Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from February 28 through March 6 from @sueannbowling.

“Every creature that knows it is mortal has some hope for something good on the other side of death.” Mercedes Lackey, One Good Knight. Periapt, the dragon. He continues, “And every version of Paradise is different. And, I suppose, they can all be true.”

“The cleverer you are, the more responsibility you need.” Mercedes Lackey, Fortune’s Fool. Katya’s father believes that idle hands (and minds) breed mischief.

“Keep in mind that I don’t tell you everything.” Mercedes Lackey, Fortune’s Fool. Sasha’s father supports his son, but does not tell him what he has no need to know.

“It didn’t do to laugh when you were playing a flute.” Mercedes Lackey, Fortune’s Fool. Sasha has to stop himself from chuckling at the unicorns’ reaction to his playing.

“When you don’t know, you wait.” Mercedes Lackey, Fortune’s Fool. Katya has come on two witches fighting over a shogun, and is not sure which to aid.

“Even a would-be goddess should beware of Godmothers.” Mercedes Lackey, Fortune’s Fool. Godmothers have very high status (and abilities) in the five hundred kingdoms.

“Feral cats can really mess up an ecosystem that hasn’t evolved with them.” Bowling, Horse Power. The reason that no felines (including house cats) were included in the terraforming of Horizon.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

The first six quotes tweeted from January 31 through February 6 were from One Good Knight, by Mercedes Lackey.

“It takes as long as it takes.” Gina is being asked how long the fighting training will take. She compares it to learning to be a dancer or a musician.

“Why dress something you’re going to eat?” Amaranth’s reason for finally believing the dragons – food could be to fatten her up, but clothing does not make sense if that were their goal.

”Clever and cunning, not intelligent. Not the same thing at all.” The fox, when Gina says that foxes are supposed to be intelligent.

“People who are not mad always have reasons for what they do.” Peri and Andi are trying to figure out why the dragons are being forced to lay waste to the countryside.

“Sacrificing one virgin girl a week does not ruin an economy.” Peri, pointing out that the dragons “ravaging” the countryside has not hurt the basic economy at all.

“A question or a train of thought must be pursued to its likeliest conclusion, no matter how unpleasant.” Andi’s teacher of logic has taught her this, and she does not at all like the likeliest conclusion.

“Don’t look under the bed. I forgot to check there.” Bowling, Horse Power.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

The quotes tweeted between December 6 and December 11 were all from One Good Knight, by Mercedes Lackey.

“How could one write up a treaty with things that were mythical?” Andi considers that the fact there are treaties with the Weirding Others in the Archives is a pretty good indication that they’re real.

“Say as little as you can, and listen as much as you can.” The Lady Thalia’s advice to Andi, when the girl first starts eating dinner with her mother, Casseiopeia. (Yes, Andi is short for Andromeda.)

“Foxes are as bad as cats for twisting orders around to suit themselves.” Solon grumbling to himself about his unfortunate choice of a fox as a familiar.

“Move slowly, that was the key.” Solon thinking to himself about the best way to take over Arcadia.

“The best way to distract attention was to start a war.” Solon still thinking, though he is smart enough to know Arcadia could not survive a war. Summoning a dragon would, however, do just as well.

“A fight creates a pattern you can see only after it is over.” Gina is trying to teach the girls how to fight.

“If computers could breathe sighs of relief, that was what the planetary computer did.” Homecoming, by Sue Ann Bowling Marna has just teleported back to the lodge the instant she sees the crevasse she is exploring move.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling between November 15 and November 21. All but the last are from The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey.

“I will be me, on my own terms, by my own rules. With my own plans and my own decisions.” In the first three quotes, Elena is effectively dictating to the Tradition, trying to get it to take a new path. She wants love, but she does not want any of the Traditional paths (i.e, fairy-tale traditional.)

“What I have I’ll share, but I’ll not give over.”

“What I will be, I will be, by my own will and no other.”

