Once again, I got behind

 Evidently Valdemar (book 3 of Mercedes Lackey's The Founding of Valdemar trilogy) came out in 2023, and I missed it. Well, that has been remedied, and I can now say I have finished the story of how Baron Kordas of of the Duchy of Valdemar became King Kordas of Valdemar, First of his name. 

The book picks up roughly ten years after the last book, with the remnants of the escape living in what they're calling Haven. While many people who came on the journey either stayed at the lake or moved elsewhere, the remnants are fairly well organized and establishing a kingdom. The Hawkbrothers are less present, but still able to be in contact. An Adept of not quite known hostility is north of the kingdom, running their own city, and absorbing some of the groups unhappy with Valdemar. 

We get a lot of watching the children grow into their roles, and Kordas does eventually deign to let them crown him King, against his better wishes. This leads into a very strange magical firework show against the shields, which in turn leads to Valdemar's legendary prayer that births the Companions. Amusingly, the first companions share some information that later on in the timeline Valdemar Heralds don't get until much later. 

Speaking of, the Adept turns out to be a missing Hawkbrother Prodigy who vanished after learning her first Fire spell. (AKA tying it in with Mage Winds, where we find out this was the legendary Ma'ar's trick to eternal life.) 

It's a really fun and quick read, although it is very much a Lackey Valdemar novel. You know what you'e in for when you pick it up.

Gryphons of Love

 In what I was hoping was the next Volume of her Founding of Valdemar series, Mercedes Lackey instead started a new "Modern" Valdemar series in Gryphon in Light, centering on k'Valdemar Vale gryphon Kelvren and longtime character Firesong. There are other new characters floating around in here, like First officer Hallock, who gets mortally wounded early on in combat during an uprising in the northwest of Veldemar; his wife Ginny, a healer's hand; Jefti, a poor boy who is enamored with Kelvren; Three Ghost Cat warriors; a wing of Iftel gryphons; an unpaired companion; and a Firecat, as well as a few tervardi, dhyeli, and hertasi. Much like the group in Mage Storms, this ensemble (with cameos and callbacks to previous series) are being called by the gods of the world to do something. 

Mind you, it takes half the book for the expedition to get started, let alone off the ground. The first part focuses on Hallock, who gets a gut wound, is dying until Kelvren heals him. This inspires Kelvren to use up what magic he has to heal Hallock, which in turn leads to Kelvren nearly dying. This gets Treyvon involved, and he uses an old rite to recharge Kelvren. Given it hadn't been used since the original mage wars, no one was quite dure how it worked, or how it worked. It more or less supercharges Kelvren, who manages to set off a Diplomatic incident, get treated as a danger at k'Valdemar Vale, and eventually get diagnosed by Firesong as being in danger of spontaneously combusting. 

Eventually, a portable Heartstone gets strapped to Kelvren, and Firesong proposes an expedition to Lake Evendim to see how the Mage Storms affected Ma'ar's old kingdom. Which is great, until just about everyone and their brother sends people to go. Including supernatural creatures with direct pipelines to the Gods of the world.Seems something is happening at the Lake, and those in the mortal realm need to go investigate. 

By the end of the volume, we aren't there yet, but we do see a lot of the Pelegirs, and meet a new as of yet unnamed creature that appears as smoke and may or may not be attempting to possess people. 

As a start, it takes some time to get going, but once it gets going, it gets more engaging, making us wonder what exactly awaits our heroes at the lake.

Crecesnt Lake memories

 So, Mercedes Lackey finally finished book two of her Founding of Valdemar series, which was really a lot of fun.

Into the West picks up not long after the last book ended, with all of the Duchy of Valdemar that wanted to escape the Empire living on a lake far west of the Empire. We're again focused on Kordas and Delia, as they work to make their way west for the lake, looking for the perfect place to establish a kingdom. 

On one hand, we see Delia becoming more independent of Kordas, whom she spent the first book mooning over, just as we see Kordas doing his best to do right in the situation he has brought his people in to. On the other hand, given how many of these books end with a lifebond or a romance, I remain worried Kordas's wife will die/leave him and he'll wind up with Delia by the end of it. 

