Owlsight by Mercedes Lackey Series: Owl Mage #2
Published by DAW Books on 1998
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 389
Format: Hardcover
Source: my personal collection
Add to Goodreads
Also in this series: Owlflight, Owlknight
Also by this author: The Serpent's Shadow, Phoenix and Ashes, Home from the Sea, Steadfast, Elemental Magic:, Blood Red, House of Four Winds, The Fairy Godmother, The Lark and the Wren, Owlflight, From a High Tower, Owlknight, Closer to Home, Hunter, Closer to the Heart, Take a Thief, A Study in Sable, Closer to the Chest, Beyond, Gryphon in Light, Fortune's Fool
It has been four years since the village of Errold's Grove, on the border of Valdemar, was sacked and burned by barbarians. Four years since the rebellious orphan boy Darian escaped into the vast Pelagiris Forest, finding sanctuary with the mysterious Tayledras Hawkbrothers.During his stay with the Hawkbrothers, Darian has found his calling and has begun training with them to become a Healing Adept. Born a Valdemaran, but now steeped in the mystical ways of the Tayledras, it is his dream to become their emissary - forging an alliance and providing a diplomatic link with his own people.
Keisha Alder has taken over the workshop left empty when the wizard Justyn was murdered by the barbarians. With no formal education, working with only the natural instincts of her inborn Healing Gift, this young woman has devoted herself to the care of the people of Errold's Grove.She knows that she should leave the village and seek proper training at the Healer's College in Haven, the capital city of Valdemar - but how can she? She is solely responsible for the medical care of her now bustling community. Yet with the heightened empathy of a Healing Gift, and the inability to shield herself because of her lack of training, it is becoming harder and harder for Keisha to bear the strains of everyday life.
And then Darian returns to Errold's Grove with a small contingent of Hawkbrothers to warn the townsfolk that another tribe of barbarians is approaching their village and advises them to evacuate their homes. But Keisha and some of the villagers refuse to flee. As a Healer she knows she will be needed if there is bloodshed, and her Gift dictates that she stay, even if it puts her life in jeopardy. Yet how can one small band of Hawkbrothers and two Valdemaran teenagers with partially trained Gifts stand against the destructive might of a barbarian horde?
An engaging story with uneven pacing
After four years of traveling, the Tayledras group returns to k’Vala, their home Vale, where Snowfire and Nightwind celebrate their wedding and Darian studies with an elderly Healing Master. He also enjoys getting to know the young people of the Vale (in at least one case, rather intimately.) But his thoughts are on the future: on a mysterious teacher he has been promised, and on his plans for k’Valdemar, the Vale he hopes will become a sort of Camp David for Valdemar and its Hawkbrother neighbors. (Anyone who has read the trilogies that immediately precede the Owl Mage books can probably guess the identity of Darian’s promised teacher, but I’m not going to spoil it for you.)
Darian is eighteen now: responsible, competent, kind, and confident without being arrogant. His sense of humor and down-to-earth practicality, as well as an occasional mistake or hesitation, save him from being boringly perfect, but the fact is that he has largely “come of age” already, even if he’s not yet ready to take on the leadership of a Vale. If I were still in my teens, I would have a huge crush on him; he’s handsome and, well, nice; there’s not a mean bone in his body, though he can and has killed to protect others.
Keisha Alder, on the other hand, is still struggling to achieve her independence. Her sister Shandi is Chosen early in the book and departs for the capital to train as a Herald, leaving Keisha, as the only remaining daughter, the main focus of her mother’s sometimes smothering attention. She increasingly craves solitude and quiet, but both are hard to come by at home. Despite her age, her parents still see her as their child, and her four brothers are large and generally noisy. As the village’s healer, though, she already has plenty of adult responsibilities.
Keisha struggles even more with her Healing Gift than she does with her mother’s expectations. She’s been told she has a Gift, but there’s no one nearby to teach her to use it, and she doesn’t feel she can leave the village without a Healer for the years it would take to train in Haven. So she does the best she can with herbs and medicines, her own and those learned from the textbooks sent to her from Healer’s Collegium. And her best is pretty good; the villagers already think of her as their Healer though she’s still just an apprentice. That’s part of the problem, of course: no one really sees her as herself—and Keisha doesn’t know what to do about her growing need for quiet and distance from other people.
