【 THE BLACK GRYPHON 】

book #1 in the Mage Wars series
book #1 in the chronological order of the Valdemar universe

Genre: Fantasy [high fantasy]
Audience: Adult
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Published: 1994
Publisher: DAW
Pages: 380 (hardback)

This was everything and more that I hoped it would be. Being my first (!) Mercedes Lackey book, I was apprehensive that this wouldn’t live up to my ever-increasingly high expectations, but it so did. And here I am, 100% ready to commit to the whole Valdemar universe.

Being a gigantic, multi-series universe (go look at the Goodreads series link), and having no idea if reading in chronological order was the right way to go about it, I basically crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. And in the end, everything about this was fun, pacey and original.

It’s got me really excited not only for the rest of this trilogy, but to eventually meet the other characters and places that make up the Valdemar world. I’m also working on the vague idea that Lackey is a significant contributor to the fantasy genre at a point in time where it was really becoming a Thing – and that she was among the many (but relatively few compared to today’s bevy of fantasy authors) that pioneered the genre as we recognise it today.

Regardless, I was impressed at how well this stood the test of time. Given that The Black Gryphon was published in 1994, and I’m reviewing this in 2025, you can’t help but be in awe that something has remained so fun and relevant for a contemporary reader. And I like the thrill of the idea that this was one of the first commercial iterations of gryphons (though, I have not fact-checked that at all, so, don’t take my word on it).

This is a story of magic, wars and found-family. Amberdrake was a firm favourite of mine (and I’m sure of most people who have read this), and I loved the way this book not only delivers an epic war-front fantasy story but delves into the complexity of identity, inter-racial/species relations and friendship. It honestly packs quite the punch.

I also really enjoyed the slightly older approach of the physical structure of the book – the fact that each chapter, though on the long side, was a separate perspective, done in a slower rotation that you would normally find today, and that each chapter opener had a hand-sketch illustration of the character in question.

This book was a great find for me – having heard very little of Lackey prior to happening upon this trilogy by chance at a secondhand store and deciding to take a punt on it. I don’t know why I wasn’t more aware of her, because dang, these books should be lining the shelves of every bookstore!

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Title: The Black Gryphon
Series: Mage Wars #1
Author: Mercedes Lackey
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As the tyrant-sorcerer Kiyamvir Ma’ar’s forces sweep across the land in a relentless war of conquest, one man–Urtho, the Mage of Silence–arises as the leader of the opposition. Set a thousand years before the founding of Valdemar and the rise of the Herald Mages, this novel by Lackey and Dixon relates the story of the legendary black gryphon Skandranon Rashkae, his healer-companion Amberdrake, and the war that changed the face of a world forever.