Any rate, the story is well presented, resolving several problems from the first volume, while introducing the problems of people from a highly advanced society giving up things and starting over. We encounter a really fun carnivorous forest, and encounter the Talydras.

Really enjoying this one. Kind of hoping a continuation comes sooner than later.

How sweet the sorrow

 I actually finished Music to My Sorrow by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edgehill a few days ago, but...

Anyway, here ends the story of Eric the Bard, unless he's going to show up in the new reboot that he hasn't in 2 books. 

This one basically finishes connecting the lines between Jaycie, Magnus, and Ace, as all of their parents get involved in a really complex revenge plan that winds up with just about everyone suffering eternally and deserving it. 

In the process, we find out the Elf Jaycie's dad is working with Ace's Dad, a White Nationalist preacher, who's side ministry for rebellious youth sucks in Eric and Magnus's parents. 

It's very convoluted, but eventually resolves itself quite nicely.

Coming back around

 Finished my reread of Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edgehill's Mad Maudlin, in which Bedlam's Bard, Eric Banyon finds out about his younger brother. 

Of the series, this is probably the one I remember the best, mainly because one of the plot threads overlapped with some digging I was doing when I read it. 

So, as we open, Eric has been seeing a psychologist who treats folks with magical ability, and dealing with trauma related to having parents who thought of him as a commodity more than a child. As such, he resolves to go see his parents in Boston. Which has the side effect of him learning of his younger brother Magnus, who evidently also has a degree of Bardic Gift. Magnus ran away from home for much the same reason Eric left Julliard at 18 to get the heck away. 

Magnus, in the meantime, is living on the streets of NYC with two close friends: Ace, aka Heavenly Grace, who is on the run from her father who was using her Talent to get more cash; and Jaycie, who's on the run from something else entirely.

Hosea, the banjo Bard/Guardian has his hands full with the Secret Stories going around the children in the homeless shelter he volunteers in (Bloody Mary, who lead the demons to heaven and took over) and his romantic interest, who's managed to get sucked into a cult based around Master Fafnir, who wants to supplant the Guardians with himself. 

As the book progresses, all the plots converge, as Ace's father's helper (an unseeleigh Magus Major) manages to target Eric with a spell, Fafnir manages to summon up Bloody Mary, and Jaycie and Bloody Mary's true identities are revealed

A few things struck me both last time and this time. The Bloody Mary thing being the first. There was a whole thing very similar to this that I found out about after reading involving children in Miami, if I recall correctly. One can't ignore the power of folklore among the youth. The other was the whol False Guardians plot with Master Fafnir, which seems to be echoing back on real life crap that happened long before I read any of her work. (There was a whole thing that you can google and decide for yourself on involving people making a myth cycle out of her Diana Tregard Investigations. Search for The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back.)

By far, this is probably the best of the series that these two collaborated on.

Flute and Banjo Duets

 Running behind on updates again due to personal issues.

Spirits White as Lightning continues Eric the Bard's story in NYC, as his relationship with Ria expands, Kory and Beth try to find a way to conceive a baby of their own (Maeve is technically Eric's daughter), and Aerune tries to get his hands on the drug that awakens latent powers. In the process, we meet the Appalachian Bard, Josiah, who plays banjo and becomes both Guardian and pupil to Eric. 

While this continues and finishes off the story from Beyond World's End, it leaves the door open for the next two books, as the Healer Kayla winds up living in Guardian House by the end as well. 

Really, it's a fun read, even as we have to adjust to some rather big adjustments in the makeup of the characters, although we also get to see Tannim and Chinthliss again, as the Dragon will give access to his library if Kory and Beth can build a computer that will work underhill. When I originally read this, I thought the plot was padding out the story, now I see where it's building a story that will expand in the next volume, as the Green Government people show up at one point. 

It's a fun and soapy read.

Threefer

 I'm a lot behind on catching up on these, so I'm reviewing an omnibus and a single volume as one big review. 

