“If you do not touch,” said Moondance, as if he read Vanyel’s thought, “You do not live. If you seal yourself away inside your barriers, you seal out the love with the pain." [loc. 4903]
Grandiose epic fantasy, with a gay protagonist (and quite a few other gay characters), doomed romance, human-animal Bonds, beautiful people with jewel-coloured eyes, and emotional arcs as epic as the magical conflicts. I wish I'd discovered this book in my early teens: but it hadn't been written then ...
Vanyel Ashkevron is the son and heir of a minor noble. He is handsome and rather vain, and his greatest ambition is to become a Bard. His father is profoundly disappointed by Vanyel's disinterest in martial skills: father and son do not have a good relationship. Vanyel is sent off to study with his aunt, the Herald-Mage Savil: he meets the charming and ambitious Tylendel -- a powerful empath who can sense Vanyel's loneliness and self-doubt -- and they fall in love. Tragedy ensues ...
The story's bold and dramatic, and there's little subtlety about the messages of tolerance, acceptance, openness: Lackey's depiction of Vanyel as a miserable teenager is thoroughly relateable, and despite being well past that stage in my own life I found myself empathising with him, and appreciating his gradual realisation that he had to be self-reliant -- and self-confident -- rather than leaning on others. He matures considerably over the course of the novel, and there are the beginnings of a remarkable relationship with his Companion Yfandes, the guardian spirit (in the form of a blue-eyed white horse) who has Chosen him. The foundations of a hero's journey are laid, and it's clear that Vanyel is going to become a legendary hero, wielding magic rather than mundane weapons.
Intrigued by the discussion of forthcoming TV adaptation, I purchased this in an omnibus edition that includes the other two novels in the 'Last Herald-Mage' trilogy: I'll keep those for when I need uncomplicated, emotional, epic fantasy...
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