MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1149 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Is Misty fammous? by "Daniel Svalefelt" 2) RE: Magic and Religion by Christi Redeker 3) Please do not respond to (Re: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty) by Ken Hyde 4) off topic/20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! by AERDEN-+AT+-delphi.com 5) Elves, Urban Fantasy, other good stuff by GRAYMT-+AT+-centum.utulsa.edu 6) Re: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty by DC Kincaid 7) by NightSong 8) Re: Elves, Urban Fantasy, other good stuff by Tensen 9) Dragons by "Fawcett, Erika" 10) Companion mindspeech / New Bard book? by Kris Frye 11) ADMIN: removal by Melanie Dymond Harper 12) off topic/20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! by AERDEN-+AT+-delphi.com 13) RE: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty by Christi Redeker 14) More Fluffy, very fluffy by John Hagen 15) ADMIN: listmistress absence coming up by Melanie Dymond Harper 16) Re: elven braid , very short response :) by kholder-+AT+-dutch.worc-acad.pvt.k12.ma.us (kali holder) 17) Re: listmistress help me! by "Vrondi" 18) IRC Chat Software by John Hagen 19) Re: elven braid , very short response :) by NightSong 20) Re: IRC Chat Software by Rogue Phoenix and Jasmi 21) dragon-analogs/Bardic Voices (E&N)/Gala & Tylendel's twin/Stef-Tylendel/Grffon's Companion/Warrl by "John and Kara Pekar" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 22:05:24 +0100 From: "Daniel Svalefelt" To: "Mercedes Lackey Maillinglist" Subject: Is Misty fammous? Message-ID: <199703242110.WAA29280-+AT+-d1o17.telia.com> Hello, I have a couple of question. Is Misty famous in USA? Or England? In Sweden, she isn't specially famous. I don't even think she have one of her book in the top100 bought books from the biggest SF bookstore in Sweden. Does it exist a "Every books written by Misty, and every books about Velgarth" list anywhere? Does is exist a "I want to be a famous author too, so I borrow a universe of someone else, and write a textfile" site. I have seen that kind of thing with Star Trek and Star Wars, but does anyone collect other short stories ? /The Swallow ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 11:45:06 -0500 From: Christi Redeker To: "'mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk'" Subject: RE: Magic and Religion Message-ID: I applaud Healer Althaia! I am staying out of the other religious thread, except to say to each their own. Christi Redeker > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 17:24:50 -0500 (EST) From: Ken Hyde To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Please do not respond to (Re: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty) Message-ID: On Mon, 24 Mar 1997, Josh Albers wrote: [snip of off-topic post] This is just a plea to list members to refrain from addressing this post by Josh on-list. We are never going to get past this subject if every post of this nature is addressed on-list. I know that it may strike everyone as important to respond in public, but it is ultimately a self-defeating strategy since it simply prolongs the agony and validates Josh's posts. Please, please, please, just say "no!" May the seas be your solace and the forests a refuge for your spirit, Cennydd, Kenneth Allen Hyde | No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife Univ. of Delaware | between the shoulder blades will seriously Dept. of Linguistics | cramp his style -- Old Jhereg proverb kenny-+AT+-Udel.Edu | A mind is a terrible toy to waste! -- Me **http://www.udel.edu/kenny/ken.html or .../kenny/green.silences.html** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 18:41:46 -0500 (EST) From: AERDEN-+AT+-delphi.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: off topic/20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! Message-ID: <01IGW2UWPP429I46FT-+AT+-delphi.com> Fast Fashion--I missed <20,000 Leagues Under the Sea>??? Sigh. Was this the Disney version or a remake? I got to read the unabridged 20k and discovered that Ned Land in particular was more intelligent in the book than in the Disney movie. Chantal `[1;32;43mRainbow V 1.20.2 for Delphi - Test Drive ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 17:42:03 -0600 (CST) From: GRAYMT-+AT+-centum.utulsa.edu To: MERCEDES-LACKEY-+AT+-HERALD.CO.UK Subject: Elves, Urban Fantasy, other good stuff Message-ID: <970324174203.24a4f915-+AT+-centum.utulsa.edu> Somebody wrote that Robert N. Charrette and Mark Shepard write Urban fantasy. I have to agree that their books are Good! I was a bit disappointed with Mark's "Elven Dude", the story was good but the growing ears thing drove me crazy, and it didn't tie in close enough for it to be actually in Misty's Urban universe as it was claimed on the bood cover. Robert N. Charrette and the host of other writers that write ShadowRun novels are Great! I have them all and they fall somewhere in between the realms of sci fi-fantasy (there are