8.2.2021 | Monday

Brightly Burning

category: Book Reviews
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Brightly Burningtitle: Brightly Burning
author: Mercedes Lackey
series: Valdemar
published: 1 June 2001
publisher: DAW
genre(s): fantasy
pages: 445
source: bought
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating: five-stars | series rating: five-stars

the blurb

His name is Lavan Firestorm, a young man blessed—and cursed—with a special talent for firestarting. His legend has haunted the darkest corners of Valdemar, yet the truth has never been told. Here, at last, is his story.


my review

This is one of the saddest books in the overall Valdemar saga, perhaps even more so than those of Herald Vanyel. But is also one of my favorites. The book is one of the few standalones within the saga, too.

Lan has been uprooted from his country home and friends, moved to Haven, the capital of Valdemar. His parents are artisan Guildmasters who seek to rise in their fields, but he’s left feeling as if he has no place. Even his siblings are following in their parents’ footsteps, but Lan wants nothing to do with either family business. All he wants is to be a member of the Guard, which his parents forbid, feeling it to be “beneath” them. It has left Lan an outlier in his own family. To make it worse, they decide to send him to a school, one in which the headmaster leaves all the discipline and order to a group of older students who love nothing more than to cruely bully the younger students. One thing leads to another, and a terrible accident occurs. But there’s a silver lining… he finally finds his path, even if he will probably always remain an outlier, this time from those who fear him.

The author laudably runs the gamut of relationships in this series, those that aren’t quite as “status quo.” She wrote of same-sex relationships, even throuples, long before those became more mainstream. But this one created a lifebond, a soul mate bond between people, between Lan and his Companion. A completely nonsexual lifebond, but one based on the purest of love and trust.

It truly is a beautiful read!

About Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70’s she worked as an artist’s model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.

Rating Report
plot
five-stars
characters
five-stars
writing
five-stars
pacing
four-half-stars
Overall: five-stars

reading challenges:

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