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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.