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The Black Swan
Mercedes Lackey takes readers back to the ballet with her latest fairy tale fantasy, The Black Swan, which retells the story of Swan Lake. Lackey preserves much of the ballet's action but provides a happier ending than the original German folktale had. She also gives the characters depth and motivation by providing them with histories.
Baron Eric von Rothbart, a powerful sorcerer, hunts down women who have betrayed men and transforms them into swans who can only resume their true forms by moonlight. His lonely daughter Odile, who watches the flock and studies spells, longs vainly for his approval. One day von Rothbart tells Odette, the swan princess, that she can break the spell by winning and holding a man's faithful love for one month. He's even chosen a candidate, Prince Siegfried. Unfortunately, the prince is a womanizing hedonist. Should Odette succeed nevertheless, von Rothbart secretly plans a trap for them and the prince's ambitious mother, Queen Clothilde, who schemes to rule in her own right. But he must use Odile, who has befriended Odette and is no longer her father's puppet.
Some readers may find the descriptions of dancing and costumes tedious--and Prince Siegfried a questionable hero. Odile, however, is as vivid a heroine as any Lackey's written. --Nona Vero
376 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1999
105 people are currently reading
3776 people want to read
About the author
Mercedes Lackey
441 books9,602 followersMercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 298 reviews
March 15, 2012
Can I have a little less rape in my novels? The so-called "hero" rapes a bathing gypsy girl and then tries to justify it with the rationale that she ran away rather than hide her nudity. He thought she was being coy. REALLY??? Ok, he had bad dreams after. He tried to be a nicer guy, but I will never endorse a book where the hero is a rapist.
The book was well-written and would have been a much better novel without that scene. It made the hero lose credibility, regardless of his later attempt at reform. He paid off a couple of prostitutes and was patient with people he used to think beneath him. Oh boy...
Near the end of the novel the hero falls in love with the heroine after a 5 minute conversation, but by that point I was no longer engaged. I am a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey so this was very disappointing. I expected more powerful female characters. I expected a hero that I could actually like. The only bright star was the daughter of the sorcerer, Odile, but it is very clear that she would have continued to be a willing participant in her father's schemes if he wasn't such a psychopath.
The book was well-written and would have been a much better novel without that scene. It made the hero lose credibility, regardless of his later attempt at reform. He paid off a couple of prostitutes and was patient with people he used to think beneath him. Oh boy...
Near the end of the novel the hero falls in love with the heroine after a 5 minute conversation, but by that point I was no longer engaged. I am a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey so this was very disappointing. I expected more powerful female characters. I expected a hero that I could actually like. The only bright star was the daughter of the sorcerer, Odile, but it is very clear that she would have continued to be a willing participant in her father's schemes if he wasn't such a psychopath.
May 23, 2017
Excellent retelling of a fairy tale. Highly recommended.
July 3, 2015
Well, that was vile. I refuse to read a book where the main male protagonist is a rapist.
Please keep in mind that by "playing," he meant running away. I'm not even kidding. He comes upon a gypsy girl bathing in an isolated stream. Gets horny. Shows himself. And when she runs, he thinks it's a fun game. When he scoops her up onto his horse, and she goes completely limp, he thinks it's part of the game. And when he puts her on the ground and enters her while she doesn't move at all...he is angry because gypsy girls are supposed to be passionate. He finishes. Throws a few coins at her and leaves to have sex with someone else.
So, so disgusting. I don't care if he decides later that he must have been doing something wrong. He has nightmares about it, and he decides to make amends by being nice to two of the women his is currently bedding/attempting to bed. It's too late. The girl he RAPED committed suicide.
I don't care if he was a player. I don't care if he has consensual sex with every single female and/or male character he bumps into every single day. But I am NOT okay with reading a book about a sick, twisted rapist who is so warped that he is MAD AT THE VICTIM for her lack of enthusiasm.
I'm assuming he goes on to get a happily ever after. Probably falls in love with Odette. Becomes king. Bet everyone likes him and everything is just peachy. Because, you know, we all want the sick, twisted rapists of the world to get their happy endings. As long as they are CHANGED. Right?
Too bad. I was somewhat interested in Odile's story. But there is just no way I'm reading the rest of this book. And this is probably the last Mercedes Lackey book I will be picking up.
"So much for reputation! he thought with disgust. Stupid b____! If she didn't want me, why did she play with me? Why didn't she fight me?"
Please keep in mind that by "playing," he meant running away. I'm not even kidding. He comes upon a gypsy girl bathing in an isolated stream. Gets horny. Shows himself. And when she runs, he thinks it's a fun game. When he scoops her up onto his horse, and she goes completely limp, he thinks it's part of the game. And when he puts her on the ground and enters her while she doesn't move at all...he is angry because gypsy girls are supposed to be passionate. He finishes. Throws a few coins at her and leaves to have sex with someone else.
So, so disgusting. I don't care if he decides later that he must have been doing something wrong. He has nightmares about it, and he decides to make amends by being nice to two of the women his is currently bedding/attempting to bed. It's too late. The girl he RAPED committed suicide.
I don't care if he was a player. I don't care if he has consensual sex with every single female and/or male character he bumps into every single day. But I am NOT okay with reading a book about a sick, twisted rapist who is so warped that he is MAD AT THE VICTIM for her lack of enthusiasm.
I'm assuming he goes on to get a happily ever after. Probably falls in love with Odette. Becomes king. Bet everyone likes him and everything is just peachy. Because, you know, we all want the sick, twisted rapists of the world to get their happy endings. As long as they are CHANGED. Right?
Too bad. I was somewhat interested in Odile's story. But there is just no way I'm reading the rest of this book. And this is probably the last Mercedes Lackey book I will be picking up.
April 4, 2012
Ahhh, Swan Lake...
From what I've heard it's a beautiful ballet. And maybe someday when I don't hate watching ballets so much, I'll go see it.
So, from reading the blurb on this thing, you'd think this is a story about Odette (the head swan from aforementioned ballet). Well, it's not. Yeah, she's in the story, but it's mainly told from the point of view of Odile.
Odile? Yes, Odile. And, frankly, she seemed much more interesting than the swan chick, so I'm thinking Lackey made the right choice. She does a good job making her into a sympathetic character that you can root for, without letting her become too boring.
Speaking of sympathetic characters, let's talk about Siegfried. Once again, Lackey makes the hero of the story a tad...repulsive. So, I guess it's a pretty big deal that by the end of the book, I felt like he had somewhat redeemed himself. Maybe. Ish.
There were two villains in the book, and I thought they were both pretty well written. Rothbart was basically just a woman-hating fanatic, who happened to be a sorcerer. You never really get to find out what turned him into such a wacko, but in the end I guess it doesn't matter. Maybe sometimes Crazy doesn't need a reason?
