I have finished The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

Winterhart, Lady and trondi'irn

I have finished The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

If it is not sadist-mages it is sadists working with mages, and in a time of change both magical and cultural for the Haighlei Empire that is a dangerous combination. Particularly if you are Skandranon Rashkae and Amberdrake and families in a foreign, alien court where you have to learn the rules before you break them and your enemies are quite, quite insane. But against the Black Gryphon few can stand, and justice tends to find those who deserve it. Of course, it is the time of change and that goes far beyond custom for Haighlei and k'Leshya alike, for the impact of the Mage Wars is far from over.

6th-grade Riddle Masters

My students are eating my riddles for breakfast this year. Seriously, I have NEVER seen such skill; what has in the past taken people weeks if not months they solve in less than a day. (If this sounds like bragging, so be it. Teachers are permitted to feel vain about their students.)

Duty Song and Lessa's Ride (Dragonriders of Pern) - Anne McCaffrey

I am the first person the acknowledge the dangers of AI (Artificial Intelligence) but, that being said, one can also have a lot of fun with it. Such as applying music to the lyrics of the Masterharpers of Pern. Tolkien was not the only one to write music for his work, after all, and Anne McCaffrey's for her Dragonriders of Pern deserves far more love than it gets.

My father and I just finished The Bookwanderers, Book One of Anna James' Pages & Co. series

My father and I just finished The Bookwanderers, Book One of Anna James' Pages & Co. series.

Ever love a book so much you feel like you're really there and with just a tiny step you could jump inside? Ever wish you could talk to book characters in real-life? If you are half the reader Matilda "Tilly" Pages is, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The difference is that Tilly, her family, and many others can actually DO both. People called bookwanderers for whom the magic of reading becomes actually magical. And with magic comes danger, whether you are a character in a book talking with characters in another book or in the real-world talking with those or other characters or are a real, non-fictional person dealing with them in other books. If this makes your head spin, I know the feeling; both Dad and I felt a bit disoriented at times as Anna James' takes meta humor to strange levels and breaks the third wall in ways I have never seen.

Regardless and as Pablo Picasso says "everything you can imagine is real," meaning Tilly, Oskar, and all bookwanderers have a very real enemy lurking both within and without literature's pages.

 

I have started The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

I have started The White Gryphon, book #2 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Rebuilding after Cataclysm is hard, much less in uncharted and untamed wilderness, but the Kaled'a'in Clan k'Leshya has never faced it a task it was not up to; "We can do this" and "Soonest begun is soonest done" as the Hertasi and Gryphons says respectively. But the (initial) death of Ma'ar did not end every sadist-mage in Velgarth. Even in the new city there is a lurking – hopefully soon culled – evil, and goodness knows what dwells in the mysterious southern Haighlei Empire, realm of the Black Kings. An Empire whose resident and hopefully anomalous blood-mages will soon test the skills and threaten the lives of Skandranon Rashkae and Amberdrake as they fight for k'Leshya's future.

I have finished The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

Urtho, Mage of Silence.
Creator of the Gryphons.

I have finished The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Who heals the Healer? What is the toll emotional toll behind the lines and beyond loss of life in war? These are questions Lackey answers in the camp of Urtho, the Mage of Silence – by Amberdrake, Kaled'ai'in kestra'chern, Skandranon Rashkae, Zhaneel Winterhart, Gesten, and others. Battling prejudice, guilt, and grief until the Mage Wars reaches its Cataclysmic end – ending Urtho, Ma'ar (mostly), magic-dependent civilizations and the laws of magic itself. (As said Urtho, "Knowledge will always be the best weapon against tyrants." And the best bait.) Bringing the first set of Mage Storms and leaving the magic-twisted, scarred, and strange Pelagirs behind.

History shows that from these ashes will spring the Sundering of the Clans into the Tayledras and Shin'a'in, and eventually, two millennia hence, the meeting of Elspeth, Darkwind, the returned Clan k'Leshya, and Kerowyn. But the story of Skandranon Rashkae and Amberdrake is not over yet, and I for one cannot wait to learn more about Clan k'Leshya in this strange new world.

The Dawn Will Come

"Shadows fall
And hope has fled
Steel your heart
The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon

The dawn will come

 

The Shepherd's lost
And his home is far
Keep to the stars

The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come

 

Bare your blade
And raise it high
Stand your ground
The dawn will come

 

The night is long
And the path is dark
Look to the sky
For one day soon
The dawn will come"