Normally I wouldn’t finish off a series and place both books in one review. But I was unable to finish reading Magic’s Price for the same reason that it took me a while to finish Magic’s Promise.
Pacing.
Magic’s Promise and Magic’s Price are second and last books in the Last Herald Mage series. There will be spoilers here on out.
SHOWING, TELLING, AND DETERMINING IMPORTANCE
Readers and authors have different priorities. I (writer) have the story to tell. I get to choose what I think is important to the overall series and plot. You (reader) become emotionally invested in the story through the characters and their relationships with the plot.
Magic’s Promise and Magic’s Price iterate on the same premise: Vanyel is overworked and something goes wrong on his vacation. Lackey wants to showcase interpersonal relationships, and does so with numerous conversations—to the point where what I remember most from both books is that there is a lot of time dedicated to characters sitting around and telling each other (and the reader) things that they’ve seen and done, and not a great deal of time spent experiencing those things with the characters. The worst example of this is what made me stop reading Magic’s Price. Vanyel is sent on an important mission. There is a time skip and the way that it’s written I expected that this was the end of Vanyel travelling to the mission location. I was incredibly frustrated to find out that no, this important mission that took months to do was completely skipped over. The travelling I was reading was Vanyel arriving back to Haven after the mission and I was about to read Vanyel reporting back on everything that happened. I did not want to read yet another mission report and stopped reading. Most of the book seemed to go on this way, which meant that in the last quarter (or so) of the book I missed out on:
Vanyel being gang-raped and Yfandes being mutilated
Vanyel’s confrontation with the oft alluded to but rarely shown Big Bad
the death of both Vanyel and Yfandes
I wish that Lackey had valued showing off more of the missions leading up to Vanyel’s last mission more than valuing the rape and mutilation.
I was disappointed when Lackey undermined the relationship Vanyel and Stefen. After the death of Tylendel in the first book, Vanyel is offered the wisdom that just because your soulmate is dead doesn’t mean you can’t have other lesser loves. Those lesser loves are still worthwhile. Vanyel spends two books mourning Tylendel until Stefen arrives. Stefen, who is a much younger man, adores Vanyel and Vanyel adores Stefen. But if you thought this was going to explore the concept of healing after a lost love, of finally moving on to a lesser love and reconciling the two, then you’ll be as disappointed as I was to find out Stefen is the reincarnation of Tylendel. Vanyel gets his soulmate back. It feels cheap. It feels lazy, and I expected more from an author who writes so much about love in many of its different forms.
Magic’s Promise: 4/5
Magic’s Price: 1/5
— L.J.
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