elves, dwarves, magic, dragons, etc.. as well as cyber-arms and cool computers) and its only in the moderate future. Good stories... ******************************* On the subject of Josh, which is sure to come up again since he just reposted, I reccommend ignoring him if you find him offensive and not devote anymore list space, after all its attention that he's looking for. ********************************* obMisty: Hmm. ::scratches head:: I was going to answer about Worrl, but everyone else did, and I agree! He was having a grand time keeping D out of the loop. Oh! I have one! Why aren't there any dragons in Velgarth? They have Elf equivelents (Tayladres) and Unicorn equivelents (Companions) so where are the dragons? Dax the Eternal, Lady of the Unicorns Goddess of Elves, Evangelist of Low Humor "I should have know better than to ask a butterfly anything serious." - The Last Unicorn ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 20:55:50 -0500 From: DC Kincaid To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty Message-ID: <333730A6.2207-+AT+-peace.oaktree.net> Josh Albers wrote: > > We're going to offend people by anything we do. What am I to do? To all... I am talking to Josh... Please do not respond to this except in private TO Josh. Please keep the list clear. If there are any Christians with experience in witnessing please discuss this with Josh at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/4021/ ... There may be some people on the list that the God I know wants to speak to, I don't know, but I have a feeling that this conversation is really going to upset people. My off list email is angel1-+AT+-oaktree.net. Dana, http://www.oaktree.net/angel1 mobilis in mobili I have a bad feeling about this... Han Solo ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 21:26:13 -0500 From: NightSong To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970325022613.00681428-+AT+-atlonline.com> GRAYMT wrote: Dragons... That's an interesting thought! Though, somehow, I just can't see ACTUAL dragons in Velgarth. I mean, the thought of a Herald going off to fight a firebreathing, maiden-snatching dragon is just ridiculous... Well, to ME, anyways. But what about those smelly basilisks? They're pretty close to the primitive types of dragons. But dragonses like those from, say, DragonLance or Pern, those might be interesting... Maybe the gryphons/makaar are their equivalent? As someone noted a LONG time ago, Draco in Dragonheart did kinda resemble a gryphon. They're smart, fancy fliers, generally have overblown self-images (well, okay, maybe that's just Skan and Treyvan, but still!), etc. Any thoughts, agreement or otherwise on the gryphon/dragon idea? Anyways, I won't ramble on like I usually do, so wind to thy wings, listsibs! NightSong ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 21:49:05 +0000 (GMT) From: Tensen To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Elves, Urban Fantasy, other good stuff Message-ID: On Tue, 25 Mar 1997 GRAYMT-+AT+-centum.utulsa.edu wrote: > Somebody wrote that Robert N. Charrette and Mark > Shepard write Urban fantasy. I have to agree > that their books are Good! I was a bit > disappointed with Mark's "Elven Dude", the story > was good but the growing ears thing drove me > crazy, and it didn't tie in close enough for it > to be actually in Misty's Urban universe as it > was claimed on the bood cover. > Yes, Charrette's books are rather good, either on his own world theme, or within the Shadowrun world. Mark's are, interesting, ranging from oddities to good writing. But then what do you expect from a book with the word 'Dude' in it :) But try his new one, SpiritRide, I just finished it... took me about 2 hours from start to finish, and I didn't want to put it down. Tensen ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 22:18:20 -0500 From: "Fawcett, Erika" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Dragons Message-ID: <199703250318.WAA27660-+AT+-postoffice.onu.edu> >GRAYMT wrote: >Velgarth? They have Elf equivelents (Tayladres) and >Unicorn equivelents (Companions) so where are the >dragons?> What about the ice drakes in LHM? Not exactly the most flattering view of our draconic friends, but pretty dragonish anyway. ---Erika "Now I know I could have walked through the walls." --The Last Unicorn ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 00:31:05 -0800 (PST) From: Kris Frye To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Companion mindspeech / New Bard book? Message-ID: On Mon, 24 Mar 1997 Lonehawk2-+AT+-aol.com wrote: > A mindspeaking gift is necessary not for a Companion to talk to their Chosen, > but for the Chosen to talk to their Companion. Yes there is a difference. > Companions can talk to anyone they choose, but they choose not to use this > gift except in dire emergencies, or if they're cranky and rebellions like > Sayviel, Kero's companion. I think this explanation makes a lot of sense, however Misty doesn't seem to be entirely consistant when it comes to mindspeech. There is the case of Talia and Rolan to consider: Apparently, Rolan can't "talk" to Talia unless she's in a trance and then only vaguely. I know that this subject has been done to death, but does anyone have a plausible explanation for this phenomenon? Sheeps all around if I've missed something really obvious. :) Oh.. and does anyone know anything else about the new Free Bard book that's supposed to come out? Is it an entirely new book, or is it merely a volume combining the books that we already know and... well, know. (The Lark and the Wren is one of my favorite Misty books, but I didn't much care for the rest of the series.) --Kris Sekrit worshipper of Wombats Shhhhh........ __________________________________________________________________________ | Kris Frye | "These are not the droids we are looking for." | | kfrye-+AT+-reed.edu | http://www.reed.edu/~kfrye | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 10:37:02 GMT From: Melanie Dymond Harper To: mercedes-lackey Subject: ADMIN: removal Message-ID: <199703251037.KAA11928-+AT+-vanyel.herald.co.uk> I've removed Josh Albers (spockears-+AT+-geocities.com) from the list. He has, in fact, the honour of being the first person who hadn't been subscribed by accident to be removed from the list, as far as I remember. A dubious honour, and one I'm not keen to bestow on anyone else any time soon. Hopefully the recriminations will die down shortly; if those of you still here could pass the word that things are returning to normal, I'd appreciate it. Maybe we'll get back some of the folks that that idiot drove away. Mel, going greyer by the day. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 07:08:52 -0500 (EST) From: AERDEN-+AT+-delphi.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: off topic/20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! Message-ID: <01IGWSY64JUA9GVBAE-+AT+-delphi.com> Fast Fashion--(scream of horror) I just saw the TV guide ad for <20K>.l There was a woman in the cast! Good point, though--Ben Cross seems to have played Nemo. I could tolerate that. (g) Obviously it wasn't the Disney movie. Sigh. Hm...Wondering if the Blues in Velgarth will ever invent submarines... Chantal `[1;30;46mRainbow V 1.20.2 for Delphi - Test Drive ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 07:35:06 -0500 From: Christi Redeker To: "'mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk'" Cc: "'spockears-+AT+-geocities.com'" Subject: RE: Josh Albers- and an Ob MIsty Message-ID: Sorry had to do it everyone... Josh no one is asking you to betray your faith, but no where in the bible does it allow anyone to persecute other religions. So please.... Leave everyone else's alone. No one here, that I can remember, personally attacked you (and if they did turn the other cheek). And no one here attacked your faith, and/or your religion. I am happy you have found "your way" not everyone's heart lies in the direction of yours and you must allow everyone to come into faith on their own terms. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." Kestri Christi Redeker > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 08:27:04 -0400 From: John Hagen To: kfrye-+AT+-reed.edu Subject: More Fluffy, very fluffy Message-ID: <3337C493.42EE-+AT+-snet.net> Welcome, o Sekrit worshipper of Wombats! The Great Wombat is pleased with thine worship and wouldst grant any of thine many petitions. Let Him know which of thine petitions thou wouldst most prefer and *poof* it shall be as thou prayest. Thus speaks the Great Wombat, through his humble priestess. This is a joke, people. Please take it as such. Lady Sara, LIG & Dryad Extraordinaire Hopeful Diety of All Marsupials, Past, Present, & Future. Priestess to the Great Wombat ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 13:37:09 GMT From: Melanie Dymond Harper To: mercedes-lackey Subject: ADMIN: listmistress absence coming up Message-ID: <199703251337.NAA17545-+AT+-vanyel.herald.co.uk> Friday 28th and Monday 31st are Good Friday and Easter Monday, and also public holidays in the UK. This means that I don't expect to be in the office during that time (working, almost certainly; in the office, no) so anything that requires me to be at my desk is likely not to get dealt with until the afternoon of Tuesday 1st at the earliest -- I have a meeting that morning. Mel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 11:50:21 -0400 From: kholder-+AT+-dutch.worc-acad.pvt.k12.ma.us (kali holder) To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: elven braid , very short response :) Message-ID: Dax said: >Roland and Gwena are the only 2 who do that directly, right? Actually the herald at the end of MPrice, the one that was escorting Stefen, was influenced by his companion, who I don't think was Grove Born. He forgot about Stefen and thought that Stefen's horse and tack was a gift for somone. BTW, do you think that after Stefen died he remembered his life both as 'Lendel and as Stefen? His appearence seemed to shift , but did he remember? Shadowsong ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 12:20:45 +0000 From: "Vrondi" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: listmistress help me! Message-ID: <199703251724.MAA28857-+AT+-fabius.globecomm.net> I seem to be getting _two_ copies of every posting from the list. Since this isn't the case with my other e-mail, I think it's list-specific. help mel! Perhaps it has something to do with my having unsubscribed, and then re-subscribed? Sincerely, -Vrondi -Chrys Amy Dean Reality check time, people,here's a whole ROLL of quarters, there's the clue machine, GO BUY SOME. -Mercedes Lackey "The Last Straw" http://edweb.concord.wvnet.edu/~deanca/book ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 15:38:48 -0400 From: John Hagen To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: IRC Chat Software Message-ID: <333829C6.7A01-+AT+-snet.net> Does anyone have the Macintosh IRC software? If not, where can I find it? I have Netscape and America Online for my two accesses to the Internet. My AOL email address is sarahaven-+AT+-aol.com. My Netscape email address is john.hagen-+AT+-snet.net. The Netscape one is actually my husband's email addy, but he lets me use it. ObMisty: Is the Web anything like the world wide web? And if so, how? Lady Sara, LIG & Dryad Extraordinaire Hopeful Diety of All Marsupials, Past, Present, & Future Priestess to the Great Wombat ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 15:51:57 -0500 From: NightSong To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: elven braid , very short response :) Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970325205157.00683cbc-+AT+-atlonline.com> ShadowSong said: >Dax said: >>Roland and Gwena are the only 2 who do that directly, right? > >Actually the herald at the end of MPrice, the one that was escorting >Stefen, was influenced by his companion, who I don't think was Grove Born. >He forgot about Stefen and thought that Stefen's horse and tack was a gift >for somone. But my question is, was that particular Herald really influenced by his Companion? I can't remember exactly what she says when he forgets, but didn't someone else, in the MW series, Elspeth, I think, speculate that perhaps that very moment was when the kingdom forgot about magic? Since the disappearance of a very famous Bard would be rather big news, and it WAS Van and Stef who set up the forget spell or whatever it was, isn't it possible that THEY made the Herald forget, not his Companion? Since those three are beyond the mortal realm, in a ghosty kind of way, and it's established in WoF that his powers are far greater as a ghost than before his death, so he could probly easily cause the Herald to forget. That's what I've always thought happened... I'd also like to apologize to you all for the message without a subject, it was unintentional. Sheeps to everyone, my treat! NightSong jwrenn-+AT+-atlonline.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 16:02:20 -0500 (EST) From: Rogue Phoenix and Jasmi To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: IRC Chat Software Message-ID: On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, John Hagen wrote: > Does anyone have the Macintosh IRC software? If not, where can I find > it? I have Netscape and America Online for my two accesses to the > Internet. My AOL email address is sarahaven-+AT+-aol.com. My Netscape email > address is john.hagen-+AT+-snet.net. The Netscape one is actually my > husband's email addy, but he lets me use it. Go to Yahoo using netscape (www.yahoo.com) and search using keyword IRCLE. You'll find some Mac IRC software under that name. It's shareware, so it should be relatively easy. See you on IRC! Rogue Phoenix and Jasmi > > ObMisty: Is the Web anything like the world wide web? And if so, how? > > Lady Sara, LIG & Dryad Extraordinaire > Hopeful Diety of All Marsupials, Past, Present, & Future > Priestess to the Great Wombat > "Zhai'helleva ashke' tal'sedr'in" -Old Valdemaran Proverb. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 16:29:16 -0500 From: "John and Kara Pekar" To: "MISTY" Subject: dragon-analogs/Bardic Voices (E&N)/Gala & Tylendel's twin/Stef-Tylendel/Grffon's Companion/Warrl Message-ID: <199703252135.QAA12762-+AT+-sasquatch.crosslink.net> Dax the Eternal wrote: >Oh! I have one! Why aren't there any dragons in >Velgarth? They have Elf equivelents (Tayladres) and >Unicorn equivelents (Companions) so where are the >dragons? Umm...gryphons? :-) They share a lot of characteristics with dragons, if you leave out the greedy miser syndrome. In fact, they remind me just a little of McCaffrey-type dragons -- human-level intelligence, form strong friendships with humans (the one-on-one bonding being transfered to Companions), carnivorous but don't eat other intelligent beings, mate "on the wing", can affect human desires when they mate, are very very large, etc. They even have a similar spicy scent (it's mentioned in WFate at one point when Darkwind is scratching or ruffling Hydona's feathers, and it's mentioned in one of the Dragonrider books when either F'lar or F'nor [I think] is leaning on his dragon...sorry no textevd, but the McCaffrey books are elsewhere at the moment.