We'll start with Bedlam's Bard by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon, which is an Omnibus of Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and Summoned to Tourney. We meet Renaissance Fair actor and flutist, Eric, who is having a loud breakup with his girlfriend at the outset. In his depression and drunkenness, Eric composes a song on his flute that winds up waking up Korendil, an elf trapped in The Dreaming by the exiled elf Perenor. 

Eric, Kory, and Eric's friend Beth wind up working together to stop Perenor from destroying the Nexus that is in Los Angeles by moving it by the Observatory, which manages to annoy both Perenor AND his daughter Ria. 

The second part picks up with Eric, Kory, and Beth living in San Francisco as a Throuple. In this one, a shadowy government agency is kidnapping psychics and using them for nebulous purposes. Eric breaks a few of the kidnapped psychics out using Nightflyers, which in turn lets the Nightflyers try to set off THE BIG ONE using equipment designed to prevent earthquakes. 

Then we come into Beyond World's End, in which Eric has become a full Bard, moves to New York, and restarts like at Julliard. Beth, being pregnant and more in a couple with Kory than Eric, stays in Underhill. There's a certain amount of humor in here, since Eric now lives in Diane Tregarde's apartment complex, and has a talking gargoyle dropping by for conversation. 

In this, Eric gets dragged into a mystery that also involves the Guardians, in which an Unseeleigh Lord is trying to find a Bard, but runs afoul of a shadowy group trying to awaken people's psychic gifts with drugs. 

While I still find myself loving the series, I found the transition to Eric going from nominally bisexual to hopelessly straight a bit jarring. In the transition, Eric's fluidity gets erased for the most part. Plus the redemption arc of Ria Llewellen is a bit rushed, since she was a secondary antagonist in the first book, now suddenly trying to make amends with Eric. 

I mean, it remains good reading, even as we again get dragged into the streets with the characters, a theme that tends to happen in any of Mercedes Lackey's Urban Fantasy series.

And back to Elves on Wheels

 Finished up the other omnibus volume of SERRAted Edge a few days ago, but have been lacking in free time to update here.

Anyway. 

The Other World collects Wheels of Fire by Mercedes Lackey and Mark Shepherd as well as When the Bough Breaks by Mercedes Lackey and Holly Lisle. 

The first part concerns a young medium being kidnapped by a white supremacist Christian cult and being exploited to become a vessel for Salamander. Thanks to the continuation of this being in the previous omnibus, I already knew how this played out. 

The second concerns a young magician who's been abused by her father, who in turn was abused by his father. As such, she has 3 or 4 separate personalities running around, including a separate entity (a Celtic witch) who somehow wound up sharing the body with everyone else. 

One of the things I'd forgotten about this series is how many plots revolve around children in danger. Which is good and bad. Problem being, the latter book draws much from When Rabbit Howls, which was a much more interesting read. 

Still, it's engaging urban fantasy.

Elves on Wheels

 Bit delayed in posting this due to the modem dying. 

Recently picked up Mercedes Lackey's The Chrome Borne, which collects volumes 1 and 4 of her SERRAted Edge series, which center around the mage Tannim. Tannim drives a much loved and souped up Mustang, and works for Kevin Silverhair and his elven racing association. 

In the first half, we deal with a common topic in LAckey's urban fantasy, that of exploited runaways. In this case, the child predators are Unseeleigh elves, and only two of the children get saved, but...

In the second book, we find out about the romance between Tannim's dragon mentor Charliss and Lady Ako, a 9 tail kitsune. Seems Lady Ako slept with Charliss's old foe Charcoal, and the resulting child became Tannim's mirror. Except for the fact that they end up falling in love driving the Mustang around underhill. 

It's all fun, even if the tonal changes between books is a bit jarring. (The first half is set mainly in what passes for the "real world", the second spends much of its time elsewhere.) And many of the themes repeat across the setting, which will come in handy when I start rereading Bedlam's Bard. Eventually. When I get through the library TBR pile.

And now a return to theme

 I finished up Mercedes Lackey's finale of Darian's Tale yesterday, which more or less brought the overall themes of leaving home to find home full circle in the end. 

