Shepherd, Mark Books

The Otherworld (The Serrated Edge)

Mercedes Lackey, Holly Lisle, Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

For those of you who want to know what the books are about- 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Yes, I know these books are a reprint. That's because I read the back and it says in not so tiny letters: Publisher's Note: Formerly published in parts as Wheels of Fire and When the Bough Breaks.

The books are some of the best I've ever read. When you can't put the books down, when they make you cry, when they make you feel sick, that means that you are reading some darn-fine material. Both of the books deal with the matter of child abuse and torture, a subject most people don't even think about on their own time. Mercedes Lackey deftly combines Urban Fantasy with a real social issue, something I admire greatly.

Wheels of Fire is the story of the kidnapping of a young boy, a medium, and his rescue. He has been kidnapped by a fanatical cult but with the help of the elf Alinor (a race car driver) and his human mechanic/mage friend Bob, they try to save the day. It's a pretty fast-paced book and the characters are absolutely amazing. It's not a book you can put down with ease. You HAVE to know: does Jamie get out? It's postively gripping.

As for When the Bough Breaks, this book is even tougher to read than Wheels. It's a story about child abuse and the results. It deals with several young girls and a gaelic witch trapped together in one body, multiple facets of her personality. It's up to Maclyn, an elf, and Amanda's schoolteacher Lianne to save her from destroying herself and the elfhame with her out of control magic and fury.

If you like urban fantasy, stories that deal with elves and whatnot in the present day, you'll like these books a lot. They are gripping and the characterization is astounding. If you like urban fantasy but can't stomach the sometimes horrifying child abuse, read her other reprint: The Chrome Born. Chrome stars the powerful human mage Tannim and a cast of elves, kids, and kitsune.

These are my favorites of Mercedes lackey's books, even surpassing her Valdemar series. They are excellent

Enjoy!

Editorial Review:

There are elves out there, and they love hot cars, but they also rescue children in peril. But this time the endangered child Amanda has incredible powers and in her fear might destroy Earth and Faerie both!

Wheels Of Fire (Serrated Edge 2)

Mercedes Lackey, Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

What happens when elves meet a dangerous cult? 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I just finished reading this only yesterday. I was pleased that it was so long, but I still thought it ended kind of abruptly, I know Joe's story continues in Chrome Circle, but I was still going "but, but, but, uh, uh....". I liked the characters (although Alinor got a bit annoying at the end) and the descriptions of the cult compound freaked me out. All in all, not perfect but awfully darn close!

Yuck! 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love all of the other Serrated Edge books, but this one is a definate flop. It featured a young boy being slowly starved and tortured to death by a Koreshian/NeoNazi cult. That made me sick. Most of the characters were very flat also. In short, a dull, depressing book.

Not heavy fare, but worth a read 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be an entertaining example of its kind, and worth reading, especially if you are a Lackey fan. I did, however, find fault with some of the character developement. While the cases of Joe and especially Cindy are poignant, many of the other characters are less multi-faceted than one would expect. Good and evil are absolutes, with little room to explore the gray area of the different characters' consciences. However, these faults are far from dire, and I would not want to discourage a potential reader from enjoying this book for what it is; a side trip, as opposed to a journey, through an imaginary landscape.

Editorial Review:

When young Jamie Chase is kidnapped by his father and made the victim of a radical cult, his desperate mother, whose resources have run out, is aided by a fun-loving and hard-driving elf. Reprint.

Spiritride

Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The good gets better with this book 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I have noticed a spate of "Native American" themes in fiction in the last five years, so it was with suspicion that I undertook Shepherd's Spiritride. Fortunatlely, he creates his own indian tribe with an interesting twist: It has Elven blood! (Maybe that's why it bears slight resblence to existing Indian tribes. It's fiction!) Forest Tribes may have started in the East, but how many still live there? We have Andy Jackson to thank for that. (see other review) Anyway, the plot quickly becomes complicated, with all the gating here and there. I couldn't figure out what was happening next. . . which is sort of the point, In my Humble Opinion. (The reference to Rocky Horror wasn't lost on me, either) The slow, insidious way in which Lucas is sucked into the Satanic cult was creepy, bringing to mind the Rad Right Fundamentalists in Wheels of Fire (which, in some ways, predicted the Waco cult/fire) and their methods for indoctrination. It appears to be well researched, making you stop an wonder about the Real cults that are out there. A big plus in my book, particularly when Shepherd refrains from being overly preachy on the matter. The evil speaks for itself. Mort is the villian you love to hate, and he returns in this story (And, ahem, is not. . .well, I won't spoil it) . I just wish there was more background on where he came from. I'd like to know where this little **** hails from. I loved this book, and could easily have read it if it were a third longer, even. I hope there is more on the way.

