The Black Swan (Fairy Tale Series, Book 2)

Black Swan was my first Mercedes Lackey book. I can safely say that it made me a fan for life while I kept on buying more of her books before I was even finished with this one. Her tale of fantasy- like Swan Lake was as a mouth watering sugar coated piece of candy. An extraordinary form of writing so magical and harmonious yet easy to read, excellent to the last detail, from the gleam of the pearl, the shine of the suede shoes magicians wore and the scent of cinnamon of the great halls, musk of the feathered capes and rosemary of the cleaning spells. All that Lackey described and wrote was pious and delightful; it's truly a gem of a book, something that I will be thankful for years I discovered.

I usually read horror and mysteries and some sci fi, yet this tale was so mesmerizing, so luscious and captivating that I wished it was a thousand pages long! I must admit the reason I got this book was because of the breathtaking cover art by Jody A. Lee and the curious synopsis on the back, it proven itself tenfold to be a great choice and a wonderful end of summer read. The main story is about a flock of swans under a powerful curse that binds them to remain a swan during the day and a maiden at night. They were all captured by an evil and cold hearted sorcerer, Baron von Rothbar. With the help of his daughter Odile, he kept them enchanted because he hated women and because they all did something to betray a man in their lives, as he forced them to repent forever. Enter a venom spirited queen Clothide who resided many miles away in her lovely kingdom with her son Siegfried, a bachelor with an appetite for women and wine and you have a wonderful mixture of fantasy and romance, of betrayal, lust, corruption and some fantastic magic. I loved how Rothbar changed into a huge owl, his trademark transformation, while Odile was the black swan, together the soared heavens with no one to fear and with constant success with their magic spells that created whatever they pleased. As Siegfried's 18th birthday approached, Queen Clothide grew restless and had some dark thoughts about her dear son due to his approaching birthday, the wedding he had to get and his coronation as the King. Prince had to court many different women as the descriptions of them and their talents made me laugh a few times, as they tried to darn hard to impress the prince while he only had eyes for one special girl.

My favorite character had to be Odile, as she was witty and tried her best to have her father love her, as she practiced spells and tricks, watched over the swans and kept his castle clean along with his invisible servants. The more she tried to have him open up the less warmth she got, as she connected that something funny was going on with her father and the swans. As she realized some things that she always believed to be true were lies, she started to change sides but all she had was the magic he has taught her for self defense. Against him she was just a girl who was studying the magic arts, and she had no choice but to obey her father therefore she started to battle inside her head for true justice and end of corruption.

This was a long story with many intricate characters, and it really made me happy not to be living in those medieval times, where women were not acceptable unless they had dowry, and with men who spend many nights talking about the fat ugly wives they would have to marry but consoled themselves while thinking about their mistresses. There were many unnerving and unfair remarks done towards women, but the ladies held on tight and displayed their courage and strength in this heroic tale.

He interesting part was waiting for all the characters to meet! I knew that the evil Baron has some secret plans for his swans that involved the queen and her son, and Odile who gave great displays of her magic and a remarkable change of character. I had a wonderful time solving the clues and putting the story together in my head trying to figure out whom was plotting against who and why the Queen was consoling in Uwe, her lover/advisor who seems to be loyal to her. The ending was spectacular and it really gave me a high opinion of Lackey's skills. I almost cried at one part, I know how silly, but it touched me and I relished the story until the last page, as I would have loved it if it continued. Apparently this is the first book in the Fairy Tales series and I cannot wait for more! I really enjoyed Lackey's warm writing, with the luscious descriptions of the forest, the castle, medieval life and ethics, from the clothes to the food and etiquette, it was a real trip in time and I would love to do it again.

- Kasia S.

I've always loved the story of the beautiful princess who was turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer and permitted to retain her true form only in moonlight. The Black Swan is a wonderful retelling of the Swan Lake fairy tale, with ideas from the animation version, The Swan Princess.
Mercedes Lackey produces a detailed and thorough account with insights on the characters - mostly of Odile, the daughter of the evil sorcerer von Rothbart (left out in The Swan Princess), Prince Siegfried, and Queen Clothilde (his mother), the ones that are generally overlooked. Odile is portrayed as an intelligent young woman, neglected by her father, whose only wish is his love and approval. However, von Rothbart cares little for her, especially since she is so clever and seemingly about to exceed himself. She is in charge of the flock of women-turned-swans, and finds friendship in them. Siegfried is a selfish lecher, until his actions come back to haunt him. (I thought that that was a shocking and revolting stage and I was really relieved when he changed his ways, though the transformation was a bit odd and sudden, and he didn't give up all of his bad habits.) Clothilde adds excitement to the story, a factor new to the whole Swan Lake plot. The scheming queen will do anything to ensure that the throne is hers alone.
Though I appreciated the elucidation of the characters surrounding the story, I was kinda bummed that Odette was pushed to the very back and we are given almost no details on her character, except in a rare occasion through Odile. I wanted to know a bit more on her past and her development - she is after all, the "main attraction", the center of the story. Nevertheless, The Black Swan is a really satisfying retelling of Swan Lake. I'm glad that it still followed the main story line and wasn't too much of a heavy fantasy (I can never make out the weird names, kingdoms, and magical aspects). This is a great book for mature readers (I say this because the content is a bit dirty at times), especially fans of fairy tales and fantasies!

***Spoiler Alert***

The so-called "hero" rapes a bathing gypsy girl and then tries to justify it with the rationale that she ran away rather than hide her nudity. He thought she was being coy. REALLY??? Ok, he had bad dreams after. He tried to be a nicer guy, but I will never endorse a book where the hero is a rapist.

