The Lark and the Wren (Bardic Voices, Book 1)

Mercedes Lackey is one of those writers who can be pretty OK or awful. Unfortunately, she usually has a very interesting story to tell - she's just not very good at telling it. Her characters all tend to be the same, the dialogue and mental asides are often dreadful, and her sentences are cliched and weak.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the three books in the "Free Bards" series. Reading it, I often find myself actually wincing as Lackey repeats these literary offenses, over and over and over. By the 50th time one character completes another's sentence, accompanied by the sort of triumphant italics and exclamation points you usually only see in a 15-year-old's email, pointing out obvious points that the reader has already grasped three paragraphs ago, you'll be wincing, too. All too often, Lackey is overly impressed by her own cleverness, and she never lets pass an opportunity for a character to grasp some plot "intricacy" (it's usually anything but intricate) with glee and proceed to explain it, point by soporific point, to the other characters. Given that all the characters fall into exactly two personality groups - the good guys, typified by their wide-eyed enthusiasm, goody-goodiness, and the fact that they all like each other, and the bad guys, who are cruel without any motive, and would be sneaky if the plot were complex enough - the reason for these explanations is somewhat obscure.
Well, the plot, such as it is, of "Lark and the Wren", starts off well enough, with Rune, a provincial village girl who only wants to be a musician. She escapes her dull life and heads to the city, where she's aided by an improbable streak of good luck and sympathetic characters, until she's ready to try to join the Bardic Guild.
From there the plot devolves. The trials of a young girl, who we can at least identify with, are suddenly overshadowed by Lackey's lecturing on the dangers of greed, organized religion, sexism, xenophobia, etc, etc, etc. The plot serves as nothing more than a device to move Rune and her friends from place to place where they can be persecuted by the bad guys and/or meet more of the same good guys and/or save the world. The side-plots, rather than fleshing the story out, seem tacked-on, with no real bearing on anything. The characters are unbelievably boring, once you've met Rune, they're all exactly like her. Lackey's use of musical terms, again, is an effort to impress us with her own knowledge. And, if I see one more internalized monologue, I'm going to scream.
Read it if you must, as a Lackey fan, or if you can't pass up a book about musicians. But if good writing is at all important to you, save your teeth from the inevitable grinding that will accompany this one.

This book started out good, if not great. It was a light, enjoyable read. The endless cliches in the villains, the plot, and the setting didn't detract too much from the reading. Cardboard characters and cliched settings can be ignored. Rune wasn't a bad character, and it was interesting watching her struggle for survival in a city. If it hadn't been for the second half of the book, I would have given it 4 out of 5 stars.
Then, Rune goes in with the Free Bards.
Why did Lackey include this? She could have easily wrapped it up there. It was a struggle to read through the rest -- Lackey kept throwing in new plot points that had -nothing- to do with the first part of the book, or with each other. None of it was connected at all. She could have cut out the last half of the book and made for an enjoyable read -- but, sadly, she didn't. It seemed as if she had to meet a minimum length for her book and, when her original idea wasn't long enough, she threw in more and more, until she had a long enough book. Was there any connection, any point, to the last half of the book? If so, I'm missing something.
Overall, The Lark and the Wren does -not- get a stamp of approval.

I was given this book by a friend who was certain I would love it with my interest in bards in mind.
While the beginning is, as was stated previously, the cliché of the young girl under personal adversity who triumphs above all in her path... it was personally the better half of the book. The character development was handled rather smoothly, and one actually CARED for the main character, at least to any degree.
At the very instant the trials for the bardic guild ended, the book started spiralling slowly downward. The main character lost any flair and PERSONALITY that she may have had previously. -- There were things I felt that were unneccessarily thrown into the mix. Some may like "random flings of passion", but the addition of them out of NOWHERE caused my stomach to turn. It was inappropriate and detracted from the story. The latter half of the book was absolutely rushed, and with the introduction of a slew of new characters, the old was pushed in the background to become static...never to be looked at as even the same character anymore. If she had not held the same name (and even that was tentative, as she was being known as "Lady Lark" not long after that point) I would not have recognized her as the determined young woman that I had known previously.
Otherwise, the book splits off into another direction completely. In having read most of the second book so far, I can tell you that the beginning of the second was most certainly somewhere about 100 pages near the end of the first. I didn't like the transition. It seemed rushed, and random.
I did, however, enjoy the insight into the life of a travelling bard and to the thought that goes into the workings of bardic magic.
-- This is by no means an excellent book; worth a check-out at the library, and even though I am engrossed in the second book, it is due to the author's style and not the book itself.

