Beyond (The Founding of Valdemar, #1)

Beyond (The Founding of Valdemar, #1)

Mercedes Lackey

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

The long-awaited founding of Valdemar comes to life in this new series from a New York Times bestselling author and beloved fantasist. Within the Eastern Empire, Duke Kordas Valdemar rules a tiny, bucolic Duchy that focuses mostly on horse breeding. Anticipating the day when the Empire’s exploitative and militant leaders would not be content to leave them alone, Korda’s father set out to gather magicians in the hopes of one day finding a way to escape and protect the people of the Duchy from tyranny. Kordas has lived his life looking over his shoulder. The signs in the Empire are increasingly dire. Under the direction of the Emperor, mages have begun to harness the power of dark magics, including blood magic, the powers of the Abyssal Planes, and the binding and "milking" of Elemental creatures. But then one of the Duchy’s mages has a breakthrough. There is a way to place a Gate at a distance so far from the Empire that it is unlikely the Emperor can find or follow them as they evacuate everyone that is willing to leave. But time is running out, and Kordas has been summoned to the Emperor's Court. Can his reputation as a country bumpkin and his acting skills buy him and his people the time they need to flee? Or will the Emperor lose patience, invade to strip Valdemar of everything of worth, and send its conscripted people into the front lines of the Imperial wars?


From the Forum

No posts yet

Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update

Recent Reviews

Your rating:

  • diarythebookwyrm
    Mar 10, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • Breezie_Reads
    Mar 11, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    This book pretty much was just a very slow, very cautious implementation of a decades-old decision to run away from a tyrant ruler in secret. And because everything was done in secret, there was no action, just political games and secret meetings and secret signals.

    I've only read The Mage Wars and The Last Herald-Mage trilogies by Mercedes Lackey, but I was expecting this series to be similar to those in terms of action and intensity. It was not. It was just on the cusp of boring, and you can tell it's just a set-up for the next book in the series. I already own the second book, but this first book lost all my interest in continuing with the series. Political secrets just isn't my kind of thing. It's a big reason why I tend to avoid anything even half-related to espionage, and if I had known how involved in this book it was, I never would have picked it up, regardless of my love for the first two (chronologically) series in this world.

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • View all reviews
    Community recs if you liked this book...