Almost a Review: The Last Herald Mage

[mishalak]

I have spent parts of the last week in the company of a 13-year-old boy, myself 17 years ago. It was at about that time that I read Magic's Pawn, first of The Last Herald-Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. I was fascinated and repulsed by it at the time. Today I'm interested and embarrassed by how seriously I took the book and how I behaved then.

Being a thoroughly repressed young man I was drawn to the homosexual romance and tragedy that is a large part of this book. I only read the first book because I found myself being turned on the by the though of gay sex and I couldn't have that. So, uncharacteristically, I mutilated and then burned my paperback copy of Magic's Pawn. I was a stiff-necked prig then, rather like the central character of the book, Vanyel. Indeed there are a heck of a lot of parallels between the teen I was then and the teen character. Depressed, dramatic, prone to making rash decisions, and feeling that I was never good enough for my father, it is all very similar. Except that rather than rebelling by being a foppish sort I took pride in never giving my appearance much thought and that I took my religious instruction very seriously trying to repress parts of myself that I was taught were wrong. Another big difference between teen self and the Vanyel is that while I was often told I had loads of talent I did not do anything with it. I did not dedicate myself to a passion as he does in the face of opposition from his father (and encouragement from his mother).

So I abandoned these books years ago out of catholic piety and now I have revisited them all these years later.

To my surprise the first book is not as enjoyable as it was when I was a teen who was upset by the 'sinful gay smut'. And continuing with the following two books has left me dissatisfied with almost everything from beginning to end. The tragic aspects feel pulled or forced, alternately. The only time her characters make mistakes it seems to be so they can brood about it for long periods. Additionally foreshadowing of events makes a number of them rather anti-climatic. Lastly it suffers in my adult eyes because since my first reading I have seen too many chosen ones with endless talent becoming saviors of the good kingdom and all the other tropes of this sort of fantasy. It really is true that one cannot go back to youth.

The big tragedy did make me cry rather a lot, but it seemed like it was forced. Like the characters were acting out of character to get it to happen the correct way. In subsequent disasters, shocks, and mistakes it also seems that way. But they also seem to have an aspect of the punch being pulled. Like the author had intended a big tragedy and then changed her mind and tried to wrap a bow around it to make it better. A sort of, "But it is okay that they're dead since now they're together in heaven." I don't like that in eulogies and I find I do not like it any better in books where magic is real and there is more excuse for it. Lastly there is a sort of magical true love that at times is used to justify the overwrought mourning (and even death) only slightly tempered by advice that losing love is not the end of the world.

At times I have liked the idea of magical foresight as a literary device, but after reading these books I see that it is quite tricky to use. Because several key scenes are revealed to our hero in dreams before they happen, it robs them of punch when they finally do happen. I would have thought knowing the fate of a character I cared for, as I did when I started reading, would have made me dread its coming. But it was instead a relief to finally get it over with.

As with most of the Epic Fantasy Pastiche type books the big solution at the end of each book comes easily with everyone getting What They Deserve™. Even if the characters moralize a lot earlier about not using their powers to kill the bad guys will end up being killed by the good guys because they were forced to in the end. And the kingdom is saved. This is least pronounced in the first book, but in full swing by the second and third. The good guys all have special trinkets better than anyone else and can find the most incredible craftsmen wherever necessary for the plot willing to sell their good to a discerning customer. The good guys also have scads of talent (and magic ponies) all over the place. He's not just a great musician, he's also The Best™ at magic anywhere, has a great eye for fashion, can negotiate tricky treaties without diplomatic training, and is a fine horseman as well. Gosh! Ditto with everyone else except that they'll never be great enough to outshine our Vanyel.

In the end I found that while the way and reasons I did it was wrong putting down these books after just reading just one may not have been such a bad idea. Between the vacillation over if the angst is okay or silly and the troubling ways love is presented I do not think I would recommend these books to even a young gay man. While it has been interesting as a way to visit a younger self these are not the sort of popcorn stories that a reader like me can go back to over and over every time I need a particular sort of reading experience.

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

It's the classic early 20th century gay romantic tragedy, except for the happy ending. On the other hand, it's fantasy where you have to wait until everybody is dead to have the happy ending, so it still fits the gay romantic tragedy mold.