From a High Tower (Elemental Masters)

Mercedes Lackey is one of my all-time favorite authors. She is incredibly prolific and has a fantastic gift for storytelling. From a High Tower is the latest in Ms. Lackey’s Elemental Masters series. From a High Tower is her twist on the Rapunzel tale and sets it in the world of her Elemental Masters. We also see quite a bit of Rosamund from Blood Red (Elemental Masters #10). These books stand alone. Where the earlier books in this series had a bit of romance in them it is rather lacking in this book. There is some flirting and a hint of perhaps a future but if you are reading this for romance. Don’t. If you are reading this for a damn good story by all means you won’t be disappointed.
Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.

Who knew one of the most prolific writers who wrote stories set in the American Old West was, in fact, German?

From a High Tower is a delightful introduction to author Karl May (1842-1912), of whom most people in the English-speaking world have never heard [including yours truly, of course].

Karl May invented "his" Old West out of whole cloth but his legions of fans neither knew nor cared that May had gotten it all completely wrong.

So, what if the "Indians" [Native Americans] are not traditionally portrayed as the heroes [the role traditionally given to American cowboys]?

It did not matter to Karl May that "his" Old West had no basis in fact. [Note that he was able to get away with "reinventing" the Old West because his German readers had never been to America and chose to believe him when he claimed that he had. ] And he was a terrific storyteller!

AND this allowed Mercedes Lackey to bring in a Native American Elemental Master and share what Elemental Masters were like in the real "Old West" on the Native American plains.

So, this has to be one of my top favorite books in the Elemental Masters series. Yes, it is another retelling of Rapunzel but the Wild West Show (shades of Annie Oakley, who actually appears in the book as a competitor doing the same type of Wild West Shows as our protagonists) really "steals the show" in this book so far as I'm concerned!

This is the last Elemental Masters book based on a fairy tale retelling. What a rousing finish for this portion of the series!

Highly recommended!

Ms Lackey's description of a hack in the prologue is faulty, and perhaps a bit defensive. " the definition of a “hack” is this: a strong, dependable horse that can always be relied on to get you where you want to go. There are worse things to be."

In modern usage, I'd say that a hack is more commonly a worn out horse, not fit to ride, not dependable.

It's also a writer producing uninspired, banal work.

Hackwork is formulaic writing, and it's my view that this is exactly what Ms Lackey has been creating, over and over and over. She's managed to create some stories that are quite entertaining, despite their flaws, but in recent books? Where is her attention?

She wrote some successful stories early on and has ridden that horse pretty much to death, dragging short stories out into trilogies even when they might have benefited from a tighter structure.

In recent years, her bad habits have been more and more obvious; her apparent lack of engagement with the characters, the audience and the story draining the life out of even the most compelling moments in reliable old fairy tales. She is a better writer than this, I know it, but her skills have not been evident lately.

I get it, not every novel is high literature, not every author is aiming for that. I really do think that an author with a loyal audience should respect the fact that people are giving up bits of their free time to immerse themselves in the worlds she creates.

I'm not sure why she's made such a point of deriving inspiration from an author most people have never heard of (see the prologue), but it seems to me that she really ought to have done a better job of it.

Despite the huge number of glowing reviews, I found it lifeless and uninspired, moments inexplicably falling flat when they should crackle with energy. There's really no excuse.

Bad writing is a waste of the author's time and mine.

This used to be one of my favorite of her series, but no more.

From A High Tower
Mercedes Lackey
DAW, Jun 2 2015, $25.95
ISBN 9780756408985

In Freiberg, Friedrich Schnittel struggles to feed his eight children and pregnant wife Maria when he finds a plentiful garden. He brings home food, but on his third nocturnal raid, a cold female voice growls at him for stealing from her garden. Instead of her dogs attacking him or prison, the Earth Master allows him to continue to feed his children and spouse in exchange for the soon to be born baby.

Mother raises Giselle in isolation except somewhat for the Black Forest Foresters. Whenever Mother must leave Giselle by herself, she locks her daughter inside a tower allegedly to keep her safe. While Mother is in Fredericksburg, a handsome young man Johann Schmidt arrives at the Tower. She helps him up into the Tower, but when he attacks her, she displays the skills of an Air Master until Mother tosses the rogue out the window. When Mother dies, Giselle dressed as Gunther leaves her only home.