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Randy, that was *exactly* the quote I was looking for. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've noticed that a lot of people didn't think much of _The Eagle and the Nightingale_. Anyone want to comment on why? I agree, I didn't like it as well as some of the other books, nor as well as _The Lark and the Wren_ (well, the first 3/4 of that one, anyway -- I still think that book should have ended with Lark & Wren getting together, and ML should have fleshed out the whole Kestrel story into a full-length novel -- but that's another subject!) But I did see a lot to enjoy in E&N...I liked the glimpses into the life of a "wand'ring minstrel" at various levels of accomplishment. I was encouraged by the growing movement within the Church against the oppressive faction -- maybe ML is going to move away from the "Evil Church oppressing all the sympathetic characters" formula. I appreciated the opportunity to learn a little more about the Deliambrians. And I enjoyed the chance to get to know Nightingale better; she intrigued me in the other books. That said, the characterizations were not as deep as in some of ML's other books, nor was the reader quite as "involved" with the characters; nonetheless, it wasn't a bad book, IMHO. I do hope that if she continues the series, she explores the growing conflict within the Church. If it were done well, and without resorting to formula or stereotype, that could be fascinating. -- I know, I know, religion again. Well, it's as powerful a force in history and in many individual's lives as politics or love; how can a writer who enjoys developing and exploring cultures possibly avoid it without weakening the book? One of my few quibbles with McCaffrey even in her early books was that the Pernese do not seem to have any sort of religion to speak of. That's just not plausible -- if they didn't have one to begin with, they would have developed one over the generations. People do look for explanations of the unexplainable, and they do search for transcendence. A world of human beings without any religion, no matter how well drawn otherwise, always strikes me as being lopsided, or even unrealistic. (And of course, including the religious aspects of a culture is one of the things that Misty usually does well, and one of the many reasons I enjoy her work.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Renee Markowicz wrote: >"For that matter, there was a feeling of familiarity about Stefen, as if he and >the Bard had been old friends of the kind that can say anything to each >other, and forgive anything..." (p. 120 WoFury). Skif is Medren, reincarnated? >Takers anyone? I had the same thought on reading that passage. It's not impossible; they share some similarities of personality. Both are extremely loyal to their friends, both have a tendency to "big brother" those who need it (Medren with Stef, Skif with Talia and the young Elspeth), neither is particularly ambitious or self-serving, both are likeable young men with a good sense of humor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Someone (I've lost the post) was asking why Gala and/or Tylendel's twin weren't offered the chance to be with Van, 'Fandes, and Stefan as the guardians of Sorrows. Here's my take: The Companion bond appears to be dissolved by death (although a friendship probably remains.) Otherwise, it would be unlikely that a Herald would choose to come back as a Companion; s/he would prefer to stay with his/her original Companion. If the Companion bond is dissolved by death, then the fact that Gala repudiated Tylendel is moot; he died, and so did she, so the bond is dissolved. Therefore, there is no need for Gala to be part of the group guarding Sorrows. She either chose to return to the Havens or to be reincarnated again. (Or both. I suspect that "heavenly" time runs parallel to "earthly" time in Velgarth, since in the Mage Storms books, even the Star-Eyed and Vkandis seem unable to predict exactly what will happen too far in the future. If time does run in parallel, a dead Herald or Companion could go to the Havens to rest, and return as a Companion or Herald later. We know the reincarnation isn't simultaneous with death -- look at Savil/Sayvil.) I suspect that a twin bond is also disrupted by death, so Tylendel's twin is not bonded to Stefan. I don't have any evidence for this except the fact that 'Lendel's twin doesn't join Stef in Sorrows...but that seems like pretty compelling evidence to me, especially given the evidence that the Companion bond doesn't survive either. Of course, that would suggest that a lifebond doesn't survive, and there is conflicting evidence on that score. Is Van's lifebond with Stef a continuation of his bond with 'Lendel, or a new bond? Are