Even better than Rothbart, though, was Siegfried's mother. Now she was a real piece of work. I think she made it easier to forgive Siegfried, because she encouraged him to become such a self-absorbed idiot.
All in all, this is a good book that I'd recommend. Even if you're not a fan of the ballet.
P.S. My husband did once force me to take the children to the ballet. He said something about needing more culture in our lives.
*snort*
As if.
My oldest daughter fell asleep, and my boys entertained themselves by making noises with their armpits.
I couldn't blame them. Were we really expected to enjoy watching people prance around for hours without saying anything? Because they don't talk. At all. It's just dancing. HOURS of nothing but dancing. The armpit farts were the only thing keeping me awake!
Zzzzzzzzzz.
From what I've heard it's a beautiful ballet. And maybe someday when I don't hate watching ballets so much, I'll go see it.
So, from reading the blurb on this thing, you'd think this is a story about Odette (the head swan from aforementioned ballet). Well, it's not. Yeah, she's in the story, but it's mainly told from the point of view of Odile.
Odile? Yes, Odile. And, frankly, she seemed much more interesting than the swan chick, so I'm thinking Lackey made the right choice. She does a good job making her into a sympathetic character that you can root for, without letting her become too boring.
Speaking of sympathetic characters, let's talk about Siegfried. Once again, Lackey makes the hero of the story a tad...repulsive. So, I guess it's a pretty big deal that by the end of the book, I felt like he had somewhat redeemed himself. Maybe. Ish.
There were two villains in the book, and I thought they were both pretty well written. Rothbart was basically just a woman-hating fanatic, who happened to be a sorcerer. You never really get to find out what turned him into such a wacko, but in the end I guess it doesn't matter. Maybe sometimes Crazy doesn't need a reason?
Even better than Rothbart, though, was Siegfried's mother. Now she was a real piece of work. I think she made it easier to forgive Siegfried, because she encouraged him to become such a self-absorbed idiot.
All in all, this is a good book that I'd recommend. Even if you're not a fan of the ballet.
P.S. My husband did once force me to take the children to the ballet. He said something about needing more culture in our lives.
*snort*
As if.
My oldest daughter fell asleep, and my boys entertained themselves by making noises with their armpits.
I couldn't blame them. Were we really expected to enjoy watching people prance around for hours without saying anything? Because they don't talk. At all. It's just dancing. HOURS of nothing but dancing. The armpit farts were the only thing keeping me awake!
Zzzzzzzzzz.
August 7, 2008
I am a Swan Lake purist. I have been listening to the music since i was a wee one. I know what the story is, who the clear hero and heroine are, the villains too. This book, although ballsy to reinterpret the love story of Odette and Siegfried, makes me want to gauge out my eyes with grapefruit spoons. How can Tchaikovsky's masterpiece be turned into this drek?
If you want to see a beautiful interpretation of the story, check out instead, the wnderful Japanese anime film from the early 80's called, ahem, "Swan Lake" or in Japanese, "Hakucho No Mizumi." This is the only non-ballet interpretation I accept with relish.
I have 120 pages left, but I thought I'd review it now while my disgust with it is still fresh. I'll throw the star-rating once I'm done. If my narrative opinion changes, I will edit this here review.
Finished it. My review stands. Not notable in any sense. Off to paperbackswap it goes.
If you want to see a beautiful interpretation of the story, check out instead, the wnderful Japanese anime film from the early 80's called, ahem, "Swan Lake" or in Japanese, "Hakucho No Mizumi." This is the only non-ballet interpretation I accept with relish.
I have 120 pages left, but I thought I'd review it now while my disgust with it is still fresh. I'll throw the star-rating once I'm done. If my narrative opinion changes, I will edit this here review.
Finished it. My review stands. Not notable in any sense. Off to paperbackswap it goes.
June 12, 2020
هل الكمال بالنقصان؟؟؟ البطلة المهووسة بالحصول على دور البجعة السوداء برقصة بحيرة البجع رغم موهبتها إلا إنها بتعيش حالة من الخوف إنها رح تخسر الدور، خوف وصلها لمرحلة من الشك بكل الناس حواليها، هلع من زيادة بعض الغرامات، شك بإنه صاحباتها بكيدوا إلها، بتصير تتخيل أظافرها انجرحت، أصابع رجليها ملزقين ببعض، وجهها بالمراية بصير يخوفها، بتفقد ثقتها بأقرب الناس، بتفقد مظاهر الحياة العادية كأي بنت بعمرها، بصير واقعها وأحلامها وعقلها الباطن كلهم حول الدور، بتفقد قدرتها على الإستمتاع بأي شي.. البطلة أجادت الدور بشكل رهيب حتى بملامح وجهها وخوفها الدائم اللي بطل يفارقها...
هل بستحق أي نجاح نخسر نفسنا بالكامل؟ هل الإنغماس بالحلم بخلينا مستعدين نضحي بصحتنا وعلاقاتنا وحياتنا البسيطة؟؟ طيب شو هو الكمال وهل فعلاً في حد بقدر يوصله بالدنيا؟
بتحضرني بنفس الوقت قصة فيراتا لستيفن زويغ وهي قصة راهب بهرب من الخطيئة وبحاول يتخلص من جميع مظاهر حب الدنيا وبعتزل بكهف وبوصل لمرحلة من الزهد إنه الحيوانات بتصير تيجي تقعد جنبه بدون ما تخاف، حتى لغة البشر بنساها، رغم هذا بتيجيه سيدة وبتدعي عليه وبتقله ما رح أسامحك لإنه جوزي إجا بده يصير زيك واعتزلني أنا وولادي وهينا متنا من الجوع! وبالآخر بترك عزلته وبقرر إنه السعادة بالإختلاط مع الناس وتحمل أذاهم ومحاولة مساعدتهم
إذن محاولة الوصول للقمة بأي طريقة متطرفة أو عنيفة برافقها خسارات وإصابات خطيرة... الكمال هو إنك تكون عادي... ما تثير صخب بوجودك... يكون حضورك خفيف... وغيابك مش مؤذي... ما تكون مخيف ولا غامض... تكون بسيط وهادي... تكون إنسان... لا تكره بقوة ولا تحب بقوة... وتذكر دايماً إنك مؤقت لهيك حاول تكون خفيف
هل بستحق أي نجاح نخسر نفسنا بالكامل؟ هل الإنغماس بالحلم بخلينا مستعدين نضحي بصحتنا وعلاقاتنا وحياتنا البسيطة؟؟ طيب شو هو الكمال وهل فعلاً في حد بقدر يوصله بالدنيا؟
بتحضرني بنفس الوقت قصة فيراتا لستيفن زويغ وهي قصة راهب بهرب من الخطيئة وبحاول يتخلص من جميع مظاهر حب الدنيا وبعتزل بكهف وبوصل لمرحلة من الزهد إنه الحيوانات بتصير تيجي تقعد جنبه بدون ما تخاف، حتى لغة البشر بنساها، رغم هذا بتيجيه سيدة وبتدعي عليه وبتقله ما رح أسامحك لإنه جوزي إجا بده يصير زيك واعتزلني أنا وولادي وهينا متنا من الجوع! وبالآخر بترك عزلته وبقرر إنه السعادة بالإختلاط مع الناس وتحمل أذاهم ومحاولة مساعدتهم
إذن محاولة الوصول للقمة بأي طريقة متطرفة أو عنيفة برافقها خسارات وإصابات خطيرة... الكمال هو إنك تكون عادي... ما تثير صخب بوجودك... يكون حضورك خفيف... وغيابك مش مؤذي... ما تكون مخيف ولا غامض... تكون بسيط وهادي... تكون إنسان... لا تكره بقوة ولا تحب بقوة... وتذكر دايماً إنك مؤقت لهيك حاول تكون خفيف
September 1, 2019
Cw rape and racism.
