No True Way - Ed. Mercedes Lackey

No True Way: All New Tales of Valdemar
Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books
Release Date: December 2, 2014
978-0756407698

The amazon.com product description:

In March 1987, Mercedes Lackey, a young author from Oklahoma, published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen. No one could have envisioned that this modest book about a magical land called Valdemar would be the beginning of a fantasy masterwork series that would span decades and include more than two dozen titles.

Now the voices of other authors add their own special touches to the ancient land where Heralds “Chosen” from all walks of life by magical horse-like Companions patrol their ancient kingdom, dispensing justice, facing adversaries, and protecting their monarch and country from whatever threatens. Trained rigorously by the Herald’s Collegium, these special protectors each have extraordinary Gifts: Mindspeaking, FarSeeing, FarSpeaking, Empathy, Firestarting and ForeSeeing, and are bonded for life with their mysterious Companions. Travel with these astounding adventurers in sixteen original stories.

As always, there are great stories in the annual Valdemar anthology. I'm really glad to see it back after a two year hiatus where the annual anthology was based on Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series instead.

After a two year hiatus, there weren't as many recurring storylines in this anthology as there had been in the previous ones, although there was a story set in the world of the Haven Watch - the latest in the series of those. I missed some of the others from the previous volumes.

Mercedes Lackey's story for this volume was one of my favorites, though I do have to say that there were no stories in No True Way that I actively disliked. Quite a few authors decided to work from a theme of woolwork - mostly weaving, but there was at least one story that used spinning as a key plot point. As a spinner myself, that was something that I found to be quite neat.

I know that the last time I mentioned this book - in an Upcoming Books post back in September, I'd commented that the only pre-order option I was seeing on Amazon.com was for an e-book; well No True Way was also released as a paperback thankfully and is available as such from Amazon as well.