Elemental Masters series

## Genre Information

Young Adult
Reimagined Fairytales

Historical Fantasy
Myths and Legends

 (Series Content Ratings Click on Explicit Ratings for details.)

## About the Series

* **Genres:** Young Adult, Reimagined Fairytales, Historical Fantasy, Myths and Legends
* **Theme:**
* **Narrative style:**

## New Releases - Coming Soon

### 2022

* **Jan 11, 2022** *The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley (Elemental Masters Book 16)*

### Series Description

Elemental Masters is a fantasy series by American writer Mercedes Lackey, taking place on an alternate Earth where magic exists. The series largely focuses on Elemental Masters, people who have magical control over air, water, fire, or earth. Each elemental master has power over elementals, as well. Each book in the series is loosely based on a fairy tale.

Each book in the series is loosely based on a famous fairy tale. However, female protagonists in the books are noticeably stronger and more assertive than the fairy tale characters on which they are modeled. The Serpent's Shadow, The Gates of Sleep and Phoenix and Ashes are each based on fairy tales (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, respectively) in which a girl faces the malevolence of an older and far more powerful woman, before being saved by the intervention of a Prince. In Lackey's novels, the equivalent character does not merely wait passively to be saved, and rather takes an active role in fighting for herself, on equal terms with the male character. Much of this fierce fighting takes place in astral form, when the original fairy tale female was completely passive in deep sleep or coma.

## Books in order

* The Fire Rose (Elemental Masters Book 0) (1995)
* The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters Book 1) (2001)
* The Gates of Sleep (Elemental Masters Book 2) (2001)
* Phoenix and Ashes (Elemental Masters Book 3) (2004)
* The Wizard of London (Elemental Masters Book 4) (2005)
* Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters Book 5) (2007)
* Unnatural Issue (Elemental Masters Book 6) (2011)
* Home From the Sea (Elemental Masters Book 7) (2012)
* Steadfast (Elemental Masters Book 8) (2013)
* Blood Red (Elemental Masters Book 9) (2014)
* From a High Tower (Elemental Masters Book 10) (2015)
* A Study in Sable (Elemental Masters Book 11) (2016)
* A Scandal in Battersea (Elemental Masters Book 12) (2017)
* The Bartered Brides (Elemental Masters Book 13) (2018)
* The Case of the Spellbound Child (Elemental Masters Book 14) (2019)
* Jolene (Elemental Masters Book 15) (2020)
* The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley (Elemental Masters Book 16) (2022)

### Shorts

* Grey (Elemental Masters 4.5) (1997) - A novella that was incorporated into the full length *The Wizard of London*, when Nan and Sarah first meet.
* Grey's Ghost (Elemental Masters 4.6) (2005) - A novella that was incorporated into the full length *The Wizard of London*, when Nan and Sarah help to unmask a fraudulent medium.

### Anthologies

* Elemental Magic: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters (Elemental Masters 7.5) (2012)
* Elementary: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters (Elemental Masters 8.5) (2013)

## World Building

### Setting

Most of the stories take place in an alternate London and surrounding countryside and Germany's Black Forest, except Book 0 *The Fire Rose* which takes place during the early 1900's San Francisco and *Jolene* in Tennessee's coal country.

### Fantasy Elements

Elemental magic (control over the four classical elements: fire, air, water, earth), ghosts, psychic powers, various Myths and Legends

### World

The world has many strange and exciting creatures from the Myths and Legends that populate it, but most humans are without any power and are unaware of the exitance of magic and/or psychic powers

### Protagonist

Various, each book has a different set of characters, except *The Wizard of London*, *A Study in Sable*, *A Scandal in Battersea*, *The Bartered Brides*, *The Case of the Spellbound Child* , where Nan Killian and Sarah Lyon-White work with both John and Mary Watson, and Sherlock Holmes to solve special cases. Nan and Sarah are first introduced as children in *The Wizard of London*, the later books have them grown up and living on their own in London, where they work at solving difficult cases.

