High Fantasy probably from the 80’s

[megs422]

Please help. I’ve posted this in every book group I can find. I’m starting to think I am actually crazy. Between 2000-2003 I read a series of books, I want to say there were 4, that had to do with a boy coming of age and discovering his worth and powers. Pretty typical for that time frame. The specifics though, involve broken waygates (they could be called something else). The boy eventually, probably in the last books, transforms physically because of his use of magic. He gets ears like a horse, his eyes move a bit farther apart, his nails and teeth become square and harden. I remember him accepting the changes. They’re part of him. He also lived an older couple in the book. They had horses and a farm I believe. The woman was ugly, but her husband loved her deeply, because of her character. That always struck me as relatable because I tend towards liking people based on how they act rather than how they look and when you’re 16 that’s a rare trait. Or it seemed to be anyways. I remember fire magic and maybe a magic plague of some sort, though that could be from another series entirely. This book series was one of the first that introduced me to gates and I feel like they traveled between places in his world, not to other worlds. Someone has to have read these right?? Thank you!!

Comments

[krait]

...This might be Firekeeper series by Jane Lindskold, but if so I think you may have missed some of the earlier books.

The main character, Firekeeper, is female, not male, and is raised by sapient wolves; overall, the series is about her journey to develop and discover her identity as she tries to balance her human origins and her wolf upbringing.

There's a side character, however, who meets a lot of this description - Derian has a gift for horses, he does have an adventure over the course of several books that involve discovering magical gates and surviving a magical plague that causes him to develop some equine features. He didn't live with an older couple that matches your description, but he spends a few days or weeks with a couple like the one you describe; they are horse breeders and he's introduced to them because of his own gift.

Derian initially hates the physical changes in himself and regards himself as monstrously deformed, but eventually comes to accept them as a reflection of his power and his values (he could have sacrificed his horse-communication talent and retained a fully human appearance), and finds love.

The first book is Through Wolf's Eyes, and it was published in 2001. The bulk of the stuff you remember (if I'm right about it being this series!) starts with the fourth book, Wolf Captured, which was published in 2004.

[carbonel]

Another possibility, albeit also with a female protagonist, is Tamora Pierce's Immortal series. Daine starts out as an orphan (bandits in the village killed her mother), finds a job working with horses because she has a knack with animals, and eventually learns to shape-shift.

There are four books in that series (they connect to others by the same author), and the first one is Wild Magic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortals_(series)

[otterb]

Late response, but I concur with the other poster that this has a strong resemblance to a plot arc later in the Firekeeper series. Besides the horse changes and the gates to other places on the same world, the older woman who was ugly but deeply loved by her husband (and, in fact, by anyone who got to know her), and the magic plague, and magic partaking of various elements including fire.

I've been rereading the series because, after a long gap, there's a new one.

[greendryad]

Hey, megs422: do either of these suggestions ring a bell for you?