Maintained by Jerry Cullingford (Click here to mail)
Other books in the trilogy are:
_Fury_ is the third book in _The Mage Winds Trilogy_; the first two were _Winds of Fate_ and _Winds of Change_.
_Fate_ was, *I* think, pretty obviously written during the period when Lackey had overextended herself, and was writing, or collaborating, on too many books, most of which were not very good. _Fate_ was one of the "not very good" ones, so I was somewhat leery of _Change_. To my delight, however, _Change_ was a better book than _Fate_. It was not a *great* book, but it was, at least, a decent, or maybe even good, book.
Happily, _Fury_ continues the progression. It *is* a good book, and much in the tradition of Lackey's original Valdemar novels, although a lot less depressing (read: we do not get such wonderful descriptions of rapings, and none of the characters mopes for the entire length of the book).
I read _Fury_ in one sitting; even given that it is a relatively short book (I've been rereading Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series again...), that is still a pretty good indicator.
As I sit here writing this, parts of the book, I just realized, make me think of the recent song, "Hero" ("It was one of those great stories / That you can't put down at night: / The hero knew what he had to do, / And he wasn't afraid to fight").
If you are a Lackey fan, this is a *good* book, and worth the cost. If you've been disappointed by her books from a couple of years ago, this will probably do a lot to restore your faith in her. If you're not a Lackey fan, well, you shouldn't really get this book, as it's part three of a trilogy, and was set up by nine other books (_The Last Herald-Mage_, _Arrows of the Queen_, _Vows and Honor Duology_, and _By The Sword_, the first two being trilogies in and of themselves).
If you've read the _Arrows_ trilogy, then you can read this trilogy right now (although reading the rest would help). Fortunately, the other two books in the series are now out in paperback.
If I were to rate this, I would probably give it a +3 on a -5 to +5 scale.
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%T Winds of Fury %A Mercedes Lackey %C New York %D July 1993 %I DAW %O hardback US$20.00 %G ISBN 0-88677-562-0 %P 384pp