Two in one

 Normally, I'd write separate reviews for Owlflight and Owlsight, but since they're part of the same Mercedes Lackey series, and the second book is mostly a reverse image of the first...

Keep in mind this is the last series the author has written in what could be considered "modern" in the setting. There may be a few short stories set after this, but everything else she's written after this has been set in an earlier place on the time line, bookwise. 

The series opens on the orphan Darian, apprenticed to the wizard Justyn in the remote Valdemar village of Errold's Grove on the edge of the Pelegir Forest. Darian's parents were trappers, who vanished during the Mage Storms. Barbarians from the north attack the village, and Darian winds up running in to the forest and finding a group of Hawkbrothers from K'Vala Vale who are working on establishing new leylines and Heartstones. Darian gets adopted by them, and helps free the village from the barbarians, running off with the Hawkbrothers for Magic training. 

In the second book, we meet Keisha, the adolescent Healer for a much more prosperous Errold's Grove and her sister Shandi. Keisha is a strong willed girl who can't find proper training for her Gift, since she can't leave town to go get it. As such, she's on the verge of becoming a hermit by the time Shandi gets Chosen and Darion returns, with news of another Barbarian clan moving south towards the village. 

Darian reestablishes K'Valdemar Vale not far from Errold's Grove, where Keisha comes and gets her gifts trained. The Barbarians do wind up reaching the edges of Valdemar, however, this time, as Firesong, Silverfox, Kerowyn, and Eldan are around (mainly to update everyone on how everyone who survived the Storms is doing now), things go much more easily, as we find the Barbarians got sent south by their totem to find a cure for a disease the Mage Storms brought. Much negotiation later, and a cure for Summer disease later, Ghost Cat Clan is now firmly colonized nearby. 

Now, this series was the one she was releasing when I first got hooked into the setting, so it was the first I was reading around the same time as everyone else, so it does have a special place on my shelf. (To give you an idea, I bought the paperbacks at WaldenBooks using their discount card.) Does she more or less have a formula when it comes to plotting? Yeah. Does that prevent me from enjoying long sojourns into Valdemar? Hell no. While I enjoy more adult fantasy, it's nice to have some old fashioned cozy traditional fantasy to read through. And these, while more rustic than her normal adventures, fill that role very nicely.