Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey

I have loved Mercedes Lackey’s books for thirty years. As I said in my review of her last book, I still have the SFBC omnibus of the Last Herald Mage trilogy on my shelf and I can’t tell you how many times I read it in my youth (it was a lot). 

Until recently, I hadn’t read many of her Valdemar books in the last few years. I listened to the audiobooks of the Collegium Chronicles series, which was fun, but I felt it dragged on too long, with too many kidnappings, and the narrator’s interpretation of Mags’s accent drove me bananas. I lost touch with the series when my library stopped buying the ebooks of the Herald Spy series after Closer to Home, and I was disappointed in Spy, Spy Again, the third volume in the series focusing on Mags’s kids. 

In the last two years, I enjoyed Beyond and Into the West, the first two books of this prequel series set before the founding of Valdemar. So I was eager to read the third and final volume, titled Valdemar, when I got it from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was irritated by a ten year time jump from the last book to this one, but otherwise, I have very few complaints. The story swept me up in its narrative. Finally, this is the book where we finally finally meet the Companions! Having been waiting for this moment for two and half books (and many decades as a fan) did the moment live up to the expectations? Mostly yes! It really felt like a classic novel of Valdemar, which is the highest praise I can bestow on this.