Hero, Meet Quest. Quest, Meet Hero.

[bibliogramma]

Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory:
The Outstretched Shadow
To Light a Candle

These are the first two volumes in a quite enjoyable fantasy about – what else? – the eternal war between good and evil, personified by elves and their less humanoid allies on the one hand and demons and their less humanoid allies on the other, and in the middle, an unsuspecting batch of humans led by powerful but power-corrupted leaders vulnerable to manipulation by the dark powers. Of course, there is a magically gifted young hero, with a manifest destiny, who joins the forces of good after suffering misunderstanding, disillusionment, abuse and rejection at the hands of his own people, and who seems likely to be the key that unveils the corruption at the heart of the human kingdom and offers the possibility of at least a limited victory against the forces of darkness.

What might otherwise be a relatively formulaic piece of high fantasy is made more intriguing by the effective use of both unicorns and dragons, and by the details of the various forms and schools of magic, who can use them and how.

What can I say? Both books I’ve read so far were good, light reads. I like the characters well enough to want to know how it all ends, and I’m rooting for the unicorn.