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justbolts(This is a re-post and revision of a massive twitter thread that I've had dwelling around in my drafts for months. I finally sat down and got it reasonably sorted.)
I recently read through "Magic's Pawn", "Magic's Promise", and "Magic's Price" by Mercedes Lackey, in nearly exactly the same manner I read them as a teenager:
Devouring every word of the first, flipping halfheartedly through the second, and focusing on the juicy parts of the third.
I'm sorry, "Magic's Promise". I swore to myself that I'd someday give you your due and read you in your entirety, because I know you're a solid political adventure at the end of the day, but I'm here for Vanyel falling in love and that's not what you're about. You're angst and politics with no emotional pay off. We're just not meant to be.
That said, It was gratifying to discover that "Magic's Pawn" is still a solid, enjoyable, and relatable book even 20 years later, though in different directions, and "Magic's Price" has sections and elements that are worth revisiting.
But before I get into that, lets address the big problems first:
"The Last Herald Mage Trilogy", which these books encompass, is about a gay man who is traumatically awoken to his latent powers and goes on to become a heroic guardian of, and servant to, his Kingdom and its people.
Both of his major relationships end in death.
(technically the second lover is the reincarnation of the first, so it's arguably one relationship with a big gap in the middle, but I digress) In both cases, the death happens a few months into them being together.
Vanyel and his soulmate, Stefan, are eventually granted "eternity" together in a kind of working after-life where they haunt a forest that guards part of the Kingdom's border. Which... could be worse, I guess? It's nice they finally get be together, but they both had to earn it with decades of service and loneliness and flat-out misery.
Vanyel dies first, toward the end of "Magic's Price", and is granted the chance to wait around for Stefan only because his death was so noble and sacrificial.
Stefan then has to spend some 50 or so years in service to the Kingdom in order to be worthy of the same chance. While he probably had various lovers in the interim, his willingness to go back to the guy he was with for half a year when he was 17/18 speaks volumes for how much value we, the audience, is supposed to place on any part of his life not directly concerned with Vanyel.
It makes me extra bitter when I remember it was a running joke in the fandom and with the author that Vanyel is whiny and oversensitive. "He went from an isolated kid subjected to homophobia to a depressed workaholic adult subjected to homophobia who NEVER GETS TO BE HAPPY wtf guys" my teen and adult selves mutter together in annoyed confusion
Two other gay couples in the same books get to spend their lives together and raise families, so it's not like every single queer in the story ends up sad and alone. But it's still frustrating that the gay lead just doesn't get to be happy until after he's fucking dead.
Oh yes, and also; Vanyel is 35 and Stefan is 17/18 when they hook up (the start of the book implies he's just turned 18, but in the last chapter, Vanyel reflects that they met when he was 17).
The gap never bothered me, but the book sure devotes a lot of page-space to addressing it. Vanyel is super noble and dead-convinced that Stefan is just a confused child with hero worship, which he would never take advantage of, even though they're literally soulmates and are both going loony from the denial. Stefan, meanwhile, is mature and experienced beyond his years and knows exactly what he wants, and is making a purposeful and deliberate effort to seduce Van from the onset.
There's such a narrative effort to assert that Van and Stef have an equatable, non-exploitative relationship that it ends up being healthier than Vanyel's FIRST relationship with Tylendel, who was only two years older than him. It's kind of weirdly funny when we're passingly reminded that one of the background gay couples hooked up at 15 and 30.
ALL of this aside -
"Magic's Pawn" is a good, solid book. I read it first when I was an isolated, depressed teenager who always felt slightly out of place (but didn't yet know she was bisexual) and tried to deal with everything by shutting out and down her emotions... much like Vanyel did. His story meant so much to me. I liked that he wasn't perfect, that he was worthy of love but not everyone loved him, that he was isolated for both horrible reasons (not fitting into other people's ideas of masculinity) and understandable ones (he could be a jerk).
I grieved that he found love he couldn't celebrate openly, that he lost that love, but he survived the loss and found family and purpose and reason to keep going forward.
