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Storm Warning (Valdemar: Mage Storms Book 01) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Storm Warning is the first book in the Mage Storm Trilogy. Karse and Valdemar have long been enemy kingdoms- their peoples filled with mutal prejudice and mistrust. Only the vile deeds perpetrated on both kingdoms by Ancar of Hardorn, and the subsequent emergence of the armies of Eastern Empire in the wake of his defeat, have forced these two so-different lands into an uneasy alliance. For the Eastern Empire, which has long been isolated and shrouded in mystery, is ruled by a monarch whose magical tactics may be beyond any sorcery known to the Western kingdoms. Forced to combat this dire foe, not only must traditional enemies unite, but the Companions may, at last, have to reveal secrets which they have kept hidden for centuries… even from their beloved Heralds. Buy From:

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Review:Storm Warning is the first book in the Mage storms trilogy and it picks up the story from where the Mage Winds trilogy ended.

It gives us our first look into the Empire of the East that Baron Valdemar had fled from before he founded Valdemar at its current location. The empire was founded by Mercenaries fighting in the Mage wars against Ma’ar. Actually by this time almost all of the various people and countries introduced to us in the series have been shown to have been part of either Ma’ar or Urtho who fought against each other in the Mage wars. Hints are given about the war in the various histories remembered by each of the people and the gryphon’s keep mentioning Skandranon (the Black Gryphon) who was a soldier and friend of Urtho.

Parts of the book did seem a bit long especially the portions where An’desha was going through a period of self-doubt and pity. I never really liked the tragic hero character that is so popular in certain kinds of books so when it was used in this book I didn’t like it much, but thankfully it wasn’t dragged out much and it was actually relevant to the storyline so it wasn’t too bad.

A couple of new characters were introduced and some secrets about the Companions were revealed along with certain new abilities in them. It was a fun read and sets the stage for the next book in the series and the series after that.

Final Recommendation: A great read. Highly recommended.

Winds of Fury (Valdemar: Mage Winds Book 03) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Winds of Fury is the third book in the Mage Winds Trilogy. Valdemar is once again in peril, threatened by Ancar of Hardorn, who has long sought to seize control of the kingdom by any means at his command. Yet this time Ancar may well achieve his goal, for by harnessing the power of Mornelithe Falconsbane, the Dark Adept, he has set into motion a magical strike against Valdemar the like of which hasn’t been attempted in more than five hundred years- not since Vanyel, the last Herald-Mage, shielded the kingdom from attack by the deadliest of sorceries. And with Valdemar’s ancient spell-generated protections finally breaking down, Queen Selenay, Herald-Princess Elspeth, and their people could soon be left defenseless against an enemy armed with spells no one in Valdemar has the knowledge to withstand. But as the long dormant magic of Valdemar begins to awaken, Elspeth finds that she too has a mysterious ally- a powerful spirit from the long-forgotten past…. Buy From:

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Review:Winds of Fury is the last and final book in the Mage Winds Trilogy and covers the return of Elspeth along with other allies to Valdemar to train the newly recognized Herald-Mages in the use of magic and defend the kingdom against Ancar.

Through a lucky (for Ancar) accident Falconsbane ends up in Ancar’s custody from his prison in the Void and since Falconsbane’s mental defenses were down at the time Ancar set a coercion spell on him to force him to help Ancar against all his enemies and some of his erstwhile allies.

In this book the focus is on Valdemar and Hardorn with a few unexpected visits from ancient allies. There is not a lot of personal development / changes in the lives of the major characters from the previous books in the trilogy but the new characters introduced have their own story and some of them do undergo a lot of changes and upheavals. A lot of points not explained in the previous books are explained here and the book sets the stage for the next trilogy in the series while ending this one concisely and gives the author the opportunity to introduce a whole new set of characters and story lines in later books.

Final recommendation: A great read.

