It's been a dog's age since I last read this, but it's held up reasonably well. Maybe not quite 5 stars, but 4 and a bit, and I'll round up for nostalgia's sake and for creativity's sake. Basically, this is a plot that is very close to unique in fantasy, in that it's a classic Man vs. Nature plot. There's no cackling evildoer here, no demon or wizard or ancient prophecy. It's about survival, and I *really* like that element. To say more would be a spoiler, but suffice to say that the predators h...

Mercedes Lackey is one of my all time favorite authors and I've been reading her work for well over 20 years. The Black Gryphon is one of my favorites and I don't mind The White Gryphon too badly, but The Silver Gryphon was close to travesty. It was full of "my family doesn't understand me" teen angst, the usual youngling arrogance presuming they're smarter/better than their elders regardless of their total lack of experience, and heavily experienced characters reduced to wimpy cardboard cutouts...

Although I really liked the fist two books in the Mage Wars trilogy, this was quite disappointing. This story is not at all about the main characters you have come to expect from the first two books, but their troublesome offspring. It is a protracted romp through the woods, with the two main characters being hunted by some unknown force, which of course ends happily and victoriously. No political intrigue as in the first books, but mostly an "action" read. Lots of accidents, running, fighting a...

The first three books - chronologically - in the Valdemar series were good enough, but seemed to me to be stories that could have been told in one book instead of three. They were drawn out way more than was needed with a lot of boring dialogue and description that were totally unnecessary to the story. Considering the fact that these three books take place 1000 years before the actual founding of Valdemar, I question whether or not they're even needed. A lot of what takes place in them could ea...

Slow, boring, a complete disappointment compared to it's two predecessors.

All of the books in this trilogy have been extremely different from each other. This one instead of focusing on Skan and drake focuses on their children who after many years of peace in the city of White gryphon are struggling to define themselves as a separate and worthy people and out from under the shadow of their legendary fathers. Their fathers meanwhile are shown primarily as parents, somewhat overbearing and unable to comprehend the pushback they’re getting from their kids. Tad and Silver...

When I started this installment, it was such a relief to get away from Amberdrake and Skandranon that I happily plowed through the first few chapters. Unfortunately, the rest of the read is fairly tedious, with the same cycle of hiking, making camp, making food, eating, talking/thinking about what had caused the crash, and seeing something move in the shadows. I generally like survival stories, but this was boring! We don't get any real confrontation until the end of the book, and (view spoiler)...

This book is an extended camping trip, at least once they finally make it away from White Gryphon city. They survive, they camp, they debate strategy until they are finally rescued but were doing a pretty darn good job of rescuing themselves without Drake and Skan arriving to help. Still though, I love what the rest of the series becomes, maybe it's just the full blown Larry Dixon combos that don't shine as much? I couldn't really remember these books, even though I read them not too many years

This isn't my favorite book in the series, but it's still very good. This is a different type of the story than the first two in the series. This is more of a survival story than any big bad villain. I love this world and it is fun to see Skan and Drake's kids all grown up and trying to find their own way.Blade and Tad have both struggled being the children of the heroes. Their parents are the saviors of their entire people. They both feel the need to get out from under their parents shadow and

2 stars, an underwhelming end to an often lackluster trilogyThis book starts out with a strong idea: "how do the children of Skandranon and Amberdrake feel about having to live up to their famous parents' legacies?" Unfortunately, the children just aren't interesting enough as characters to anchor a whole book and the plot feels pretty trivial. Add in some pacing problems and the whole book feels like a short story that was mistaken stretched out to barely novel length. It has its moments but I

This book is just bafflingly bad considering how much I like the rest of the Valdemar world and even the first two books in this trilogy. First of all, the book is told mostly from the point of view of the main characters of the first two books in the trilogy's children. This is a first (and I believe only) for the series, and it's a very BAD thing. The parents, the main characters we know and like from the last two books are reduced to strange, contradictory cutouts in comparison to their previ...

Where the first book in this trilogy is pure fantasy and the second book is more of a murder mystery, the final book is more like the classic tale of survival. Now, this is a reread for me like the first two were, but once again I started to look at this book a little more broadly. It is definitely a fantasy book, but it's so much more that that. This books is the most personal of the three of them, simply because it's main focus is on two individuals throughout most the of the book. You are abl...

I don't know why, but this is my solid favorite if the 3. It barely had the original characters, but I can't help it. It's one of my go to, brainless summer reads. It does a good job of creating suspense, I like Blade and Tad, and there is the right amount of Drake, who I got rather sick of in the second book (despite him being one of my favorite characters in book 1). I enjoyed the debates about strategy here, where they frustrated me in the 2nd book. Like all Mercedes Lackey books, the protago...

The first two in the series were good but this one it just felt like she decided to tack on one more and did not have much to go on. Add to that the ending just seemed to jump off a cliff and the story over all was very boring and the plot throughout the entire book drags. I finished it but I really hated how she seemed to suddenly rush to the end and as I like to put it "The ending jumped off a cliff." My advce read [Book: The Black Gryphon] and [Book: The White Gryphon] They end just fine leav...

