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kathydavie's review
3.0
Twelfth in the Tales of Valdemar short stories series for middle-grade readers with 21 short stories revolving around Mercedes Lackey's fantastical world of the Heralds of Valdemar, the kingdom's ancient order of protectors drawn from across the land.
The Series
"Reborn" (Reincarnation, 2)
"Unexpected Consequences" (Lady Cera of Sandbriar, 2)
"Patterns" (Deira the Weaver, 2)
"Out of the Pelagiris" (Nwah the Kyree, 2)
"Discovery" (Perran, 2)
"An Ostentation of Peacocks" (Lena, 2)
"Cobblestones" (Dann Family of Haven, 8)
"Cloud and Sparrow" (Sparrow and Brock, 2)
"Bootknife" (Wil and Leila, ??)
If you're interested in the characters in the following stories, check out my review at KD Did It.
The Stories
Brigid Collins' "Silent Storms"...
...made me work to understand what the issue was, which took away from my enjoyment of it.
Kristin Schwengel's "Traded Places"...
...was a bit confusing at the start. Using Capin for someone's name did NOT help. Why would the duke not be used to a large household? It's a cute enough story, and I enjoyed the LGBT angle but Schwengel needed more time to develop this to make it believable.
Jennifer Brozek's "Reborn"...
...embraces reincarnation as well as a current-day rescue.
Janny Wurts' "The Girl Who Rejected the Ordinary"...
...finds Kaysa alternating between worry over her disability and her belief that something isn't right. I gotta say these Heralds don't seem to be all that competent with their dismissal of the dangers of the Pelagiris.
Elizabeth A. Vaughan's "Unexpected Consequences"...
...is a sweet follow-on tale of a merchant's daughter who took on the challenge of helping her late husband's estate to survive. It's but a peek-in, but I do love the protagonist.
Phaedra Weldon's "A Herald's Duty"...
...is a complicated story filled with anger, confused help, and a major lack of charity that causes great tragedy.
Dayle A. Dermatis' "Woven Threads of Love and Honor"...
...finds a widow who's gift for Empathy burst out six months ago. A gift that comes in very handy when a Trainee is caught looking at a test's answers. It's the truth that emerges that makes my blood boil.
Diana L. Paxson's "Patterns"...
...was a fun tale of rescue, bigotry, and spellcasting to protect the city. It involves two families, one had been refugees and the second are refugees who are helped who, in turn, help their new city.
Ron Collins' "Out of the Pelagiris"...
...finds Nwah conflicted over her own hypocrisy when it comes to the differences in mating between kyree and human and must explore her dislike of her magic. It's a cute enough story with good tension and drama, but rather lame. When does a commander outrank a sergeant-at-arms?
Dylan Birtolo's "Trust Your Instincts"...
...is one big betrayal, well, one after another. And incredibly sad... It was really annoying as there's no reveal as to why this happens.
Nancy Asire's "Discovery"...
...finds us in a court case in Zallow's Fork in Karse where the judge must determine the guilt or innocence of two children. I do love this story, if only because justice is sought.
Elisabeth Waters' "An Ostentation of Peacocks"...
...finds poor Lena forced to appear more often at court where she encounters Jasper who wants his dogs back...now that his mother is entering a convent. I did enjoy No True Way: "A Wake of Vultures", and I like finding out how that story ends. Of course, it's a bit convoluted what with the circus and peacocks, but I did enjoy Meri entering into the spirit of things.
Fiona Patton's "Cobblestones"...
...is politics and who's gonna pay. It's a tale of who knows who and what the history is behind street repair and who pays for it, all set against the Dann family and their dynamics.
Louisa Swann's "Boggles and Spies"...
...finds a young boy who empathizes too strongly with the fish to be able to eat them. In this tale, he'll have to conquer his fears and perform a desperate rescue that'll save him from being a fisherman.
Anthea Sharp's "The Hidden Gift"...
