earth) as well as a use of English which is either archaic, very rarely used together with possible new inventions. All this made it difficult to really get to grips with the story.
Added to this there wasn't a great deal of action at the beginning. Quite the reverse there was a great deal introspection. That's OK during a break in action but when we have doubt at the very beginning it doesn't encourage a reader to keep on – or at least it didn't encourage this reader.
That might have been tolerable if I only had that particular novel in my hand (the first in a trilogy) but here I was presented with an omnibus edition. That could have been a bonus if I was able to get into the story but as I didn't the weight of 782 pages in my hands just seemed to make it an almost insurmountable task.
Lackey obviously has an ability to take a story into a series (the aim of many fantasy writers but I'm never sure how many actually have the staying power to achieve it) but because it was so slow at the start I had no enthusiasm to carry on.
Sorry, again, but I did try – honest.
September 28, 2016
This is an omnibus of the series I have in hard cover when they were originally released. What's not to love about gryphons?
January 1, 2022
Livre assez peu connu mais pourtant génial !
Read
September 8, 2018Loved ever book I have read by Mercedes Lackeu......
Yes I would recommend these books A good read on for anyone to get into reading you will love this.....
Yes I would recommend these books A good read on for anyone to get into reading you will love this.....
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews