Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar

by Mercedes Lackey

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF Lackey ed

Publication

New York : DAW Books, 2008.

Description

"Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar is an ancient land where the peace is kept by a very special corps of protectors: the Heralds. Chosen from all across the kingdom, from all walks of life, and at all ages, these unusual individuals are Gifted with abilities beyond those of normal men and women. They are Mindspeakers, FarSeers, Empaths, ForeSeers, Firestarters, FarSpeakers, and others who are uniquely suited to protect their realm. South and Chosen by mysterious horselike Companions, they are trained to be emissaries, spies, judges, diplomats, scouts, counselors, and even warriors. Bonded for life to the Companion who chooses them, the Heralds of Valdemar ride patrol throughout the kingdom preserving the peace and, when necessary, defending their land and monarch."--p. [4] of cover.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member stainedfeathers

I truly wish I could rate the stories in this anthology individually. All the stories in this were quite good and would receive four or five stars from me save for two of them. The story "Passage at Arms" by Rosemary Edgehill felt poorly written and I've NEVER seen so many ( ) brackets in one story

in my life- there was at least one set in nearly every sentence and it got quite wearing and very hard to read. The other story I'm rating poorly, was sadly by the author/Editor of the Valdemar series herself- Mercedes Lackey. It pains me to say that her story in the book was so poor given that she is my favorite author, bar none, and someone I greatly look up to but the story she wrote for this anthology was HORRIBLE. It's not that it was poorly written (well it kind of was) or anything like that. No, it was the fact that it was completely a Scooby Doo fanfiction was what made it so appalling. It doesn't even try to hide the fact. From the Kyree that actually speaks likes Scooby instead of using mindspeech ("Remons and Rossts!" [Demons and ghosts!]) to the plot (a group of kids trying to suss out people pretending to be ghosts and demons in a nefarious plot to scare the townsfolk out of a village so the bad guys could take all the gold) to one of the last lines of the story "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids [oops scratch out "kids", it was my typo] Heralds!" the whole story is LITERALLY a Scooby Doo fanfiction set in the Authors world of Valdemar/Velgrath.

My opinion? By the book, enjoy it because all the stories are good, but for Havens sake, don't read the first story ("Moving Targets" by Mercedes Lackey)! If I want fanfiction, I'll go read it on fanfiction.net- NOT pay 7 dollars to buy it.

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LibraryThing member shadrach_anki

As with any other short story anthology, there were some stories in this that I enjoyed more than others, both in style and content. The title story was...something of a forehead slapper once I figured out where things were going (and it did take me a bit, since I'm not that familiar with Scooby

Doo). A good portion of the stories were set outside of Valdemar proper, and some seemed only tangentially related to Velgarth at all.

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LibraryThing member masterdeski

The title story in this anthology got me laughing so hard! I had thought it seemed familiar, and the "meddling Heralds" line struck me as surprising, until I realized it was a Scooby Doo spoof. Too funny! The other stories varied in level of interest and style.

LibraryThing member silentq

I picked this up when Tanya Huff mentioned in her Livejournal that she and her partner had stories in the anthology. Valdemar will always be a guilty pleasure for me. :) I think there were more Herald-centric stories in this one than in the last collection I read, but that's fine. There were a few

that seemed shorter than normal, that was disappointing, but I'm a novel-lover first and foremost, and still getting used to stories told so quickly. I loved Huff's piece, it had some meta commentary about story telling.

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LibraryThing member anfirind

Nicely done, better than Foundation.

LibraryThing member Krumbs

Some good stories based around the Valdemar series, but nothing really spectacular. Curious as to why this was released now, but guessing it has something to do with the new Foundation novel.

LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher

This series of collections has falling into a steady rhythm - familiar contributors, mostly familiar stories. It's good, solid Valdemar stuff, and Heralds are particularly well-suited to episodic stories.

The title story by Lackey is worth a note - it is, of all things, a Scooby-Doo pastiche. It's

dreadfully irreverent, and kind of note-perfect. I thought it was moderately hilarious, although I would not like it to represent a trend.

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