Music to My Sorrow

Mercedes Lackey · Rosemary Edghill

Aug 2005 · Urban Faerie - Eric Banyon Book 4 · Baen Publishing Enterprises

About this ebook

Eric Banyon, also known as Bedlam's Bard, managed to rescue his young brother Magnus from what seemed to be a killer demon (in Mad Maudlin), but now he must rescue Magnus again, this time from their tyrannical parents.

Eric does not look forward to the battle, but is confident he can gain custody. His financial sources are virtually unlimited, his friend Ria Llewellyn heads the most high-powered law firm in New York, and in a pinch he and his friends can use to magic powers, even flummoxing a DNA test, it comes to that.

What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting "bad" children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker¾malevolent creature from the elf world¾drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind.

If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Ratings and reviews

Such a disappointment. The first 5 books (to Spirits...) are generally good, although too often the main characters survive by luck, and despite their failings, which I don't think is intended. Maudlin and Sorrow are more of the same, but worse. Eric, despite facing both mundane and magical foes again and again, seems to lose sight of the fact that he is a nexus of conflict and becomes blasé about what might be going on in any situation. He exacerbates this by failure to actually communicate, and I was actually hoping that he would die in Mad Maudlin, just to put us out of his misery. MtMS extends this, and suddenly Hosea and Ria, generally more competent in MM, become equally lax, and craft excuses as to why they shouldn't be on guard against the forces that have always been arrayed against them. I get that an author needs to make things bad for her characters, but when the story's central conflicts result from the heros' incompetence, it feels lazy. Finished only for completeness.

About the author

Mercedes Lackey, author of the bestselling Heralds of Valdemar and Bardic Voices series, began life as a child and has been attempting to rectify that error ever since. Named for actress Mercedes McCambridge, she has been trying with no success to get the Benz automobile authorities to recognize the natural link between her name and theirs, and offer her the use of an M100 or some variety of high-end sports car for gratis. This, too, has had a distinct lack of success. Other than writing she can be found at various times prying the talons of the birds of prey she is attempting to nurse back to health out of her hands, endangering her vision by creating various forms of Art Beadwork, and cross-stitching dragons, gryphons, and other semi-mythological fauna. At the moment, her hair is red, her favorite color is green, and she is covered by various members of her flock of pet parrots, cockatoos and macaws, all of which are trying to help her type8shgalal-akejbejks9ife.