## Book Descriptions

The Fire Rose (Elemental Masters Book 0) (1995)
based on Beauty and the Beast
Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children, no wife, and she is not to meet with him face to face. Instead, her duties are to read to him, through a speaking tube, from ancient manuscripts in obscure, nearly-forgotten dialects.
A requirement for the job was skill in translating medieval French, and she now understands the reason for that requirement, and assumes her unseen employer’s interest in the descriptions of medieval spells and sorcery is that of an eccentric antiquary. What she does not realize is that his interest is anything but academic. He has a terrible secret and is desperately searching for something that can reverse the effects of the misfired spell which created his predicament.
The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters Book 1) (2001)
based on *Snow White*
This story takes place in the London of 1909, and is based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Lackey creates echoes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pays affectionate homage to Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey (who plays an important role under a thin disguise), and turns the dwarves into seven animal avatars who masquerade as pets of her Eurasian heroine, Maya.
Some of Maya's challenges come from the fact that she is not "snow white," and she has fled India for her father's English homeland after the suspicious deaths of her parents. Establishing her household in London, she returns to her profession as a physician, working among the poor. Her "pets" and loyal servants stand guard, and Maya herself uses what bits of magic she managed to pick up in childhood to weave otherworldly defenses as well. But the implacable enemy who killed her parents has come to London to search for her; if Maya can be enslaved, her enormous potential powers can be used to the enemy's ends. Fortunately, English magicians of the White Lodge have also noted a new, powerful presence in their midst, though they're having trouble locating her, too. They send Peter Scott, a Water Master, to track her down. He finds Maya beautiful and benign, and is determined to teach her to use the Western magic she is heir to, before her enemy discovers her.
The Gates of Sleep (Elemental Masters Book 2) (2001)
based on *Sleeping Beauty*
For seventeen years, Marina Roeswood had lived in an old, rambling farmhouse in rural Cornwall in the care of close friends of her wealthy, aristocratic parents. As the ward of bohemian artists in Victorian England, she had grown to be a free thinker in an environment of fertile creativity and cultural sophistication. But the real core of her education was far outside societal norms. For she and her foster parents were Elemental Masters of magic, and learning to control her growing powers was Marina's primary focus.
But though Marina's life seemed idyllic, her existence was riddled with mysteries. Why, for example, had she never seen her parents, or been to Oakhurst, her family's ancestral manor? And why hadn't her real parents, also Elemental Masters, trained her themselves? That there was a secret about all this she had known from the time she had begun to question the world around her. Yet try as she might, she could get no clues out of her guardians.
Phoenix and Ashes (Elemental Masters Book 3) (2004)
based on *Cinderella*
Eleanor Robinson’s life had shattered when Father volunteered for the Great War, leaving her alone with a woman he had just married. Then the letter came that told of her father’s death in the trenches and though Eleanor thought things couldn’t get any worse, her life took an even more bizarre turn.
Dragged to the hearth by her stepmother Alison, Eleanor was forced to endure a painful and frightening ritual during which the smallest finger of her left hand was severed and buried beneath a hearthstone. For her stepmother was an Elemental Master of Earth who practiced the darker blood-fueled arts. Alison had bound Eleanor to the hearth with a spell that prevented her from leaving home, caused her to fade from people’s memories, and made her into a virtual slave.
The Wizard of London (Elemental Masters Book 4) (2005)
based on *The Snow Queen*
The letter that introduced twelve-year-old Sarah Jane Lyon-White to Isabelle Harton, who ran the Harton School in central London, seemed quite simple and straightforward. Bat it was what was not written in the letter that resonated to Isabelle's own finely tuned "extra" senses: "Sarah has gifts we cannot train," the letter whispered to her, "nor can anyone we know. Those we trust tell us that you can...."
And it was true, for the Harton School was far from ordinary. It was Isabelle's job to train children who possessed the odd types of magic that could not be trained by London's powerful Elemental Masters: clairvoyants, telepaths, those with the ability to sense hidden danger, the vision to see into the past, and even that rarest of all talents: the ability to see and communicate with the dead.
Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters Book 5) (2007)
based on *Puss in Boots*
n 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her mind to mind. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cat's advice and impersonates a famous Russian ballerina. The cat, it turns out, is actually an Elemental Earth Spirit, and leads her to minor stardom.
Meanwhile, the real Russian ballerina has fallen victim to an evil troll who takes over her body and kills her patrons, drinking their life essences in order to strengthen his powers. And soon, the troll focuses his dark attentions on the young dancer...
Unnatural Issue (Elemental Masters Book 6) (2011)
based on *Donkeyskin* or similar tales
Richard Whitestone is an Elemental Earth Master. Blaming himself for the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, he has sworn never to set eyes on his daughter, Suzanne. But when he finally sees her, a dark plan takes shape in his twisted mind-to use his daughter's body to bring back the spirit of his long-dead wife.
Home From the Sea (Elemental Masters Book 7) (2012)
based on *East of the Sun and West of the Moon*, *Tam Lin*, and *The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry*
Mari Prothero turns eighteen, and learns the family fishing luck depends on each generation marrying a sea-dweller, but she demands her choice of suitors and a teacher from the sea ruler. In London, the stuffy official magicians send a pair of friends to seek the new water mage, little knowing the three girls would become best friends