Editorial Review:

Immortal biker Randolf "Thorn" Wilson is caught in a battle between an elven king and a mad Prince of the Dark Elves, and must save two mortal biker trainees without risking his own spirit. Original.

Escape from Roksamur (A Bard's Tale)

Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

It's pretty good. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

EfR is pretty entertaining, and I guess fast-paced, but I think Alaire got away pretty easily in this story. And I'm disappointed that our one and only Dark Elf Bard wasn't in the story. But it's still great, and I recommend it for everyone.

Book Description 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I don't know why there's so little info for this book, but I liked the book, so here's what the back of the book says about it:

ONCE A PRINCE, ALWAYS A PRINCE

Once again, instead of writing music, working spells, or training his apprentice, Bard Alaire is asked to turn his hand to diplomacy. Because he's the only man the king, his brother, can trust to investigate the death of the previous Ambassador, Alaire has been made Ambassador to the troubled kingdom of Suinomen. Once before Alaire was in Suinomen--and barely made it out alive from its Prison of Souls. Now he will face high seas, low magic, and kidnapping by giant spiders--and that's before he even gets there....

Editorial Review:

Asked to turn diplomat as the only man his brother, the king, can trust, Bard Alaire investigates the death of the previous ambassador and must journey to Suinomen, from where he once had barely escaped alive. Original."

Elvendude

Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A new twist on a popular series 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Mark Shepherd's Elvendude introduces the Lackey/Shepherd readership to a new, exciting family of elves. A spin-off from the SERRAted Edge series, we meet the "elvendude," Adam McDaris, a teenaged kid in Dallas who doesn't know he's an elf. Good take on the trauma of adolescence, and of drug addiction, which he deals with here with sensitivity and (maybe?) from experience. Despite the dark aspects of the subject matter, Shepherd brings humor and life to the story, and handles the characterization and plotting like a champ. I believe this is his first solo book, but it reads like the fruits of an experienced, seasoned novelist. I look forward to more from him; he shows tremendous potential.

Not up to par 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Taken on its own, this might be a decent "young adult" novel, but as an offshoot of Mercedes Lackey's SERRAted Edge and Bedlam's Bard books, this and the sequel are not even close to where they should be. Considering the author collaborated with Misty on some of the earlier books, he really should have done his research when writing these. Things that are simple facts in Lackey's world are not even present here. For example, humans are NOT cross-fertile with elves without drastic measures. This is a point of tension in some of her later books, in fact. Also, elves do NOT have children easily, which is why they get involved in child abuse cases in Lackey's books! In Spiritride, the sequel to Elvendude, Shepherd has elves cross-breeding into an ancient Indian tribe, and states a bit later that elves could control when they conceived. Obviously, both of these elements are direct contradictions of Lackey's stories. And those are only two of the most flagrant errors; I won't belabor the facts any more.

Quite simply, if the author can't get his story straight, don't have a note on the cover of the books saying "Straight from Mercedes Lackey's world to ours!" If you like her books, don't bother with this cheap imitation.

Editorial Review:

Sent to live in another world with altered memories so as to protect him from the evil forces that prey upon his father's kingdom, Prince Adam finds his life turned upside down when his true heritage catches up with him.

Blackrose Avenue

Mark Shepherd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This Is Why I Read SF 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

It's been a long time since an SF novel gave me the shakes, but Mark Shepherd's Blackrose Avenue has managed to give me a pronounced case. Its near and terrifyingly plausible future, where right-wing political agendas are The Law and right-wing religious extremists have The Power has me trembling with anger. Shepherd's gripping, gritty prose and uncompromising look at bigotry should be required reading for anyone who's ever thought "human rights can't mean *them*" or wavered on the separation of church and state. This one has teeth.

Editorial Review:

Enter an all too conceivable future when the Religious Right has taken over our country and basically made everything fun illegal. Where AIDS has become even more letal, and those found to be HIV positive are shipped off to concentration camps that are so over-crowded and under-staffed that the dead often lay in their beds for days before being carted off the be burned.

The Freedom Coalition is fighting in the West to free the country from the grip of the Right Party's fanatical leader, Heilinger, and his so-called "Good Law," and the rebel forces are drawing nearer. Lorn Zany has seen too much death and injustice at the hands of the Right Party for one life time. New it looks like he might just live to see the Right America crumble. That is, of course, if he doesn't die of AIDS first.