Animals communicate with people, who also coexist with elves and gryphons, psychic abilities are taken for granted as talents, like singing, and magic is recognized as particular manipulations of earthly and human energy--welcome to the worlds of Mercedes Lackey. A self-confessed addict to fantasy/science fiction, Lackey began writing her own stories as a child, when Andre Norton "wasn't turning out books at a fast enough rate to suit me." Lackey describes those early stories to Bradley Sinor in Starlog as "Andre Norton pastiches." Years later, however, she found herself returning to her childhood hobby and writing a novel with her early favorite as an award-winning author of fantasy fiction.

Lackey was born in Chicago and grew up in Indiana. She became hooked on fantasy and science fiction early on, beginning with Ruthven Todd's "Space Cat" books when she was eight or nine years old. She soon discovered...