A Spoiler Free Reread Review
Arrows of the Queen is truly where you want to start a Valdemar journey. I know this time I'm reading through chronologically and everything about Heralds is technically explained in other books to other characters, but I feel like Talia gets the best introduction and us along with her. The only issue I really have is that Rolan and Talia cannot speak mind-to-mind like all of the other Herald/Companion duos we've encountered thus far in said chronological reading of the Heralds of Valdemar series. It's not a serious issue, just an interesting one. Talia not only gets lecturing on what it means to be a Herald, but also how the Gifts work and even a peek into how special the Monarch's Own Herald is... as Talia is the Queen's Own.
Rolan being unable to mind-speak Talia really bothered me during the first portion of the book as he's taking Talia to Haven. Everyone she meets is like "there are rules" and "you'll just get confused if we tell you what's going on" which is confusing to Talia and to a reader who's not familiar with Valdemar and how things work. Most other Heralds would have their Companions mind-speaking them and explaining what's going on but not so with Talia so the poor girl's just confused af. Like, at least have it in "the rules" that someone can tell the clearly very confused and worried Herald-to-be that they've been Chosen and that someone will explain what that actually means once they reach the Collegium. Seriously.
I believe I have ultimately figured out why Lord Orthallen was ringing bells in my head during Take a Thief. I'm not sure whether I'm remembering correctly or not, but I believe he's one of the unnamed conspirators. Definitely not 100% sure, but about 90% sure.
It was nice seeing Skif again. I like his relationship with Talia and who he's growing into. I am definitely happy his rough speech is gone now, cuz boy was that hard to read. He's much more settled now, even if he is still a bit of a scamp. It's nice.
I really enjoyed Talia's relationship with Elspeth. I loved that Talia wasn't taking any of Elspeth's crap from day one. So good. The turnaround in Elspeth's behavior was fun to see. I don't remember a whole lot from the rest of the Valdemar series so I'm looking forward to watching her grow up.
Talia herself is an interesting character. She is at once very reserved but also willing to lend an ear to whoever needs her. I very much felt for her during the bullying bit of the plot. Poor thing had her formative experience with adults who wouldn't listen to her and so doesn't trust anyone else and it's so true to life it's heartbreaking. I am very glad she grows beyond that and gets the help and support she really needed.
Ah yes, and I must mention the use of the Valdemar Heartsone room... or whatever it's called. Created by Vanyel and then forgotten about for a while until it was discovered by Mags, who had zero idea what it was or that it was actual magic. Selenay drags Talia, Dirk, Kyril, and Kris down there and they use it to boost the Heralds' powers... so I guess someone figured out what was up with the magic room at some point between Mags and Talia. Just mentioning it because it's been a point of high salt from me in the past.
Arrows of the Queen is definitely the best of the introductory books so far in my chronological read. We get character and world building is such a way that doesn't feel forced. It's also nice to have a main character who doesn't have some sort of weird accent that the reader has to stumble through reading. But yeah, pretty solid beginning to one of the main trilogies in the Valdemar series.
In Other News
My Valdemar reread is going on a tiny bit of a hiatus... probably. I'm about to have my second vacation of the year, which means I won't be reading on my phone so much... which is where I read the Valdemar series. We have definitely reached the point of my read-through where I am rereading these, but I honestly don't remember much so... I look forward to rediscovering things.
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