BOOK SERIES: The Obsidian Universe by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews.

This first post is a summary and introduction to the Obsidian Universe fantasy books written by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Each book will get its own post, but I just wanted to write a synopsis for each trilogy in this general post. At the end, I will provide a general rating for all 8 books published thus far. Each book will get its own rating in its respective post. The Obsidian Universe consists of The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy—The Outstretched Shadow, To Light a Candle, and When Darkness Falls—, The Enduring Flame Trilogy—The Phoenix Unchained, The Phoenix Endangered, and The Phoenix Transformed—and The Dragon Prophecy Trilogy—Crown of Vengeance and Blade of Empire, the only two books in this trilogy published to date. The third book in this series is Wings of Fate. However, its publication date is still unknown. SPOILER ALERT. This review has spoilers for all three trilogies.

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The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy

The Obsidian Trilogy—renamed the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy—is the story of Kellen Tavadon, a seventeen-year-old boy who lives in Armethalieh, the City of Mages and of High Magic, a powerful magic that requires years of study and dedication. Its counterpart, the Wild Magic, which requires the Wild Mage pay a personal price for using it, has no place in Armethalieh and its practice has been prohibited by the Council of Mages, which rules the city and is presided by Lycaelon Tavadon, Arch-Mage of Armethalieh and Kellen’s father. This is where Kellen’s story begins in The Outstretched Shadow, the first book of this trilogy. When we meet Kellen, in Chapter 1, he is a rebellious young man trying to find his place in a world—which, for Armethalieans, only consists of the city of Armethalieh—he doesn’t fit in. Expected to become Arch-Mage and follow in his father’s footsteps, Kellen has a privileged life in the city. But it is a life he does not want. Kellen knows he’ll never become Arch-Mage, simply because he does not want to become the representative of everything he hates. High Magic took his father away from him, and Kellen hates that his father has dedicated his entire life to it, leaving him alone and striving to obtain Lycaelon’s love and approval. But Lycaelon Tavadon has always loved High Magic more than his son or his family.

The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy is not only a coming-of-age story but also a story chronicling the perennial war between Good and Evil. It is the story of Kellen’s journey in the third war between the Light and the Endarkened. Given that one cannot exist without the other, the Light has twice before fought the Endarkened and defeated them, but in neither one of those times did it destroy the Darkness completely. The Endarkened were only just weakened enough that they returned back to the World Without Sun or The Obsidian Mountain to nurse their wounds and prepare for the next time they will seek to obliterate life from the Void that He Who Is created, and whom they are the direct descendants of; any creature of the Light, not having been created by He Who Is, is an abomination. And now, that time has come again under Queen Savilla’s reign. Kellen’s life changes when he finds—or rather they find him—the Book of Sun, the Book of Moon and the Book of Stars, the three books of the Wild Magic. His destiny is to become a Knight-Mage, the first in a thousand years, and one of the most important weapons the Light has to fight the Darkness.

General Rating: New Favorite

The Enduring Flame Trilogy

The Enduring Flame Trilogy is set a thousand years AFTER the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy. This trilogy has two main characters—Tiercel and Harrier—who, like Kellen from The Obsidian Mountain Trilogy, live in Armethalieh. The city, however, is no longer a city of mages. There hasn’t been a High Mage in centuries, and Wild Mages are rare. The world of the Obsidian Universe a thousand years after the third war between the Light and the Endarkened is a completely different place, and many of the characters from the first trilogy have become legend. Kellen, for example, has become “Kellen, the Poor Orphan Boy”. This second trilogy, first released in 2007 with The Phoenix Unchained, is the story of Tiercel Rolfort and Harrier Gillian and their journey to defeat the Darkness when they discover that Tiercel is a High Mage and Harrier a Knight-Mage, the first Knight-Mage since Kellen Tavadon’s time.

The Darkness, which was sealed in the Void when Kellen and his friends defeated the Endarkened a thousand years before, is released into the world by a rogue Wild Mage that believes that the equilibrium between Good and Evil is unbalanced, and makes it his life’s mission to bring balance back to the world. Ahairan—the embodiment of Darkness and Evil—is released into the world when Bisochim is convinced—by Ahairan—that there is too much Light in the world, and that Darkness is necessary to bring the True Balance back to the world. And once again, the forces of Good and Evil are at odds.

