So, lots of people who post on this forum are probably familiar with Mercedes Lackey, the popular fantasy author.

To make a long story short, one time I spent 2 years on a remote island where there was a repository full of old books. I read all kinds of old school fantasy including Thieves World, if you can believe that, as well as some Mercedes Lackey stuff from the 80s. I noticed how in the Mercedes Lackey stuff there was reference to some music that had been published related to the story. I didn't think much of it.

Fast forward 5 years, and I randomly remembered that and decided to search for Merceds Lackey on YouTube. It turns out that all this stuff is kind of like neo-folk fantasy music and ballads. For me, artistically, it evokes the 70s, although I don't actually know the date that this stuff was written. And maybe I'm way off base on my musical cultural history, since this is the internet you can all criticize me for it.

In my opinion, I'm not sure I would characterize this stuff as being artistically innovative necessarily, but they're kind of fun. It would sort of be a cool twist to play this music before running some kind of fantasy RPG campaign, because I'll bet most people haven't heard them yet.

The other thing about it is that the songs often have emotional content. They deal with character motivations. It's interesting because I feel like it's getting a bit into the head of the author. The author thinks of the character, writes the story, and decides what the character is going to do but doesn't necessarily explicitly state all the details of what's going on in the character's head. But you can think of the songs as a bit of a character development supplemental.

So, here you go:

Demonbane - http://youtu.be/hfSjIEWUOQ8

This one is my favorite, because it tells a story. Songs don't really tell stories anymore.

Kerowyn's Ride - http://youtu.be/1ZsgM3FOOVM

Similar to above.

Battle Dawn - http://youtu.be/xjqm4r6EbuE

This one almost dwells on character emotion.

There's plenty more if you just search around.

The funny thing is that I'm not even really a Mercedes Lackey fan, although the truth is I haven't read a lot of her novels. I kind of felt they seemed to focus or dwell on on emotions as a source of power and motivation, to the point that it was starting to get a bit sappy. But what can I say, it's just a matter of taste, and I guess that's kind of the point of the songs.

Thanks for the tip.


Kerowyn's Ride

Mrs. Lackey spends much of her time these days trying to save her favorite game from cancellation, City of Heroes.



-k

...I haven't exactly been following her...did she stop writing books and start playing video games??

Everyone has their hobbies.

She's still writing as well. Just recently the fourth Collegium Chronicles novel was released.

Also, she's written a novel or two in the City of Heroes universe, I vaguely remember.

That's sort of like getting R.A. Salvatore to write Shadowrun Fanfiction.

And you BASTARD, Thieves World? Our school library had volumes 1-8 until some toerag pinched them all.
Was looking around and they were first-edition, all of them. (The librarian had some very interesting tastes.)

Yes, they were uneven, and weird, but the quality of writing! (Some of them were, "Famous authors of the world, unite! And kill off a major character in a previous book because you can!")

-Tir

My sister had all of Lackeys CDs and used to play them in her car all the time. It wasn't until I started reading Lackeys novels that I realized what the heck she'd been listening to all those years.

I used to be a pretty big Lackey fan, but kind of fell out of the loop.

It cracks me up that this topic is here. I never expected a Lackey thread on Dumpshock!

That makes two of us. I haven't read any of Ms. Lackey's work in ages...even though several of them are on my bookshelves. I should go back and see if my Nostalgia Filter is broken.