Tre'valen and Dawnfire an exception because they become Avatars and so aren't really dead? We batted this question around a few weeks ago, and didn't really reach a conclusion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shadowsong wrote: >BTW, do you think that after Stefen died he remembered his life both as 'Lendel and as Stefen? His appearence seemed to shift , but did he remember? Interesting question. If the [usual] point of reincarnation is to grow and learn, and to profit from or work off karmic debts incurred by one's previous mistakes, then it would seem logical that someone would remember past lives, once dead. I got the impression in SB that Florian remembered both of his incarnations. OTOH, Stef might be a special case...he's dead, but I got the impression that he went immediately from his life to his spirit-life with Van in Sorrows. That might, possibly, short-circuit the "usual" process of remembering? He doesn't seem aware of having been 'Lendel when he speaks to Skif and Nyara. Then again, even if he did remember being 'Lendel, he wouldn't make an issue of it with any living Valdemaran; he, Van, and 'Fandes are clearly "on the side of the angels", and might well be in on the conspiracy to keep Heralds and other Valdemarans from suspecting the true nature of Companions. (Which, of course, is why 'Fandes keeps to Companion form when they meet Elspeth, Darkwind, Gwena, et al.) So I'd say it's still an open question. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shadowsong also wrote: >What is the name of Griffon;s companion? >Depending on wich book you check it is either Farist or Harevis. Unfortunately, this one will have to go down to author inconsistency. Actually, it's the sort of thing one would like a copyeditor to catch, but copyeditors rarely have time to read previous books before embarking on the book at hand, so the best they can manage is interior consistency, i.e., within that book, rather than among books of a series. It might be helpful for authors who write series ought to keep a running index/encyclopedia for themselves of names, relationships, traits/abilities, maps, floor plans, foreign terms, etc. It adds extra work, but it would eliminate instances like this one. Look up "Griffon", find "Companion: Farist", and you don't have to make up a new name. Of course, a lot of authors probably already do this; for all I know, ML may do it, and simply missed getting Griffon's companion in the index. (Can you tell that I'm an indexer-in-training? ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've thought of another point regarding Warrl. The bond between him and Tarma is very similar to a Companion bond or lifebond in terms of the psychic relationship between the two of them. In OBreakers, when Warrl is defending Jadrek from attack by Raschar's assassin, Tarma feels Warrl's rage and "sees" through his eyes; it's at that moment that she becomes aware of just how strong the mindmate bond has become. [Obreakers, ch. 7, p. 335, SFBC omnibus ed. of V&H] The question is, how and why did Warrl bond to Tarma? Part of the answer to why is that he chose her over Kethry, when Kethry was calling for a familiar; his reasoning was that Kethry didn't need him because she had Need, and Tarma did need him. He also found Tarma to be more like him: ":We are alike, we two; both warriars for the Light, both--celibate--:" [OBound, ch. 5, p. 95, SFBC omnibus ed. of V&H] But my point is, why did he bond at all? Why not simply accompany them, mindspeaking with them but unbonded, as Rris does with the Treyvan and Hydona? And *how* did he bond with Tarma? Was it a result of Kethry's spell, or is bonding-by-choice something any kyree can choose to do? He was under no coercion; White Winds mages don't coerce, and Kethry specifically said that some kyree are *willing* to become mage-familiars [ibid.; italics mine]. If kyree are able to bond at will, I wonder why we don't see more examples of it. I also wonder -- why are there no kyree near k'Sheyna Vale? It would seem to me that association with the Tayledras would be advantageous to the kyree -- the use of hands, when those would be helpful; the exchange of ideas, information, and histories, such as Rris is collecting; and frankly, the protection that being within Tayledras territory would afford. There are obviously kyree somewhere in the Pelagirs, because it only takes several hours from the time Kethry breaks out of trance (having presumably contacted Warrl) to Warrl's arrival in their camp [ibid., p. 94-95]. So why none near k'Sheyna? I'd think if they had once been there, and fled due to the troubles k'Sheyna experienced prior to and during WFate & WChange, Darkwind or Dawnfire or ML would have mentioned them somehow, but there is no mention of there ever having been kyree in that neck of the woods. A puzzlement. Ideas, anyone? Wind to thy wings, Kara "So many books, so little time" ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1149 **********************************