A review by wild_dog
Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey

3.0

Wow this is so much better than Oathbound it's almost not funny. The thing that definitely gives this one a leg up is that it's not a collection of disconnected stories, so you don't have to read increasingly clumsy/punny introductions of the characters every 50 pages. Ultimately this book feels less developed than most of the Valdemar books that followed it. The worldbuilding is more sparce, the narrative isn't as...believable (things work out embarrassingly easily when it's time for them to), there is no feeling of interiority to any but the most central characters (this is to me a HUGE reason I don't find this trilogy compelling so far: no one but Tarma, Kethry, and their closest confidants are actually people with lives/motivations/histories).

Sexual violence still a partial plot driver, but way less so here (what a gauge), instead we get a romance plot I couldn't stop rolling my eyes through. I just was not impressed by this hamfisted ode to older men and their internal lives in a book that's supposedly about women, but what that means is two women with a lot of internalized disdain for other women, who surround themselves with a lot of men they're very impressed by. I'm tired. I came here for cool Shin'a'in backstory/worldbuilding and this isn't that.

Finally one note on worldbuilding: This seems to have been written before Lackey had settled on mages not being able to

Spoiler

work magic within the boundaries of Valdemar? Fascinating to read Kethry casting spells in Valdemar with no repercussions.

I mean this honestly, it is really interesting to see the sausage being made here, that ideas that become so central to the overarching plot of the entire series haven't really developed yet.