Winds of Change (Valdemar: Mage Winds Book 02) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Winds of Change is the second book in the Mage Winds Trilogy. None but the Companions remember the long-ago age when high magic was lost to Valdemar as the last Herald-Mage gave his life to protect his kingdom from destruction by dark sorceries. But now the protective barrier set so long ago over Valdemar is crumbling, and with the realm imperiled by the dark magic of Ancar of Hardorn, Princess Elspeth, Herald and heir to the throne, has gone on a desperate quest in search of a mentor who can teach her to wield her fledgling mage-powers and help her to defend her threatened kingdom. Buy From:

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Review:Winds of Change is the second book in the Mage Winds trilogy. It picks up just after the first book ends. Elspeth, heir to the throne of Valdemar, has been adopted in the Clan of k’Sheyna and is training her mage gift under Darkwind k’Sheyna.

Most of the book covers the life in the vales with little focus on what’s happening in Valdemar at the same time. During the course of the book Elspeth is trained and the Clan finally sends out a request for help in dealing with the rouge Heartstone. While the Adepts of the clan along with Healing Adept Firesong deal with the Heartstone, Mornelithe Falconsbane who the clan assumed to have died in the previous book is revealed as being still alive and still plotting against the clan to gain the power stored in the heartstone.

The drops a lot of hints and has explanations about various items that have been hinted at in the previous books like how Need became a sword and how she defeated the mage that had attacked her temple and how Tayledras gained the ability to cleanse an area from magic.

The descriptions of Companions and the bond birds shows Lackey’s familiarity with horses and birds of prey. The characters are mostly quite well defined and even the interpersonal issues between the characters are covered in detail without making them too detailed or into a caricature of themselves.

Final Recommendation: Awesome read. This is a book that I have read multiple times and have enjoyed it each time.

Winds of Fate (Valdemar: Mage Winds Book 01) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Winds of Fate is the first book in the Mage Winds Trilogy. High Magic has been lost to Valdemar centuries ago when the last Herald-Mage gave his life to save the kingdom from destruction by dark sorceries. Yet now the realm is at risk again. And Elspeth, Herald and heir to the throne, must take up the challenge, abandoning her home to find a mentor who can awaken her untrained mage abilities. But others, too, are being caught up in a war against sorcerous evil. The Tayledras scout Darkwind is the first to stumble across the menace creeping forth from the “Uncleansed Lands.” And as sorcery begins to take its toll, Darkwind may be forced to call upon powers he has sworn never to use again if he and his people are to survive an enemy able to wreak greater devastation with spells of destruction than with swords…. Buy From:

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Review:The first book the the Mage Winds Trilogy picks up the story of Valdemar a couple of after the events in the ‘Arrow’s of the Queen’ Trilogy and ‘By The Sword’. By this time Valdemar’s war with Hardon is at a standstill with both sides prepared for a long seige. Ancar is busy building up an army of mages and since the magical protection over Valdemar was weakning quickly the Heir to the throne ‘Elspeth’ sets out to find a mage willing to come to Valdemar and teach any Heralds with Mage gift, during the journey she finds out that she has mage potential and needs to be trained immediately. On the other side of the world Darkwind’s clan is under seige and they don’t have enough strength to resist for long even though their elder council still refuses to accept this.

The book is a great read, a little bit darker than the usual Valdemar novels but not very dark. All the characters in the book are well defined and their motivations actually make sense. Elspeth and Darkwind are the primary characters in it and the author focuses on their point of view for the most part.

This book is the first one after the books in the ‘Last Herald Mage’ trilogy where the legendary Hawk brothers are a major player, we were given a brief hint about the hawk-brothers in a couple of previous books but never in any detail. This one finally makes up for this lack by telling us the story of their creation along with the Shin’a’in by the Starry Eyed.

It is a light read in the sense that there are no long and very complicated plotlines to worry about, there are a few major characters and they are easy to remember and differenciate between unlike a few other books.

Final Recommendation: A great read.

Arrows of the Queen (Heralds of Valdemar Book 01) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Chosen by the Companion Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining, Talia, once a runaway, has now become a trainee Herald, destined to become one of the Queens’s own elite guard. For Talia has certain awakening talents of the mind that only a Companion like Rolan can truly sense. But as Talia struggles to master her unique abilities, time is running out. For conspiracy is brewing in Valdemar, a deadly treason which could destroy Queen and kingdom. Opposed by unknown enemies capable of both diabolical magic and treacherous assassination, the Queen must turn to Talia and the Heralds for aid in protecting the realm and insuring the future of the queen’s heir, a child already in danger of becoming bespelled by the Queen’s own foes. Buy From:

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Review:Arrows of the Queen is the first novel published by Mercedes Lackey and it introduces us to Talia who is to become the Queens’ Own Herald.