Owlknight opens on K'Valdemar Vale and Errold's Grove 4 years after the arrival of the Ghost Cat Clan, who are now part of the metroplex in the northwest corner of Valdemar. Word comes from Haven that a Herald Mage and his assistant (Keisha's sister Shandi) are being permanently posted in the area. As such, the local powers decided to perform several Rites when Herald Anda arrives to show that Darian is on equal footing. While much of this is amusing (including the sentient equine dyheli king stag offering to perform the rite to make Darian his "prime doe"), it really just serves to set up the second half. As such, we see Darian having visions of Ghost Cat and a Raven totem, having a feather found in the sweatlodge in from of Darian, and some other subtle hints that Darian might find his parents among the Raven Tribe. (They find part of his father's foot outside of a change circle, and a little magic suggests the original owner is still alive.) 

So, the second half mainly involves our major characters posing as dye merchants, riding through the north, with Keisha training healers in the various tribes as she goes. We meet several tribes, and run into an ocean. We find Darian's parents, among the Raven people, who are under siege from the Wolverines, who also absorbed the remains of Blood Bear, who we last saw at the end of the first book. Given this is Lackey, the outcome of that confrontation is never in doubt, however, Darian must contend with his definition of Home, versus the expectation that his parents have of him and Keisha joining the Raven tribe with them. 

That emotional resolution rings truer than almost anything Lackey has ever written, even if it is truncated. 

While I have enjoyed rereading this series, I will say that the ending seems rushed, as we close on everyone in Raven, and a 3 page epilogue set back in the Vale. 

But still, it's a really fun series.

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.

Finally!

 So, on the bright side, Mercedes Lackey's concluding Mage Winds novel, Winds of Fury finally has much more action than the preceding volumes. It also continues the buildup for the next trilogy.

Anyway, it starts off simply enough with Darkwind and Elsbeth preparing to return to Valdemar. What ends up happening is that everyoen, including Skif, Nyara, the gryphons, and Firesong wind up having their gate redirected to the Forest of Sorrows by Vanyel's ghost. 

Vanyel explains how his influence kept magic from the minds of Valdemar for several centuries, but with magic needed again, he's lifting that compulsion. It's also confirmed that the missing k'Sheyna heartstone is now in the basement of the Palace. 

All parties wind up in Haven, where we find out Karse has undergone some structural changes and is now allied with Valdemar against Hardorn. We also find out the vast Eastern Empire has agents in Hardorn. 

By the same token, Ancar, who's annoyed with Hulda (last seen trying to keep Elsbeth off the throne and torturing Talia), tries to open a gate, thinking it will somehow give him Adept level status. What ends up happening is that he releases Falconsbane from his prison in the void. However, we soon learn Falconsbane's trick up taking over members of his bloodline to resurrect himself, as well as getting confirmation he's an incarnation of the adepts Vanyel fought during his time. And lest we forget, his current body's former resident is still present and working with Dawnfire and Trevaylen to defeat Falconsbane once and for all. 

This eventually comes to a head late in the book, as the Heralds, Need, and the Taleydras ride to Hardorn for one final confrontation. 

Out of the three books in the trilogy, this is probably the best of them.

Moving towards a conclusion

In Mercedes Lackey's Winds of Change, we again are dealing with Darkwind and Elspeth and the K'Sheyna vale heartstone that Starblade sabotaged under the influence of Falconsbane. However, much like the first book, this one is a slow burn, mostly dealing with Skif and Darkwind's brother (Wintermoon) searching for Nyara and Need. Eventually, Firesong arrives from K'Treyva, and this begins the fun of healing the Heartstone. Which also serves to point out Falconsbane is still alive, given he's attacking Starblade. 

Anyway, the really big reveal comes towards the end, as the griffons admit that they're of Clan Kalid'a'in, the root of both the Shin'a'in and the Talyadras. 

Elspeth learns that she's descended from Vanyel, as is Firesong. 

The heartstone's energy winds up in Valdemar. 

