Mercedes Lackey Totally Explained

Everything about Mercedes Lackey totally explained

Mercedes Lackey (born June 24, 1950) (also known as Misty Lackey) is a prolific American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels form a complex tapestry of interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores.
   The other main world in which she writes is one much like our own, but also populated by elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. Some of the interlocking series in this world are the Diana Tregarde thrillers, the SERRAted Edge books about racecar-driving elves, and the Bedlam's Bard books, describing a young man with the power to work incredible magics through music. While the SERRAted Edge and Bedlam's Bard series are still in progress, she's declined to write further Diana Tregarde stories because of low sales. Lackey received harassment from a small but determined number of fans over the decision. She claims that the trouble escalated to the point where she and her husband received death threats and were temporarily forced to suspend their fandom activities. She resumed attending conventions by 2004.
   There is a Mercedes Lackey fan group on Usenet. The fanclub, the "Queen's Own", is named after Herald Talia's position in her books.
   Her earlier Velgarth novels are all solo projects, but later volumes in the Valdemar saga are illustrated by her husband Larry Dixon, and in many of her latest works he's also credited as co-author. Many of her other novels are collaborations. She has worked with fantasy authors Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Piers Anthony, and most recently has written The Obsidian Trilogy with historian James Mallory and a historical fantasy series based on Elizabeth I with romance writer Roberta Gellis.

Biography

Lackey's birth in 1950 prevented her father from being called to fight in the Korean War.
   She places her meeting with science fiction at age 10 or 11, when she happened to pick up her father's copy of James H. Schmitz's Agent of Vega. She then read Andre Norton's Beast Master and Lord of Thunder, and continued to read all of Norton's works - Lackey noted with chagrined amusement the difficulties of obtaining enough interesting books from the public library to sate her passion for reading. She wrote for herself but without real direction or purpose until she attended Purdue University. Lackey graduated from Purdue in 1972.
   While at Purdue, she took a one-on-one class of English Literature Independent Studies with a professor who was a fellow sci-fi fan. He helped her analyze books she enjoyed and then use that knowledge. Lackey then encountered fan fiction, which further encouraged her writing. She began publishing work in fanzines, and then discovered filk and had some filk lyrics published by Off Centaur Publications. She submitted a story to Sword and Sorceress, then sold the rewritten story to Fantasy Book Magazine. Her first sale was to Friends of Darkover.
   She met C. J. Cherryh through filk, who mentored her during the writing of her 'Arrows' series. During this time, Marion Zimmer Bradley included her short stories in an anthology and Cherryh helped Lackey through 17 rewrites of 'Arrows'. During this time, she claims to have been writing so much that she'd no social life at all. She divorced Tony Lackey, and eventually remarried to Larry Dixon.
   Mercedes Lackey lives with her husband outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in an unusual house. She describes it as a "2½-story concrete dome with an octagonal wooden shell over it to make it look more like a normal house ... it's round with curved outer walls, which makes placement of furniture kind of awkward." (Valdemar Companion, 68)
   She and Larry Dixon have in the past worked in raptor rehabilitation. She often refers to her various parrots as her "feathered children". The afterwords to some of her books refer to rehabilitation and falconry, and it's clear that this interest has influenced and informed her writing. She also enjoys beadwork, costuming, and needlework. She claims, however, to be a "wretched housekeeper, and by and large an indifferent cook" (Valdemar Companion, p 64) Besides this, she does radar-reading during tornado season. She helps support the Alex Foundation Lackey has been active in the filking community. She was a major contributor to an early album of space filk, Minus Ten and Counting. She has won 5 Pegasus Awards, mostly for her songwriting.
   Her favorite book that she's written is By the Sword, and her easiest to write was anything about Tarma and Kethry.
   Lackey's dream cast list for her best-known books is as follows:

Falconsbane: David Bowie
Firesong: Sting
Kerowyn: Cher
Lavan Firestorm: Haley Joel Osment
Tarma: Lucy Lawless
Vanyel: Johnny Depp

Related writers

Mercedes Lackey is a protegée of Marion Zimmer Bradley, and got her start writing short stories in Bradley's story collections. Other mentors include writers C. J. Cherryh and Andre Norton, along with her editor, Elizabeth (Betsy) Wollheim of DAW Books.
She shares regular employment of female and homosexual characters as protagonists with Tanya Huff, although she tends to write in a more dramatic and straightforward style without Huff's typically sardonic authorial tone. She claims many aspects of her stories are based on her own experiences.

