Welcome to Will's book list!

This web page used to list all of the books that I have completed or was reading at the time. I now use Goodreads/Storygraph for tracking books. This page is here for historical reference.

This web page lists all of the books I have completed or am currently reading (though, from now on I will only add books I have completed since I have a hard time lately finishing books). Green headers indicate that the book has been read. Purple headers indicate that the book is currently being read. Blue headers indicate that the book is on my to-read list. Yellow headers indicate that the book is on hold for whatever reason. It may be that the book was boring, or I saw the movie and no longer had interest in the book, or I forgot about it. This web page is likely out of date by a few months. However, my GoodReads is always up to date.

BookBub and eReaderIQ are great websites to find new books. My librarian Aunt recommends the British website Fantastic Fiction as another great place to find new books.

Grade: A-

Grade: C+

Grade: A

Grade: A

The time travel was really cool. It was interesting (and hoffifying) to see how much the world changed when Cedric Diggory experienced being a balloon. Who would have thought that Cedric would become a Death Eater after being humiliated? It was great seeing Snape helping Scorpious in the Dark World timeline. As my fiance pointed out, we didn't get to see Snape help Harry et al. in real-time. We only learned how much he had helped after the fact, through his memories. The biggest twist was Delphi, the daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix. It makes total sense that Bellatrix would be the mother, seeing as how she was so totally devoted to Voldemort. It would have been cool to learn more about Voldemort's daughter, like who she learned all of her skills from. I've always wondered how Voldemort figured out how to fly without a broom.

Grade: B+

Grade: A

Vanyel, only fifteen, is the oldest son and therefore heir to a Holding. His mother is seemingly weak-willed and obsessed with her vapours, while his father is such a Man that he needs must push Vanyel into Manly pursuits as well, which includes letting the incompetent and ignorant Armsmaster beat the crap out of him. Vanyel is more interested in music. He's also self-absorbed, introspective, selfish, arrogant, a bit petulant - in other words, young and spoilt, as well as very handsome. His father, Withen, decides to pack him off to his sister Savil, a Herald-Mage who lives in the capital, training young apprentices.

Vanyel's one meeting with his aunt Savil years ago didn't impress either of them, and being sent off into exile doesn't improve his manners. He hasn't shown any Gift, any ability in Mage powers or creativity, not even in music, which shatters his only dream: to be a Bard. Savil isn't like her brother, though, and with her favourite protege, Tylendel, keeps an eye on him to see if he really is an arrogant little shit, or if he's hurting inside and needs help.

His attraction to Tylendel only makes him hate himself more, and fear the older boy's reaction should he find out - even though Vanyel knows Tylendel is shay'a'chern - gay. When the two do finally take the plunge, they fall in love, and become lifebonded. When Tylendel's twin brother is murdered, though, his pain and grief sets him on a dangerous path of revenge and retribution, drawing Vanyel along with him, with tragic consequences.

What starts out as a fairly conventional, formulaic fantasy doesn't stay that way long. While the land of Valdemar may be fairly typical in fantasy fiction in terms of its culture, attitudes, prejudices, sophistication and class structure (i.e. boringly medieval-to-middle ages), it's not entirely patriarchal or old-fashioned. Contrary to what I would expect from a fantasy world that's been revisited so many times, it is not detailed or richly described: you get mostly only a cursory glance at the landscape, which is where falling back on fantasy stereotypes of a medieval-English setting comes in handy. This would normally have alienated, disappointed and bored the hell out of me, but for the characters and the story itself.

Although Lackey overuses italics - this when the story is narrated from Vanyel's point-of-view, to show his nature, but it wears thin pretty quickly - the prose is smooth and quite fast-paced. I much prefer these - I shall call them bildungsromen-style fantasy stories, compared to the Quest-motivated ones. I like stories where the characters are mostly stationary, where you get to watch them live, grow, mature, develop, learn through studies and interactions with others and, yes, adventures, but not quests. Quests get very boring, but it's more than that. There's something enjoyable about the low-key, homely, comfortable "static" fantasy story - most of the Harry Potter books are like this, especially The Order of the Phoenix, which a lot of people found boring but I really enjoyed - it's quite possibly my favourite even. It has precisely this quality, where you really get to know the characters, and you get to indulge in political scheming, feuds, that kind of thing. Magic's Pawn is one of those bildungsromen-type fantasies, but it's still a very busy book, and when adventure happens it certainly doesn't dither.

I did feel a bit like I'd walked in on a group of role-players and a game that's new but familiar: I had no trouble following the story or understanding the world, but because I haven't read any other books set in this world, there's a lot that isn't explained and plenty that you would expect would be dramatised but isn't - like the Companions (intelligent, magical horses) finding their Chosen (new Herald-Mages) - and the difference between a Herald and a Mage, or why some are both, is unclear. Also, what the Hawkbrothers do went mostly over my head; I really didn't understand that part of it.

Vanyel's story, though, was clear and passionately told. Despite his flaws - and he really is a self-indulgent, vain little shit most of the time - you still come to care for him and cheer him on. And I was proud of him, in the village scene at the end. I certainly want to read the next two, Magic's Promise and Magic's Price, to find out what happens with him.

Grade: A

Grade: A

Grade: A

Grade: B+

Grade: B

Grade: A-

Grade: A++

Grade: A

Grade: A-

Grade: A

Grade: B-

Grade: A+++

Grade: B

Grade: A+++/S

Grade: A-