This again, is kind of a slog until Falconsbane reappears in the last third. 

Fun, but slow.

Can you paint with the colors of the wind?

 So, as a heads up, while I enjoy Mercedes Lackey and have read all of her Valdemar book (minus the anthologies), Winds of Fate (Book 1 of The Mage Winds) winds up being my least favorite book in the series. I mean, it's a good book, eventually, but it's a slog to get to the good stuff.

Half the problem is that we spend roughly 3/4 of the book getting our two major focus characters together. One, Elspeth, we already know of thanks to the previous 4 books in the "modern" setting. The other, Darkwind, marking the Hawkbrother's first appearance in Valdemar since Vanyel's time, Is an Adept mage who has turned from magic following the tragedy that followed the attempt to move his Clan's Vale and Heartstone.  

So, for Espeth, we start with her and Skif convincing Valdemar's council to let them go off to find either an Adept Mage or get someone to train them in Magic to help repel Ancar's Hardornen conquest attempts. Which takes the involvement of the Companions to get off the ground without protest. Kerowyn gives Elspeth the Magesword Need to help along the way. Elspeth quickly realizes that the Companions are in her words, trying to turn her into a fated hero. As such, she gets annoyed and takes them all to the Dorshia Plains to find Shin'a'in training, rather than getting training in Rethwellan. This does eventually wind up with the Shin'a'in leading her and Skif obliquely to the Pelagirs. 

Darkwind, in the mean time, serves on the k'Sheyna council of Elders as the speaker for the scouts. Problem is, his Father is the head Mage, and Starblade is a bit annoyed with his son. That Starblade is also being controlled by the Adept Mornelithe Falconsbane doesn't come out until later. Darkwind is also guarding Treyvon and Hydona, two griffons scouts who are living adjacent to the Vale. He also manages to pick up the catlike Nyara, who is also a double agent for Falconsbane. 

Anyway, when everyone eventually meets up, it turns into a showdown with Falconsbane, involves some Shin'a'in shaman who we met earlier, and sets up Elspeth's training as the first Herald-Mae since Vanyel. It just takes a bunch of angst to get there. 

So, yeah. Not my favorite, but it does set up the rest of the trilogy quite well.

Ride on!

 Finished Mercedes Lackey's By the Sword yesterday, a rare solo volume in the series. (I mean, technically, it it's a continuation of Tarma and Kethry's story in Vows and Honor, but it picks up two generations after those adventures.) Anyway, we're south and west of Valdemar for the majority of this one, as the mage Kethry's granddaughter Kerowyn ends up rescuing her future sister in law from bandots on the eve of her wedding day. Kero winds up with the magical sword, Need, which gives its female bearers abilities to make up for ones they lack. 

Anyway, Kero really doesn't fit in with the small court her family belongs to, as such, she gets trained to be a mercenary by her grandmother and Tarma. While this does introduce her to Prince Daren of Rethwellen, he ultimately has a place as his brother's Lord Marshall after his other brother tries to kill off Selaney in Valdemar. 

So, we follow Kero in a series of deep dives over her career, seeing how they make her the woman she ends up as. In one of the early ones, she ends up saving Herald Eldan during a rout in a battle verses Karse. He helps Kero with her Mindspeech, she ends up getting hin to the border (and safety), and they end up playing games over his ransom. 

Kero eventually leaves her Company due to the current leader's incompetence. Which ends up with most of the rest of the company voting out the old leader and installing Kero as the leader. 

A few major battles later, Kero accepts Daren's invite to Rethwellen, when Talia and Dirk arrive to beg help from them for their war against Hardorn. Kero manages to bring up the fact Rethwellen owes Valdemar a debt from Kethry's time. As Rethwellen's army will take time to get there, KEro ends up taking her company across Valdemar, losing her Mages on the way. (The rejoin Daren's troops, and wind up marching through Karse, which has its own political shakes up going on, as we see later.) 

Anyway, Ancar's armies cause issues, Kero and Selaney and Elsbeth become friends, and Kero and Daren get chosen, setting up the Mage Winds trilogy. 

