Foundation (no, not that one)

Just what kind of chutzpah does it take to give a mediocre novel which is the nth in a long fantasy series the title of one of the most famous science fiction novels of all time?  Possibly the same chutzpah that makes Mercedes Lackey beg the comparison by stating on her webpage that she intends to surpass Asimov's total of a hundred novels in her lifetime.

Quantity is not the same thing as quality.  I've read Isaac Asimov.  Misty Lackey, you are no Isaac Asimov.

I need an intervention to stop me from reading this series.  I thought the last time I had this reaction (why is my guilty pleasure no longer pleasurable?) to a Valdemar book it was because it was an anthology of stories mostly by other authors.  Nope.  Foundation (DAW Books, 2008), gods help us, is the first of yet another Valdemar trilogy featuring an abused adolescent who is chosen by a Companion, a spirit-being which appears in the form of a horse of unusual intelligence and eye color.  Young Mags (short for Magpie) is, of course, unbelievably talented and rapidly finds himself at the center of political intrigue which presumably will grow to kingdom-threatening proportions over the next couple of books, resulting in a major war during which one of his friends will die a tragic death and he will form a relationship of true love with one of the other characters.  There: I've saved you reading not only this book but the next two as well.  Valdemar novels are nothing if not predictable.  But even within those parameters, this one really is just phoned in, with adolescent angst-once-removed left dripping all over the page without explanation and not even a pretense of bringing any resolution to the foreign-intrigue subplot.  Even the identity of the enemies is left dangling: characters state that they know who the mysterious evil dudes are, but no one sees fit to enlighten the reader.

I can't believe that DAW brought this out in hardcover; needless to say, I waited for this fall's paperback edition.  Even so, I felt rather cheated.  I picked this book up as fluffy reading to help recover from my hideously busy fall, but this is not even satisfying fluff.  It's like finding your cotton candy has been replaced by polyfill: ack, ptui!

Lackey obviously has an audience for this plot, or the books wouldn't stay in print and keep coming out, but do yourself a favor: don't be part of it this time around.  Don't spend your money.  But if you must, use the link below (left).  Or, better yet, buy the original of this plot: the very first Valdemar novel, Arrows of the Queen (right), back when Valdemar and its standard story were still fresh and it seemed like Lackey actually cared.

Comments

[Mary Aileen]

I picked up Foundation because I was expecting/hoping it was about the founding of Valdemar itself. I probably won't bother with the sequels.

[Serge]

adolescent angst-once-removed left dripping all over the page

Ewwww.

Speaking of ho-hum writers... Anybody else ever tried Kevin Anderson?

I'm currently going thru recent issues of Asimov's. The first one had nothing to write about, but it sounds better than this last outing of the Lackey oeuvre. The 2nd issue I read had, not one, but two stories I liked. One made me smile, the other is another story by Robert Reed: "The Good Hand" may not be as harrowing as "Truth", but I intend to nominate it for a Hugo.

[Larisa]

The warning is very appreciated! Thank you.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Mary Aileen,
No such luck. I guess I neglected to mention it was (in theory) about the founding of the Collegium, with the big conflict being that some Heralds think it's a bad idea (they support direct apprenticeship) and some think it's a good idea. I found myself completely indifferent on the topic.

Serge,
No Kevin Anderson that I can recall. What does he write?

[Marilee J. Layman]

Well, I read a couple of Lackey's many years ago, and heard about her psychological problems, and don't read her books.

Susan, Kevin J. Anderson is the guy who co-writes Dune books with Herbert's son. He does write some stuff on his own, but it's still crap.

[Serge]

Anderson has also done Star Wars novels, and stuff of his own. Every time I tried anything of his, I gave up fairly quickly because his writing was so damned flat and pedestrian.

[Mary Aileen]

Susan: Yeah, the founding of the Collegium didn't interest me much either. In my experience, Lackey is pretty good at characterization and setup, but her resolutions tend to be, well, lacking. In other words, her beginnings are better than her endings. So when the first book in a sequence isn't much good, that doesn't bode well for the rest.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Well, I'm quite convinced never to bother with Kevin Anderson! But I wouldn't be likely to read any Dune sequels past the first few (I stopped after God Emperor and should perhaps have stopped sooner) or any Star Wars novels anyway.

Mary Aileen,
I've liked about ten or twelve of her books and been at best bored by the rest. Why on earth do I keep doing this to myself??? It's like my masochistic habit of continuing to buy Yarbro's Saint-Germain novels long after the series has become senescent.

(Hey, aren't you supposed to be away for the holidays?)

[Mary Aileen]

Susan: I *am* away for the holidays. But my parents have a computer, see...

[Serge]

Mary Aileen... So do my parents-in-law. Still, I wish they had something other than DSL so that I could hook up my own laptop. I feel like I'm wearing someone else's clothes.

[Nikki Raiford]

This is why I just borrowed it from the library! I have a lot of Lackey books... it's my mind candy. But I wasn't about to buy this one unless I knew it was actually *good*.

[Mary Aileen]

Nikki: That's what I do, too. There are only a few authors on my Buy in Hardcover list. Lackey isn't one of them.

[Susan de Guardiola]

My mom has wifi now. :) Happy Susan.

Nikki & Mary Aileen,
I have never seen any novel by Lackey that was worth buying in hardcover. What I need to do is stop buying them in paperback. Or at least in new paperback; the 99-cent price one often finds on Amazon for used paperbacks seems about right. I am disgusted with myself for spending $8 on this dreck.

[Serge]

Susan needs a Lackey intervention.

[Serge]

My mom has wifi now. :) Happy Susan.

I set ours up not long ago. I too am happy by that change in our home's technological state. No more unsighly 80-foot cable snaking around the house whenever we want to bring our laptops into the living-room. I've been thinking about acquiring a wifi-incorporating printer, but I'm not sure it's really worth the cost. Or does somebody know of such printers in the low-price range?

[Neil W]

I have been disappointed by every Kevin Anderson (co-) authored novel except Captain Nemo (subtitled The fantastic history of a dark genius) in which Jules Verne had a childhood friend named Andre Nemo whose adventures inspired Verne's novels. It was quite fun, although as it included the highlights of all of Verne's stories it ought to have been.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Neil,
That one sounds like it has potential, but I think I won't go out of my way to look for it, given how poorly everyone speaks of him in general.

My favorite gift this year is a reprint of an 1829 manual on dueling.

[AJ]

That is an awesome gift, Susan! Reminds me of my favorite gift from last year, from my brother... a vintage 1880s etiquette book :)

[Susan de Guardiola]

AJ,
Oooh, that sounds interesting as well! This book is partly an argument against dueling at all and partly an "if you must" treatise on how to do so honorably. It's very practical in places:

"In choosing the scene of action, special precaution should invariably be used, to prevent the necessity for carrying wounded gentlemen over walls, ditches, gates, stiles, or hedges; or too great a distance to a dwelling."