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language: English
country: USA
year: 1987
form: novel
genre(s): fantasy
series: Heralds of Valdemar, #1
dates read: 23.2.26-1.3.26
well, it’s finally happened: I’ve read a Mercedes Lackey novel, in this case starting at the beginning, with Arrows of the Queen, the first book in her Heralds of Valdemar trilogy and, by extension, the entire Valdemar series.
I was expecting there to be a lot of Pern here, of course, but I was not expecting literally the first page of the novel to introduce us to a young “Holder” girl, Talia, a Menolly-like dreamer who longs for a different future than the one her family have planned for her as a second wife to some wealthy man in her off-brand Mormon-Amish religious community. fortunately for Talia, about two paragraphs after wishing she could be one of the legendary Heralds, a strange horse shows up: Rolan, a Companion — one of the intelligent, telepathic horses who magically bond with Heralds — who immediately Chooses her, sending her on a confusing but exhilarating journey to the capital of Valdemar, where she begins her studies to become a Herald.
and that’s the plot of the book, such as it is. if Pern is the strongest conceptual influence (substituting psychic fantasy horses for psychic sci-fi dragons), the strongest structural influence is, I would say, Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet (1983-1988, with Arrows of the Queen published in 1987). the episodic structure of this book closely mirrors the structure of Alanna: The First Adventure, except that where Alanna does have a throughline villain that Alanna is attempting to thwart (even if she can’t prove yet that he is the cause of all of this) Arrows of the Queen simply…doesn’t do that. there’s an ongoing conspiracy happening in the background, sure, but while it shapes Talia’s life in some ways it is mostly incidental to the actual plot of the novel (again: such as it is), which is more focused on miscellaneous trials and tribulations as Talia learns to be not only a Herald — somewhere between an elite soldier, a super-cop, an FBI agent, and a state department representative — but specifically the Queen’s Own Herald, with extra duties and extra magic powers. Song of the Lioness without the plot; Pern without the interest in political economy.
Lackey’s writing is workable if not standout. this book definitely feels, to be honest, like it’s in the more childish or teen-ish literary realm of Song of the Lioness, but since the book ends with Talia as an adult and also there’s a lot more sex and discussion thereof in it (including horse sex, which we’re told Talia is aware of, whether or not she wants to be (she does not especially want to be), through her psychic bond with Rolan; the book doesn’t go into detail about it but does, perplexingly, imply that secondhand horse sex is providing Talia with transferrable skills for human sex) I assume that the next book will be more unequivocally an adult novel. it does, however, present a reasonably enjoyable cast of characters — I was sufficiently engaged that I plan to read at least the second book, partly for the characters, partly out of morbid curiosity, and partly in hopes that it will be better than the first.
in spite or perhaps because of having very little by way of continuous plot, there’s a lot to say here about a lot of different things. again like Song of the Lioness, this is a book deeply preoccupied with the idea of a Good Monarchy, but where Pierce, for all her flaws, at least centers this on a struggle between good and bad would-be monarchs, allowing the possibility that monarchy might be bad (at least if a bad person were monarch), Lackey sidesteps the problem: the monarch of Valdemar must, by law, be a Herald, and no Companion would ever Choose (there are a lot of capital letters in this book) a Herald who was not essentially and indelibly good. Valdemar may have internal problems, but monarchy and the unequal distribution of power and wealth that sustains it are apparently not among them, because the monarch is always Good.
even beyond any ideological criticism, this is simply a boring choice, to be honest! Pierce is certainly invested in the fantasy of a Good Monarchy, but one of the things that compels me about the Tortall books broadly is something Raoul says to Kel in Protector of the Small: that Jonathan may be a Good King, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a Good Friend or even a Good Person. it’s an unrelated skillset. that’s significantly more narratively interesting than an institution — both the monarchy of Valdemar and the Heralds collectively — where everyone is simply unrelentingly good and kind all the time and everything bad comes from Evil people outside!
this book is also weirdly obsessed with corporal punishment and the idea that Sometimes Children Just Need A Good Spanking. there is a truly awful chapter that is almost entirely dedicated to Talia Disciplining the spoiled royal heir, who needs to be reined in if she is to be Chosen as a Herald one day. some of this is, like, plausibly productive, constructive approaches to (effectively) parenting, particularly insofar as this is a reeducation project to resocialize her out of being a Princess™ and into being a normal person. but some of this is just putting the heir (everyone calls her “the Brat”) in her place by hitting her. bad!
beyond a nebulous “the characters are fun”, it’s hard for me to put my finger on what kept me going here. some of it, to be sure, is the fascination of a train wreck. but there is something here, even if it’s unrealized. some of it is in little details: I like the idiosyncratic taxonomy of magical Gifts (again: Pierce), which doesn’t quite line up with how I would have thought of them, giving a little glimpse of how this world approaches categorization. and Lackey can be quite funny at times — the overall tone of the novel is light and brisk, even when it is dealing with grief. but most of all, despite my criticisms above, the Heralds are appealing as an institution, for similar reasons to the Weyrs in Pern (but not identical: queerness here is marked and stigmatized, even if only relatively mildly among the Heralds) in that the Heralds are a bunch of well-adjusted, confident, competent adults who are unfailingly kind and supportive, even to/of children, whom they take seriously and treat with respect. I did think it was funny that Lackey — contra McCaffrey — takes pains to point out that some Heralds are ugly (but still good and kind). anyway: it may not lend itself to interesting plot, but to the extent to which this book is in conversation with Dragonsinger as well as Alanna: The First Adventure the Heralds did do something for me.
and there are enough threads of larger plot that I’m curious to see where (if anywhere) they will go. will I make it past book 2? who can say. I don’t foresee reading more than this trilogy, though.
moods: adventurous, emotional, hopeful, horny, lighthearted