#The Founding of Valdemar

[checkoutmybookshelf]

So Apparently Travelogues Are Back?

Ok, so saying "The best part of this book was watching Kordas sort the logistics of moving fifteen thousand of people across a hostile wilderness" is not a great sell of this book, but it is HONEST. The worldbuilding, characters, and monsters are excellent, but TBH, what made my brain go *happy chemicals* was the logistics. Your girl likes a good travelogue, and that travel writing aspect is a LOT of why Throne of Jade is my favorite Temeraire novel and it's why I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So let's talk Into the West.

This is your usual SPOILER WARNING for spoilers for this book and the previous one below the break.

So, having murdered the crap out of the emperor and watched an earth elemental basically enact the lava portion of the dinosaur section of Fantasia on the former capital, Kordas and the Valdemarans regroup on the banks of Crescent Lake. Some choose to return to the remains of the empire, but for everyone else, it's time to get moving. Crescent Lake can't support all of them, so they have to take their barges and head downriver to find a new home.

And as anyone who has ever done a group project in school knows, trying to wrangle 4-7 people is a goddamn nightmare; Kordas has to wrangle FIFTEEN THOUSAND. In barges. With bare minimum resources. In unknown, hostile territory. If I was lukewarm on The Plan in Beyond, I was fully here to watch how the pulled it off in this book, because just the starting point was already feeling overwhelming and nigh impossible.

Then we get to add, at various points in the journey, the following fuckery:

various lords and factions among the Valdemarans getting shitty and either being firmly called on the carpet or cut loose (but people always had a choice whether to go with their lords or stay with Kordas, so there was no screwing the peasants because a noble had a hissy fit, which I appreciate)

Wyrsa (for those of you who know, you KNOW, and I won't ruin that for those of you who are reading Valdemar chronologically rather than in publication order)

A giant bear-lizard hybrid monster that was the result of rogue magic

Giant-ass mage-created "terror birds" with wings and four legs

A very angry forest

A Boar of Unusual Size (can we make BOUS happen? Is that cool, Princess Bride fans?)

A river monster and a rogue pig that upsets the balance between the river and forest monsters

And that's just the stuff that actively tries to murder the Valdemarans. There are also issues with supply and demand, morale, the *SUPER TOO LIGHTLY SKATED OVER* mage conspiracy in the book that has been leveraging foreseers and empaths to influence Kordas's choices throughout. And no, the "you asked for help and we're what you got" DOES NOT MAKE IT OK. Especially not when the conversation gets wiped from Kordas's head afterward. This was skated over way too quickly, and the ETHICS of this would make Herald Thalia lose her goddamn mind.

We also get a bit of a subplot with Delia being assigned to a forward scout group and learning her own value...but she gets assigned to the scout post at least 50% to get her and her crush away from Kordas, so I was still not loving this.

What I do love is the Hawkbrothers, and we finally get them in this book. The Tayledras are wonderful, enigmatic, playful people and their vales are just stunning. I have never not loved me a Hawkbrother, and the hertasi are also just darling. This also sets up the long-term relationship between Valdemar and the Tayledras, which comes up from time to time throughout the life of the kingdom.

So overall, I think that Into the West is the best of the Founding of Valdemar books. It's never not gripping, the mix of character and plot is exactly on point, and if the book is a little too aggressive about people "being useful," well, they're in a survival situation and frankly it could have been a lot worse. Plus, we're basically in the Pelagirs, so when stuff gets weird, it gets REALLY weird. And really weird is often very fun. So I do recommend this book.

[random-bookquotes]

We have a penchant for theatrics. We could perhaps appear as a harmless small animal, or ordinary object, but instead we appear as something dramatic, and then say “Fear not!” just after we’ve freshly terrified someone.

Mercedes Lackey, Valdemar (The Founding of Valdemar #3)

[readingbooksinisrael]

#notyourclassics Day 9: The Color Purple

[venusbloo]

ARC Review: Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey

**The links below are to the book’s StoryGraph page for reference. I do not receive any compensation for clicking links.** Book: Valdemar Author: Mercedes Lackey Pages: 455 Source: DAW books Publisher: DAW books Genre: Fantasy Publication Date: December 26, 2023 Summary: The long-awaited story of the founding of Valdemar comes to life in this 3rd book of a trilogy from a New York Times…

[soullessseraphim]

Move, Lucio. It's their turn with the fur

Testing things out oouhouhououwowooowhhohw

[greyspirehollow]

Vesuvia weekly ; Watching the courtiers sleep!