While Tiercel embraces his destiny as the first High Mage in centuries, Harrier does not want to accept the knowledge that he is a Knight-Mage. All he wants is to be the one that keeps Tiercel out of trouble, something that he has been doing for years and a destiny that he knows. But the unknown, and everything else that the Wild Magic represents, disrupts Harrier’s life and makes him fight a war with himself against his destiny as the next Knight-Mage after Kellen Knight-Mage, a predecessor that Harrier can’t help but compare himself to and feel inadequate against. But where Kellen’s story in the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy is a coming-of-age story, Tiercel and Harrier’s is a story about learning how to accept one another, and themselves, to become greater than what they could be by themselves for the benefit of others and the world.

General Rating: I Did Not Like It

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The Dragon Prophecy Trilogy

The Dragon Prophecy Trilogy, set thousands of years BEFORE the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy, is the story of Vieliessar Farcarinon, the last member of House Farcarinon, one of the Hundred Houses of the Elves—also called alfaljodthi—whose War Prince, Serenthon Farcarinon, and Vieliessar’s father, is killed by his allies when he seeks and almost becomes High King of the Hundred Houses. When the story opens in Crown of Vengeance, the first book of this trilogy, Serenthon Farcarinon is already dead and his pregnant wife and Bondmate has fled to the Sanctuary of the Star, where she seeks sanctuary—and where her enemies cannot touch her—to give birth to their daughter. Nataranweiya reaches the Sanctuary and she is granted sanctuary before her husband’s enemies can reach her. Then she gives birth to Vieliessar Farcarinon. But not before the Sanctuary of the Star’s Astromancer, Celelioniel, proclaims that Nataranweiya’s unborn baby is the Child of the Prophecy and the Doom of the Hundred Houses. When Vieliessar is born, her mother thereafter dies of heartbreak and Vieliessar, now an orphan, is taken back to House Caerthalien, where she will remain until her twelfth birthday—under the protection of Celelioniel Astromancer. After her twelfth birthday, she will be taken back to the Sanctuary to live the rest of her life as a servant of the Star.

In this trilogy we are immersed, once again, in a world that is completely different from the world of the third war between the Children of the Light and the Endarkened. The Endarkened here are ruled by Virulan, created by He Who Is, who Changed the other twelve original male Endarkened—except Uralesse, who was cunning enough to stand out of reach of the spell—into females, so that he could create an entire race of Endarkened to defeat the Children of the Light. Here, the Hundred Houses of the Elves—once ruled by High King Amrethion Aradruiniel—go to war every War Season against one another to see which War Prince, and his House, will become the next High King. After the fall of Farcarinon, the most powerful houses of the now ninety-nine houses are Caerthalien, Aramenthiali and Cirandeiron, and each have waged war against each other from the day High King Amrethion died to the day Vieliessar—until then known as Varuthir—is told that she is going back to the place of her birth—the Sanctuary of the Star—and live the rest of her life as a servant of the Sanctuary.

While the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy and the Enduring Flame Trilogy both take place in a short amount of time, perhaps a year or two, the Dragon Prophecy Trilogy takes place in a span of centuries. From the time that Vieliessar’s House is destroyed and obliterated to the time when she claims the Unicorn Throne, a century has passed. In Blade of Empire, after she becomes High King and faces the Darkness for the first time, another ten years pass. The Dragon Prophecy, however, is not only the story of Vieliessar Farcarinon and how she unites the Hundred Houses to fight the Darkness but also the story of Runacar, an outlaw and Vieliessar’s Bondmate, who refuses her as both his High King and Bondmate after the defeat of the Hundred Houses and the death of his family. He now fights for the king of the Beastlings and is building him an army to remove Vieliessar from her throne. But the Light has other plans for Runacar and he won’t be able to run from his king and Bondmate forever.

General Rating: I Really Liked It

Now, let us begin by reviewing The Outstretched Shadow…