I just added a post about Catherine Jinks, and thought to mention Mercedes Lackey, but that post was getting rather long. So I started a new one. Here's the thing: I read two Lackey books this week (read, not skimmed, I mean). One was
By the Sword, which wasn't too bad. Yeah, there were improbable uses of magic (two characters meeting in dreams for
almost a decade, when no one else has ever been able to do that?), and a ridiculous, laugh-out-loud plot twist when the heroine gets promoted in her new job. But compared to much of Lackey's body of work, that's minor.
And
especially compared to
Brightly Burning, which was so crazy that even now, days later, I am a bit dazed. I had to keep putting it down. It's strange, because I read two critical (in every sense of the word) reviews of it, but I found very few unfavorable reviews from readers. People
liked this book, and didn't find the following aspects of it intensely disturbing:
1) Well, this character is crazy, basically. It's pretty well restrained by his Companion for most of the book, but he's pretty unstable and prone to uncontrollable rages throughout the book. So why was he Chosen? (those are Lackey's caps, not mine, btw). It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Companions, in all their wisdom, knew there'd be a war coming up, and Chose this unstable firestarter as a weapon. That's just messed up, especially because
2) There are healers at the school, close at hand, who could have helped this poor kid, Lavan, deal with his rages and feelings of guilt (more about that guilt below). But for whatever reason - possibly just to
keep this kid unstable? - they don't. They let his Companion (who could have been injured or killed at any time) deal with
3) Lavan's rages. His
literally murderous rages. I mean, he killed four schoolmates and badly injured some others! And when he feels guilt about it, and a parent of the dead is crazily grief-stricken herself, they're both told (essentially) that
the dead kids earned it, and Lavan's not responsible, because Lavan was bullied by the kids he killed. Which is true - but
wow. It's all the more bizarre, because this was published only a couple of years after Columbine. Yes, of course it's terrible that Lavan and his classmates were being bullied in a fairly extreme way - but to say that there's no need for guilt is
not okay.
4) And then there's the Companion. In the books, Companions and Heralds bond telepathically. Not every pair can speak to each other telepathically (though Lavan and his Companion can), but there's definitely a bond. For some reason, Lackey chose to give them an extra bond, a Lifebond, which usually is something that happens between two people who have an unusually strong emotional connection.
No, let me say that again, for emphasis:
Lackey Lifebonded this kid and his horse! That's not okay, and even several characters in the book point out the lack of compatibility in gender (though I'm not sure why that matters), age and
species. He's in love with his Companion, and vice-versa, virtually guaranteeing that he'll never have a strong emotional tie to a human. Not that he has a chance, because of course
5) there's a war, which happens just as Lavan is fully trained (handy, that!). So he's rushed off to the front, and uses his firestarting powers to, well, burn things down. He doesn't burn people - at least, not at first, not until he starts to really like this fire thing. And then when his Companion is killed, he goes insane and burns the whole dratted army. Not his own army, thanks to some lucky foresight on the part of his countrymen. He goes insane, burns the army, and burns himself up in the process. Nothing but ash left.
Well, by that point, I was
relieved to have the poor kid die. It wasn't a necessary death, especially if #2 and #3 had been properly handled, but there was a certain grandeur to it. But heavens, that book was really disturbing. Lackey's
sang-froid about all of the above is
not okay.
Labels: SF/fantasy