Pairing : The courtiers x reader

Fandom : The Arcana visual novel

Warnings : none. Pure fluff.

You were simply walking down the corridors of the third floor of the palace, simply curious about what was there, since you had never visited before. However, you stumble upon their doors slightly ajar...

Valdemar :

You either see them lying on their back with their hands on their chest or on their side. The cover hides basically all of them except for their head. They lay down almost perfectly flat. They do not make a single noise ; if you didn't see their chest softly rising and falling you'd think they were dead.

They look shockingly peaceful and comfortable. You envy them.

They're actually a heavy sleeper (they have to sleep for three days like come on) but they would know if you were to even take a single step in their room and you'd die on spot.

But when they're awake they are like... Awake.

Vulgora :

You hear them before you even see them. They snore. Loudly.

S̷N̸O̴R̵E̶

They're sprawled out onto their bead like a star, either on their back or stomach. The covers are covering barely half of their body.

Ś̵̺Ň̶̲O̸͉͗Ṛ̶̛E̷̤̒

They're a heavy sleeper and move around a lot while asleep.

S̵̰̿Ñ̶͇̜͠Ö̷̞̲͘͝R̸̭͍̆E̴̖͋

They wake up before the sun ; because the sun is lazy. They are better than the sun. They're faster, stronger, brighter, and they have more gas.

S̸̞̹͠N̵̫̖̑͊Ö̷̳̳͊R̶̛̟͕E̷͔̜̓̈

Volta :

She's all curled up into a ball under her covers, like a little bird in its nest. Her breath whistles slightly in the night and she covers her ears with her blanket.

The little pair of wings on her head flutter here and there, and she does move around a lot, but tries her best to hide her face and ears for some reason.

Very light sleeper ; the sound of your breathing could wake her up

Tries to keep herself as warm as she can.

Vlastomil :

He, unsurprisingly, is snuggled up in his covers like a burrito. Reject humanity, return to worm. He wiggles around in his sleep sometimes, in a circular pattern, clockwise.

And when he's completed the circle, he wakes up.

Pretty average sleeper, goes through the normal phases of sleep and actually has pretty restful nights... If you forget about the moisture.

He sweats a lot, despite loving to be wrapped in his blanket like that.

Valerius :

Probably the most normal of them all. You find him sleeping on his back, one arm behind his head and his other hand resting on his chest, the covers up to his torso.

He keeps his hair in a bun for the night

Does have trouble falling asleep sometimes

Bonus! - Cuddling with the courtiers!

Valdemar :

1. Big spoon (to your great surprise)

2. Onto you weighed blanket style

Shockingly gentle yet firm grip ; they love the warmth and softness of you but will never admit it.

Vulgora :

1. Crushes you. Prepare to try not to suffocate. Sprawled out onto you as if they were sleeping normally.

2. The same but while holding you.

Firm grip, but will loosen it when they hear you can barely breathe. Loves your scent.

Volta :

1. Hold her close to you, envelop her in your arms and keep her safe. Loves your warmth too, and insists you're entirely covered in the blanket as well.

2. Small spoon, and clings to your hands.

Doesn't hold on to you, prefers being held by you to feel safe.

Vlastomil :

1. Coils around you worm style.

2. But likes to be held too.

Will profusely apologize about sweating too much.

Downsides : he takes the covers all to himself.

Valerius :

1. Small spoon. I rest my case.

Will act as if he is simply ok with it and doesn't enjoy it as much as he does.

You better not talk about this to anyone, he'll... Do nothing, he loves you too much.

[nabesthetics]

A Valdemar "date" tale except it has two endings: either MC fails to grasp Valdy's interest and they just leave, or MC dies a horrible slow death strapped to the vivisection table as Valdemar decides to "study" their brain.

[emblazonet]

Ah, so apparently there's a recommended Pern reading order and the White Dragon is after several ones I don't have, so I guess I'm gonna acquire them prior to reading White Dragon.

I don't HAVE to go by the author's recommended order, but like, why not if I'm just gonna read 'em all anyway?

Dragonquest is a bit slow going but I am having a good time. Will say, though, there actually isn't much questing going on.