...finds poor Tarek having to go back to the beginning of his schooling...since his dratted gift appeared so late. It means rearranging his whole life...and giving him the empathy to understand what Lyssa is going through and how desperate she is to make her family happy.
D Shull's "Secrets and Truths"...
...is a tale about loyalty, to family, to friends. I THINK it's also a very disguised story about being different, as in gay or transgender. I do wish Shull had committed to his story and laid it out.
Rebecca Fox's "Ordinary Miracles"...
...tells a story of a lack of charity in religious hearts as a young orphan struggles to survive the family who took him in and his fears about his gift. It's a sweet story that was easy to follow.
...was horrible. I could not figure out what species these two were or what is going on.
Angela Penrose's "Clay and Fire"...
...is a sad one about losing family to a jealous man.
Stephanie D. Shaver's "Bootknife"...
...finds a desperate Herald Wil trying to get back to Haven with a traitorous prisoner.
Mercedes Lackey's "To Catch a Thief"...
...is cute if a bit dumb. It's Arville questioning his worth, and it takes Pelas and Ryu to point out the truth.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a deep blue and gold background of suns with squiggly rays. On top of it in the center is a triangular shield with a riveted steel band framing a marbled lilac background. A close-up of a rearing and angry white horse's head is in profile with a pale blue bridle edged with bells and a rein with a cut-out border of blue edged in silver. Another triangular shield in a lighter deep blue background features a white pegasus against a starry background at the very top of the primary shield. A third triangular shield is at the pointed bottom of the primary with a black background and a red phoenix standing exposed with its wings out. At the top is a deeper blue rectangular box, edged in gold, with the title in the same blue with silver outline as the bridle and an epigraph in white below it. At the bottom of the cover is another similarly colored and edged box noting the editor's name, in white.
The title is Pathways for all the routes that people follow in their lives.
The Series
"Reborn" (Reincarnation, 2)
"Unexpected Consequences" (Lady Cera of Sandbriar, 2)
"Patterns" (Deira the Weaver, 2)
"Out of the Pelagiris" (Nwah the Kyree, 2)
"Discovery" (Perran, 2)
"An Ostentation of Peacocks" (Lena, 2)
"Cobblestones" (Dann Family of Haven, 8)
"Cloud and Sparrow" (Sparrow and Brock, 2)
"Bootknife" (Wil and Leila, ??)
If you're interested in the characters in the following stories, check out my review at KD Did It.
The Stories
Brigid Collins' "Silent Storms"...
...made me work to understand what the issue was, which took away from my enjoyment of it.
Kristin Schwengel's "Traded Places"...
...was a bit confusing at the start. Using Capin for someone's name did NOT help. Why would the duke not be used to a large household? It's a cute enough story, and I enjoyed the LGBT angle but Schwengel needed more time to develop this to make it believable.
Jennifer Brozek's "Reborn"...
...embraces reincarnation as well as a current-day rescue.
Janny Wurts' "The Girl Who Rejected the Ordinary"...
...finds Kaysa alternating between worry over her disability and her belief that something isn't right. I gotta say these Heralds don't seem to be all that competent with their dismissal of the dangers of the Pelagiris.
Elizabeth A. Vaughan's "Unexpected Consequences"...
...is a sweet follow-on tale of a merchant's daughter who took on the challenge of helping her late husband's estate to survive. It's but a peek-in, but I do love the protagonist.
Phaedra Weldon's "A Herald's Duty"...
...is a complicated story filled with anger, confused help, and a major lack of charity that causes great tragedy.
Dayle A. Dermatis' "Woven Threads of Love and Honor"...
...finds a widow who's gift for Empathy burst out six months ago. A gift that comes in very handy when a Trainee is caught looking at a test's answers. It's the truth that emerges that makes my blood boil.
Diana L. Paxson's "Patterns"...
...was a fun tale of rescue, bigotry, and spellcasting to protect the city. It involves two families, one had been refugees and the second are refugees who are helped who, in turn, help their new city.
