Reviews

Beyond by Mercedes Lackey

ktlyonswoodhams's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

beary_bookwormish's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Mercedes is truly my favorite adult fantasy author. She has captivated me with the world of Velgarth since I read Arrows of the Queen in High School over 30 years ago. Which makes me one of her earliest Valdemar recruits, lol About 14 years ago I separated from my first husband and most of my library went into storage. When I remarried my second husband and new father in law insisted that I pare down my library. It would not be an over estimation to say that over the next three years I was harassed into parting with over 3/4 of my book collection. My Mercedes Lackey novels were some of the novels I refused to part with. Considering I own all of the novels written before 2012, that's quite a few novels. That includes novels outside of the Valdemar world, to include the novels in the worlds of the Jouster, Elemental Master, and the Obsidian Trilogy written w/ James Mallory. I have been waiting approximately 20 years to devour this piece of Valdemars history, and once again Mercedes did not disappoint.

junereadsbooks's review against another edition

Not for me

lesemensch's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

milliemudd's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

3.5

gypsydawn's review against another edition

5.0

How it all began

This is the story of how Valdemar becomes Valdemar - at least the beginning part of it. Taking the legends we’ve heard from other novels and putting a face to the names, and character to the actions (the vrondi?? Didn’t expect that!) is fantastic. I am eager to read the rest of this foundation and what leads to the stories we all love so much.

artemischief's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not my favorite Lackey book, but super satisfying for longterm fans of Valdemar. Loved the narrator as well, distinct character "tones" without being hokey. 

okwrites's review against another edition

5.0

This was not the story I expected for the Founding of Valdemar, but in a good way. I knew they fled a bad life, but exactly HOW bad is fascinating, and echoes some of the things going on in the world in a way that makes you think. There were some funny memes, but mostly it was a memorable cast of characters, and I loved them all dearly. This has the heart of a Valdemar story in it, where it's difficult and the characters step up and do it anyway, because it's what's right.

herald_chronicler's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Horses, pigs, and dolls oh my.. lol 

I loved learning how it all started for Valdemar..The main character did seem to beat himself up about his past an awful lot, but other than that my only comment would be to read her other books first..after The Mage winds or The Mage Storms? It would be easier to understand some of the things the mages talk about after reading those.

wild_dog's review

4.0

After a few years of not being interested in the new Valdemar books Lackey has been putting out, I was absolutely frothing at the mouth to read this one when I found out it was happening. I can't imagine that there are many fans who have not been champing at the bit to finally get to read about THE FOUNDING of Valdemar. And I gotta say, I really enjoyed this. It is the pinnacle of Valdemar-as-logistics-porn storytelling. I loved the lack of a traditional conflict narrative. I was as always amused by the lack of all subtlety with the rampant moralizing and um...inspirations for a lot of the characters and events in this book (The emperor is literally just

Spoiler

Donald Trump. It's incredible

). Also, the dedication/authors note at the start of this book goes HARD.

The main negative about this book is just that it needs more editing. There's just a lot of weird small detail mistakes and a bizarre number of wording choices that make it confusing who is talking/acting. I've never had as much issue tracking pronouns in a Valdemar book as I did with this book. And the detail stuff is just...minor details that are still very specific, so it's jarring when they're wrong. Isla's brother is first referenced as her twin, and then later the book says he was a year older than her, and it's just really glaring in a book so dedicated to detailed logistics.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the next one, and reading this has made me reconsider my avoidance of Mags...I started a Valdemar reread this year, and maybe I will get off my high horse and read the ones I'd been avoiding.