[oexen]

ppl are so mean abt little valdemeowmeow???? and the other courtiers but. buncha fuckin lily livered ass cowards. at this point i cant tell if it's me being neurodivergent or that there are just a metric fuckton of dingdongs that simply don't know how to have fun

[checkoutmybookshelf]

That Isn't What I Pictured When You Said "Speak From Your Heart"

So...guys. This book. This is the book where we get Haven. This is the book where we get companions. This is the book where we get heralds. This book should have been legitimately awesome and...like...yes, but also no? Let's talk Valdemar.

So as the very brief intro probably clues you into, this is a SPOILERIFIC ZONE. There are SPOILERS HERE. Consider yourself warned.

This book picks up after what feels like ten-odd years of the Valdemarans having been living in Haven, which is thriving. They have surplus, they have trade amongst themselves, they're developing their infrastructure, and they're starting to look past survival and at what they want to build. We are told about the plagues, infestations, and other stuff the Valdemarans have overcome while they settled and grew Haven, but when the book actually opens, they're sitting pretty and starting to get to a point where they can do things that start to feel like luxuries.

They're doing real good, so of course we have to fuck that up somehow.

The weird thing about that though, is the pacing and subplots of this book, and also the fact that this book is...NOT GOOD at disability. I went into that pretty deeply in this post, so I'm not going to repeat myself here. But despite still enjoying Kordas as a character and going giddy fangirl over watching the Valdemar I know and love take shape, the structure of this book landed a bit funny with me.

Until the last quarter or so of this book, the driving force behind this book is Kordas's anxiety that Valdemar won't outlive his son's reign, because humans are inherently the worst and without a strong, moral, great human leader the kingdom will fall to base savagery. And y'all, I live in the 2020s. I don't even disagree that humanity's worst is BAD. I do kind of have a problem with Kordas's logic being waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too similar to Trumpian strongman "I am the only one who can fix it" but leaning more toward lawful good ("only a good man can fix it" but we never actually define "good man" more clearly than "Kordas and Restil" so it's a whole thing) than chaotic evil. That's more or less what the companions fix though, so I can get on board with Kordas's thought experiment and working through the anxiety about his legacy.

Once the companions show up though, then we get back to the Kordas I enjoy most: the avid, highly-detailed planner. This man and the first grove-born companions have to basically come up with the heraldic circle on the fly, and watching the heralds be born was VERY fun. That was just great.

I do need to take a minute to call out THAT scene, though. Because here's the thing. By the time this book was written, the lore of Valdemar's founding was pretty set. As it is told in Arrows of the Queen:

...he waited till Midsummer's Day; he went out into the middle of what we call Companion's Field now, and he asked every god he'd ever heard of to help him. [...] Well, he started out at dawn; it wasn't till sunset that he got an answer. Everything went kind of light all over, like when you get too much sun on snow, and all he could hear was the sound of hoofbeats--hoofbeats that sounded just like bells. When the light cleared away, there were three horses standing in front of him; horses with coats the color of moonshine and eyes like pieces of sky.

Which has a sort of grandeur and dignity to it. However, as is kind of a theme with the heralds in general, the stories and the realities rarely match up. And a thousand years of narrative drift also explains some of the differences in details, because there are MANY. Kordas's plea to the gods in Valdemar takes the better part of a chapter, so I'm not going to quote it at you here.

What I will say about it though, is that it took place in the middle of the dang night, and it was less a prayer and more like the scenes in Lerner and Lowe's Camelot where Arthur is onstage monologuing to himself about ethics and sorting out what he should do about whatever decision he is facing at that point in the play. This chapter in Valdemar reminds me most strongly of the closing monologue after Lancelot is knighted, and Arthur is like, "Oh this is gonna be so bad, but all I can do is run the course and be king." However, where Arthur is destined for tragedy, Kordas actually gets some help. Which is impressive because the vibe is half angsty King Arthur and half "character on the West Wing can't sleep and so monologues to the gods." Which honestly...the description still feels like it has more grandeur and dignity than the experience of reading it did, because you're not watching Kordas pace and monologue, you're literally in his head. It's a very weird take on this, and it's not what I was expecting, but I think it did work, for some definition of work.

What I think absolutely did not work was the fact that Mercedes Lackey decided that this was also the book to tell the full story of Shadowdancer and Sunsinger--who those of you familiar with the Valdemar music will recognize from their 2005 album, Sun and Shadow. We also get their legend in Arrows of the Queen. Unfortunately...they're very secondary characters in this book, and despite Rothas pulling a Bard ex machina at the end, they kind of feel completely disconnected from the rest of the founding narrative. Like, I was happy with their legend being in song and retold, I was not jonesing for Rothas and Lythe's story here. It was just kind of...crowbarred in and we never really got to know Lythe at all. I truly do not think this part of the book worked. I appreciate the attempt at complicating the concept of lifebonds, but it broke the narrative's spine a little because there wasn't enough space to really explore it.