In this first book in the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy, Talia is from the straight-laced Hold families and is brought up to believe that women are somehow inferior than men and is constantly punished because of her unseemly habit of reading and writing. The book covers her life in the Herald Collegium and how she went from an unknown outsider to friend and confidant to most of the Herald circle.

It does a good job of describing how a person might feel when uprooted from their normal life into a life that feels like a a fantasy.

Final Recommendation: A very good read. Its no wonder the book got published. 🙂

Exile’s Valor (Valdemar: Exile Book 02) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Exile’s Valor continues the tale begun in Exile’s Honor, and shed some light on the courtship, marriage and death of Queen Selenay’s husband, and father of her daughter Elspeth. Buy From:

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Review:In the second book of the Exile series the story of Alberich, the weapon master of Valdemar is continued. The book is set right after the 1st book ended and Selenay, the new Queen is being pressurized into getting married and procreating.

Then along comes a handsome prince who knows exactly what to say and do to make Selenay fall in love with him and marry him. After a whirlwind courtship they marry and soon after that the queen was with child.

The book did spend a lot of time going over the emotions and feelings of the queen and the heralds. Not a lot of focus was given to the other side. At no point was the reader given an insight into the prince’s thoughts and this is not necessary a bad thing.

At the end of the book not all threads are tied up and the book leaves some questions unanswered for the next books in the series. Although this book was written way after the next book in the series it doesn’t contradict any major points in those books.

Final recommendation: A decent read, not as absorbing as the rest of the books but still good.

Take a Thief: A Novel of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Takes a Thief reveals the untold story of Skif- a popular character from Lackey’s first published novel, Arrows of the Queen. Skif is a homeless orphan who lives with a gang of juvenile pickpockets…until he is “Chosen” by one of Valdemar’s magical horses and becomes a Herald serving the Queen… Buy From:

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Review:Take a Thief is a stand alone novel in the world of Valdemar. Like a lot of other novels in the series it focuses on a particular person’s view point to describe a given situation. In ‘Take a Thief’ the person is Skif, who was introduced to us in the very first Valdemar novel (Arrows of the Queen) which coincidentally was the first novel published by Mercedes Lackey.

This book expands the brief history the reader was told in Arrows. However a few things have been changed in this book as compared to the original telling with not a lot of explanation as to why this was. The only possible way (That I can think of) to explain the difference between that story and this one would be that Skif told a false story about his history so that people didn’t know all the skills he had.

As for the timeline the book is set somewhere in between Exile’s Valor and the Arrows of the Queen Trilogy. Exile’s valor was published after this one so not a lot of events from that book was referenced to in this one.

I really like Lackey’s style of writing and her way of describing the life of a dirt poor person without glamorizing it (making them into the noble poor) or making it too gritty and depressing.

Final recommendation: Great read.

Exile’s Honor (Valdemar: Exile Book 01) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Trained from childhood in the arts of war, Alberich strives to walk a careful path between obedience to the priests of Vkandis Sunlord and fairness to the soldiers under his command and the people of his native land of Karse. His attempts to hide his heretical gift of precognition, however, earn him a sentence of death by fire, thwarted by a bold rescue seemingly engineered by his faithful white battle steed-in actuality one of the Companions of the Heralds of Valdemar. Lackey continues her popular Valdemar series with the story of Alberich, Weaponsmaster and Queen’s Champion of a land he was taught to fear and hate, as he struggles to redefine the meaning of the honor he holds so dear while learning to accept the magic he once tried to conceal. Buy From:

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Review:Exile’s Honor is the story of weapons-master Alberich who was the first Karsite ever to become an Herald.