Ron Collins' "Out of the Pelagiris"...
...finds Nwah conflicted over her own hypocrisy when it comes to the differences in mating between kyree and human and must explore her dislike of her magic. It's a cute enough story with good tension and drama, but rather lame. When does a commander outrank a sergeant-at-arms?
Dylan Birtolo's "Trust Your Instincts"...
...is one big betrayal, well, one after another. And incredibly sad... It was really annoying as there's no reveal as to why this happens.
Nancy Asire's "Discovery"...
...finds us in a court case in Zallow's Fork in Karse where the judge must determine the guilt or innocence of two children. I do love this story, if only because justice is sought.
Elisabeth Waters' "An Ostentation of Peacocks"...
...finds poor Lena forced to appear more often at court where she encounters Jasper who wants his dogs back...now that his mother is entering a convent. I did enjoy No True Way: "A Wake of Vultures", and I like finding out how that story ends. Of course, it's a bit convoluted what with the circus and peacocks, but I did enjoy Meri entering into the spirit of things.
Fiona Patton's "Cobblestones"...
...is politics and who's gonna pay. It's a tale of who knows who and what the history is behind street repair and who pays for it, all set against the Dann family and their dynamics.
Louisa Swann's "Boggles and Spies"...
...finds a young boy who empathizes too strongly with the fish to be able to eat them. In this tale, he'll have to conquer his fears and perform a desperate rescue that'll save him from being a fisherman.
Anthea Sharp's "The Hidden Gift"...
...finds poor Tarek having to go back to the beginning of his schooling...since his dratted gift appeared so late. It means rearranging his whole life...and giving him the empathy to understand what Lyssa is going through and how desperate she is to make her family happy.
D Shull's "Secrets and Truths"...
...is a tale about loyalty, to family, to friends. I THINK it's also a very disguised story about being different, as in gay or transgender. I do wish Shull had committed to his story and laid it out.
Rebecca Fox's "Ordinary Miracles"...
...tells a story of a lack of charity in religious hearts as a young orphan struggles to survive the family who took him in and his fears about his gift. It's a sweet story that was easy to follow.
Michele Lang's "Cloud and Sparrow"..."If it weren't our bounden duty to Vkandis Sunlord to shelter the orphan and destitute, I'd have turned you out to starve years ago."
"Why go to the trouble of turning me out when you can starve me right here?"
...was horrible. I could not figure out what species these two were or what is going on.
Angela Penrose's "Clay and Fire"...
...is a sad one about losing family to a jealous man.
Stephanie D. Shaver's "Bootknife"...
...finds a desperate Herald Wil trying to get back to Haven with a traitorous prisoner.
Mercedes Lackey's "To Catch a Thief"...
...is cute if a bit dumb. It's Arville questioning his worth, and it takes Pelas and Ryu to point out the truth.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a deep blue and gold background of suns with squiggly rays. On top of it in the center is a triangular shield with a riveted steel band framing a marbled lilac background. A close-up of a rearing and angry white horse's head is in profile with a pale blue bridle edged with bells and a rein with a cut-out border of blue edged in silver. Another triangular shield in a lighter deep blue background features a white pegasus against a starry background at the very top of the primary shield. A third triangular shield is at the pointed bottom of the primary with a black background and a red phoenix standing exposed with its wings out. At the top is a deeper blue rectangular box, edged in gold, with the title in the same blue with silver outline as the bridle and an epigraph in white below it. At the bottom of the cover is another similarly colored and edged box noting the editor's name, in white.