I'm going to keep this short and simple. In the forth chapter, the disgusting chauvinist pig of a prince, who is supposed to be the HERO here, rapes a defenseless Romani girl and then complains because she doesn't live up to the racist stereotypes of Romani women.
If you still want to read it, knowing that, wtf is wrong with you?
I'm going to keep this short and simple. In the forth chapter, the disgusting chauvinist pig of a prince, who is supposed to be the HERO here, rapes a defenseless Romani girl and then complains because she doesn't live up to the racist stereotypes of Romani women.
If you still want to read it, knowing that, wtf is wrong with you?
Read
March 1, 2021I remember enjoying the story. But it's been 10+ years since I read this book last, and literally the only detail I can remember about it (beyond the Swan Lake retelling thing which is on the blurb so I'm not sure if I'm remembering it from the book itself or from the blurb) is that the book's hero rapes a girl who then commits suicide because of it. And while at the time I was able to move past that because "he was sorry afterward" I'm no longer willing to let that slide.
January 26, 2022
Man, this used to be one of my favorites. But it did NOT stand the test of time. Honestly, the only parts I thoroughly enjoyed were anything involve Odile and Odette's growing friendship. The rest of it? Didn't live up to my memory.
Oh well.
Oh well.
September 17, 2022
Imagine finding a fantasy book on your favorite childhood ballet, only to find out that the author turned everything you loved about the tale into a complete assault against women. That's precisely what The Black Swan was.
CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS!!
Let's start with how insufferable every single character was in this book.
The male "hero", Prince Siegfried, regards everyone around him as beneath him (emotionally, financially, academically, etc.) and only attempts to "reform" himself after he sexually assaults a girl and she consequently kills herself.
Looking aside from how revolting this "plot point" was, during his "reform" Siegfried continues to call women all kinds of horrible names (sow, ugly, fat; just to name a few); His acts of "charity" came across as downright disrespectful at times. I was even more disgusted reading how he -and the men around him- excused his behavior and assault of the girl ("why the girl ran away! she was only being playful! how was I to know she didn't want me?" yeah, right).
There were two villains, von Rothbart and Queen Clothilde, but only one of these character had actual motive in justifying their evilness. Von Rothbart is bad just 'cause, save for a one-sentence blurb on the back synopsis that says his wife died. That's all you get. Clothilde, on the other hand, was a fairly interesting character, but sidelined so that the author could focus on the other, infinitely more boring characters of this book, even though the groundwork was there for her to shine.
Von Rothbart's daughter, Odile, is the main character, who has wonderful character development, right up until the awful ending she was given. Odette, queen of the swans, could have been an interesting character but, similar to the queen, was sidelined and utterly lacking character
Even while trying to ignore the book's seemingly endless red flags, I found the book boring. It takes over 250 pages just to get to the actual plot of the ballet, and pages upon pages were filled with pointless blurbs on castle politics that don't even affect the plot.
Save yourself the trouble and don't read this book.
CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS!!
Let's start with how insufferable every single character was in this book.
The male "hero", Prince Siegfried, regards everyone around him as beneath him (emotionally, financially, academically, etc.) and only attempts to "reform" himself after he sexually assaults a girl and she consequently kills herself.
Looking aside from how revolting this "plot point" was, during his "reform" Siegfried continues to call women all kinds of horrible names (sow, ugly, fat; just to name a few); His acts of "charity" came across as downright disrespectful at times. I was even more disgusted reading how he -and the men around him- excused his behavior and assault of the girl ("why the girl ran away! she was only being playful! how was I to know she didn't want me?" yeah, right).
There were two villains, von Rothbart and Queen Clothilde, but only one of these character had actual motive in justifying their evilness. Von Rothbart is bad just 'cause, save for a one-sentence blurb on the back synopsis that says his wife died. That's all you get. Clothilde, on the other hand, was a fairly interesting character, but sidelined so that the author could focus on the other, infinitely more boring characters of this book, even though the groundwork was there for her to shine.
Von Rothbart's daughter, Odile, is the main character, who has wonderful character development, right up until the awful ending she was given. Odette, queen of the swans, could have been an interesting character but, similar to the queen, was sidelined and utterly lacking character
Even while trying to ignore the book's seemingly endless red flags, I found the book boring. It takes over 250 pages just to get to the actual plot of the ballet, and pages upon pages were filled with pointless blurbs on castle politics that don't even affect the plot.
Save yourself the trouble and don't read this book.
June 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this version of Swan Lake. Odile is one of my favorite characters and Odette and her relationship with Prince Siegfried was interesting rather than cliche and annoying. Baron Eric von Rothbart was a great villain with the most character I have seen from him in other versions. There was a more adult scene with the Prince, but I believe this actually furthers his character in a monumental way. I loved the character development in this book.
December 3, 2018
When your "hero" is a rapist who never really repents for his bad action, how is it possible to give a flying swan feather?
Watch the ballet. Listen to the music. Skip this.
Watch the ballet. Listen to the music. Skip this.
February 23, 2011
Black Swan / 978-0-88677-890-3
Swan Lake is my favorite ballet, period, and I trust Mercedes Lackey as a superb author, so I was very excited to open The Black Swan and delve deeply into the story. To my delight, Lackey has not only lived up to my expectations, but far succeeded them - I will gladly state that this is the best novel I have read this year, easily.
The story of the Swan Lake ballet is simple and Lackey does not lose the reader who might not be familiar with the source material. The evil wizard von Rothbart keeps captives maidens in his care and curses them to take the form of swans during the day, when there is no moonlight. The spell can be broken if a young man pledges his love and faithfulness to one of the ladies, the Princess Odette, and a Prince Siegfried steps forward to attempt this task, but von Rothbart plays him false and tricks him into swearing his pledge to his disguised daughter, one Odile, the black swan of the ballet. Siegfried and Odette cast themselves into the waters of the swan lake in despair. In some versions of the ballet, they are saved and von Rothbart is killed, but the ending varies according to troupe.