It stuck with me that what helped him survive was compassion, kindness, trust and vulnerability. The great strength of "Magic's Pawn" is that even after being stripped of everything he wanted or valued and saddled with responsibilities he didn't want, Vanyel survives it all and finds where he belongs.
Reading it as an adult, I noticed how much the structure of homophobia is a villain in the story, even if it's not explicitly spelled out that way. Vanyel is isolated and mistreated growing up specifically because his father is afraid he is gay. The possibility of same-gender relationships is hidden from him, so he's left wondering what's wrong with him, why he doesn't feel and act the way everyone else seems to. Even when he comes to understand himself and find love, the homophobia of his family and society means they have to hide it to stay together.
This continues Vanyel's isolation (he can't be out, can't be his genuine self in public, preventing him from forming connections with anyone not already in the know) and furthers his emotional dependency Tylendel, the only person to accept the whole of him.
Which means that when Tylendel's twin gets killed as part of a family feud and Tylendel sets off an revenge quest, Vanyel goes along with it, trusting in his lover that this is the best reaction.
After that ends with Tylendel dead and Vanyel deeply injured, one character's bigoted belief that Van brought this on Tylendel by seducing him leads to Vanyel attempting suicide. Vanyel later receives advice and support from another gay man; support which explicitly addresses his internalized homophobia.
I always have mixed feelings about homophobia in fantasy stories, because I think there is a tendency to boil it down to sneers and slurs and shallow melodrama for the sake of it.
In this case, I appreciate it because it's less about direct impact and more about the pressure of the system. It casts a sense of entrapment that, even after Vanyel lives as mostly out in the later books, never entirely goes away. Which is more accurate and less cheap drama.
In my opinion, the storytelling and character development in "Magic's Price" is nowhere near as strong as "Pawn", but I do like Vanyel and Stefan's relationship way more than what Van had with Tylendel.
The main issues with this book are:
1) The job that gives Van purpose at the end of the first book becomes his whole identity by the second and third. He never achieves a healthy work/life balance and tends to willfully isolate himself. He's basically switched from an isolated, self-serving because-no-one-had-his-back teenager to an isolated self-sacrificing adult who never relies on anyone.
It kinda gives a sour taste to what had been a genuinely transformative character moment at the end of "Pawn".
2) It's hard to give a damn about the parts of the book that don't have to do with Vanyel and Stefan boning.
For the first part of the book, the "will-they won't-they" is the legitimately the only source of tension in the story. Everything else is just... either lore that won't become significant until later books, or events that are only interesting for how they impact Van and Stef. The lore -- like Vanyel having sired the King's daughter or them setting up the Valdemar Heartstone -- could've been covered in a few paragraphs, instead of given their own lengthy scenes with flashbacks. It's a lot of page space spent on what are functionally Easter Eggs.
To make things worse, about 2/3rd of the way into "Magic's Price", after the actual plot has kicked in, every major character other than Vanyel, his Companion, and Stefan drop out of the story entirely.
Several die, but the rest just don't show up or aren't mentioned again. This includes Vanyel's family, Stefan's close friend, and the King's family, all of whom had significant subplots within the narrative. It's especially erroneous after Vanyel dies and we never get to see the impact of this on any of his family or surviving friends.
This only aggravates the feeling that everything prior to and outside of Vaneyl and Stefan's romance was a waste of time.
Oh also, the actual, overarching plot (that a powerful and evil bloodmage has been covertly wiping out the Herald-Mages for years)? Doesn't show up until half-way in.
3) The gang-rape subplot.
I could write an entire essay on how bad and unnecessary this part of the story is. How it sits as this big black spot on what is arguably the best written part of the whole damn book. How endemic it is of the way queer people are treated in fantasy narratives. How wrenching it is that this, this is what kicks Van out of his single-minded revenge quest and allows him and Stef to have their last chance at peace, togetherness, and love before they're ripped apart by death.
Suffice to say, I hate it and the book would've been dramatically improved by it's removal.
----
One of these days, I'll continue this great re-read of the Books That Shaped My Adolescence with "The Mage Winds" trilogy, but no promises on when that'll actually happen.