A wonderful tale full of adventure, myth, love, magic and surprises.Mercedes really has a way of luring me into her story and unable to pull back until the end. I loved getting to revisit Scan, Drake and all of the beloved characters from the previous two books as well as the next generation. I hope to see traces of them in other stories though I'm truly sorry to see this particular era end and I loved the sketches that her husband did. They are such a talented duo. I can't wait to see what othe...

"Heroes don’t ever live as long as they want to, and most die young."My favorite thing about these books is how different all of the plotlines are. The Black Gryphon is pure action, The White Gryphon is a mystery, and The Silver Gryphon is an adventure. We venture outside the city into the forest and must survive without magic, without help, injured and lost. It's a story of comradery and overcoming obstacles, about the love of friends and family. A great end to the trilogy, definitely left me w...

Skandrannon & Amberdrake’s children are adults now, and going nuts from having their protective parents be who they are. They get an assignment to man a patrol post a long way from the city, but on the way, they crash when all the magic is drained out of their transport. Then they have to survive the rain forest and figure out what caused the problem and get to a place where their rescuers can find them. Lots of adventure. Pretty good read.

I remember reading this book when it was first released. I loved it then and I love it now.This series probably launched my love of fantasy and the paranormal. The writing is easy to read and the story line, characters, and world building are all amazing. I would recommend this series to ages 15+ due to violence and some suggestive languages.

I read this when I was eleven. I thought it was so scary that I fell asleep with the light on while reading it at three in the morning. It was so good, and kept me on my toes. Unlike other 'scary' books, it wasn't gory or so psychological as to be ridiculous. I loved it.

Giving a Mercedes Lackey book a one star is painful, but this was an awful book. Slow and repetitive. I'm glad that it wasn't the first Lackey book I came across because I doubt I would be tempted to try another of her books if it had been. :(

A great addition to the series. It moved a little slow in some parts and it took longer than I liked to find out what the danger was, but I still loved this book. I have read it a few times now, and I will definitely read it again in the future.

The children of our favorite gryphon-human friends prove as stalwart and canny as their parents. Lots of scary and suspenseful bits.

The Silver Gryphon is the last book in The Mage Wars trilogy. In The Black Gryphon we learn about a therapist/masseur human named Amberdrake and his best friend, a prideful war leader gryphon named Skandranon. The world crashes down around them in the Cataclysm, and the “good guys” are spread all over the globe to rebuild. In book two, The White Gryphon, ten years later Amberdrake and Skandranon are out-of-shape new parents working on building a city called White Gryphon, but they learn they hav...

This conclusion to the “Gryphons” trilogy takes a different tack than the first two, focusing not on Skandranon and Amberdrake but on their children. The original heroes of the trilogy are getting older, and it’s time for the torch to be passed, so to speak. Blade and Tadrith are trained as Silver Gryphons, the guards and military of the city of White Gryphon. Desperate to get out of the city and out from under the shadows of their respective parents, they are thrilled to have their first solo m...

While different from the first two books in the series, The Silver Gryphon was just as good in it's own right.In this story, it is the children or f Skandranon and Amberdrake who are the focus. There is Silverblade - Blade for short - Amberdrake's only child; a daughter who seems to be terrified of being just like her father; and the twins, Tadrith and Keenath, Skandranon's sons. Both Blade, and Tad, volunteered to join the Silvers - the peacetime version of the White Gryphon City Guard - in bot...

Third and last in the Mage Wars subseries, part of the Valdemar Universe (BF 975) and revolving around Tadrith (Skan's son) and Blade (Amberdrake's daughter) some 15 years after The White Gryphon , 2. If you're interested, there is a chronological listing of the Valdemar books on my website.My TakeIt's a scary time for Skan and Drake: The kids are growing up. I can sure understand Skan and Drake commiserating with each other over their growing old. I can so relate, lol.Lackey uses third perso...

The Silver Gryphon caught me by surprise! I didn't know what to expect after the first two books of this trilogy… This is a refreshing change of pace after the last book! Heck, after all the Valdemar books. A fantasy survival story? How fun!From the start, I fell in love with the idea of exploring the protagonists of The Black Gryphon and The White Gryphon from a completely different perspective. When we were introduced to Silverblade and Tadrith as Amberdrake and Skandranon's children, I was th...

3.5 starsI enjoyed this one a lot more than White Gryphon but not quite as much as Black Gryphon. All and all a good trilogy that shows the beginning of the Valdemar. I'd love it if Lackey would go back and write more between this time and the next series chronologically.Once again this is quite a different book than the first 2. This one follows this kids who are trying to make names for themselves outside of their hero parents. They want to be known as their own people and prove themselves. It...

What a disappointment. It's never a good sign when a series switches focus to the protagonist's children - the only book that's pulled it off that I can think of this I can think of is Abhorsen, honestly. But still, even though I was struggling to connect with Tad and Blade, when this book started to show signs of being another weird out-of-genre experience I was on board. Sign me up for survival horror fantasy! But ultimately I just didn't care enough about either character to worry about their...

12 years later, Skandranon’s twin sons Tadrith and Kenath and Amberdrake’s daughter Windsong, now known as Silverblade, are grown up and ready to start their adult duties protecting and caring for the Triundian city: White Gryphon. When Tad and Blade are finally sent on an assignment it’s at a far distant guard tower. But on their way there, disaster strikes, all magic items are inert and they’re left to survive on their own until rescue comes.I love the descriptions of how the city was built wi...