Lackey carefully remains true to her source material, filling in only the details of background and motivations, and her vibrant details are a delight. The gripping story follows the viewpoint of the much-neglected daughter Odile and asks the simple question: How does she feel about all this? Von Rothbart is a cold and cruel villain, and Lackey determines that he is naturally a cold and cruel father, as well. Odile is a strong sorceress, but a gentle woman, and strikes the perfect note as an unreliable narrator - she senses that she is nothing more than a tool and a vessel for her father's schemes, but she desperately believes that he loves her and that everything he does for her is for her own good. Through the course of the novel, she overcomes her scorn for the captured prisoners and comes to understand that their curse or, as von Rothbart claims, their "punishment" is not just or fair. When von Rothbart uses her against her will to trick Prince Siegfried into breaking his vow of loyalty, Odile turns on her father in shock, fear, and hatred, using her magic to kill him in order to save the prince and princess, her unlikely friends.
If this is a coming-of-maturity tale for the sheltered Odile, it is no less so for the regal Odette and the pampered Siegfried. Odette must come to face her own actions and past and determine that while her "punishment" is arbitrary, cruel, and unjust, neither were her actions completely blameless or without shame. She accepts this with dignity, and bears herself with courage and determination for the sake of her fellow captives. Siegfried, by contrast, has lived a life of pleasure and ease, encouraged by his mother who prefers that he stay infantile and she stay as Regent on the throne. He seduces and rapes women, barely seeing a difference between the two, and lives the life of a spoiled nobleman who has never been told how to behave to his fellow humans. When one of his "conquests" drowns herself and haunts his nightmares, he seeks to reform himself. When his efforts to reform himself by half are not enough to save the lovely Odette, he agrees to reform himself wholly and becomes a better person and a fair ruler as a result.
I simply cannot recommend this book enough. At 400 pages, the reading is gripping and swift, and I simply could not put the book down. This is easily the best book I have read this year and I could not have enjoyed it more - this book is simply perfect.
~ Ana Mardoll
Swan Lake is my favorite ballet, period, and I trust Mercedes Lackey as a superb author, so I was very excited to open The Black Swan and delve deeply into the story. To my delight, Lackey has not only lived up to my expectations, but far succeeded them - I will gladly state that this is the best novel I have read this year, easily.
The story of the Swan Lake ballet is simple and Lackey does not lose the reader who might not be familiar with the source material. The evil wizard von Rothbart keeps captives maidens in his care and curses them to take the form of swans during the day, when there is no moonlight. The spell can be broken if a young man pledges his love and faithfulness to one of the ladies, the Princess Odette, and a Prince Siegfried steps forward to attempt this task, but von Rothbart plays him false and tricks him into swearing his pledge to his disguised daughter, one Odile, the black swan of the ballet. Siegfried and Odette cast themselves into the waters of the swan lake in despair. In some versions of the ballet, they are saved and von Rothbart is killed, but the ending varies according to troupe.
Lackey carefully remains true to her source material, filling in only the details of background and motivations, and her vibrant details are a delight. The gripping story follows the viewpoint of the much-neglected daughter Odile and asks the simple question: How does she feel about all this? Von Rothbart is a cold and cruel villain, and Lackey determines that he is naturally a cold and cruel father, as well. Odile is a strong sorceress, but a gentle woman, and strikes the perfect note as an unreliable narrator - she senses that she is nothing more than a tool and a vessel for her father's schemes, but she desperately believes that he loves her and that everything he does for her is for her own good. Through the course of the novel, she overcomes her scorn for the captured prisoners and comes to understand that their curse or, as von Rothbart claims, their "punishment" is not just or fair. When von Rothbart uses her against her will to trick Prince Siegfried into breaking his vow of loyalty, Odile turns on her father in shock, fear, and hatred, using her magic to kill him in order to save the prince and princess, her unlikely friends.
If this is a coming-of-maturity tale for the sheltered Odile, it is no less so for the regal Odette and the pampered Siegfried. Odette must come to face her own actions and past and determine that while her "punishment" is arbitrary, cruel, and unjust, neither were her actions completely blameless or without shame. She accepts this with dignity, and bears herself with courage and determination for the sake of her fellow captives. Siegfried, by contrast, has lived a life of pleasure and ease, encouraged by his mother who prefers that he stay infantile and she stay as Regent on the throne. He seduces and rapes women, barely seeing a difference between the two, and lives the life of a spoiled nobleman who has never been told how to behave to his fellow humans. When one of his "conquests" drowns herself and haunts his nightmares, he seeks to reform himself. When his efforts to reform himself by half are not enough to save the lovely Odette, he agrees to reform himself wholly and becomes a better person and a fair ruler as a result.
I simply cannot recommend this book enough. At 400 pages, the reading is gripping and swift, and I simply could not put the book down. This is easily the best book I have read this year and I could not have enjoyed it more - this book is simply perfect.
~ Ana Mardoll
February 12, 2022
(Read on my blog https://charmingchum.blogspot.com/202...)
I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock and her practicing with the magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain was also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too much on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.
We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan.
Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim committing suicide. He proceeds to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams.
This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.
The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went to far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock and her practicing with the magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain was also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too much on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.
We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan.
Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim committing suicide. He proceeds to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams.
This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.
The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went to far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.
May 24, 2025
I first bought and read this book when I was a teenager, and I remember really liking the story. In fact, I liked it so much that I kept it all these years knowing I would read it again someday. Well, that day finally came. I picked it up, dusted it off from my bookshelf, and just finished reading it now that I’m in my thirties. Unfortunately, it’s going straight to the donation pile. While it was nice to revisit it out of nostalgia, I found nothing likable or memorable about the story or the characters this time around.
May 4, 2008
A retelling of the Swan Lake legend. Gorgeous imagery.
July 30, 2012
This was obviously written before the Darren Aronofsky film of 2010. A lot of people will (unsurprisingly) mistake this for the story about the ballet soloist that lost her mind.
This is a fairy tale, but a very dark one.
This story is told from the PoV of Lady Odile von Rothbart, though it tends to go from Odile to Prince Siegfried. While the ballet is not to be confused as being bright and happy (there is nothing bright and happy about it) the events in the book are an example of 'It Got Worse'. This novel delves more into the darkness of everyone. It takes the personas established by the characters in the ballet and turns it on their heads. Odile, instead of the homewrecking temptress that everyone knows and loves, becomes much more sympathetic. The Queen Mother (Clothilde) isn't a generous woman with her son's best interests in mind. Baron von Rothbart is a negligent and emotionally abusive parent, Siegfried has a LOT of demons of his own, and even Odette - the gentle, weak, submissive Swan Queen - borders on the dishonest, but is slightly less weak and beat down. The characterization here is brilliant.
