Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey

A Semi-Spoilery Reread Review

A fairly good story of love and loss and abuse and recovery, I thought. Not the best representation of any of the above, but fairly good. Gets the ideas across, anyway. Also an interesting way to properly start a Valdemar journey.

I’m not really a fan of the Vanyel/Tylendel romance. It never really felt super real. It did feel rushed, though, which makes sense given that their relationship is really more of a mid-season finale type thing than a season finale, if that makes any sense. Tylendel needed Van to get to a certain point in his abuse recovery in order to ultimately serve his purposes… though the way I just put that makes it sounds like getting Van to that point was Tylendel’s plan all along. It was not. Guess that’s more the author’s hand at work. Anyway, Van needed to get to a certain point in order to have his powers and things activated in order for the later part of the story to happen. So instead of spending an entire book on Van and his relationship with Tylendel, the story had to fast forward through the relationship.

Although it is technically a spoiler, I feel like I have to discuss Tylendel’s fate, or at least the aftermath. It really sucks that his not-very-fleshed-out character wasn’t given a chance to do much besides care of Van and then go off and conduct revenge for his brother’s death. The aftermath of which brought me to tears, but not because of Tylendel. All the Heralds helping to get Van better was just… heartwarming isn’t quite the word, but it will serve. There were tears shed.

I am very glad Withen gets summarily told off by Savil, Lissa, and Van. He totally deserved every bit of it.

All of that stuff said, I feel like some of the early chapters are very choppy. They basically jump away from Van’s POV and into another character so we can get both some outside perspective but also character development for other characters. This happens most glaringly with Savil so we can get some Tylendel development. I think that’s actually part of what makes me not connect with Tylendel. We don’t get anything specifically from his perspective and mostly get told what he’s like and what his motivations are. I do feel like Savil was the character to go through for that, but it still felt weird.

The later part of the story with the Tayledras is interesting, I guess. We get some of how their society is set up, but not a lot. There don’t seem to be any overtly friendly hertasi about, which I felt was a little odd given how we got at least one in The Mage Wars and, if reading in chronological order like I am, Into the West. That’s really not a detriment, just something I noticed. Van’s training in this part of the story is alright and then his kind of Heraldic awakening, as it were, was okay. The villain here was mostly just a stock villain, so there’s that.

Overall, Magic’s Pawn is a serviceable intro to Vanyel. The story works on a surface level, but is somewhat packed.

Ride the Storm by Karen Chance

A Mostly Spoiler-Free Review

Okay so, this is the book that has made me decide to drop the Cassie Palmer series. I was intensely frustrated throughout and that's not a good thing. There were just too many moving pieces and too much to keep straight and just... bleh. This isn't the first time I've been frustrated reading a Cassie book and I doubt it will be the last, so I'm stopping. No more Cassie Palmer books for me.

Frustration the First: No one talks to anyone they should really be talking to. Jonas doesn't talk to Cassie about decisions he's making in regards to her court. Cassie doesn't tell anyone what she's up to, ever, aside from Rosier. Neither of them talk to Pritkin/Emrys/Myrriden about what they're actually doing there. The Pythias refuse to talk to Cassie about why she keeps popping back Arthurian times because apparently knowing what other Pythias might be up to is just completely out of their job description? We'll get back to that.

Frustration the Second: Cassie's attention is both split and not and it just ends up being a mess. Cassie's entire mission for the past three books has been rescuing Pritkin, full stop. However, her present keeps pulling her attention away from that so we have to deal with that instead of rescuing Pritkin. Add to that the whole Pythian intervention thing which keeps sending Cassie back to the present and we've spent three books attempting to rescue Pritkin. I'm real tired of all of it.

Frustration the Third: Pythias do not talk to each other apparently. Unless they need help sending "rogues" back to their own times because they're "messing up the timeline." Only... because you've neglected to actually talk to each other about, I dunno, your shared responsibility, you keep managing to fuck up one Pythia's attempts to save the timeline? It's my understanding that not saving Pritkin completely erases him from the timeline and therefore would allow Apollo to come wreck shit because Cassie wouldn't have Pritkin around to help her stop Apollo. And none of the prior Pythias even wants to question Cassie about why Cassie's doing what she's doing. None of them. They just keep locking her up or sending her home and refusing to question her. It's insanity. I understand not wanting to fuck up the timeline by knowing too much about the future, but I figure a) there are ways to vet an actual Pythia (Cassie stumbles upon one) and b) you maybe want to know what the fuck is going on and maybe help other Pythias not fuck up the timeline too badly in the process. Maybe? Just a little?

