Family Spies Series Overview

Family Spies by Mercedes Lackey

This Post Will Contain Spoilers For Family Spies, The Herald Spy, Collegium Cronicles, ETC, Through The Back Catalogue of Valdemar Books. Also A Slight Spoiler For Heralds of Valdemar.

You Have Been Warned.

Once Upon A Time, Herald Mage Vanyel took it upon himself to create a magical early warning system consisting of air spirits known as vrondi. The vrondi were to watch for any signs of magic within Valdemar and report back to the Herald Mages so the Herald Mages could take care of the Mage they saw. However, Herald Mage Vanyel did not forsee that he would be that last of the Herald Mages for nigh on 300-something years. The vrondi were left with no one to report back to and instead simply watch the Mages, if they cross into Valdemar. Somehow, Herald Mage Vanyel's clever spell also caused Mage Gifts to be suppressed within Valdemar until such time as Herald Mage Elspeth's Mage Gift manifested... I guess. The spell somehow also made it weirdly hard for anyone in Valdemar to talk or think about magic at all, unless it's Mind-Magic... apparently. Oh, and the vrondi know when and where Valdemar's borders are at all times, even after expansion. How is anyone's guess. The vrondi don't bother Mages outside of Valdemar, either. Also, Herald Mage Vanyel didn't tell anyone about his vrondi warning system. But the focus stone he used to set the vrondi spell and the Herald Web knows about it, but no one can remember the stone even exists... except Herald Mags... it's all very complicated. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this vrondi thing is stupid.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Lackey decided to write Family Spies; a series in which each of Herald Mags and Herald Amily's children go outside Valdemar and have one magical adventure each. Perry's adventure took place in the Pelagirs, which still has magic and is just very odd to begin with. Abi's took place in a bit of unincorporated land Valdemar was looking to annex at the request of its inhabitants. And Tory's was mostly in Karse and a couple of the lands surrounding it. Honestly, I found these stories much more fun and interesting than I did the entire The Herald Spy and Collegum Chronicles series. No court intrigue, no annoying characters I didn't care about, very little actual spying... not that the spy training didn't come in handy, mind you, it just wasn't super prevalent. I think Perry got the most use out of his spy training, going deep undercover like he did. But yeah, none of these adventures was even able to take place within Valdemar because of the overall magical nature of them. Not exactly a bad thing, but... ya know... really obvious.

I did very much enjoy getting a look at the other creatures that inhabit the lands surrounding Valdemar. The dyheli finally got more than a passing mention and their own magical refuge by the end of The Hills Have Spies. We got a kyree encounter in the form of the Scooby Doo dupe Ryu and Larral. They're alright, I guess. Oh, and that Scooby Doo thing is better explained in a short story "Moving Targets"... Herald Arville is basically Shaggy and that big ol' wagon Mags and Perry use was the Mystery Machine. It was a whole thing. The afrinn were a fun addition, though I would very much like to know what the big difference between afrinn and vrondi are... probably the amount of power or something. Also, afrinn reminded me a lot of djinn, but that might just be me. I didn't particularly enjoy the Karsite demons, but I'm glad we finally got a better description of them than just "demons." That's such a catchall term these days.

I think my favorite characters were Abi, Jicks, and Sira. Abi's definitely my favorite of the Mags/Amily Clan. She's sure of herself and fairly unruffled when it comes to most everything. Also nice to get that Ace representation. Jicks was a fun lesbian mercenary, though that's pretty much her whole personality so... not real deep, but fun. Sira's a badass with a heart of gold. I like how resourceful she is and how attached she got to her afrinn friends. Her parts of Spy, Spy Again were a welcome break in between Tory's narration of their travels.

I honestly don't have much to say about Family Spies as a whole. Each story was self-contained, sharing characters but not much else. I liked Abi the best, out of the three kids, though her story was honestly the weakest. Perry was alright and Tory was mostly just dragged along on Prince Kee's adventure. I definitely had more fun with Family Spies than The Herald Spy.

The Hills Have Spies by Mercedes Lackey

The Hills Have Spies was definitely a better start to a series than Closer to Home. I feel like I’ll enjoy Family Spies much more than Herald Spy just based on The Hills Have Spies alone. I feel like Perry is a much more interesting protagonist than Mags, though we do get more of him here. I was also pleasantly surprised that the antagonist wasn’t a last minute thing. He actually had menace.

Master Leandro is the dude Tuck was apparently retconned to be, at least as far as the artificing of Mags and Amily’s wedding clothes… and mixed with whatever Weaponsmaster worked with Mags. I find this change very odd, given the books were published in the order I’m reading them. Someone really should have caught this and fixed it.

I find it interesting that Mags had an issue with Larral “choosing” Perry. Kyree might not be Companions, but Dallen’s right: they’re pretty darn close as far as lasting friendship. Considering what ends up happening, I’m a little more understanding, because there’s no way a Companion would have either dragged or allowed his Chosen to drag them into the situation Perry and Larral get themselves into. I also feel liked Perry choosing to go off on his own is a consequence of how he was raised. Mags and Amily essentially raised their kids to be little spies and therefore more apt to be sure of their decisions to run off on their own to do spy things. I’m happy that’s acknowledged, too. Perry and Larral still should consulted with Mags about the whole thing… but they didn’t, so joy.

The inclusion of dyheli is nice. Previously, they’ve been mentioned but not actually appeared in any of the books. I do kind of question why they were created at all, being one of the species Urtho did create. They’re basically telepathic deer… and still pretty much act like deer so… yeah. I feel like even the “trampling our enemies” thing wouldn’t even be all that effective, except against something like the slytha. Overall, the dyheli aren’t incredibly interesting as a sentient species. I like Roya, though, he’s an amusing character. I almost always like the snarky ones and he’s definitely snarky.

I am both surprised and not that Mags is still having flashbacks to his time in the mine. He’s nothing if not predictable that way.

I’m not sure how I feel about this “Master” person. His description kind of left me with an image of a taller version of the “Dobby Doctor” from the end of Season 3 of Doctor Who. He’s also a cannibal, so that’s… gross. And he’s cruel, to boot. He was somewhat menacing, though mostly just because his powers were so strong and he was really paranoid.

Oh, now we’re at liberty to just discuss vrondi. Could barely discuss magic in the last eight books and now we’re making plans involving vrondi. Because apparently Vanyel made it next to impossible to discuss magic inside Valdemar… which I still think is colossally stupid. Most, if not all, of Valdemar’s neighbors use magic and mage potential is still around in Valdemar. I’m still super frustrated by this. Especially since apparently Mags has special Valdemar-Heartstone privileges… like what? Why? That makes zero sense.

So I think the ending was alright. Guardian honestly reminds me of the earth spirits from the Foundation series. The amount of raw magical ability on display was amazing. I feel like Perry’s pretty well set up for the rest of the series and I’m looking forward to it. Just hope we don’t go back to focusing on Haven-centric stuff. That was boring.