It's been quite a while since I've read this, so I'm not as sure about the writing as I once was. I'll just say that the story will manage to make your childhood crash and burn even more than the ballet has already made you want to wake up with nightmares.
This book is absolutely worth your time if you want an adult, slightly sexual, fairytale.
This is a fairy tale, but a very dark one.
This story is told from the PoV of Lady Odile von Rothbart, though it tends to go from Odile to Prince Siegfried. While the ballet is not to be confused as being bright and happy (there is nothing bright and happy about it) the events in the book are an example of 'It Got Worse'. This novel delves more into the darkness of everyone. It takes the personas established by the characters in the ballet and turns it on their heads. Odile, instead of the homewrecking temptress that everyone knows and loves, becomes much more sympathetic. The Queen Mother (Clothilde) isn't a generous woman with her son's best interests in mind. Baron von Rothbart is a negligent and emotionally abusive parent, Siegfried has a LOT of demons of his own, and even Odette - the gentle, weak, submissive Swan Queen - borders on the dishonest, but is slightly less weak and beat down. The characterization here is brilliant.
It's been quite a while since I've read this, so I'm not as sure about the writing as I once was. I'll just say that the story will manage to make your childhood crash and burn even more than the ballet has already made you want to wake up with nightmares.
This book is absolutely worth your time if you want an adult, slightly sexual, fairytale.
July 3, 2010
It was really nice to see a retelling of the Swan Lake story, and with Odile being more of a main character than Odette, no less! The fear Odile had for her father, Rothbart, was tangible and realistically portrayed, as well as her strong desire to please him. The background information about the kindgom was wonderful and well-described, and there were many supporting characters who played pertinent roles. My big complaint about it is Prince Siegfried. He has got to be the most lecherous, nasty prince I've ever read about! He is a bona fide sex-addict for the first half or so of the story, until he has a horrible, continuing nightmare about a gypsy woman that he raped staring blankly at him as a ghost. From that point on he starts to become better, but I just can't like him because of his earlier actions. If I were Odette, I would never have accepted him. It's too bad there was so much sexual content; otherwise I would have loved this book.
March 18, 2008
The usual Lackey fluff, but somehow less energetic than most of her efforts. Like the books from the Elemental Masters series, it's a fairytale (or fairytale-like story) retelling, but the magical system is extremely flat and never really explored much. The characters, while still tending towards melodrama in the usual Lackey style, are similarly underdeveloped, and it's hard to care too much about them. Frankly, the part of the book I enjoyed most was the loving description of the protagonist's costume for the masquerade ball at which the plot reached its lackluster climax. (Ah, Lackey, we can all tell you used to write romance.)
Sadly, not Lackey's usual capable brain candy.
Sadly, not Lackey's usual capable brain candy.
June 2, 2013
I find this to be one of Lackey’s better novels. There is wonderful development of the members of the love triangle. It is believable that the prince and Odette fall in love. The same is true of Odile, one can see the slow burn, in particular in regards to her father’s hypocrisy. The book is feminist, but it doesn’t demonize the male characters. Additionally, the reverse is also shown – the Queen herself is just as bad as the magician. The novel is in some ways about freedom and the true nature of love. The one drawback is that the members of the flock do not seem very fleshed out.
April 9, 2007
I was a big fan of Lackey when she was doing her early Valdemar books, but I haven't liked much of her non-Valdemar stuff and this one's no exception. Even though the setting was meant to be magical and fantastic, the whole book felt flat and mundane. The various love stories were boring. I was frustrated having a relatively powerful main character who was just a drudge for her father, and then a matchmaker for a pair of dull individuals. Even the ending was disappointing and dissatisfying.
September 14, 2021
I enjoyed the second half of the book, but like many other readers, it isn't enough to outweigh how rapey Siegfried is in the first half. That's simply not ok, even if you need to redeem someone - they can be in need of redemption without being a racist rapist. Odile, daughter of the sorcerer, is a well-developed character and really her story arc is the focus of the story, as perhaps it should be since she's the titular black swan.
November 2, 2007
Although others have called this book boring, I really liked it. In the beginning, most of the characters disgusted me, but as the book went on, it made their improvement only so much better. It was a nice book about finding oneself.
December 26, 2014
Possibly the best thing about this book, which tells a lovely tale, is the gorgeous cover art by Jody A Lee.
In the UK Jon Sullivan did an equally lovely cover, so ...
In the UK Jon Sullivan did an equally lovely cover, so ...
Read
September 20, 2019I still want to yeet Siegfried into the lake but decent ending otherwise
January 3, 2013
Finished this one, too! I listened to this in audiobook, a lot of which was done while I was laying around in misery after my wisdom teeth came out, so my memory of the middle bits are a bit fuzzy. This was also a reread, with this having been one of the books I've read and rated on goodreads before. I'm going to leave my rating the same even though if I were being totally fair I might take it down to 3 stars.
Mercedes Lackey is the one person who's influenced my life more than any other, and I can't see myself being the same person if I hadn't started reading her books at the tender young age of eleven. All the good and all the bad is all rolled up in me now, so reading her books is always an almost spiritual experience for me. The Black Swan has always been my favourite non-Valdemar book she's written, and not only does it hold up rather well, my involvement in feminism and social justice has really reworked some of my views on this book.
Lackey loves her fairytales. She has three separate series that deal with them, one tongue in cheek, one dark and 20th century, and one retelling the fairy tales surrounded by fantasy trappings and historical context. This is one of the latter. Her other book in this "universe," Firebird, is my OTHER favourite of her non-Valdemar novels, so I think I just have a thing for this approach to fairy tales.
Of course, Swan Lake is not exactly a fairy tale, but it's grown into one since the ballet first brought all the separate parts of the story together. Set in medieval Germany, it retells the story of Swan Lake while recasting the role of the heroine to Odile, the sorceror's traditionally evil daughter, and making Odette, the swan queen, into a supporting character in Odile's story. The plot of the book is pretty much just the plot of Swan Lake, but more fantasy and less fairy tale, so the story has more structure and less leaps of logic than the original ballet. It still follows all the same beats, however: a lovely maiden cursed to spend her days as a swan, the flock that surrounds her, the evil sorceror and his daughter that hold them captive, the prince who finds Odette and falls in love with her, the deception when the prince swears his love to Odile instead of Odette while bespelled, and then Odette's leap off the cliff when she can't bear to live. (spoilers: this version has a happy ending epilogue because it's Mercedes Lackey and every Mercedes Lackey book has a happy ending, even Magic's Price which has literally every major character die in it, so that's not really a spoiler. Except for Magic's Price, I guess.)
