The White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

A Spoiler Free Review

Well, that was much more of a slog than the last one. I spent most of my reading time incredibly frustrated at both characters and the societies they inhabit. There's both a lot going on in The White Gryphon and a whole lot of nothing. I was not impressed at all by the "mystery" plot-line, though I guess it did a little something to break up what would otherwise have been an even more boring court-politics novel. The White Gryphon did nothing to really make me want to finish this trilogy or, if I hadn't already read a good chunk of them, the rest of the Valdemar series.

So, we start our story off a few years after The Black Gryphon ended, which is fine. We get to see where the characters we grew attached to are at this point in time; we're introduced to the main villain... who I will get to later; and finally, we're introduced to the inciting incident of the plot. The plot that involves us traveling to and learning about the Haighlei people and their culture. The Haighlei culture is... odd, in all honesty. Odd and incredibly frustrating. Amberdrake and Skandranon and the others are basically told it's really rigid and not to break any of the rules otherwise, you'll probably be put to death... and then nothing else, not even most of the rules. This frustrated me to no end, especially as there's one point during the book where Leyuet, The Truthsayer, sits and wonders if Amberdrake even knows of his rights under Haighlei law and whether or not Leyuet should apprise Amberdrake of this or not. Just... what the hell even?

On the subject of Haighlei law... the investigation into the murders taking place is a joke. Less than a joke. There's no actual investigation going on for the reader to see aside from the one or two times Skandranon is brought in as a consultant. He's told, in a most ridiculous and roundabout manner that he's basically allowed to investigate if he wants to, but not officially and not actually told at all. We as readers know this because, I think it was Leyuet, is thinking about it while Skandranon is being told this. Also, Skandranon's status as King... Pretty immediately upon meeting the Haighlei people, the White Gryphon Council basically agrees to pretend that Skandranon is their leader. He remains playing this part for the rest of the book and has many thoughts about his kingship, which he somehow forgets is fake, during the course of the book. Skan solidifies his Kingship among the Haighlei by basically getting completely fed up with the way the Haighlei King Shalaman is handling the murder investigation. Like, yes, Skan's not actually a King, but he and his people told you he was and ya'll decided NOT to treat him as one until he basically threw a tantrum at you? What. The. Hell. Nope. Haighlei society makes zero sense.

So, on to Mr. Hadanelith, Kanshin, and Noyoki. Noyoki was the worst set-up and backed up character in the entire narrative. He's basically lurking in the background and we learn absolutely nothing about him until the very end, and even that's just a "oh hey, that's the real identity of the antagonist." He wasn't even foreshadowed anywhere aside from the one time there's discussion on how mages work in Haighlei and that he's of high rank somewhere in the palace. Otherwise, nothing. Kanshin would have been interesting if he'd been in more than a few scenes and given more to do. But no, we have to focus on Hadanelith. Hadanelith is probably the most disgusting character I've read in the past year, and that included a dirty old man drunk on power in my dad's book (Granny Bael, available on Amazon if you're interested). Hadanelith is basically a misogynist with control issues and skill in manipulating people in a very exaggerated S&M-style manner -- which, by the way, isn't how an actual S&M Domme would treat their Sub, for the record. He's just gross and I really hated every single moment spent in his POV. I guess that's kind of a good thing for an antagonist, but... *much shuddering ensues*

So anyway, the rest of The White Gryphon was really quite boring. A bit of court drama mixed with so much exposition of Haighlei culture, but only as it pertained to the people of White Gryphon. I'm really hoping The Silver Gryphon is more interesting. I really hate being so negative while ostensibly reading a series I quite like.

Just a Heads Up

I have decided that I will be reading the Valdemar series in chunks interspersed with single books. The series is largely made up of trilogies, so this makes sense to me and also lets me read more than just Valdemar this year. Just wanted to let ya'll know, if you were interested.

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2023!