Published works

Velgarth

Some of the trilogies follow on chronologically from each other. Others are set a considerable number of years apart from the others. Overall the books span some 3000 years of history. There is a significant gap in the middle which might some day be filled. In October 2003 Lackey announced that she was taking a break from writing Velgarth books.

Heralds of Valdemar

This set consists of the original trilogy, the very first Valdemar books published, and a prequel trilogy, the most recent.

Prequels

These centre on the Weaponsmaster Alberich (in the first two books) and the thief Skif (in the third book), telling the stories of their not-entirely-voluntary enrollments as Heralds.

Exile's Honor, 2002

Exile's Valor, 2003

Take a Thief, 2001

The original trilogy

These centre on the character Talia, from her first encounter with the Heralds to becoming the Queen's Own Herald.

Arrows of the Queen, 1987

Arrow's Flight, 1987

Arrow's Fall, 1988

The Mage Winds

These follow on from the original Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, centering on Princess Elspeth completing her transformation from "the Brat" to a fully-fledged Herald. Secondary protagonists include Skif and a new character Darkwind.
The latter part of Kerowyn's Tale, By the Sword fills in the events that happen after Arrow's Fall but before Winds of Fate.

Winds of Fate, 1991

Winds of Change, 1992

Winds of Fury, 1993

The Mage Storms

These follow on again, centering on the characters Karal and An'desha as Velgarth is threatened by a repetition of the Cataclysm described in The Mage Wars trilogy. This trilogy also focuses on the threat posed to Valdemar by the vast Eastern Empire and the development of the newly-formed Alliance between Valdemar and its surrounding nations.

Storm Warning, 1994

Storm Rising, 1995

Storm Breaking, 1996

Darian's Tale

The Owl trilogy takes place several years after the events of The Mage Storms, and follows the character Darian. The story focuses on the repercussions of the mage storms on Valdemar's northern border, and centers on new tensions between the kingdom and invading barbarians from beyond the Ice Wall.

Owlflight, 1997 (ISBN 0-88677-754-2)

Owlsight, 1998 (ISBN 0-88677-802-6)

Owlknight, 1999 (ISBN 0-88677-851-4)

The Last Herald Mage

These occur some centuries before the Heralds of Valdemar books, telling the life story of Vanyel Ashkevron; by the time of the "later" books he's become legend, thus explaining some of the small inconsistencies. This series was also consistently nominated for the Lambda Literary Prize, with Magic's Price winning in 1990.(External Link

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Magic's Pawn, 1989 (ISBN 0-613-63053-X)

Magic's Promise, 1990 (ISBN 0-613-63055-6)

Magic's Price, 1991 (ISBN 0-613-63054-8)

Vows and Honor

The Oathbound

Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, January 19, 1989, ISBN 0-88677-414-4
Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, January 19, 1989, ISBN 0-88677-285-0
Hardcover - Published By: Rebound by Sagebrush, July 31, 2003, ISBN 0-61360-587-X

Oathbreakers

Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, January 30, 1989, ISBN 0-88677-454-3
Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, January 30, 1989, ISBN 0-88677-319-9
Hardcover - Published By: Rebound by Sagebrush, July 31, 2003, ISBN 0-61363-061-0

Oathblood

Hardcover - Published By: DAW Books, January 19, 1989, ISBN 1-56865-653-X
Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, March 23, 1998, ISBN 0-88677-773-9