The title is Pathways for all the routes that people follow in their lives.
nerdygirlrenee's review
2.0
Some of these Valdemar Anthologies are hit or miss. Last one I read was Finding the Way and I enjoyed it. This one there was only three short stories I really enjoyed. But the rest were just boring and slow.
inmyhumbleopinion's review against another edition
5.0
Pathways takes us back to the fabulous world of Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, a place I love to visit and revisit as often as I can. It’s a world of magic and fantasy where there is no one true way. This anthology has 23 stories and there isn’t a bad one in the book. Enjoy these stories of heralds, healers, bards and regular folks in extraordinary conditions. I did. I love that these stories are true to the feeling of Valdemar and have to admit that they left me a bit nostalgic. If you are a fan of the Valdemar series you are going to enjoy this book.
beckykirk's review
4.0
I like the short stories, I get another persons view of this world. That being said it seems like the bulk of the stories were continuations of previous stories. Why don’t the authors write their own books? It’s really hard trying to remember year to year what’s happened
annieb123's review
4.0
Originally published to my blog: Nonstop Reader.
I remember reading the original Valdemar books in the late 1980s. I have been a lifelong reader of speculative fiction, so it was delightful to me to read about a society where difference was often a strength rather than a reason to be judged and despised. Mercedes Lackey occupied a space in my library with Ursula LeGuin, Anne McCaffrey, Sheri Tepper, Zenna Henderson, Evangeline Walton, and many others (Heinlein, Bradbury, Clarke, Atwood, Bester, Ellison, etc etc).
Throughout the years, I've always loved anthologies. Whether or not they share a thematic cohesiveness, I like the inevitable variation of having a group of stories from which to choose, and have never yet been disappointed in finding a story to fit whatever reading mood I'm in.
Pathways, due out 05 Dec 2017, is a collection of 21 short works set in the Valdemar universe, including a novella by Mercedes Lackey herself. The stories are varied, but editorially cohesive and all of them, in my opinion, are true to the spirit of the Valdemar books. The author list is a nice blending of established writers and unfamiliar-to-me authors, which brings me to another reason I love anthologies. I've yet to read an anthology (and I read a lot of them) that didn't increase my reading list at least a little bit and introduce me to authors with whom I was previously unacquainted.
The general quality of the stories in this anthology is high, with several standouts. I enjoyed seeing familiar characters in new roles and totally new characters.
The cover art is by Jody Lee who will be familiar to readers from earlier volumes (and many other covers in the original novels and collections).
There is something here for Valdemar fans old and new as well as fans of fantasy.
Four stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
I remember reading the original Valdemar books in the late 1980s. I have been a lifelong reader of speculative fiction, so it was delightful to me to read about a society where difference was often a strength rather than a reason to be judged and despised. Mercedes Lackey occupied a space in my library with Ursula LeGuin, Anne McCaffrey, Sheri Tepper, Zenna Henderson, Evangeline Walton, and many others (Heinlein, Bradbury, Clarke, Atwood, Bester, Ellison, etc etc).
Throughout the years, I've always loved anthologies. Whether or not they share a thematic cohesiveness, I like the inevitable variation of having a group of stories from which to choose, and have never yet been disappointed in finding a story to fit whatever reading mood I'm in.
Pathways, due out 05 Dec 2017, is a collection of 21 short works set in the Valdemar universe, including a novella by Mercedes Lackey herself. The stories are varied, but editorially cohesive and all of them, in my opinion, are true to the spirit of the Valdemar books. The author list is a nice blending of established writers and unfamiliar-to-me authors, which brings me to another reason I love anthologies. I've yet to read an anthology (and I read a lot of them) that didn't increase my reading list at least a little bit and introduce me to authors with whom I was previously unacquainted.
The general quality of the stories in this anthology is high, with several standouts. I enjoyed seeing familiar characters in new roles and totally new characters.
The cover art is by Jody Lee who will be familiar to readers from earlier volumes (and many other covers in the original novels and collections).
There is something here for Valdemar fans old and new as well as fans of fantasy.
Four stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
bookwyrm_lark's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars None of the stories in this anthology are bad, but there are few remarkable standouts either; for the most part they are well-written and entertaining without lingering in the reader's mind. Review to come.
whisper88's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
inferiorwit's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Xenophobia, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Minor: Child death