Don’t get me wrong; Keisha isn’t a whiner, though like most of us, she occasionally feels a little sorry for herself. Many of her feelings will be familiar to anyone who is or has been an adolescent, which makes her the more relatable of the two main characters. I really like her, with her practicality, her sense of humor, her caring heart, and her strong-mindedness.
The book is told in third-person limited POV, and focuses alternately on Keisha and Darian. It’s not until halfway through the book that their stories converge, when the Tayledras group returns to the region of Errold’s Grove to set up their Vale/embassy. That brings Keisha and Darian together, though (mostly) not in the romantic sense. It also gives Keisha relief in the form of a Healer who can teach her to use her Gift rather than be used by it.
The story to that point is rich in the details of daily life in both Errold’s Grove and k’Vala and k’Valdemar Vales—the tale is interesting, but not particularly action-filled. It’s not until nearly two-thirds of the way through the book that the pace really picks up and tensions rise, as another Northern “barbarian” clan is spotted making its way south into Valdemaran lands. (See Owlflight for what happened the last time—it wasn’t pretty.) This group, though, is bringing women and children, making their purpose—whether invasion or immigration—much less clear. The tension swiftly rises to a climax that requires the skills and quick thinking of both Keisha and Darian to resolve.
Despite the uneven pacing, Owlsight is entertaining reading both for its engaging protagonists and for the insight into rural Valdemaran life (something we haven’t really seen much of before) and the culture of a healthy Tayledras Vale. (ETA: Three of the earlier books dealing with Hawkbrothers take place in K’Sheyna, which at the time was sundered and under seige; K’Sheyna was not representative of a whole, healthy Tayledras community.) Fans of Valdemar will also enjoy the chance to catch up with some old friends when they appear. There are a few hints of a future romance for Darian and Keisha, but mostly this is a coming-of-age novel and a bridge between Owlflight and Owlknight—enjoyable, but best read as part of the trilogy.
Reread in July 2024 for the COYER Unwind (2024) Chapter 3 reading challenge. I tweaked this review very slightly, mostly by cleaning up a few phrases and adding an explanation or two, but on the whole, I have not changed my analysis of the book. I did, however, change my rating from 3 to 4 stars. This may reflect changes in the way I rate books (I think I’m a little more generous now), but mostly it reflects the fact that over several more readings, I have grown progressively fonder of the book and the trilogy.
About Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey is perhaps best known for her bestselling Valdemar, Elemental Masters, and Tales of the 500 Kingdoms series. Her books now total well over 100, not counting anthologies. She writes (or has written) several other popular series as well as stand-alone novels, both on her own and with collaborators including Larry Dixon (her husband and illustrator), Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Rosemary Edghill, Marion Zimmer Bradley, James Mallory, Roberta Gellis, and others.
Lackey graduated from Purdue University in 1972 and worked as a computer programmer before quitting to write full-time. A strong storyteller and a prolific writer, she turns out four to six books per year. She has also written lyrics and recorded songs (many of them based on her stories) for Firebird Arts and Music. Music is a prevailing theme throughout her work, and a major element in the Bardic Voices and Bedlam’s Bard series.
Mercedes Lackey lives with her husband in Oklahoma. She keeps parrots and has been active in raptor rehabilitation. She has also been active in the Society for Creative Anachronism and the MRPG community.
(sources: Goodreads, author website, and Wikipedia.)
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER Unwind (2024) – Chapter 3
R_Hunt @ View From My Home
I see that you read Ms. Lackey all the time and enjoy her works. What would you say is your favorite book or series by her? I don’t usually read MG, but I do read YA if it’s fantasy. Thanks!
R_Hunt @ View From My Home recently posted…FC FP Tuesday Intros
Lark_Bookwyrm
I think I will put together a “where to start with Lackey” post, because I keep being asked by a lot of people where they should start. The short answer is it really depends on what you like to read. The long answer is more complicated, both because she has so many series and because some of them get better in the middle, while others start strong and slowly fizzle or become more formulaic as they go. I think her strongest writing began around 1989 with the Last Herald-Mage trilogy and continued through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. But stay tuned for that Lackey recommendations post!