The obvious twist is that Odile is the lead character in this version and Lackey has the challenge of turning her into a sympathetic and interesting character while not deviating from the outline of the story. She cheats a tiny bit here and there, but overall I was impressed at how well she managed to have Odile's loyalties torn between her father and the flock more and more as the book went on, and while there's a big cheat in the infamous ballroom scene that frames the black swan dance in the ballet, I thought it was fair. Odile is a genuinely interesting heroine and I thought she managed to both fit into the historical context and the setting while still being a strong female character in the Mercedes Lackey style.
Less successful is promoting Siegfried to her costar. I appreciate the way that Lackey tried to give Siegfried a strong character arc, having him start out as a completely irredeemable bag of dicks and then ... redeeming him. And honestly, I thought that was well done. But once Siegfried meets and falls for Odette (which was not very believable) he becomes less and less important to the story as more than a plot point. Which is fine, except that we'd already invested so many words into his character arc. Despite ostensibly having second billing and sharing screentime with Odile for the first half of the book, Siegfried barely gets his mention in the epilogue.
The flatlined romance between Odette and Siegfried is definitely offset by the delightful play between Odile and Benno. The moment I saw the chemistry there I rolled my eyes at Lackey always needing everyone to be paired up, but it actually worked. Their relationship was slow building and realistic and based on mutual attraction instead of some godly love at first sight from on high like Odette and Siegfried's, and despite being very downplayed, it really managed to smooth some of the awkwardness of that other relationship just by being there.
So that's all the surface stuff. It doesn't all work, but it works more often than it doesn't, and it's genuinely enjoyable. The weird thing about this book, the thing that I totally missed the first time and was shocked at how thorough it was, is that the real twist isn't that Lackey is telling Swan Lake from the POV of the Black Swan, it's that she's using Swan Lake as a giant cypher for feminist issues.
Here is just a short list of some of the things this book directly confronts:
- Patriarchy, its existence, and its effects on women.
- Consent, the concept that a lack of a "no" does not mean a party consents.
- The disposability of middle-aged women and how a woman's "shelf life" is a terrible concept that needs to die.
- The value of female friendship and learning to be friends with other women when you've spent most of your life convinced that they are silly and worthless.
- Coersive relationships and how easy it is for male/female relationship to be unbalanced by the gender dynamics at play.
- Slut shaming, the "unfaithful woman" myth and society's insistence that a woman deserves to be punished for a crime a man does not.
I'm not even covering this all. There's no way it can be accidental, mostly because ... well, Lackey is not very subtle when she moralizes, and she moralizes a lot, but I've never seen her use an entire book as an exploration of a specific set of social issues before. This is her most subtle attempt and honestly one of her most enjoyable. She handles this all pretty deftly, espcially the relationship between Odile and her father, the friendship between Odile and Odette, and the consent issues she tackles with Siegfried's character arc.
The sad thing about this is that the fact that the book handles a lot of women's issues very well makes it such a shame how badly she completely fucks up in regards to Queen Clothilde, who is such a stereotype, the worst sort of fairy tale evil queen cliche who is "punished" for being vain and wicked like all good fairy tale evil queens are, despite the fact that she was a very good ruler and honestly her ignoble end is so tidy and ugly and makes no sense with the rest of the story and just a huge disappointment considering how fantastically the rest of the book handles feminist issues.
Mercedes Lackey is the one person who's influenced my life more than any other, and I can't see myself being the same person if I hadn't started reading her books at the tender young age of eleven. All the good and all the bad is all rolled up in me now, so reading her books is always an almost spiritual experience for me. The Black Swan has always been my favourite non-Valdemar book she's written, and not only does it hold up rather well, my involvement in feminism and social justice has really reworked some of my views on this book.
Lackey loves her fairytales. She has three separate series that deal with them, one tongue in cheek, one dark and 20th century, and one retelling the fairy tales surrounded by fantasy trappings and historical context. This is one of the latter. Her other book in this "universe," Firebird, is my OTHER favourite of her non-Valdemar novels, so I think I just have a thing for this approach to fairy tales.
Of course, Swan Lake is not exactly a fairy tale, but it's grown into one since the ballet first brought all the separate parts of the story together. Set in medieval Germany, it retells the story of Swan Lake while recasting the role of the heroine to Odile, the sorceror's traditionally evil daughter, and making Odette, the swan queen, into a supporting character in Odile's story. The plot of the book is pretty much just the plot of Swan Lake, but more fantasy and less fairy tale, so the story has more structure and less leaps of logic than the original ballet. It still follows all the same beats, however: a lovely maiden cursed to spend her days as a swan, the flock that surrounds her, the evil sorceror and his daughter that hold them captive, the prince who finds Odette and falls in love with her, the deception when the prince swears his love to Odile instead of Odette while bespelled, and then Odette's leap off the cliff when she can't bear to live. (spoilers: this version has a happy ending epilogue because it's Mercedes Lackey and every Mercedes Lackey book has a happy ending, even Magic's Price which has literally every major character die in it, so that's not really a spoiler. Except for Magic's Price, I guess.)
The obvious twist is that Odile is the lead character in this version and Lackey has the challenge of turning her into a sympathetic and interesting character while not deviating from the outline of the story. She cheats a tiny bit here and there, but overall I was impressed at how well she managed to have Odile's loyalties torn between her father and the flock more and more as the book went on, and while there's a big cheat in the infamous ballroom scene that frames the black swan dance in the ballet, I thought it was fair. Odile is a genuinely interesting heroine and I thought she managed to both fit into the historical context and the setting while still being a strong female character in the Mercedes Lackey style.
Less successful is promoting Siegfried to her costar. I appreciate the way that Lackey tried to give Siegfried a strong character arc, having him start out as a completely irredeemable bag of dicks and then ... redeeming him. And honestly, I thought that was well done. But once Siegfried meets and falls for Odette (which was not very believable) he becomes less and less important to the story as more than a plot point. Which is fine, except that we'd already invested so many words into his character arc. Despite ostensibly having second billing and sharing screentime with Odile for the first half of the book, Siegfried barely gets his mention in the epilogue.
The flatlined romance between Odette and Siegfried is definitely offset by the delightful play between Odile and Benno. The moment I saw the chemistry there I rolled my eyes at Lackey always needing everyone to be paired up, but it actually worked. Their relationship was slow building and realistic and based on mutual attraction instead of some godly love at first sight from on high like Odette and Siegfried's, and despite being very downplayed, it really managed to smooth some of the awkwardness of that other relationship just by being there.
So that's all the surface stuff. It doesn't all work, but it works more often than it doesn't, and it's genuinely enjoyable. The weird thing about this book, the thing that I totally missed the first time and was shocked at how thorough it was, is that the real twist isn't that Lackey is telling Swan Lake from the POV of the Black Swan, it's that she's using Swan Lake as a giant cypher for feminist issues.
