I bought her stuff religiously back when I was an angsty, self-pitying
twentysomething. (She wasn't writing yet when I was an actual
teenager.) A lot of that is now unreadable to me, but I find myself
reading her newer "Elemental Mages" books at least once a year now.
It's fluff, but it's _good_ fluff. If you just want something to
snuggle down with and enjoy, she makes Elizabeth Peters look like a
demanding read. (I was going to mention JD Robb in the same context,
but Robb doesn't repeat herself like Lackey or Peters.)
The only exception to that rule is "The Gates of Sleep." The Sleeping
Beauty archetype requires that a set of loving parents with
supernatural powers of their own voluntarily give up their newborn
daughter and never see her again because friends of theirs, as foster
parents, might be able to protect her better. I don't think I'm n
unusually devoted parent, but I would have tried about ten different
plans (including suicidally risky ones) before that option. For one
thing, I like to think I'd have killed the Evil Overlady on the spot
while she was standing around making threats at the christening, best
time for it.
I don't fault Lackey for not being a parent. That, like the Mobile
Infantry, is much too im****tant a job for draftees. But surely she's
MET a parent at some point.
I also like her Tudors and Elves set co-written with Roberta Gellis.
Same light fluffy fun, but Gellis adds a backbone of historical
rigor .
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