Frustration the Fourth: Mircea. Yeah... Mircea, it turns out, is definitely just as gross as he's always been in regards to Cassie. First, the geis thing, which has been resolved but was still hella gross. And now, we find out his real reason for setting the geis in the first place and... yeah, it's stupid. Like, I get it, I do, you loved the woman and she's dead and apparently you're fixated on bringing her back by any means necessary. But man, that vampire fixation is just not great. It's also the first time we're hearing about vampires getting fixated, so, ya know, also somewhat annoying from my stand-point. Thanks, I hate it. Makes the whole Mircea/Cassie thing even worse. And again, tired of it.

A thing I liked: Cassie figuring out some stuff regarding her parents. That was a nice little side-trip. Ultimately futile for Cassie's actual goal, but it wasn't bad.

So yeah, I'm just too frustrated with the Cassie Palmer series to continue. This was fun while it lasted, until it wasn't. I will be continuing on with the Dorina Basarab side of things. Dory tends to be less frustrating so I'm crossing my fingers it stays that way.

Anthologies and Me

I kind of hate anthologies. My feelings are not strong enough to actually hate them, but it's close.

Anthologies remind me of "Reading" textbooks from when I was a kid. They're essentially anthologies themselves, with questions designed to get you primed for later "English" classes here in the US.

I have largely avoided anthologies, preferring my stories in long form: novellas and novels. That's not to say I'm snobby about it, just that reading a bunch of largely disconnected short stories in a row is not my thing. I am, of course, now aware that you don't have to read the whole anthology at once, but that's how I read them for years and I was not a fan.

All that said, I am warming up to anthologies. Slowly. Not all at once. It helps that the short story anthologies I've been reading lately have been all nicely collected with the stories in the world they all take place in. I'm only frustrated that stories are not arranged in the anthologies according to the timeline, but internet chronology lists are there for that. Makes my GoodReads reading charts look real weird, though.

I've been embarking on some long-term series that include short stories as part of the overall narrative. They're not essential to the stories, strictly speaking, but they do actually enrich the stories overall. My rearead of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld/The Otherworld being my first real foray into the additional short story content.

I basically wanted to write about this to explain how I'm going to be handling anthology reviews. This will be coming up later because Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series I'm currently reading/rereading right now is rife with short stories within anthologies... like seriously, I now own four Valdemar anthologies because there are a handful of short stories interspersed timeline-wise.

Anthology Review "Rules"

1. I will not be reviewing the anthologies as a whole.

2. Each story in the anthology will have an individual review.

3. If I did not read a story, it won't have a review, but I'll still be counting that book as "Read." Not that it matters to anyone but me... anyway, there will be placeholder spots in my overall reviews.

4. I'm only reading what's relevant to the overall timeline of whatever series I'm reading.

5. Only anthologies collected specifically for the series or author will be included. I'm not about to buy a mixed series anthology just to read one story from it. Nope. Not happening.

War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

A Short, Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: February 28, 2021

I am legitimately happy to find a young adult series with a female protagonist that DOESN’T focus on romance, especially given the setting of the books. Sure, there’s a bit of that, but the characters’ every waking moments are not spent on it. In fact, relatively few of those moments are focused on romance and I appreciate it so, so much.

I’m also really happy with the way the war was portrayed. Not really any specific hero moments for most of the characters. It was messy and straight up crazy, as a war between powered people should be. I also really liked that we didn’t know exactly what was happening at each and every moment. A general idea, yes, but not a bunch of details that would have muddied the waters too much... pun not intended.

Also, while I’m not really interested in a Nortan reconstruction story, I am kind of interested in how it’s going a few years in. Kind of. I’m pleased with how and where the Red Queen series has ended. Nothing’s perfect, but it definitely tries, succeeding much better than I expected.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A Spoiler Free Review

Gaiman is masterful at drawing the reader in. Not gonna lie, had a hard time putting this one down.

The main character not being named is actually really nice from a Doyle-ist style perspective. The reader can more easily imagine they are the protagonist rather than having some preconceived notion of who the protagonist is based on their name. I mean, despite the protagonist being a boy and from the 1960s/1970s, I more or less was him. Super bookish and wanting so very much to find my own Lettie or other such magical world to inhabit.

Speaking of, the tone of this book really reminds me of the Seanan McGuire Wayward Children series. It has that same sort of whimsical yet very real feeling about it.