Rune was a self-taught musician who had great dreams. She wanted to be famous and play for the wealthiest men in the land who would shower her with riches and treat her like a queen. Too bad she was stuck in the middle of nowhere working in a run down tavern with her slutty mother making a play for the newly widowed owner. Rune was born out of wedlock and had no future in the village, but was content to stay and work hard at the inn to keep a roof over her head and a full belly. That is, she was content until the boys in the village tried to rape her and made it perfectly clear that she was just like her mother. Rune didn't know what to do, but, when she was caught in the middle of her grand boasts to Jib, her only friend, she felt that she had to follow up with her claims and determined to go and fiddle for the Skull Hill Ghost - and survive!
Much to Rune's surprise, she did survive and the ghost even gave her a bag of silver to start her on her way. Rune couldn't be gone fast enough and immediately set out for the nearest city where she could get some training and learn how to read and write music. She was lucky enough to find Tonno, a great music lover who could never make it as a professional musician and a job playing music in the common room of Amber's, a high class whore house. Rune learned much more than music from Tonno and much more than the ways of men and women from Amber. By the time she was ready to leave to try out for the Bardic Guild, Rune was much more aware of what was going on around her and was determined to find a place for herself.
Unfortunately, Rune was not quite as smart as she thought she was. When the judges of the Bardic Guild competition discovered that she was a girl, they broke her instruments and her arm and left her in the mud. The Free Bards, led by Master Wren or Talaysen as his friends call him, took her in and taught her that you didn't have to belong to the Guild to be a great musician and to write good songs. Rune desperately wanted to learn and enjoyed her lessons with Master Wren, quickly gaining the nickname Lady Lark, and fitting into the Free Bards with ease. Now if only she could convince Talaysen that she saw him as more than a teacher...
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't think that it was slow, as some other reviewers, but that it was really two books in one. It was like it was one story up until Rune tried out for the Bardic Guild and then another one altogether when she took up with the Free Bards, but, hey, two books for the price of one so I'm not complaining. I don't think that this is Mercedes Lackey's best book, but I definitely think its up there. Rune is a very likeable character who makes mistakes and has doubts as to her self worth, just as we all do, but continues to go forward and try to make her life better. All of the characters were fun and very individual and I think that Lackey has created a wonderful new world for us to explore.

I have to say first off that I'm a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey, but this is just not one of her better books. Usually they keep you entranced to the end. At first, this book seemed to do the same. But as things went on, and the initial appeal disappeared, I lost interest. Of course, I kept on reading to the end, because I was mildly interested in the ending.
One of the things I found that annoyed me was the fact that the characters, the main ones, at least, did not have any major flaws. They all seemed so perfect. Rune was determined, smart, and talented. Talaysen was handsome, famous, talented, nice, and a Master Bard to boot! Furthermore, the book lacks a central plot, and thus seems to drift meaninglessly at times. The characters have little "adventures" that have little connection to each other. Chapters would go on describing trifles and everyday going-ons of the characters. But then the final climactic scene was sqeezed into one short chapter.
Overall, good for a light read, but not something overly engrossing that will keep you turning pages.

This is a long, complex story which the author could have split into two books. The first part of the novel introduces Rune (the Lark), the ... daughter of an innkeeper's second wife, who escapes from the inn to become a traveling musician and to try her luck at gaining admission to the Bardic Guild. A series of adventures brings her to an ill-fated trial with the Guild and her introduction to the Free Bards. Part of this was published separately as a short story. The second part of the novel deals with the Free Bards, and travels with Talaysen (Master Wren) as a free bard. Additional characters are gradually introduced including a new apprentice with an unexpected background. The novel is the first in the series about the Free Bards, and sets the stage at the end for the following novel. It is helpful to read the series of novels in the order written as characters from one novel reappear in following novels.