Here is just a short list of some of the things this book directly confronts:
- Patriarchy, its existence, and its effects on women.
- Consent, the concept that a lack of a "no" does not mean a party consents.
- The disposability of middle-aged women and how a woman's "shelf life" is a terrible concept that needs to die.
- The value of female friendship and learning to be friends with other women when you've spent most of your life convinced that they are silly and worthless.
- Coersive relationships and how easy it is for male/female relationship to be unbalanced by the gender dynamics at play.
- Slut shaming, the "unfaithful woman" myth and society's insistence that a woman deserves to be punished for a crime a man does not.
I'm not even covering this all. There's no way it can be accidental, mostly because ... well, Lackey is not very subtle when she moralizes, and she moralizes a lot, but I've never seen her use an entire book as an exploration of a specific set of social issues before. This is her most subtle attempt and honestly one of her most enjoyable. She handles this all pretty deftly, espcially the relationship between Odile and her father, the friendship between Odile and Odette, and the consent issues she tackles with Siegfried's character arc.
The sad thing about this is that the fact that the book handles a lot of women's issues very well makes it such a shame how badly she completely fucks up in regards to Queen Clothilde, who is such a stereotype, the worst sort of fairy tale evil queen cliche who is "punished" for being vain and wicked like all good fairy tale evil queens are, despite the fact that she was a very good ruler and honestly her ignoble end is so tidy and ugly and makes no sense with the rest of the story and just a huge disappointment considering how fantastically the rest of the book handles feminist issues.
June 22, 2019
3 1/3. It wasn't bad per se, maybe just a little wordy. Could have used editing, as her (the main female protagonist's) thoughts took up a lot of the book that wasn't necessarily pertinent to the story.
Read
August 12, 2025Okay, obviously, this is a bad book. It is an indictment of the state of the field, but nonetheless truthful, to say that it is still the best ballet-retelling novel available. Fantasy authors of the world, get on it.
Gorgeous cover, though: top-notch. They don’t make them like this anymore.
Gorgeous cover, though: top-notch. They don’t make them like this anymore.
January 19, 2026
If you watched the non-Disney movie Swan Princess or know the story behind Swan Lake, then you will find this book to be in the uncanny valley of being almost, but truly not the same story, even down to the names. The shortest review of the book is this, it's one of Mercedes Lackey's best written, in my opinion that doesn't mean much, you should be warned that it has violence/abuse towards women, but if you're into that topic, or like Lackey's writing, you will probably like this
Our evil sorcerer is the Baron von Rothbart, the swan princess is Odette, same as Swan Princess or Swan Lake. But then our other main characters are Odile, the Baron's daughter, Prince Siegfried, his tutor Wolfgang (think the servant who mocks him in the movie) and his semi-useless best friend Benno (names drawn from Swan Lake). They have the same roles but different names. But the Prince behaves more like the movie prince where he is infinitely better at fighting and hunting and existing than everyone else because he's the prince and the protagonist. The movie was more fun because of the songs and the one servant Wesley who is a rabbit and cheekily evades everyone during the "hunting practice". In this book we've replaced fun side characters with the focus on the evil mother, Queen Clothilde, her plots (along with her evil servant/minstrel Uwe), and Prince Siegfried's endless hunt for new women, which includes his hideous behavior towards them.
HIDEOUS BEHAVIOR/VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN
In fact, let's stop on that for a moment. Hideous behavior towards women. This book is nearly a treatise on all the ways that men can be hideous towards women everywhere.
If you don't want to read even a review about truly awful behavior towards women, bow out now:
ODILE
Odile was an interesting character and I wish we'd seen more of the discussions of the swans and Odile before we got so close to the end. As with all Mercedes Lackey books, nothing happens, at very great length, until the last 100 pages. I was hoping we'd see more from Odile, she's learned all these great spells, she could do her own transformations. The back of the book suggests she might know of her father's treachery and plan to do more about it. We could also have dwelt more on the realization that Odile has to figure out how to have friends and learn to talk to people because she's been isolated her whole life. Segregated from the swans, neglected by her evil father. I really would have liked to see more of Odile.
Odette and Siegfried's romance seems way too short for such an intense passion I liked the attempt to make them a match, the scholarship they have in common, the personality match, the way she took the edge off his first response to his friend. That all made sense to me. Maybe if they'd been around for more days, or this had started earlier in the book than the last few pages the rest would have worked for me.
I did really enjoy the growing friendship between Odile and Odette and would have liked that to be more of the book. I liked Odette as a character and would also have liked for Odile to learn more of the swan's stories from their side as they journeyed. Less about the evil Queen and more about the swans is what I wanted.
Honestly, this is one of Mercedes Lackey's better books. Despite the fact that nothing much happens until the end it doesn't drag in pacing throughout huge sections the way many of her novels can. We switch between Siegfried, the Queen, Odile and the Swans and back often enough that it doesn't drag even when we go on about cleaning tapestries or buying looms for embroidery. At least, that's how I felt about it. This is one of Lackey's better books in terms of writing, characters, pacing and wrapping up the story. But be warned that it includes way more heinous behavior/violence towards women than any book should and not enough is done to atone for it.
If it weren't for the violence towards women I'd give it a solid 4. As it is, here we are.
Our evil sorcerer is the Baron von Rothbart, the swan princess is Odette, same as Swan Princess or Swan Lake. But then our other main characters are Odile, the Baron's daughter, Prince Siegfried, his tutor Wolfgang (think the servant who mocks him in the movie) and his semi-useless best friend Benno (names drawn from Swan Lake). They have the same roles but different names. But the Prince behaves more like the movie prince where he is infinitely better at fighting and hunting and existing than everyone else because he's the prince and the protagonist. The movie was more fun because of the songs and the one servant Wesley who is a rabbit and cheekily evades everyone during the "hunting practice". In this book we've replaced fun side characters with the focus on the evil mother, Queen Clothilde, her plots (along with her evil servant/minstrel Uwe), and Prince Siegfried's endless hunt for new women, which includes his hideous behavior towards them.
HIDEOUS BEHAVIOR/VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN
In fact, let's stop on that for a moment. Hideous behavior towards women. This book is nearly a treatise on all the ways that men can be hideous towards women everywhere.
If you don't want to read even a review about truly awful behavior towards women, bow out now:
ODILE
Odile was an interesting character and I wish we'd seen more of the discussions of the swans and Odile before we got so close to the end. As with all Mercedes Lackey books, nothing happens, at very great length, until the last 100 pages. I was hoping we'd see more from Odile, she's learned all these great spells, she could do her own transformations. The back of the book suggests she might know of her father's treachery and plan to do more about it. We could also have dwelt more on the realization that Odile has to figure out how to have friends and learn to talk to people because she's been isolated her whole life. Segregated from the swans, neglected by her evil father. I really would have liked to see more of Odile.
