The Herald Spy by Mercedes Lackey
Alrighty, The Herald Spy as a series. It's been a few days since I actually finished Closer to the Chest and I have to say, this series has not left a lasting impression on my brain. The Herald Spy picks up right where Collegium Chronicles left off, and I mean right where it left off. Mags has finished his year of Circuit, or however long his Circuit lasted anyway, and is on the road back to Haven. Lena and Bear have been rather unceremoniously dropped off at some Baron's household where Lena is the official Bard in Residence or whatever. We're left to follow Mags and Amily through the rest of the series.
The first really big thing that happens is Nikolas' death and Amily's ascendance to King's Own. This was only slightly shocking to me as I have spent a little amount of time perusing the Valdemar Wiki and found Amily's name on the list of Heralds beside Rolan's name and designation as King's Own. I was actually more shocked by how fast I perceived Rolan as giving up on Nikolas, especially as Emery (Nikolas' new Companion) was right there in the moment to save his life. Of course this sends my brain spiraling down the rabbit hole of potential futures where Valdemar ends up with equivalents to our life-saving technology and having Heralds end up dying for longer than Nikolas did only to end up surviving thanks to an equivalent of a defibrillator... but that's really neither here nor there, just where by mind went during this exchange of Companions.
So anyway, Amily's now King's Own and develops a semi-useful Mind-Gift of looking through the eyes of animals. Amily and Mags start building up their own network of spies throughout Haven, including such notables as Lady Dia, Lord Jorthun, Mindy, Mag's little band of kiddos, Flora, etc. Meantime, there's a Romeo and Juliet plot happening under their noses that's honestly mostly boring and exposes the societal flaw of Valdemar of High Born women mostly being marriage fodder despite there being other avenues for them to pursue if they so chose... I don't know, I was sick of it pretty quickly. Never been a fan of reading through that part of our history and having it shoved in my face all the while having Amily going "oh, it really sucks for them and I wish they had more opportunities outside of that" without actually doing much aside from handing Violetta some books... just much blah.
Honestly, a lot of The Herald Spy was just blah. There's a lot of Mags running around through Haven during which we get descriptors of Haven, over and over, really. I'm pretty cure I skimmed most of it, to be honest. Haven's just not that interesting of a city and there's not a lot that actually goes on there.
Closer to the Heart sees Mags and Amily finally married, eloped before the state wedding that takes the entire book to plan... which they have very little involvement in. Honestly, very relatable. My boyfriend and I often discuss how that's essentially how we'd like to be married if we choose to get married some day. Someone else can plan the party and we'll attend. Amily and Mags do this for slightly more practical reasons: they always seem to be getting into trouble that would keep pushing their wedding further and further down the line... which this plot does a little. Closer to the Heart actually sees Mags doing some spying that actually matters in terms of keeping Valdemar out of war.
Getting out of Haven was nice, however, we got another deep-dive into Mags' personal trauma: His time at the mine. The mines he visits are so vastly different from the mine he grew up in, it triggers his resentment toward Cole Pieters. Again, as it was revisited in every single Collegium Chronicles book, it really feels stale here. Not out of place, just stale. But the teensy bit of information Mags uncovers here kind of blows the lid off the whole plot, which ends up saving Valdemar from war.
Here's also where we get the understanding that no one outside Haven really understands how Valdemar and Companions and things actually work. General Thallan in Closer to the Heart just straight up doesn't think about the Mind-Magic among Heralds in his plan to take over Valdemar. The priests of the disgusting Church of Sethor think they can just murder Amily to replace her with Nikolas as King's Own... I mean, they probably would have been happy with another man being Chosen, but they also don't know how all that works, obviously. Every time this stuff was revealed, I just rolled my eyes. No one with eyes on the Valdemar throne really does their research into how Heralds and Companions actually work. General Thallan came really close, honestly, but, again, Mind-Magic is a thing he apparently knows about enough to drug Mags and Amily but not something he thinks about in terms of a coup. Also, just knowing there are more Valdemar books after this had the stakes fairly low in my head, so there's that.
Closer to the Heart is also where Mags picks up a artisan Tuck and -- essentially his translator -- Linden as part of his spy network. Tuck makes all the useful "gadgets" Mags and Amily eventually use to escape from General Thallan. Linden and Tuck were fun additions to the cast and I honestly wish there'd been more of them through the series. But no, we only get them in Closer to the Heart.
Aaaand finally we come to Closer to the Chest... it was boring. Skip it. Save yourself the annoyance and eye-rolling at all the woman-hating and apparent impotence of the Valdemaran government. It honestly annoys me at how long it took Mags to get properly into the Church of Sethor in order for the end to happen. The ending, by the way, I more or less saw coming from the moment the head priest snubbed Amily during his introduction. It was so bloody obvious who was ultimately involved... just... ugh. "There is no one true way" really needs that amendment "Except these particular things that are part of no-one's way." I ranted a bit about this in my review of Closer to the Chest, so you can go read that if you'd like to read more of my annoyance.
I honestly didn't have as much fun reading The Herald Spy as I did Collegium Chronicles. The Herald Spy just isn't as engaging of a trilogy and ended up leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth.