Steadfast (Elemental Masters Book 8) (2013)
based on the *Steadfast Tin Soldier*
Lionel Hawkins is a magician whose act is only partially sleight of hand. The rest is real magic. He’s an Elemental Magician with the power to persuade the Elementals of Air to help him create amazing illusions. It doesn't take long before his assistant, acrobat Katie Langford, notices that he’s no ordinary magician—and for Lionel to discover that she’s no ordinary acrobat, but rather an untrained and unawakened Fire Magician. She’s also on the run from her murderous and vengeful brute of a husband. But can she harness her magic in time to stop her husband from achieving his deadly goal?
Blood Red (Elemental Masters Book 9) (2014)
based on *Red Riding Hood*
Rosamund is an Earth Master in the Schwarzwald, the ancient Black Forest of Germany. Since the age of ten, she has lived with her teacher, the Hunt Master and Earth Magician of the Schwarzwald Foresters, a man she calls “Papa.” Her adoptive Papa rescued her after her original Earth Master teacher, an old woman who lived alone in a small cottage in the forest, was brutally murdered by werewolves. Rosa herself barely escaped, and this terrifying incident molded the course of her future.
For like her fellow Earth Masters of the Schwarzwald Lodge, Rosa is not a healer. Instead, her talents lead her on the more violent path of protection and defense— “cleansing” the Earth and protecting its gentle fae creatures from those evil beings who seek to do them harm.
From a High Tower (Elemental Masters Book 10) (2015)
based on *Rapunzel*
When a man is caught stealing from a walled garden owned by a strange woman, he bargains away his youngest daughter in return for food for his family. The woman, rumored to be a witch, takes the golden-haired child and locks her away in a high tower. Sixteen years later, Giselle has lived an isolated life, but her adoptive mother has trained her in Air magic, and Giselle must use her new skills to keep herself and her new friends safe...
A Study in Sable (Elemental Masters Book 11) (2016)
featuring Sherlock Holmes and based on *The Twa Sisters*
Psychic Nan Killian and Medium Sarah Lyon-White—along with their clever birds, the raven Neville and the parrot Grey—have been agents of Lord Alderscroft, the Elemental Fire Master known as the Wizard of London, since leaving school. Now, Lord Alderscroft assigns them another commission: to work with the famous man living at 221 Baker Street—but not the one in flat B. They are to assist the man living in flat C. Dr. John Watson and his wife Mary, themselves Elemental Masters of Water and Air, take the occult cases John’s more famous friend disdains, and they will need every skill the girls and their birds can muster!
A Scandal in Battersea (Elemental Masters Book 12) (2017)
featuring Sherlock Holmes and based on the *Pied Piper of Hamelin*
Christmas is a very special time of year. It is special for Psychic Nan Killian and Medium Sarah Lyon-White and their ward Suki, who are determined to celebrate it properly. It is special for their friends, Doctor John Watson, and his wife Mary, both Elemental Masters, who have found great delight in the season seeing it through young Suki’s eyes.
It is also special to others...for very different reasons.
For Christmas Eve is also hallowed to dark forces, powers older than mankind, powers that come awake on this, the Longest Night. Powers best left alone. Powers that could shake the foundations of London and beyond.
The Bartered Brides (Elemental Masters Book 13) (2018)
featuring Sherlock Holmes and based on *Bluebeard*
The threat of Moriarty is gone—but so is Sherlock Holmes.
Even as they mourn the loss of their colleague, psychic Nan Killian, medium Sarah Lyon-White, and Elemental Masters John and Mary Watson must be vigilant, for members of Moriarty’s network are still at large. And their troubles are far from over: in a matter of weeks, two headless bodies of young brides wash up in major waterways. A couple who fears for their own recently-wedded daughter hires the group to investigate, but with each new body, the mystery only deepens.
The Case of the Spellbound Child (Elemental Masters Book 14) (2019)
featuring John Watson from Sherlock Holmes and based on *Hansel and Gretel*
While Sherlock is still officially dead, John and Mary Watson and Nan Killian and Sarah Lyon-White are taking up some of his case-load--and some for Lord Alderscroft, the Wizard of London.
Lord Alderscroft asks them to go to Dartmoor to track down a rumor of evil magic brewing there. Not more than four hours later, a poor cottager, also from Dartmoor, arrives seeking their help. His wife, in a fit of rage over the children spilling and spoiling their only food for dinner that night, sent them out on the moors to forage for something to eat. This is not the first time she has done this, and the children are moor-wise and unlikely to get into difficulties. But this time they did not come back, and in fact, their tracks abruptly stopped as if them Pharisees took'd 'em. The man begs them to come help.
Jolene (Elemental Masters Book 15) (2020)
based on *Jolene*
The beloved Elemental Masters series moves to America for the first time in a rich retelling of The Queen of the Copper Mountain, set against the backdrop of Tennessee coal country.
Anna May Jones is the daughter of a coal miner. When her father succumbs to Black Lung, the coal company wastes no time in turning the family out of their home. In desperation, Anna May's mother sends her to live with her Aunt Jinny, a witchy-woman and an Elemental Master, in a holler outside of Ducktown.
The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley (Elemental Masters Book 16) (2022)
based on *The legends of Annie Oakley*
Annie Oakley has always suspected there is something "uncanny" about herself, but has never been able to put a name to it. But when Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show goes on tour through Germany, Bill temporarily hires a new sharpshooter to be part of his "World Wide Congress of Rough Riders": a woman named Giselle, who also happens to be an Elemental Master of Air. Alongside this new performer, Annie discovers that she and her husband, Frank, are not simply master marksman, but also magicians of rare ability.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Elemental Masters at wikipedia