I recently read through "Magic's Pawn", "Magic's Promise", and "Magic's Price" by Mercedes Lackey, in nearly exactly the same manner I read them as a teenager:
Devouring every word of the first, flipping halfheartedly through the second, and focusing on the juicy parts of the third.
I'm sorry, "Magic's Promise". I swore to myself that I'd someday give you your due and read you in your entirety, because I know you're a solid political adventure at the end of the day, but I'm here for Vanyel falling in love and that's not what you're about. You're angst and politics with no emotional pay off. We're just not meant to be.
That said, It was gratifying to discover that "Magic's Pawn" is still a solid, enjoyable, and relatable book even 20 years later, though in different directions, and "Magic's Price" has sections and elements that are worth revisiting.
But before I get into that, lets address the big problems first:
"The Last Herald Mage Trilogy", which these books encompass, is about a gay man who is traumatically awoken to his latent powers and goes on to become a heroic guardian of, and servant to, his Kingdom and its people.
Both of his major relationships end in death.
(technically the second lover is the reincarnation of the first, so it's arguably one relationship with a big gap in the middle, but I digress) In both cases, the death happens a few months into them being together.
Vanyel and his soulmate, Stefan, are eventually granted "eternity" together in a kind of working after-life where they haunt a forest that guards part of the Kingdom's border. Which... could be worse, I guess? It's nice they finally get be together, but they both had to earn it with decades of service and loneliness and flat-out misery.
Vanyel dies first, toward the end of "Magic's Price", and is granted the chance to wait around for Stefan only because his death was so noble and sacrificial.
Stefan then has to spend some 50 or so years in service to the Kingdom in order to be worthy of the same chance. While he probably had various lovers in the interim, his willingness to go back to the guy he was with for half a year when he was 17/18 speaks volumes for how much value we, the audience, is supposed to place on any part of his life not directly concerned with Vanyel.
It makes me extra bitter when I remember it was a running joke in the fandom and with the author that Vanyel is whiny and oversensitive. "He went from an isolated kid subjected to homophobia to a depressed workaholic adult subjected to homophobia who NEVER GETS TO BE HAPPY wtf guys" my teen and adult selves mutter together in annoyed confusion
Two other gay couples in the same books get to spend their lives together and raise families, so it's not like every single queer in the story ends up sad and alone. But it's still frustrating that the gay lead just doesn't get to be happy until after he's fucking dead.
Oh yes, and also; Vanyel is 35 and Stefan is 17/18 when they hook up (the start of the book implies he's just turned 18, but in the last chapter, Vanyel reflects that they met when he was 17).
The gap never bothered me, but the book sure devotes a lot of page-space to addressing it. Vanyel is super noble and dead-convinced that Stefan is just a confused child with hero worship, which he would never take advantage of, even though they're literally soulmates and are both going loony from the denial. Stefan, meanwhile, is mature and experienced beyond his years and knows exactly what he wants, and is making a purposeful and deliberate effort to seduce Van from the onset.
There's such a narrative effort to assert that Van and Stef have an equatable, non-exploitative relationship that it ends up being healthier than Vanyel's FIRST relationship with Tylendel, who was only two years older than him. It's kind of weirdly funny when we're passingly reminded that one of the background gay couples hooked up at 15 and 30.
ALL of this aside -
"Magic's Pawn" is a good, solid book. I read it first when I was an isolated, depressed teenager who always felt slightly out of place (but didn't yet know she was bisexual) and tried to deal with everything by shutting out and down her emotions... much like Vanyel did. His story meant so much to me. I liked that he wasn't perfect, that he was worthy of love but not everyone loved him, that he was isolated for both horrible reasons (not fitting into other people's ideas of masculinity) and understandable ones (he could be a jerk).
I grieved that he found love he couldn't celebrate openly, that he lost that love, but he survived the loss and found family and purpose and reason to keep going forward.