The book was well-written and would have been a much better novel without that scene. It made the hero lose credibility, regardless of his later attempt at reform. He paid off a couple of prostitutes and was patient with people he used to think beneath him. Oh boy...

Near the end of the novel the hero falls in love with the heroine after a 5 minute conversation, but by that point I was no longer engaged. I am a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey so this was very disappointing. I expected more powerful female characters. I expected a hero that I could actually like. The only bright star was the daughter of the sorcerer, Odile, but it is very clear that she would have continued to be a willing participant in her father's schemes if he wasn't such a psychopath.

I'll admit it. I'm not a huge Mercedes Lackey fan. She tends to have stereotypical bad guys with no reason for their actions. Her books often start out very well, but then around the halfway point deteriorate, making it seem as if she lost her inspiration and is just trying to finish up the book. That's what happened with Magic's Pawn and with the first Bardic Voices novel -- with the remaining novels in the series not even starting out well. I had thought I was done with Lackey, until I picked up The Black Swan at the library, and got into it.
WOW!
This novel is definitely the best I have ever read by her. The plot -- based on the ballet Swan Lake -- is rich and detailed, the characters not completely black or white, even the villains. The evil Queen was still human, and Siegfried, while a 'good guy', had been a rapist in the past, and definitely had bad qualities still in existence. The book, unlike others where I had to work to finish, was captivating and difficult to put down. This was an incredible book. I'd recommend it to anyone, not just my friends who adore Mercedes Lackey.

Revising fairy tales is common fantasy practice, but one wishes that Lackey had written with a bit more wit and punch in this Swan Lake reprise. In her earlier works Lackey wrote some complicated and interesting female characters. THE BLACK SWAN, however, presents us with an evil queen, an enchanted princess, and a young sorceress, none of whom transcend stereotype. The latter two are redeemed by their love for aristocrats, while the former receives her punishment at the hands of (you guessed it!) an evil warlock. The warlock is such a totally nasty guy that it's hard to believe that even his daughter the sorceress could initially believe him to be a decent human being, but that's the premise of the book--she gradually comes to awareness that her father is Not Nice. I waded my way through, but I kept wishing I was reading something else.

I normally steer clear of the Science Fiction and Fantasy section of the bookstore, but one time, when I visited my fiance, I found myself dragged into this section. For the fun of it, I browsed the titles, and this book caught my eye. As my fiance looked for his book, I sat in the middle of the floor and began to read. I became enthralled with this book. The imagry was wonderful and it gave me a whole new insight to the daughter of Rothbart, as well as what was going through the prince's mind. It was a wonderful twist on things, and I greatly loved it.

In and of itself, this book is not a great work of literature. Having read some of Lackey's other work (although several years ago) I was struck by the poor editing job done on this one. Lackey's gift always seemed to lie in quizzical characters and the ability to use dialogue as a tool of plot-explanation.
Still, this is not Lackey's first forray into the myth re-telling business, and it is a fairly endearing one at that. "Firebird" was a much more comprehensive way to deal with a fairy-tale, and a much better developed storyline.
There were some exceptionally cool ideas going on in this little book, but it seems to get bogged down in a lot of patter about food, tapestries, and folk-dancing. The inter-character relationships are too sketchy to be believable and the transformation of Odile from docile submissive to competent sorceress is a wee bit forced. Siegfried does, indeed, make a questionable hero. As a reader, I needed more than a dream as an explanation for his stunning transformation from blackguard to loving husband.
All-in-all, I'm 100% in favor of anyone who can retell old fairy tales in a more palatable context, because it means those great stories won't be, after all, lost. As such, I recommend this little book, although with fair warning attached.

I wanted to like this, but it just didn't have much oomph to it. The characters were insipid and unbelievable, and the prose unexciting and predictable.
Of course, this is Mercedes Lackey, so the writing itself isn't bad, but leave this one is strictly for Lackey fans. For new readers looking for books in this vein, try her title "The Fire Rose".

Usually, when all else fails, I can count on a Mercedes Lackey book to lift me out of the mundane and into someplace extraordinary. Unfortunately that is not the case with The Black Swan. I didn't think she was capable of writing such a tedious book. LOOK ELSEWHERE if you want a good read!

The Black Swan is a retelling of the story of Swan lake- a fairy tale where maidens have been turned into swans by an evil sorcerer except by the light of a moon. This book tells that story from the viewpoint of the sorcerer's (Baron Eric van Rothbart) daughter, Odile.

Fairytale retelling is a popular thing to write about now. Often an author will remake the fairy tale from another's viewpoint or twist things around to make a new tale. Not so in this book. It's a pretty straightforward retelling. This book has no twists or a different take on the story from what's traditional. In fact, that's the books major problem.

The only real interesting thing in this book is that a great deal of it comes from the viewpoint of one who might be perceived as a villain-Odile. But even then she remains a force for good against the shadowy and often absent evil of her father. Because of this you might as well go by a children's picture book of the story-there's nothing in this book that you'll miss. The writing is good but not great, the story is ok-but its juts a classic swan lake story with no extra details or anything to make it more interesting. In fact the children's story might be preferable because it at least would portray the sorcerer as an interesting character instead of making him into an ill portrayed filler character as he appears in this book.

The back cover of the book says that this is a novel that discusses the duality of human nature, but it really doesn't. Everyone is fixed in their nature in this book. Evil is evil, good is good. Redemption is discussed a little but not enough to truly make it a theme of the book.

Even the title of the book seems to promise something that isn't delivered. Odile is a supposedly the "black swan" of her father's flock because she wears black-but there were something like six other swan/maidens who whore black and appeared as black swans also.

This isn't a bad book at all, but it's not good either. In short, this is nothing special. Three stars.