Finding The Way - Ed. Mercedes Lackey

Finding The Way And Other Tales Of Valdemar
Ed. Mercedes Lackey
Daw Books
Copyright: December 2010
978-0756406332

Amazon.com Product Description:

In March 1987, a young author from Oklahoma published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen. This modest book about a magical land called Valdemar was the beginning of a fantasy masterwork series that would span decades and include more than two dozen titles. Now readers can take a journey to the world of Valdemar-including Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Fiona Patton, and Judith Tarr-each adding their own special touches.

Finding The Way And Other Tales Of Valdemar is the latest anthology of Valdemar/Velgarth related short stories. It's become an annual thing to buy now for me. Some stories I enjoyed more than others of course. Unfortunately, the edition I have, I bought for my Kobo e-reader. Not a problem, except it was somehow formatted so the whole book was just one chapter. So, no easy list of authors and story titles for me to refer to now.

But, there were a number of repeat guests: Judith Tarr, Tanya Huff etc. Even some of the characters are repeat guests from Changing The World etc. Again, there are two stories with Ree and Jem, both good stories, and stories which set the scene for future stories and anthologies. And the same thing with the story about the Haven Watch. Realistic, and a story that made sense to me - although, thinking about it, it's rather similar to the Watch as Tamora Pierce writes it in the Beka Cooper books. It makes sense though, the cultures would be rather similar.

This time I quite liked Judith Tarr's story. It just worked well, and stood out in my mind. That and Mercedes Lackey's stories are my two favourites for this book, I have to say.

On the other hand, there weren't any introductions to the stories for who the authors were and the like. I remember commenting last time that I really liked those, and I missed reading them this time. At the very least, they made for an extra chuckle, and sometimes they sent me off to find new titles to read. Hopefully next year the introductions will be back.

Either way, Finding The Way is a good book for any Valdemar fan, but perhaps not so much for anyone who isn't familiar with the world Mercedes Lackey has created and opened up to other authors.