The Eleventh Elemental Masters (see Blood Red and Steadfast) is an engaging version of Rapunzel. Readers will appreciate the heroine’s hairy misadventures, but lacks tension as Giselle’s key adversary makes extremely limited appearances.

Harriet Klausner

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

As the book’s small description says, From a High Tower, has as the main plot the fairy tale of Rapunzel, but like all of the Elemental Masters stories, this story is more than the one you have seen in the kid’s movies. The beginning of the book starts more closely to the original tale, as Giselle (our Rapunzel) is attacked by the man that she lets into her tower; he is about to rape her but her mother arrives in time to save her and sends the man out the four floor tower window. Even though Giselle shows signs of becoming an Air Master in the future, her mother decides that she needs to know how to defend herself without the help of her magic or elementals, so she asks her friends of the Bruderschaft to train Giselle in the arts of hunting.

Years later, after the death of her mother, Giselle takes the persona of a young man to be able to enter shooting contests, and win some money to live by. But when her name doesn’t appear in the logs of the army, a captain learns the truth and tries to take advantage of her. In her fear and rage, she ends up killing the man and flees the scene leaving behind the persona. With the help of a local Earth Master she is able to escape and ends up in an American traveling show. A couple of Slyphs point her to the direction of the shooting act and she is able to impress them, getting a job until winter with the show. But the shadow of her past still haunts her, as they never found the body of the man that attacked her in tower.

I liked this story in the Elemental Masters series, and the characters were great to read. Giselle over the course of the story changes a lot and manages to help her friends of the show. I liked that a reader could relate to her because of her fondest for books, and gets to experience and meet American people that she only read in them.

This time, there is not the same amount of magic being used compared to the other books, but the magic shown is very interesting. We learn of more types of spells, charms, and even about the special properties of Giselle’s hair. I also liked the scene where they encounter magical creatures, good and evil.

For fans of the series, we are able to see Rosamund again. Rosa is a Hunt Masters and the main character from the previous book, Blood Red. We see her as an agent of the Bruderschaft and later she becomes friends with Giselle. She is able to help Giselle finish her magic studies and summon greater forces.

The only things that I would have liked to see was Giselle’s family in the background or just a mention of them by the author. Even though, some stories portrait the woman that takes the girl as evil; in this story, Giselle’s mother ends up saving her life.

If you are a fan of Mercedes Lackey’s work or the Elemental Masters series, I recommend you From a High Tower. In this story, a girl learns how harsh the world outside her comfort zone can be, that looks can hide evilness under them, and that her views are not always correct, but is willing to learn better.

From a High Tower (2015) is the tenth Fantasy novel in the Elemental Masters series, following Blood Red. The initial volume in this sequence is The Serpent's Shadow.

In the previous volume, Rosa's mother was unhappy within the village. The villagers tried to become friends with her, but she persisted in dressing like city folk. Rosa's father believed that time would change Mutti.

Rosa's tutor in earth magic lived within the forest. Rosa's family called her grandmother, although her real grandmothers were dead. One morning, Rosa went to visit her grossmutter with a basket of pastries baked by her Mutti.

Rosa wore a red cloak with a hood. She crosses the village field and the water meadow. Then she reached the dark woods. The forest was more silent than normal. It felt like all the elementals were hiding.

Rosa encountered a stranger on the path. He was dressed as a hunter, but had no gear. Rosa thought that he might be a witchfinder.

In this novel, Giselle is an Air Mage. She had been the ninth child of a poor family.

Annaliese is an Earth Master. She has adopted Giselle.

Gretchen is an Earth Master. She is elderly and is known to everyone as Tante Gretchen.

Johann Schmidt claims to be a hunter. He is scouting out the forest near the abandoned abbey.

Erich Von Eisenhertz is a Captain in the Bavarian Army. He commands a troop at Mittelsdorf.

In this story, Annaliese adopts a baby, which she names Giselle. For several years, the child is tended by a brownie. When she becomes a teenager, Annaliese locks her into the tower of the old abbey as she goes for supplies.

