Lackey: The Fairy Godmother - Making Happy Endings

LIGHT

I don't pick up everything Mercedes Lackey writes, because I have problems with most stories in the sword-and-sorcery genre. Once in a while, though, an S&S writer picks a fresh viewpoint in this murky swamp, and you get something worth reading. So I was pleased that in The Fairy Godmother, Lackey not only gives us that fresh view, but also succeeds in applying it to dozens of well-known older fairy tales.

She does this by telling them from the perspective of a fairy godmother striving to achieve happy endings for the poor wights on her watch list. I especially enjoyed allusive references to stories that don't get much play anymore in this age of political correctness.

With a step-mother and two selfish sisters, Elena is already pre-destined for her part in a Cinderella tale—problem is, the local prince is only four years old. In the magical system she inhabits, this means she will die tragically. Fortunately for Elena, she discovers another option: beat the system by becoming a fairy godmother herself. Then she discovers that the system always bites back!

Lackey does have a talent for dialog, especially that of strong-willed, intelligent women. (Her alchemical spinster The Fire Rose comes to mind - perhaps Lackey should have been tapped to write Angelina Jolie's lines in Alexander.)


The book was apparently written to inaugurate a new "romantic SF" line, reviewed as uncomplicated, but likeable.