(no subject)

[afuna]

Inhaled the Oath* books. Then inevitably picked up the Arrows* books.

And then and then. I looked up the valdemar series, I thought I'd read all / most of them, but it turns out so many have been published in the meantime, that there are more books I haven't read than books I have. Hmmmmm.

• I think I'm definitely meh over lifebond stuff
• but I do like competence
• and I do gravitate towards protagonists who overthink (I got it from somewhere okay?)

Now the question I have: do I keep reading? Do I keep reading in publication order? (I semi-sort of have done that so far). Or do I skip the books I've already read and try to just go read books that are new to me? (I've read the Mage* and the Storm* and the first one of the Owl* series, but I never got my hands on the rest of the Owl* series. That was starting to get a bit angsty for me -- I wonder, if I just read the founding of valdemar, the herald backstory ones, and the ones with new-to-me-character Mags, if those would hit the notes I'm looking for)

Comments

[wychwood]

I think the Owl books are definitely weaker. The pile of Mags books are... not good, exactly, but I did enjoy them?

The Tarma and Kethry books are somewhat dated but I still love them (and they're good backstory for Kerowyn!).

[afuna]

I hear you on Tarma/Kethry being dated haha. It's interesting, they're in a fairly different style too it feels like. I'm at this point pretty sure I'll just try to read them all, or at least the first book in each series.

[kareila]

You caught me in the middle of a break from reading everything in mostly internal-chronology order. I had just finished Arrows and was about to start reading the Oath books. (I got sidetracked writing D&D fic lol)

I mostly liked the Founding books. I have not read any of the Owls books, and those are near the end of my list. But I just cannot with the Mags books. YMMV.

[afuna]

ooh I think we basically read them in reverse order from each order :D close to finishng the arrows trilogy. Excited to hear you liked the founding books -- I had no idea they even existed until this reread. Appreciate the insight on the mags books! I was hoping for sort of Kero or Alberich in the past.

[kareila]

Yeah, I saw the Founding books show up at my local library and decided to use them to kick off the reread / catching up that I had been meaning to do for a while anyway.

IIf you want more Alberich, don’t miss the duology of Exile’s Honor and Exile’s Valor. He also appears in Take A Thief.

[afuna]

There are two alberich books? I vaguely knew there was one. I'm SO EXCITED.

[kareila]

Yes! And Take A Thief was my favorite of the standalone books (not counting Kerowyn's Tale which I haven't reread yet)

[azurelunatic]

The book about the guy with the Fire Talent is definitely a tragedy.

[afuna]

yeah hmmm. I'm tempted to check it out, is it like... a tragedy you'd recommend though?

[kareila]

I didn’t think it was a bad book, I just didn’t find much there that told me anything I didn’t already know about Valdemar. Especially in Arrows, everyone keeps saying “we don’t want another Lavan Firestorm” so it’s not like his fate is a mystery. Also it gets a bit weird about lifebonds and you said you were over those.

[afuna]

Haha fair enough. It's at least a one-shot so I may just give it a try and know I'm not spending too much time on it.

[azurelunatic]

I was mostly indifferent to it in the same way I was indifferent to the owl mage and gryphon books, with a side of cackling over the "his wife: a HORSE" meme with norabombay. I enjoyed reading but won't think of it to read again unless I'm reading the rest of the series. I think I would read it in a whole-series re-read?

[ursamajor]

Aww, Valdemarversen! Those got me through A Lot in middle and high school, heh, especially Arrows*, and then Winds* and Oath*. I actually didn't read the Last Herald Mage books until later on, mostly because I was still in my "ugh no more fantasy books with male protagonists" era, though in retrospect I realized how progressive it was for the time. And I definitely liked the idea of lifebonding a lot more when I was an inexperienced teen than now that my *marriage* is a teen, hahaha :D.