Beyond by Mercedes Lackey

A Fairly Spoiler Free Review

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from Beyond, but I was not disappointed. I’m also not really sure what to say about it. There was a constant tension throughout rather than, like, a villain to fight against. The characters were all engaging and pretty realistic for the world they live in. Beyond was definitely a step up from any of The Mage Wars. Unsurprising, really, with the large gap between the writing and publishing of them with the rest of the Valdemar books in between.

So, given the nature of the Beyond story, there are bound to be spoilers in this review. It’s essentially a kind of spy thriller, but not super focused in that regard. Kordas and the other Valdemarans are definitely constantly worried about being spied on and maintaining the illusion that nothing is happening, but not so much so where anything seems really forced. It’s all actually quite leisurely paced until the end of the book. Speaking of, the end did seem kind of rushed compared with the rest of the story, but I don’t think that’s a detriment to any of it. It was very clear that The Plan was going to finish up in Beyond and not carry on into the rest of the trilogy.

I think the choice of Kordas and Delia as the main characters was a good one. Kordas due to his placement in power and Delia simply because she’s a bridge between the nobles and to commoners. I might have liked a bit of commoner Valdemaran perspective, but I’m not really sure how well that would have worked. I think we get that through the likes of Squire Lesley’s willingness to talk honestly with Delia.

I was not expecting the inclusion of cat memes, which was amusing. However, the words “doggo” and “pupper” being used by an old mage is unsettling and took me out of the story for a moment. Also, the original introduction of the Dolls… they seemed to Sci-fi for Valdemar and I wasn’t really sure we needed the inclusion of the whole vrondi thing. However, I was wrong. The Dolls/vrondi were actually quite integral to the plot.

I’m not really sure what else I can say that isn’t giving away anything. I really feel like Beyond needs to be experienced more than me telling you all the things. I also feel like, if you’ve decided to read the Valdemar series in chronological order, like I have, you can probably skip The Mage Wars and start with Beyond.

Favorite Quotes

"It’s magic. It has built-in fuckery." - Jonaton

"Good bed, deep sleep, big breakfast, and one could outpace anything except a Night Person. Their ways were mysterious and full of cats." - Kordas

"When a ruler gives up on empathy and sentiment, it is a sign of desperation. It means they’re paring away emotion in favor of efficiency and numbers and a twisted fantasy of a better life without the joys and burdens of caring about something outside of themselves. Contempt for kindness and generosity is the surest sign there is that someone has nothing else left to them but a horrible emptiness much worse than weakness." - Kordas

“Do what you can, do everything that you can, do it to the best of your ability, and leave the rest to fate. Or the gods. Or random luck. Your choice,” - Koto