“The carrot for the lowly, the stick for the mighty. It is quite astonishing how effective these things are, when applied in that particular order.” Something Elena remembers from Godmother Bella’s teachings.

“Cats, even the commonest barn and kitchen cats, had an affinity for magic.” Elena’s thought, when a cat immediately identifies her as a Godmother.

“Cats, as everyone knew, were perfectly capable of seeing spirits.” But this one does not see Elena, after she has set her spell of invisibility.

“How much could he do at once?” Bowling, Homecoming. Roi is trying simultaneously to protect a friend and himself from further injury while Healing that friend and calling for help telepathically, and he doesn’t really know how to Heal yet.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

All of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling last week (except the one this morning) were from The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey.

“Being angry now would be like being angry at a thunderstorm because it happened to rain on you.” Elena, suddenly realizing that the Fairy Godmother who she thought neglected her was Fairy Godmother to the entire kingdom.

“It was as if wholesome bread were being taken, and a tastier bread made of sawdust used to replace it.” Refers to the actions of the more far-seeing of the evil magicians, gradually limiting “rights” and replacing them with meaningless privileges.

“With familiarity came, if not contempt, certainly a loss of urgency.” In Elena’s first successful use of magic her concentration was driven by fear, but in future me must learn to concentrate without that goad.

“Men. You never can depend on them not to play the fool when there’s a lot of them together.” The women of the village, speaking of their menfolk’s probable behavior during harvest.

“Only love could have turned rut into passion.” Elena is being jealous of Arachnia and her poet.

“You’re as ready as I was.” Madame Bella, as she hands over the job of Fairy Godmother to Elena and drives off with the Little Humpback Horse.

“People—and societies—don’t make decisions on logic.” Bowling, Rescue Operation. This is a work in progress, so I hardly expect anyone to identify the context of the quote. The speaker is Roi, arguing to the Council that slaving will not be accepted by Horizon.

Quotes from Mecedes Lackey

Mercedes Lackey again this week, except for the last quote which (as usual) is from one of mine. This time the first four Lackey quotes are from Intrigues, the second book in the Colloquium series, and the next two are from The Fairy Godmother, the first book in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series.

“Eyewitness tend to see what they expect to see.” Halleck explaining that the same is true of Foreseeing.

“There is a difference between a team and a group of the best, and a team will win every time.” Gennie (the team captain) to her team in the first Kirball game (which is modeled on Kipling’s “Maltese Cat.”)

“Everyone has darkness inside them.” Rolan to Mags, letting him know that the darkness within him is not unique.

“Think every move through before you do it.” Mags’ thoughts as he is getting out of the kitchen where he has been hiding.

“There are a great many things she could have done. None of them suited her.” Elena to Fleur and Blanche, after her stepmother and two spoiled stepsisters have absconded to avoid paying their debts, rather than cutting back on their style of living.

“Home. What a wonderful word that was.” Elena, when Godmother Bella says her home will be Elena’s, too, for as long as she wishes.

“Do fathers and mothers always fight over children?” Homecoming, Sue Ann Bowling. Roi to Elena (no connection with Lackey’s) when he is first coping with being a father, and finds Wif’s mother does not really want to share her son.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

Here are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling from September 13 through September 19. All but the last are from Intrigues, the second book of the Colloquium Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey.

“I have known many young lovers, and most were fools.”  The Archivist, pointing out the most likely reason that Mags’ parents had left their own homes.

“Being taken by surprise by success can be as hazardous as being taken by surprise by failure.”  Setham, warning Mags that success in the game of Kirball could make him popular unexpectedly.

“No one ever anticipates great intelligence out of a games player or a fine warrior.”  Nicholas to Mags, after Mags gets on a Kirball team. “Low profile” need not include avoiding that kind of success.

“Ye learn a mite or two ‘bout eatin’ when ye ain’t got a lot t’ eat.” Mags, explaining to Bear why he is eating only a light lunch before Kirball practice.

“It’d be nice if some people’d think wi’ their heads, ‘stead uv some other parts.” Mags, when he realizes that many, even Heralds, are suspicious that the “foreigner” in a foreseeing may be him.

