The Last Herald Mage by Mercedes Lackey
Alright, here we go. The Last Herald Mage trilogy is kind of a hard one for me to put an overall label on. The series takes place basically over Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron's lifetime but there are very few actual events from that lifetime that we get to witness. Mostly we get to witness Van's various recovery eras rather than his exploits, which I think is fair. Vanyel has got to be one of the most traumatized characters I've encountered in a while.
So when we first meet him, Vanyel is being mentally abused by his father, Withen and various siblings/foster-siblings while at the same time being physically abused by the Forst Reach's weapon's master, Jervis. All this prompts Withen to send Van off to his sister in Haven, Savil. While this stops the abuse, Van ends up pretty much shutting himself off emotionally from everyone he meets until one Tylendel Frelennye manages to get under Van's skin and break him of this destructive behavior. It's nice that Tylendel is able to do this, really, but that relationship is pretty much never healthy. Healthier than it could have been, yes, but it's not great that they become codependent.
I've never been a fan of the Van/Tylendel pairing and I really think part of that has to do with how rushed it is in Magic's Pawn. We go from Tylendel bringing Van out of his protective shell to them being absolutely inseparable (within Savil's living quarters anyway) to Tylendel's breakdown upon the death of his twin and Tylendel's death, all in pretty quick succession. We barely get to see Van and Tylendel as an actual couple and their dynamic is remarked upon as being potentially unhealthy by Savil, who then never really checks up on that afterward. She just leaves them to their own devices even when she probably shouldn't have. Aaand then Tylendel manipulates Van... so it's just always left this icky feeling behind, for me anyway.
I find the Van/Stefen romance much more palatable, reincarnation stuff aside. It really doesn't affect their relationship at all anyway, since Savil and Starwind opt not to tell them about that. I feel like Van and Stefen came at their relationship in a much healthier manner and it really feels like an actual relationship. I'm also glad Stefen stuck by Van when they went off after Van's nemesis. Van needed a more grounding influence on that trip than even Yfandes could provide... and then, ya know, help through the trauma after the bandits captured him. Thinking about Van's relationships now, actually, it's like the difference between your do-or-die teen romances as opposed to more adult ones. Just all the cringe followed by something much, much better.
And speaking of those changing relationships, Van and his parents are interesting to look at. We're made to really dislike Withen Ashkevron in Magic's Pawn but by the Magic's Price he's mostly a cuddly teddy bear. I think the progression throughout Van's life is quite realistic, even if, at times, it does seem a little rushed. I found the timeline a tad hard to keep track of between Magic's Promise and Magic's Price, to be honest, which accounts for the rushed feeling. Withen's change in attitudes are also helped along by the death of Father Leren and a retelling of Moondance's story. Treesa, on the other hand, is a bit of an odd duck to me. I like that she at least attempts to foster Van's talents and later completely accepts Yfandes. I find her clinging to youth thing more annoying than anything else, and that "courtly love" thing she does rubbed me the wrong way. Of course, not being a girly-girl myself and having absolutely no flirting game, I'm not even sure how the "courtly love" thing actually works. However, if it's coming on strong enough to freak out a traumatized child, there's an issue.
Van's other family members aren't really worth going into, but I do have to mention Van's sister, Lissa. I wish we'd gotten more Lissa. I liked Lissa.
Jervis turned out to be a much more likeable man and important character during Magic's Promise. He clearly had some time to think about how he treated Van and how he should be treating his other charges. I think it's a little odd he didn't tell Van why he wanted to spar all the time instead of just letting Van stew about it... but it turned out all right in the end.
I feel like I'd be a bit remiss in not mentioning the Tayledras pair of Moodance and Starwind k'Treva. They are instrumental in both healing and training Van after the whole Tylendel incident. They also help after the assassination attempt on Treesa. I like them, but they're also relatively flat as characters. Moondance is more fleshed out than Starwind, but mostly because of his backstory... which is told exactly the same way in both Magic's Pawn and Magic's Price, though with different intentions.
Pivoting to the plots of The Last Herald Mage: I'm pretty sure I enjoyed Magic's Promise the most. Magic's Pawn mostly just had Van along for the ride and then recovering from that ride. Magic's Price felt like there was too much for the one book. Magic's Promise, while mildly infuriating, probably had the best overall plot. The mystery around Tashir was a good one and fairly well put together. My only issue with Magic's Promise was just how long it took Van to get back to the initial crime scene. An actual investigator, he is not. It also bugged me a little how long Van spent undercover in Lineas for fairly little reward.
There's also some discussion (actually a fairly small discussion, but turned into Stefen's life's work after Van's death) in the books about how Heralds are viewed and view themselves. I find it interesting that Herald-Mages are apparently much more valued than regular Heralds... probably because I read The Heralds of Valdemar trilogy first, in which there are no Herald-Mages. So... the numbers just don't seem to make sense to me in terms of valuation. Granted, we as readers don't actually have a good idea how many Herald-Mages there were to normal Heralds, but we do know there aren't many older Herald-Mages to act as guides to the younger Herald-Mage Trainees... hence part of why Savil had three trainees at the start of Magic's Pawn. The Herald-Mages were also largely wiped out during the war with Karse to the point that it left Savil, Lissandra, Van, and Kilchas as the remaining Herald-Mages. The numbers in my head of Heralds vs Herald-Mages just don't make sense with how the general public views them... I mean, I guess it's probably more akin to, like, A-list celebrities vs the rest of Hollywood. I don't know. It's just odd to me.
I'm not really sure I have much else to say about The Last Herald Mage. I did enjoy the trilogy a lot more than I did The Mage Wars and a little less than The Founding of Valdemar. Yfandes is probably my favorite Companion.
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