One day, a hunter appears when Annaliese is away. He introduces himself as Johann. He keeps coming back to talk to Giselle.

On the third day, he suggests that Giselle tie a rope to a poker and brace it accross the window. Giselle follows his advice and he climb up. As he comes in the window, his manner changes and he ties Giselle's arms to her bed.

Annaliese arrives and confronts the hunter. She backs him up against the window. He tries to grab the rope, but it is no longer these. He falls four stories to the ground.

Giselle is very frightened and disturbed by the incident. Then she learns that the hunter's body has disappeared. She takes lessons in self-defense from the Brotherhood.

Giselle becomes a very good shooter. With the help of her sylph friends, she is more accurate. After Annaliese dies of pneumonia, Giselle disguise herself as a boy and enters shooting contests to gain money for expenses.

She has just won the contest a Mittelsdorf and is out drinking with her fellow contestents. An Army Captain interrupts the celebration to question her about her conscript status. He and his soldiers take her back to his camp.

Giselle is confused by the questions. She was not aware that boys had to sign the conscript papers at sixteen. She confesses that she is a girl and the Captain backs her up against the wall.

Giselle asks the night sylphs to take his air. When she recovers from his rough handling, she is told that the Captain is dead. She checks the body and finds it cooling off.

This tale takes Giselle way from Mittelsburg. She asks her sylphs to guide her to the nearest Elemental Master. The sylphs bring her to Gretchen.

Gretchen tries to convince Giselle that she was not responsible for the Captain's death. Giselle resists her reasoning and still feels responsible. After a few days, Giselle rides off to return home.

Then Giselle becomes a sharpshooter in a traveling Wild West show. The next installment in this sequence has not yet been announced on the store.

Highly recommended for Lackey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of elemental mages, abused children, and a bit of showmanship. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

I made the mistake of thinking that, since the cover characters looked similar, this was a continuation of Rosa's story from Blood Red. This is an entirely separate story and, in my opinion, more interesting and complex. It does not have the depth of feeling that Lackey's early Valdemar stories has, but it is entertaining. I think everyone else has said enough to round it out.

Another great book from Mercedes Lackey! This starts out as a retelling of Rapunzel with Ms Lackey's "spin" on it. From there the main character joins a Wild West Show in Germany. It just gets better and better from there. If you enjoy her Elemental Masters series, you will love this one.

Another fine yarn from Lackey: an easy style, a clever twist on a classic tale, a sympathetic hero(ine), and a full-fledged world. The shift of the series to the Black Forest has triggered new vigor.

Mercedes Lackey is one of my all time favorite authors and I eagerly anticipate each new books availability. I am about 1/3 of the way thru the book and competely enjoying it. I can't wait for more books in this series and others to be written.

Who knew one of the most prolific writers who wrote stories set in the American Old West was, in fact, German?

From a High Tower is a delightful introduction to author Karl May (1842-1912), of whom most people in the English-speaking world have never heard [including yours truly, of course].

Karl May invented "his" Old West out of whole cloth but his legions of fans neither knew nor cared that May had gotten it all completely wrong.

So, what if the "Indians" [Native Americans] are not traditionally portrayed as the heroes [the role traditionally given to American cowboys]?

It did not matter to Karl May that "his" Old West had no basis in fact. [Note that he was able to get away with "reinventing" the Old West because his German readers had never been to America and chose to believe him when he claimed that he had. ] And he was a terrific storyteller!

AND this allowed Mercedes Lackey to bring in a Native American Elemental Master and share what Elemental Masters were like in the real "Old West" on the Native American plains.

So, this has to be one of my top favorite books in the Elemental Masters series. Yes, it is another retelling of Rapunzel but the Wild West Show (shades of Annie Oakley, who actually appears in the book as a competitor doing the same type of Wild West Shows as our protagonists) really "steals the show" in this book so far as I'm concerned!

This is the last Elemental Masters book based on a fairy tale retelling. What a rousing finish for this portion of the series!

Highly recommended!

Beautiful people with iron will coming into their various talents and revelations of their powers to work for good to combat evil things in the ancient Old Forest. As it was once let become once again ~~ !!