A while ago, I found the Mage Winds trilogy in hardcover at our local library for about a dollar, and purchased them on a whim. I read the first one, Winds of Fate and was partway into the second, Winds of Change, when school and real life intervened.
I found the books again when we cleaned the attic yesterday, and decided to try again. Holy shit, these are good!
Anyone read Lackey?
I always get her confused with Barbara Hambly. Which is weird, because I know I only like one of them…
I like her stuff, though the rather clunky exposition gets to me sometimes. Not that that’s stopped me from reading most of what she’s put out. My favourites are the Last Herald-Mage and Mage Storms trilogies. If you haven’t read them yet, you should definitely check them out.
I’ve liked her for a while now. I remember when the third one in the Mage Winds trilogy came out, which was not long after some woman in a bookstore said, “You might like this writer.” Sure enough, I did, and still do. Out of the Valdemar books I think my favorites are the Mage Storms trilogy, though Last Herald-Mage is DANG good.
She’s one of my guilty pleasures. Elfbabe says the same about Lackey. Critically, I get tired of big blue-eyed heros and their big blue-eyed companions, but I enjoy them enough to buy them in hardcover. I even enjoyed them enough to write a Lackey parody in the LOTR thread.
As Elfbabe says, “Big magic horsie will be my friennnnnnnnnnnnnnnd!!!”
She’s extremely friendly and personable and attends many conventions. She’s currently writing a book with Andre Norton.
If you want to get someone hooked on Lackey, a good bet would be By The Sword, followed by The Last Harald-Mage trilogy.
I’ve read some of her stuff. Man, her habit for explaining things into the ground really gets on my nerves. She badly needs a decent editor to cut some of her odd little rambling diversions. She reminds me of my grandmother–just can’t shut up. It makes me want to throw the book across the room. I wouldn’t mind so much if these little diversions were interesting, but they’re almost always tediously obvious, stuff we could easily figure on our own. Still, it’s all good fun, I suppose. Comfort reading, definitely. I’m currently trying to read Magic’s Pawn, but having some difficulty sustaining any interest.
My favorite single book is The Black Gryphon (I love Skandranon’s attitude in it, and the contrast between the grim situation and the teasing/pranking in camp.) The other two grypon books just don’t make the cut. My favorite set of books is the Mage Storms trilogy, I think. As for The Last Herald-Mage…it’s some of her best work, but it was too damn depressing for my tastes. I won’t spoil it, but those of you who have read it probably understand.
I’ve been rather enjoying her faerie tale adaptations lately–The Fire Rose, The Gates of Sleep, and others in her Elementalist setting. They suffer from a tendency toward abrupt resolutions, but I like the setting enough to enjoy them.
I don’t mind her tendency toward side exposition too much, mainly because my mind tends to work the same way–I fill in all the little mundane details and the nuts and bolts of the magic system when I work on a setting. It helps you stay consistent. I do try to avoid explicitly stating it when I’m actually writing in the setting, though. OTOH, Lackey is a wildy popular author, and I’m still unpublished, so what the heck do I know? 
I don’t have much to add, except that if you want to introduce someone to her, she has five of her books available at the Baen Free Library. You can get them in a variety of formats, for free.
Hal
I’ll add that i liked her Valdemar novels best. The other ones don’t really seem to work out for me. Of her novels, the ones i liked best are the Winds series and her Arrows series. Her last Mage-Storm trilogy was exciting too! 
But sadly, i grew out of her for quite some time already. 