A lot of fun, since Kero is not very lady like.

Falling down

 Talia's big story ends on a bang in Mercedes Lackey's Arrow's Fall, as Talia takes her full seat on the council as Queen's Own, and ends up knee deep in the treachery of one of the Councillors. 

As Talia and Kris return from their circuit. Skif rides out to meet them and pass on the mess Talia is returning to, namely the betrothal proposal from Hardorn, who's kind has been a friend for ages. His proposal would betroth Elspeth, Heir to the Throne of Valdemar to his son, Ancar, Heir to the Throne of Hardorn. Everyone seems to think it would be a good idea, some more than others. Talia and Queen Selaney manage to work out a few delays in there (like Elspeth finishing her Herald training prior to anything actually happening), but it looks like a good deal. In the mean time, Dirk, Kris, and Talia wind up in a three way fight, due to Dirk and Talia's distrust of Kris's Uncle Orthallen, Dirk's assumption that Kris and Talia are a committed couple, and Talia trying to bulldoze her way into their personal feelings. 

Anyway, it's decided that Talia and Kris will ride into Hardorn a week or so ahead of Selaney to make sure everything is on the up and up. Which, it isn't. Seems ol' Ancar wants both kingdoms, and has no problems escorting his father off his mortal coil to get the first. Kris winds up dead, and Talia gets locked in the dungeon, finding out what happened to Horrible Hulda, the nurse to Elspeth who was trying to turn the Heir into the Brat. Seems ol' Hulda is a mage of the kind Valdemar hasn't seen since Vanyel's time, as is Ancar. 

A lot of really unpleasant things later, Dirk and Elspeth use their gifts to save Talia, at which point a generation of plotting comes to light and Hardorn and Valdemar go to war (which of course sets up the next few trilogies and stand alone set in this time period.) Dirk and Elspeth finally manage to admit to their lifebond, get married, and get a sweet if contrived wedding gift from beyond the grave.

Still fun reading, and a reminder of why I love this setting so much.

Fly high, little bird!

 And once again, we return to the "Modern" era of Valdemar, which as I was reminded of, is on the planet Velgarth. (I have a friend who only refers to it as such; I personally only remember seeing the planet name in this trilogy.) As such, we're back with Queen's Own Herald Talia, as she's put in her whites and sent on her internship riding circuit on the Northern Border. 

Mind you, she's paired with Herald Kris, who's working partner is Herald Dirk, whom Talia has fallen for. However, Kris is one of the most handsome in the land, and women fall over themselves for a relationship with him...

While that underlies the book, much of the focus is is on Talia's missing training, a point brought out by Kris's Uncle Orthallen, who tells Kris rumors swirl that Talia is using her Empathic gifts unethically to influence politics.  When Kris mentions this to Talia, it eats away her confidence. This finally gets corrected when they get snowbound in the Forest of Sorrows, and Talia learns the basics of control finally. It also sets up events a few books down the road as something in the Forest is watching to make sure they're ok. 

By the end, Talia is in control of her gift totally and ready for her position, but along the way, we get glimpses of how powerful her gift can be. 

Good read, and there's a definite improvement in the quality from book 1, which happens with series fiction, as the author becomes more comfortable with their creation.

Exodus

 So, Mercedes Lackey has decided to write a trilogy finally depicting the Kingdom of Valdemar, starting with Beyond. We know some of the legends, thanks to prvious volumes, but legends often don't capture the full truth. 

In this case, we're dealing with the Duchy of Valdemar, a far flung part of the Empire, that specializes in horse breeding. Duke Kordas and his wife Isla run the Duchy, working to bring to fruition a plan his Grandfather, the first Duke, came up with to get everyone in Valdemar far enough away from the Empire that they wouldn't be stuck in the perpetual loop of Imperial Politics. Thus Kordas does his best to come off as a bumpkin to avoid the Emperor's notice. 