Odette and Siegfried's romance seems way too short for such an intense passion I liked the attempt to make them a match, the scholarship they have in common, the personality match, the way she took the edge off his first response to his friend. That all made sense to me. Maybe if they'd been around for more days, or this had started earlier in the book than the last few pages the rest would have worked for me.
I did really enjoy the growing friendship between Odile and Odette and would have liked that to be more of the book. I liked Odette as a character and would also have liked for Odile to learn more of the swan's stories from their side as they journeyed. Less about the evil Queen and more about the swans is what I wanted.
Honestly, this is one of Mercedes Lackey's better books. Despite the fact that nothing much happens until the end it doesn't drag in pacing throughout huge sections the way many of her novels can. We switch between Siegfried, the Queen, Odile and the Swans and back often enough that it doesn't drag even when we go on about cleaning tapestries or buying looms for embroidery. At least, that's how I felt about it. This is one of Lackey's better books in terms of writing, characters, pacing and wrapping up the story. But be warned that it includes way more heinous behavior/violence towards women than any book should and not enough is done to atone for it.
If it weren't for the violence towards women I'd give it a solid 4. As it is, here we are.
August 8, 2021
Warning up front- I am going to discuss some major plot points, and I am not going to hide them behind anything. If you want to go into the book unspoiled, then feel free to skip this review. If you are fine with some knowledge of what transpires, then carry on. From here on out, there will be spoilers.
So the premise is interesting enough- take Swan Lake, but tell it from the perspective of Odile, the black swan, who honestly doesn't do much in the ballet, but make her the central character of the story. Good, with you so far. That sounds like it could be interesting!
And, honestly, the early parts with Odile are interesting. There is a set up you want to know more about. Why is her father, the Baron, holding the maidens captive under his spell? What is Odiles own role in all of this? There is stuff to be had here! Unfortunately, though, not enough for an entire novel, so the focus frequently shifts over to Sigfried, the hero.
And that's where things go really off the rails.
Sigfried is an utter bastard. A spoiled brat who is, in fact, better looking, stronger, faster, more talented and more heroic than everyone else. He is entirely aware of this fact, and it makes him insufferable.
He's also a rapist, which is not an exaggeration or an interpretation. The plot makes very sure that we know it's a rape. It's explicit, and this event is supposed to act as a catalyst for him to improve himself, and change his ways.
Ok, ick. The hero does something horrible, his victim kills herself over it, and he's the one who gets an arc over this? Ick, ick, ick.
He doesn't seem to be a good or redeemed person (seriously, his redemption can be summed up as "stopped being quite so horrible, but still leverages his position for sex with women who work for him, and is still the effing prince of a country with everything handed to him", and yet still he whines, somehow), so the transcendent, pure love with Odette (our white swan) feels rushed, unearned, and flat.
Sigh.
I just cant get behind a rapist hero, especially when the villians of the piece are either so flat (the Baron), or are honestly much, much better characters (Queen Clotilde).
I am going to tangent onto Clotilde now, a character who is set up as the villain of Sigfrieds story, in the form of his usurping mother who doesn't want her son to take the throne.
Oh boy.
The trouble is that Clotilde seems like an awesome ruler. She's run the country with microscopic attention to detail, careful management of people, and clever use of industry. There are scenes showing how she employs impoverished noblewomen to do weaving and embroidery for her, enriching the kingdom and giving the women something to do that doesn't involving them selling themselves to the first rich dude who wants them. This sounds awesome, effective, and very practical! But the scene where we see this, somehow the credit is all given to Sigfried, for recommending a women he'd considered taking as a mistress to his mothers work room instead. He gets the glory of "saving" a woman, when he's the one endangering her in the first place. His mothers existing system for this is only the vehicle for him here, which sucks.
In fact, the plot seems to forget sometimes that Clotilde is the bad guy, and scenes are put in that seem to do "oh crap, this woman is evil. Whats the most evil thing she can do? Plot against her useless son! Yes, right, she's doing that...."
Ugh.
Away this goes. Its premise (the Black Swan), was far too light, and the added supports to that plot were terrible.
So the premise is interesting enough- take Swan Lake, but tell it from the perspective of Odile, the black swan, who honestly doesn't do much in the ballet, but make her the central character of the story. Good, with you so far. That sounds like it could be interesting!
And, honestly, the early parts with Odile are interesting. There is a set up you want to know more about. Why is her father, the Baron, holding the maidens captive under his spell? What is Odiles own role in all of this? There is stuff to be had here! Unfortunately, though, not enough for an entire novel, so the focus frequently shifts over to Sigfried, the hero.
And that's where things go really off the rails.
Sigfried is an utter bastard. A spoiled brat who is, in fact, better looking, stronger, faster, more talented and more heroic than everyone else. He is entirely aware of this fact, and it makes him insufferable.
He's also a rapist, which is not an exaggeration or an interpretation. The plot makes very sure that we know it's a rape. It's explicit, and this event is supposed to act as a catalyst for him to improve himself, and change his ways.
Ok, ick. The hero does something horrible, his victim kills herself over it, and he's the one who gets an arc over this? Ick, ick, ick.
He doesn't seem to be a good or redeemed person (seriously, his redemption can be summed up as "stopped being quite so horrible, but still leverages his position for sex with women who work for him, and is still the effing prince of a country with everything handed to him", and yet still he whines, somehow), so the transcendent, pure love with Odette (our white swan) feels rushed, unearned, and flat.
Sigh.
I just cant get behind a rapist hero, especially when the villians of the piece are either so flat (the Baron), or are honestly much, much better characters (Queen Clotilde).
I am going to tangent onto Clotilde now, a character who is set up as the villain of Sigfrieds story, in the form of his usurping mother who doesn't want her son to take the throne.
Oh boy.
The trouble is that Clotilde seems like an awesome ruler. She's run the country with microscopic attention to detail, careful management of people, and clever use of industry. There are scenes showing how she employs impoverished noblewomen to do weaving and embroidery for her, enriching the kingdom and giving the women something to do that doesn't involving them selling themselves to the first rich dude who wants them. This sounds awesome, effective, and very practical! But the scene where we see this, somehow the credit is all given to Sigfried, for recommending a women he'd considered taking as a mistress to his mothers work room instead. He gets the glory of "saving" a woman, when he's the one endangering her in the first place. His mothers existing system for this is only the vehicle for him here, which sucks.
In fact, the plot seems to forget sometimes that Clotilde is the bad guy, and scenes are put in that seem to do "oh crap, this woman is evil. Whats the most evil thing she can do? Plot against her useless son! Yes, right, she's doing that...."
Ugh.
Away this goes. Its premise (the Black Swan), was far too light, and the added supports to that plot were terrible.
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