Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

Compared to other Valdemar books, Owlflight takes place over a relatively short amount of time. Just a couple of weeks, as opposed to the months of the others. This is by no means a bad thing, and I think helps with the character work a lot. There is a lot of focus on Darian and the trauma and recovery he goes through. I enjoyed the journey.

Just noticing that Mercedes Lackey’s orphan characters never seem to end up in families that want them. They always have some form of “you’re lucky we’re providing for you” attached to them. First Mags, then Skif, and now Darian.

I like getting the perspective on how dyheli think. There’s definitely a distinct way of seeing the world than humans don’t have, which is good. Dyheli aren’t human and live differently than we do. In fact, having more perspective on dyheli is pretty awesome. I’ve been waiting for dyheli and tervadi to be more fleshed out for a while.

I did like that everyone in the Tayledras mini-Vale treated Darian like a person and not just “a child.” He’s clearly more mature than other children his age, if the children from Errold’s Grove were anything to go by. He deserved to be treated that way and I was happy to see it. He was given tasks that were important but useful and not just an excuse to get him out of the way.

Anyway, I liked Owlflight. It’s definitely a lot smaller story than most of the Valdemar books are. It’s good to have a perspective other than the “global” ones seen in the other books.

Favorite Lines

"Half of being clever is making certain you are not being stupid." - Shin'a'in proverb

     "If someone cooks food I do not care for and offers it to me when they know I am not hungry, should I be grateful to them?"

     "Some people would think so," Darian replied, but his spirits seemed a little higher.

     He shrugged. "Then some people are foolish, and that is their problem, not mine, not should it be yours." - Snowfire k'Vala