Ursula Monkton is somehow a mix of Gaiman’s Other Mother and Meredith from the 1998 version of The Parent Trap. I think she might be up there with Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter in terms of the just absolute menace she exudes. I throughly hated her, along with the protagonist. I wasn’t disappointed in her ending, either. And really, that solidified her as something like The Other Mother, at least in my head.

I quite enjoyed the Hempstock ladies. The ways their magic worked was mysterious and yet the very things women would work, if that makes sense. And yes, they did spark that “Mother, Maiden, Crone” thing in my mind. How could they not? I vaguely wish there were more stories about the Hempstocks, but it’s probably best that there aren’t. Too much of a good thing and all that.

Anyway, I really enjoyed The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s another of Gaiman’s masterworks, I think. Or maybe I’m just a hardcore Gaiman fangirl. Who knows.

Favorite Quotes

"Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured beneath the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good." - Narrator

"Books were safer than other people anyway." - Narrator

"You only need men if you want to breed more men." - Ginnie Hempstock

"Different people remember things differently, and you’ll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not." - Old Mrs. Hempstock

“You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.” - Ginnie Hempstock    

Into the West by Mercedes Lackey

A Mostly Spoiler Free Review

First and foremost, if anyone can tell me if and when a third The Founding of Valdemar book is coming out, I would be most appreciative. Into the West fully establishes the final settling place of the Valdemarans and the Tayledras, hertasi, etc. Now all that's missing is the Companions and how they came into the mix. I feel like, if/when there's a third Founding of Valdemar book, it would probably focus on that.

Largely, Into the West is a travel book. The characters travel through the wilderness between Crescent Lake and the newly formed Valdemar capital... I assume it's the capital, after all, the Tayledras set the Heartstone to build a palace so... yeah. But anyway, Delia gets a much bigger role in this one. She really grows into her own person, as opposed to the semi-stereotypical noble girl she was during Beyond. Kordas continues on his merry way leading his people.

I probably would have liked some more personal bits with other characters. I think I'd most like to get to know Briada. She seems like the most interesting of the new characters introduced here. I also would have loved to see how Jonaton and Hakkon were together, just, ya know, to feed my inner rabid fangirl. I also really enjoyed a character added toward the end of the book, who I will not name but I thought was really cute. Pretty much the only other new named characters (other than Briadas cousins) were used as object lessons for Kordas' new rules and such.

I really enjoyed the nods to critters past in the wyrsa and makaar. I will say, though, in The Mage Wars, Skandranon pretty much said the makaar had died out so it was a surprise to see them in The Founding of Valdemar. Not that Skan is a particularly reliable narrator or that the makaar were at all described in The Mage Wars but... yeah. I had no idea what they were when they showed up and was surprised when Silvermoon confirmed what they were.

I largely liked how the Tayledras were introduced to the Valdemarans. I think it felt better than it did before... from what I can remember of my reading of the Valdemar series prior to this. I don't know why, exactly, but the Tayledras always felt a little off to me in terms of representation of a more indigenous people than the more European feeling Valdemarans. I don't know. It's late and I might just be rambling about that and misremembering. Anyway. Silvermoon was interesting as a sort of equal to Kordas. These Tayledras also definitely have more hertasi around than the ones Vanyel encounters in "later" books. Delia's friend Jelavan delighted me.

So yeah, Into the West was pretty good. It was well paced and I never felt like there was a slog anywhere. I'm not going to lie, the ending had me semi-skimming because of the sudden action happening, but it also didn't end abruptly, which I appreciate. I really can't wait for another installment in this series... if/when there is one. It's really odd that it keeps being referred to as a "series" but there doesn't seem to be any actual official confirmation of a third book anywhere... like, one site that has this year (2023) as a release date, but nothing else. I assume a trilogy, at least, cuz most of the Valdemar series is made of up trilogies... and I'm rambling so... yeah. Bye!

Favorite Lines

"You're an idiot. And you used to be my apprentice. I reserve the right to continue smacking you when you say something stupid," Sai replied.

"We had a skygazing poet-scout, Wildwolf, who went through an awkward, dramatic stage of life as Moonmoon.” - Silvermoon - Reminded me of the common amusement over the name "Remus Lupin" in the Harry Potter series.

"Apparently, hells are not consistent. That could be why they are hells." - Silvermoon 

"Sometimes, explosives are the best way to show you care." - Jelevan 

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