It stuck with me that what helped him survive was compassion, kindness, trust and vulnerability. The great strength of "Magic's Pawn" is that even after being stripped of everything he wanted or valued and saddled with responsibilities he didn't want, Vanyel survives it all and finds where he belongs.
Reading it as an adult, I noticed how much the structure of homophobia is a villain in the story, even if it's not explicitly spelled out that way. Vanyel is isolated and mistreated growing up specifically because his father is afraid he is gay. The possibility of same-gender relationships is hidden from him, so he's left wondering what's wrong with him, why he doesn't feel and act the way everyone else seems to. Even when he comes to understand himself and find love, the homophobia of his family and society means they have to hide it to stay together.
This continues Vanyel's isolation (he can't be out, can't be his genuine self in public, preventing him from forming connections with anyone not already in the know) and furthers his emotional dependency Tylendel, the only person to accept the whole of him.
Which means that when Tylendel's twin gets killed as part of a family feud and Tylendel sets off an revenge quest, Vanyel goes along with it, trusting in his lover that this is the best reaction.
After that ends with Tylendel dead and Vanyel deeply injured, one character's bigoted belief that Van brought this on Tylendel by seducing him leads to Vanyel attempting suicide. Vanyel later receives advice and support from another gay man; support which explicitly addresses his internalized homophobia.
I always have mixed feelings about homophobia in fantasy stories, because I think there is a tendency to boil it down to sneers and slurs and shallow melodrama for the sake of it.
In this case, I appreciate it because it's less about direct impact and more about the pressure of the system. It casts a sense of entrapment that, even after Vanyel lives as mostly out in the later books, never entirely goes away. Which is more accurate and less cheap drama.
In my opinion, the storytelling and character development in "Magic's Price" is nowhere near as strong as "Pawn", but I do like Vanyel and Stefan's relationship way more than what Van had with Tylendel.
The main issues with this book are:
1) The job that gives Van purpose at the end of the first book becomes his whole identity by the second and third. He never achieves a healthy work/life balance and tends to willfully isolate himself. He's basically switched from an isolated, self-serving because-no-one-had-his-back teenager to an isolated self-sacrificing adult who never relies on anyone.
It kinda gives a sour taste to what had been a genuinely transformative character moment at the end of "Pawn".
2) It's hard to give a damn about the parts of the book that don't have to do with Vanyel and Stefan boning.
For the first part of the book, the "will-they won't-they" is the legitimately the only source of tension in the story. Everything else is just... either lore that won't become significant until later books, or events that are only interesting for how they impact Van and Stef. The lore -- like Vanyel having sired the King's daughter or them setting up the Valdemar Heartstone -- could've been covered in a few paragraphs, instead of given their own lengthy scenes with flashbacks. It's a lot of page space spent on what are functionally Easter Eggs.
To make things worse, about 2/3rd of the way into "Magic's Price", after the actual plot has kicked in, every major character other than Vanyel, his Companion, and Stefan drop out of the story entirely.
Several die, but the rest just don't show up or aren't mentioned again. This includes Vanyel's family, Stefan's close friend, and the King's family, all of whom had significant subplots within the narrative. It's especially erroneous after Vanyel dies and we never get to see the impact of this on any of his family or surviving friends.
This only aggravates the feeling that everything prior to and outside of Vaneyl and Stefan's romance was a waste of time.
Oh also, the actual, overarching plot (that a powerful and evil bloodmage has been covertly wiping out the Herald-Mages for years)? Doesn't show up until half-way in.
3) The gang-rape subplot.
I could write an entire essay on how bad and unnecessary this part of the story is. How it sits as this big black spot on what is arguably the best written part of the whole damn book. How endemic it is of the way queer people are treated in fantasy narratives. How wrenching it is that this, this is what kicks Van out of his single-minded revenge quest and allows him and Stef to have their last chance at peace, togetherness, and love before they're ripped apart by death.
Suffice to say, I hate it and the book would've been dramatically improved by it's removal.
----
One of these days, I'll continue this great re-read of the Books That Shaped My Adolescence with "The Mage Winds" trilogy, but no promises on when that'll actually happen.