 As it becomes apparent they have the ability to start the evacuation, Kordas is summoned to the Imperial City for the Emperor's Birthday Regatta. Which leaves it up to Isla and her lovesick sister to carry out the plan, hoping Kordas can work out everything on his end from across the Empire. (In modern terms, it looks like the Capital and the Duchy are about the distance between, say, Los Angeles and Washington DC.)  

Unfortunately, Kordas is stuck dealing with imprisoned elementals, Imperial hostages, and the fact the emperor has been making abyssal deals on top of everything else. 

Again, as we've been reading the legends of these events since 1987, the ending comes as no surprise, although the ride to get there is fascinating to read. 

Great addition.

The Start of it All

 Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar, a very long running series, got its start with Arrows of the Queen. Which opens on 13 year old Talia,living on the border with her people, the Holderkin, who have bigamist marriages in their holdings, and the men have the authority. Talia, who loves reading adventures, much to the amusement of the older women of the hold, dreams of being one of the heroes of the tales she reads. However, as she turns 13, she's informed that it's time for her to either be married off, or sent to the Convent. This causes Talia to rebel and run away from the council of wives. 

As she sits in her hiding place among some ruins, one of the white horses of Valdemar, a Companion greets her, and she rides him back to Haven, not really grasping that she has just been Chosen, let alone being Chosen as Queen's Own. (Since it gets explained in this trilogy more than anywhere else in the series, the position is advisor to the Monarch, Chosen by a Grove Born Companion, always a Stallion. It's heavily implied the Herald Gifts work towards that advice, as well as divine guidance on how to advise.) Talia is taking over after her predecessor was murdered, and as the queen is dealing with the current Heir, who can't become monarch due to not being Chosen.

Most of the book is set up to give us a look at the current governance of the Kingdom, as well as players in what is the Modern Setting of the series. (Books written later in the series tend to tell tales from much earlier in the time line, or continue the story in the modern timeline after this series ends. The modern timeline seems to have ended, in terms of new stories, after Darien's Tale, since the next few series were all set several centuries earlier, and the newest one, set to start later this summer, involves the founding.)

Anyway, this means we meet later players, like Skif (who started life as a thief) and Dirk, as well as Albrecht, who we eventually find out was Chosen from longtime enemy nation Karse due to his gifts.We mostly see Talia as she trains and blossoms into a young woman. (I read these last a long time ago. As I recall, the next book concerns Talia getting promoted to Full Herald and learning to control her Empathy gift, while the final book sets up the War with Hardorn that gets the Mage Winds trilogy rolling.) 

As a starting point, it's not quite what the series becomes as it evolves and gets fleshed out, however, it does show the core of the series was there at the beginning. Worth reading, and a good place to start.

Wrapping up

 In what looks to be the end of the 11 book Megs cycle, Mercedes Lackey has given us Spy, Spy Again, book 3 of The Family Spies. This one follows the youngest sons of Megs' and the Royal Families sons as they end up adventuring across Karse. sort of.

We open on Tory and Prince Kyril as they explore their oddly twinned Farsight gifts that allow them to see members of their families, wherever they may be. Then we switch to Meg's cousin Bey's daughter Sira, who takes care of Karsite incursions into territory close to the Sleepgivers' Mountain. Eventually, Sira gets careless, and gets taken by Karsite priests. Which sets off alarms on the part of Kyril and Tory, who gets a brief glimpse of it. Bey sends his son to Valdemar to call in the Life Debt owed by Megs, and sweetens the pot by making Valdemar untargetable by the Sleepgivers in perpetuity. 

With a bunch of negotiating, Kyril and Tory end up helping track Sira into a Southern Karse prison, while Sira learns to break medallions used by ancient Sleepgivers to bind Afreet (various elementals) to help them. This becomes bittersweet, as much of the focus is on the relationship between Tory and Kyril, as Kyril is in love with Sira, and she with him, and Tory must learn to live with the loss of his best friend who is also Mage gifted and therefore not likely to be able to live in Valdemar after that awakens. 

While this hews closely to the tropes long ingrained in a Lackey novel, it remains entertaining reading, and again showcases her love of character. I look forward to her new trilogy, which will evidently finally tell the tale of the Founding.