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abaeran
19 May 2008 @ 09:39 pm
adversaria  
4) The OtherWorld by Mercedes Lackey, Mark Shepherd, and Holly Lisle

  

Lackey was my once long favorite author. She fell out of my radar after I tried (oh gods, I tried so hard...) to read Aerie. The first book of that particular series, Joust was pretty good, along with its sequel, Alta. The third book, Sanctuary, slightly annoyed me due to a severe lack of inventiveness and I never finished the fourth book. I usually don't put down a book after I start it, but Aerie was simply unreadable. Everything seemed to follow a sequence of events I already predicted in my mind and it simply was more a burden than an enjoyment. Thus, I never read Lackey's novels again, until I picked up this one (again).

I say again, since I actually read this novel when I was much younger. I loved it then, and now, I see why Lackey was my favorite author. She simply is the master of reality. Ironic, eh? Yea, I know what you are thinking. Realistic, and there is a horridly rendered elf on the front cover (the whites of his eyes are green, good gracious) with a flaming sword in one hand and a semi-automatic machine gun (I really don't know what it is...) in the other. To make matters worse (or better?), the whole cover is shiny; it's dipped in chrome, I swear. Mind you, the covers for the Bedlam Bard series, or Urban Fantasies, are enough to make a reader want to put the book down (and it's hard not to judge these books by their covers - I would not walk around with this book in hand; I fear I won't be taken seriously...).

But, aesthetic matters aside - Lackey is a bard, truly. She captured me with a story, with a believable plot (true that - even with elves walking among us!), and simply fun storytelling. This book has actually two separate "novels" of sorts within. Both hold their own weight and altogether, The OtherWorld is satisfying from start to end. Both feature a very real problem: child abuse. The first revolves around a fundamentalist Christian cult, and the second around abuse within a wealthy family. You will simply have to read it to find out what elves, racing cars, guns and magic have to do with each other. ^^

 It's is easy to get caught up in the whirl of emotions presented, and I am left wondering when I walk out my door, what the true identity of the person who passed me could be. (An elf - eek! :D )

-Lila
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