The other thing that didn't work was how fast the big bad for this book blew up and how equally fast she was defeated. There was also some ugly sanism around her characterization, and I did not love that. She was a Hawkbrother apprentice who...randomly went mad for *cough* inaudible mumbling *cough* reasons, murdered her bondbird, and fucked off into the wilderness before showing back up with blood magic to try to throw monsters at Haven's gates to conquer it. The book tries to give her a tragic backstory and connection to Silvermoon to add some emotional weight to her, but it doesn't land. The big climactic battle feels weirdly underwhelming, and honestly I would have been fine with this book focusing more on building the heraldic circle and like...diplomacy with other settlements around Haven. Random big climactic battle with crazy mage lady felt off tonally and a bit like an editor went "this is a fantasy book, put a big battle at the end." Which I don't think is what actually happened, given Lackey's fame and experience, but that's what if FEELS like.

So the TLDR on this book is that seeing Valdemar and the Heraldic Circle get born was awesome, the character work was mostly good, but there was some weird tonal dissonance and some really problematic ableism and sanism that kind of soured the reading experience for me.

[random-bookquotes]

As he’d reasoned it, that too had a reassuring effect: if you had plans for people’s long-term health, it told the people that they had a future.

Mercedes Lackey, Valdemar (The Founding of Valdemar #3)

[palominodragon]

Reading the latest Heralds of Valdemar book (Into the West, book 2 of The Founding of Valdemar) and-

"There are intricacies in our naming," Silvermoon explained, "and our names can change according to life events. Or, in the case of the highly sensitive, our overwhelming moods. These names are sacred to us, but not so sacred they cannot be laughed at. Sometimes, even though their meaning is usually solemn, they're objectively ridiculous. We had a skygazing poet-scout, Wildwolf, who went through an awkward, dramatic stage of life as Moonmoon. They changed it back after a year."

[biichama]

Finished reading Valdemar, the final book in the Founding of Valdemar trilogy, and I am so damn pleased. Like the entire trilogy has been a lot of fun from start to finish—Kordas Valdemar is basically the most character of all time—but this was just a really fun conclusion to it all. And I am laughing forever that we got the actual answer to "what the fuck is up with those roads?"

Also getting the What Actually Happened for Sunsinger + Shadowdancer and Windrider Unchained when we've had the Leslac Version for over three decades was fun too. More spoilery shit under the cut.

OKAY I WILL BE FOREVER AMUSED THAT "DARKLORD" FROM WINDRIDER UNCHAINED WAS JUST STRAIGHT UP A GODDAMN MA'AR. BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY WERE.

Not that the characters themselves had any fucking idea what was going on, of course, but it was made Very Obvious for long term readers what was going on, especially when we found out from their former teacher that they were a fairly normal kid once (for a future Adept) that completely fucking lost it after they tried to call fire and subsequently fucked off into the wilderness for like twenty years. And then in the denouement you get this line about going through their stuff:

And I hope we can figure out what all those notations signed “M” are about.

And I'm just like HAHA YEAH MAYBE IN A THOUSAND YEARS.

Also holy shit, did they lean hard into the body horror for this incarnation. Like holy fucking shit.

Also like. As appropriate for a Ma'ar they were actually here to fuck with the local Hawkbrothers and were just using the Valdemarans as bait to get them to come out—but it's also very clear why they might have had a grudge with the Heralds by the time they were Leareth—or at least a very good reason to need to cripple their effectiveness before they tried to conquer Valdemar in Vanyel's time.

Anyway. Good book. Hangs together well and has a lot of fun bonuses for long term readers. I am forever going to call this incarnation of Ma'ar "Darklord" like they get called in Windrider Unchained because they remain the most edgy bitch in the world.

[thearcanagame]

Are there any more original versions of the courtiers we haven't seen? Also, is there any food that volta refuses to eat?

Early concept for Valdemar. We haven't found something Volta won't eat (yet?)

[soullessseraphim]

"but they're a demon, they don't need to sleep or anyth-"

SHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh............

quiet. and accept my sleepy Valdemar.