The book starts off with Alberich’s last mission in Karse where he uses his hidden gift for foresight to prevent a bandit raid. Unfortunately for him the Priests didn’t agree that the foresight was a gift and instead tried to burn him as a witch. Fortunately for Alberich the Companion Kantor rescued him from the fire and took him to Valdemar to be trained.

The book does a good job of showing Alberich’s emotional and mental uncertainty on finding out that pretty much everything he had been taught about the Heralds was untrue without getting too depressing or melodramatic. This was a good thing because if he had accepted the change without any problems then he wouldn’t have become one of the more beloved characters in the series. After all recovering from a complete shift of your world view does take time.

It was initially written as a stand-alone novel but it fits quite well with the other books in the series. Exile’s Valor continues the tale started in this book but even if you don’t read that one you can read and enjoy this one without any problems.

Final Recommendation: A great read.

By the Sword (Vows and Honor Book 04) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Granddaughter of the sorceress Kethry, daughter of a noble house, Kerowyn had been forced to run the family keep since her mother’s untimely death. Yet now at last her brother was preparing to wed, and when his bride became the lady of the keep, Kerowyn could return to her true enjoyments – training horses and hunting. But all Kerowyn’s hopes and plans were shattered when her ancestral home was attacked, her father slain, her brother wounded, and his fiance kidnapped. Driven by desperation and the knowledge that a sorcerer had led the attack, Kerowyn sought her grandmother Kethry’s aid, a journey which would prove but the first step on the road to the fulfillment on her destiny. For facing her family’s foes would transform Kerowyn into an outsider in her own land, a warrior bound to the spell blade Need, and a mercenary forced to choose between loyalty to her comrades in arms and the Herald of Valdemar, whom she had rescued and who in his turn had helped to awaken her to the true meaning of love and to her own unique powers of magic. Buy From:

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The 4th book in the series ‘By the Sword’ features Kerowyn, the grand-daughter of the Sorceress Kethry and covers her adventures from her brutal introduction to warfare to her rise to a herald of Valdemar.

The book is an awesome read and sort of continues where the previous books ended but from a perspective of a much younger person than the previous books. It is divided into three parts and each part covers a specific phase in the life of Kero.

The last 1/3 of the book retells the tale of Valdemar’s war with Ancar but from a different perspective.

I liked the way the book talks about mercenaries and the kind of work they do. It does tend to glamorize the mercenary life a bit but has a lot of healthy doses of the non-glamorous portion of the war (the dying and killing).

Final Recommendation: A great read. Gives you a lot of background on another secondary character from the Valdemar Universe

Oathbreakers (Vows and Honor Book 02) by Mercedes Lackey

Description: When Idra, leader of the crack mercenaries known as the Sunhawks, failed to return from a journey to her home kingdom of Rethwellan, Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage, set out in search of their vanished leader. Sisters of sword and spell, their fates bound together by a Goddess-sworn oath, they were eternally pledged to fight the forces of evil. And evil had indeed cast its shadow over Rethwellan. Idra, so they were told, had left long ago on a search for a legendary magical sword which could reveal which of her two brothers was meant to become the new king. With the princess gone, her younger brother had been branded an outlaw and her older brother had claimed the throne. Both instinct and mage lore told Kethry and Tarma that all was not as it seemed, that both Idra and her people were in terrible jeopardy. Yet would their Goddess-given powers, aided by those of a Herald of Valdemar, proves strong enough to break the dark enchantment possessing this land? Buy From:

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The second book in the Vows and Honor series finds Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage in the SunHawks, a mercenary company. There they learn a bit more about command and how to delegate.

The book doesn’t cover a lot of their life in the Sun Hawks, just enough to get them established and give a foundation for the next part of the story. In all a good way to structure a book.

This book is not like the first one where it felt like the book was basically a lot of short stories strung together. In this one there is only one story and as the book progresses they both gain in skill and experience.

I liked this book better than the first one. For some reason I rarely like reading short stories or anthologies. So this book was a lot of fun and more to my taste. Although I have read the book a couple of times before it was still interesting enough for me to read it completely in one sitting.

The book explains how Tarma and Kethry managed to get a grant for land that they required to setup their school and why the monarchy of Rethwellan was indebted to the two of them (That becomes important later in the series)

Final recommendation: A good read.