The House of the Four Winds
Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
Clarice, or Clarence as she prefers to be known, has been sent out from home to seek her fortune as a swordswoman. Determined to explore more of the world before settling down, she finds herself on a ship to the New World. After a mutiny by the crew, Clarence and her Captain find themselves running out of food and water – and instead heading towards an unknown destination.
Clarence is a traditional female-hiding-as-male character. Not only does she pretend to be a passenger when she’s perfectly capable of looking after herself, she predictably falls in love with the Captain – who is understandably confused about having feelings for a young man…
It’s pretty much black and white what each person is feeling and doing. You know some characters are being sneaky, and it’s almost 100% positive that they are ‘bad’. ‘Bad’ dies out, and ‘good’ wins. Even when you put an all-powerful sorceress in the mix.
This novel was the highlight of the ones I borrowed from the library recently by Lackey. Mallory pulls up Lackey’s slack, and makes the story work. That being said, the execution is improved, but there’s not really any real variation from a known and best-selling story-type. I long for something new and unique – and I think I’m going to have to step away from
I’m interested to see what becomes of the next sisters in the series. They can’t all be firey princesses dreaming of adventure surely? Or perhaps this book won’t be successful enough to demand the writing of those… 4 stars from me.