I picked this novel up from our local used books a couple of weeks ago, and was initially very impressed.
The first half of the story followed the young girl Rune (born into the typical and clichéd fantasy environment) as she departs home in an attempt to become a member of the Bardic Guild. The people whom she meets on her quest are all quite fascinating, and I couldn't help but agree with the way that she perceived others
However, not all good things last, as the book progresses, and Rune realizes her dream might be a bit out of reach, everything falls apart. Now don't get me wrong, the second half of the book has the most potential, and could have been written in a stunning style, but that was not to be.
What bothered me most, was the abundance of endings. The main characters went through several 'climaxes' before finally reaching the end of the book, which made the last few pages very dull, and the final climax to be overwealmingly predictable.
The number of 'coincidences' also leaves me banging my head in frustration. The moment when the characters need something or someone, it's there! They rarely have to seriously struggle for very long, because someone or something will always come out of nowhere and rescue them.
Alas, alas, this book is still very nice for a light read, and I am interested in acquiring the second book of the series just to see if it improves.

I started with A Cast of Corbies, which I liked a lot. In contrast, the Lark and the Wren was very slow-going, especially the first half (like other reviewers, I found a clear split between the 1st and 2nd half of the book). I thought the action picked up in the 2nd half (unlike other reviewers) but it didn't gel with the earlier part of the book.

This is the story of a struggling young woman who started out with nothing. An immoral mother, and hateful ridicule from the village. I strongly admire the character Mercedes Lackey built up in Rune. She does an excellent job of pulling all of the details in a persons being together-strengths and faults- and created an almost tangable character. This book was also interesting because of the knowledge and beauty of music that was intertwined. Truly a symphony of character and fantasy!

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon.com. Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Rune is a young woman who is excellent at fiddling. She is trapped in a deadend situation with a prostitute for a mother and no marriage prospects to speak of. But who said Rune wanted to get married? What she wants to do is become a professional musician, though she is unlikely to get there. Or is she? A poorly thought out bet later, and she'll either be dead or on her way to glory.

The Lark and the Wren is the first book in the Bardic Voices/Choices series. I have also reviewed another book in this series The Eagle and the Nightingales. I read this particular copy online, as part of the Baen fiction online free books series. There are a number of Mercedes Lackey titles there, all relatively good ones. With the exception of one, I have read them all before. This book is one of my favourites, but to my disgust the other books in the series have not been republished for quite some time.

This novel was adapted from a short story in 'Fiddler Fair', which was a short story collection by Mercedes Lackey. That short story I didn't read until after I had read the novel form. Of the two, I think I prefer the novel because it has more depth (naturally!).

This piece of fiction was a breath of fresh air after the last set of books that I reviewed. The storyline is engaging, and the characters fleshed out. The difference is that Lackey makes it seem as if the various climax points are part of the novel, not just random events thrown in.

Rune is a strong character who is relatively flexible. Something I want to complain about is that Lackey lapses into stereotypes with her relationship later. Rune couldn't care less about getting married, yet she does anyway. Also, Talaysen is the one that gets special training, not Rune, when it was Rune that originally discovered the magic. The conversations she has with her partner are very detailed, and logically show their thought processes without chopping and changing the perspective of the novel, or engineering a situation where they can discuss it. And at the end, the very end, I feel that Rune is very unkind to her partner! I mean, I'm sure he will love being a dad, but to sneak it up on him in a couple of months time?

The perspective changes in this novel are lovely. In the copy I read, only the chapter markings were clear, and so I didn't actually get an idea of when the character perspective changed. For the first two thirds of the novel it is purely from Rune's perspective anyway. Certainly between the Lark (Rune) and the Wren (Talaysen) the changes while they are travelling are smooth, and I didn't really notice it.

Something I love about this book is the theme of learning music. There are other things I love too, such as Rune narrowly escaping rape, and being very practical about most things, but that's probably my favourite. As Rune learns her new instrument, she has to learn how to read music too. I cannot remember learning to read sheet music because i was a child, but I can imagine that it is more difficult as a late teen / adult. Lackey captures how most people feel after a new lesson quite well. It's nice that Rune doesn't take to a second instrument immediately because she is such a natural on her fiddle!

There are several storyline peaks in this novel, and to give you them all would spoil reading it. It's pretty amazing how much trouble Rune can get into. Although it's not all from one excitement to the next, Lackey certainly maintains your interest in the novel. And the transitions are so smooth! I can't rave about those enough after the trash I have read lately.

I'd recommend this book for teens and adults alike. Although there are sexual themes, violence and prejudice they are not in a positive light and they actually teach something! The sexual themes are not particularly graphic either. This book is one of my favourites that I have read multiple times, and probably will read again.