These precede the Heralds of Valdemar books, centering on the characters Tarma and Kethry. These characters appeared first in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series) and were revisited in subsequent short stories. Two of these short stories are woven into the Vows and Honor books as part of a longer narrative. The original Vows and Honor pair of books were linked together with By the Sword (published long before Oathblood) as a trilogy.
The third volume, Oathblood, is made up entirely of short stories in place of a longer narrative. With its publication, nearly all of the Tarma and Kethry stories were available together in a single compiled volume for the first time. The single missing story, A DRAGON IN DISTRESS, was co-authored with Elizabeth Waters and was originally published in the Sword and Sorceress series, volume XII. The story is missing from the compilation novel Oathblood due to the setting of the story taking place in Elizabeth Waters's world, not Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth.
The contents of Oathblood are as follows:

Oathblood (c) 1998 (Originally published in Oathblood) In the books and short stories, Tarma is a sword-wielding Shin'a'in clanswoman. Kethry is a magic-user who carries a sword with unusual properties. The nature of this sword, Need, is explored in later series set in Valdemar. At the time of the Vows and Honor books, all that's known is that it's magic, protects female bearers, and can pressure its owner into assisting other women. The overarching goal for the two women is to accumulate resources enough to regenerate Tarma's almost-destroyed clan. As the titles of the books suggest, emphasis is laid on the importance and consequences of oaths in at least one story from each book. The setting of the books is generally in the lands south of Valdemar such as Rethwellan, although there's a brief sojourn in Valdemar in Oathbreakers. Despite limited time in Valdemar, there were references in the first two Vows and Honor books to the Companions of Valdemar which laid early hints to their nature. The introduction of a fourfold deity (Tarma's Goddess) was something of a novel idea at the time of publication.

Kerowyn's Tale

This is a stand-alone novel which connects the Vows & Honor sub-series to the Heralds and other trilogies; it introduces the character Kerowyn who features therein. Kerowyn is the granddaughter of Kethry from the Vows and Honor sub-series.

By the Sword

Mass Market Paperbound - Published By: DAW Books, February 19, 1991, ISBN 0-88677-463-2

The Mage Wars

These are set in pre-history, some 2000-3000 years earlier. They describe the events which set off The Mage Storms. It involves gryphons, creatures created by the mage Urtho (Mage of Silence). Co-protagonists are Skandranon Rashkae, a princely but proud ebony gryphon, and Amberdrake, a Healer of spirit and mind called a kestra'chern.

The Black Gryphon

Hardcover - Published by: DAW Books, January 1, 1994, ISBN 0-88677-577-9
Mass Market Paperbound - Published by: DAW Books, December 12, 1994, ISBN 0-88677-643-0

The White Gryphon

Hardcover - Published by: DAW Books, January 4, 1995, ISBN 0-88677-631-7
Mass Market Paperbound - Published by: DAW Books, February 15, 1996, ISBN 0-88677-682-1

The Silver Gryphon

Hardcover - Published by: DAW Books, January 3, 1996, ISBN 0-88677-684-8
Mass Market Paperbound - Published by: DAW Books, November 7, 1996, ISBN 0-88677-685-6

Miscellaneous

This is a stand-alone novel, set somewhere between The Last Herald Mage and the Heralds books; it describes another legendary character referred to in the latter, Lavan Firestorm.

Brightly Burning

Hardcover - Published by: DAW Books, May 8, 2000, ISBN 0-88677-889-1

Mass Market Paperbound - Published by: DAW Books, May 28, 2001, ISBN 0-88677-989-8

Hardcover - Published by: Rebound by Sagebrush, June 1, 2001, ISBN 0-61363-021-1

Anthologies

Sword of Ice And Other Tales of Valdemar, 1997 (ISBN 0-88677-720-8)

Sun in Glory And Other Tales of Valdemar

Mass Market Paperbound - Published by: DAW Books, November 21, 2003, ISBN 0-75640-166-6

Crossroads And Other Tales of Valdemar, 2005 (ISBN 0-7564-0325-1) ====

Further Information

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