Vows & Honor: Valdemar Saga by Mercedes Lackey

Valdemar saga (in chronological order of the world, not order of publication):

The Mage Wars
The Last Herald-Mage
Collegium Chronicles
The Herald Spy

Family of Spies 

Burning Brightly

Back in Valdemar! Remember how excited I was when I finished Burning Brightly? I just dove right back in to capture some of that Valdemarian magic. Unfortunately, this next trilogy called Vows & Honor is super confusing. I first got Vows & Honor, which is an omnibus of the first two books called Oathbound and Oathbreakers, but then I realized that I should have just taken out the omnibus with all three books - it's called Tarma and Kethry and includes Oathblood, which is just a collection of short stories. Anyway, if you're as confused as I am, blame my guy Mike who has a timeline of Valdemar and makes all of this clear as mud. And then! After I figured all that out, there's THIS little introduction:

And I don't like that Lackey had a working relationship with Marion Zimmer Bradley. And I am certainly not going to read OUTSIDE OF THE VALDEMAR saga to figure out what's going on here.

So let me tell you I was super confused when I started this trilogy.

#1: Oathbound

We "meet" Tarma, the last of Clan of the Hawk, a nomadic Shin'a'in people. She swore to find those who eliminated her tribe and destroy them. Kethry is her newfound oathsister, she of noble birth who was sold into a violent marriage that she had to flee only to find her skill and life's calling as a mage. (We apparently actually met them in some Marion Zimmer Bradley story I did not read.)

We are not even in Valdemar for the entirety of this book. We hear stories of Valdemar, with their mind magic and white Companions, but Tarma and Kethry know nothing of Valdemar. In this book, Tarma is also bonded to a kyree, a dog/wolf creature that can mindspeak, there are some very problematic scenes in which Kethry put an illusion on a bad man so he looks like a woman so he can be raped as a form of justice (!), and we learn all about Kethry's magical sword (like a real sword, not a euphemistic one). 

This book has not aged well at all. The sexual violence in this book is outrageous and made me super uncomfortable and I felt truly unwell.  

1.5/5 stars

Hat mentions (why hats?):

...for the lizard Gervase was playing at being a wizard, just as they had often done, with a hat of rolled-up birch bark and a "wand" of a twisted branch. 

Words I looked up:

rede (page 130) - advice or counsel given by one person to another

cresset (page 193) - a metal container of oil, grease, wood, or coal burned as a torch and typically carried on a pole

#2 Oathbreakers

Things are much better in this book. Our dynamic duo (trio if you count the kyree) are working as mercenaries in Idra's Sun Hawks. Idra goes to do some family business and goes missing and they have to find her. Magic and battles ensure.

Look, this was so much better. The women in this book are badasses, there is no rape on page (low bar, I guess), and it was fun to see how magical battles go in this world outside of Valdemar with its mindspeakers. It was also nice that we did get to be in Valdemar, however briefly, in this book. Back on form with this one.

4/5 stars

Lines of note:

At the sight of the books, Tarma felt a long-suppressed desire to get one of them in her hands; she hadn't had a good read in months, and her soul thirsted for the new knowledge contained within those dusty volumes. (page 329 - I was reading the Vows & Honor edition with the first two books as an omnibus)

Can you imagine MONTHS without a book? I honestly can't even fathom it. 

...to have something, sometimes you must be willing to lose it. Love must live free...

I don't know why this struck me. I guess because I'm not sure I agree with it, maybe?

Things I looked up:

leman (page 257) - a lover or a sweetheart

salle (page 431) - borrowed from the French meaning a fencing school

#3: Oathblood

I DNFed this book early on because it turns out that I was not interested in the backstory of these two. I feel like I have been enthusiastic about Valdemar, but this has really decreased my interest in reading more. I'll have to move forward I guess