“The surest way to make some people to believe almost anything was to deny it.” More of Mags’ problems with the foreseeing of the King possibly assassinated by a “foreigner.”

“Anybody object to a bed?” Tourist Trap, by Sue Ann Bowling. The travelers have been asked if they mind overnighting at a supply cabin, instead of camping out.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the quotes that have been tweeted from @sueannbowling from August 23 through August 29.

“Change is on us, and not everyone likes that change.” Foundation, by Mercedes Lackey. Nikolas, recruiting Mags to help in his observations.

“Ethics—that is the slippery side of ‘right and wrong’” Foundation, by Mercedes Lackey. Nikolas, helping Mags understand the ethics of using his Gift.

“Pretend long enough that you belong, and eventually even you will believe it.” Intrigues, by Mercedes Lackey. Dallan’s advice to Mags

“There will always be bad times; it’s in the nature of things.” Intrigues, by Mercedes Lackey. More of Dallen’s advice to Maggs.

“Ye kin paint a crow white, but that ain’t gonna make it a dove.” Intrigues, by Mercedes Lackey. Mags’s thoughts on the appalling behavior of the Bard Marchand.

“You are still the same person you were before you learned all this.” Intrigues, by Mercedes Lackey. Dallen’s response to Mags’ discovery of his parents’ fate.

“Even now, the memories of that time were hard to face.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Marna, faced with the failure of the isolation satellite’s life support system, remembering the plague that wiped out the population of her planet.

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey: Review

The Fire Rose is not considered to be an official member of the Elemental Masters series, I suspect mostly because it has a different publisher. (The first “official” book of the series is The Serpent’s Shadow.) It is also set in Chicago and the San Francisco area rather than England, and the relationships among the Elemental Masters is somewhat different—the inability of two fire masters to co-exist in the same city is certainly out of line with the White Circle of the later books.  But the basic structure—magicians of the classical Greek elements, historical setting sometime between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a strong female protagonist before women had the vote, and a plot based on a popular fairy tale—is similar. I suspect The Fire Rose was Lackey’s first experiment using this form, later refined into the Elemental Masters series.

The plot is a variation of “Beauty and the Beast,” the two major characters are a Master of fire (the Beast) and an apprentice of air (Beauty), and the setting is the West Coast near the time of the San Francisco Earthquake. If you like werewolves, part of the book is the tragedy of a man caught between the wolf and the human forms by his hubris in trying to apply an incompletely learned spell, and the mental and physical pain he must endure as a result.

I read this book long before publication of The Serpent’s Shadow, and thought enough of it then to replace it when my original copy was lost in a fire. An enjoyable book, and one I’ve read several times.

(I was going to review the fair today, but I suspect you’ve had more than enough of that. I will have something to say about the horse shows Thursday, when I’ve had time to go over all of the pictures I took.)

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the quotes tweeted last week from @sueannbowling. All but the last quote are from Foundation by Mercedes Lackey, the first volume of the Collegium series.

“Don’t gobble, or you’ll be sorry” Mags’ caution to himself when first offered decent food.

“Why shouldn’t life be fair? What’s keeping it from being fair?” Dallen, trying to explain to Mags what it is that Heralds do.

“I am not telling you to never be afraid. But you must not let fear rule you.” Dallen, when Mags is afraid that Cole Porter will take revenge for what he has told the Heralds.

“When you don’t know what to do, do nothing, watch, and wait.” Mags, trying to deal with being a Herald trainee.

“When you did nothing, you forced them to act even when they didn’t intend to.” Mags rationalizing just watching and being careful to do nothing.

“I think mischief is not such a bad thing, though there are surely people who would be very angry at me for saying hat.” Dallen, when he is talking to Mags about the heralds who are upset by the change to the system for mentoring trainees.

“At least you know that you don’t know everything.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Derik’s response to Roi’s admission he’s probably missing something when Derik is teaching him the conservation laws as applied to teleportation.