Magic's Price (1990)

I remember reading it years ago and loving it to death. The wow-ness has faded , but i still enjoyed reading it this time around. It seems more of a young adult book than an adult book due to the writing style, but the story is entertaining. One of my favorite Lackey series to date. Vanyel is a great character. There are some stories where the really good writing takes the book far, and there are some where it's the story that takes it far. This is one of the latters. I still cant place my tongue on exactly what the magic is, but there is magic there. ( )

Once again, it wasn't an entirely bad book, but I can't say it was awesome, either.

Warning, spoilers ahead.


There's much ado about nothing, blah blah blah border troubles, blah blah blah, King is dying, blah blah blah, in the end, none of that matters because we jump forward to Vanyel and Vanyel and more Vanyel and then the book ends.

Wait, what?
Yep! It's over!

Ok, I get it, it's all about the gayness and how Vanyel is so cool and strong and suffering little soul.

But what happened here?
It was like a huge time skip- the guy dies and everything else that was happening (and that seemed vaguely important, or so you'd think as they kept going ON and ON about it) becomes unimportant.

What about the border?
What did the King really have? (They insisted so much upon it, that I thought they'd be like, "oh look! It was the bad guy's doing! Now he's saved/it's a shame we found out too late!" But no, not even that.)
Where did the bad guy come from' Why? What? How? When? Where? (ok, so some of those last questions were 'mentioned' briefly while we were all distracted by VanyelVanyelVanyel.


Regarding the "New lover who is really the soul of the old lover", I could have done without, however I didn't dislike the issue.

Nevertheless, the book was ok.
I did, however, dislike the ending. It just didn't fit in my opinion. As much as I do like that kind of ending, and I really do tend to like them, I felt it would have been much better for him to either just die for real or become a Tylendras (did I spell that right?); or even to have survived for further whining and drama.


All in all, it was an unsatisfactory ending to the story, with unnecessary stuff thrown in for angst drama's sake, which wouldn't have been a problem if other (apparently less pressing) questions would have been answered as well. ( )

i imagine this book was incredibly groundbreaking for when it was written...a high fantasy novel with an openly gay protagonist in a world where some people don't care about his love life and others consider it highest blasphemy (so, you know, a bit like our world). Vanyel is incredibly angsty about his sexual preferences and how they impact friends, family, and political maneuvering, which can all come off as quite a bit overwrought (other reviewers calling him "emo" are pretty dead on). with all the tortured soul stuff, though, comes a rather good story. this one is the best of the trilogy, though political & personal nuances would be utterly lost if you started here. ( )

The final installment of the Last Herald-Mage trilogy is one that I can never read with comletely dry eyes. The whole story in the trilogy comes to a head when, after a series of assassination attempts and successes, Vanyel learns that he is the only Herald-Mage left in Valdemar. Not only that, but that the enemy who has been gradually picking off the Herald-Mages has also been murdering unChosen children with the Mage-Gift, to ensure that no more Mages get trained in Valdemar's borders. Coupled with the plight of a dying king and war on the border, Vanyel decides, rightfully, that he is the only one to deal with this enemy.

Interwoven with this story is Vanyel new relationship with the Bard Stefan, who, as we learn later, is the reincarnation of Tylendel. Yes, it's sappy, and no, it never fails to bring a little smile to my face when I think about it. The reasoning behind the reincarnation was explained quite simply, in that there was a good amount of unifinished business and guilt in Tylendel's heart when he died, and, as Vanyel confirms at the end of the novel, Heralds are given the choice to come back after they've died, if they so desire. It may not be an original reason, but at least it's a reason.

The part of this book that never fails to tug at my heartstrings is when Vanyel realises that in saving the kingdom, he will, without fail, go to his death, and yet he keeps on pretending, for Stefan's sake, that things will be fine. And the bitter triumph when Yfandes comes to his aid at the very end, providing him enough strength to be sure he'll take out the enemy when he goes...

Yes, when you end up grieving for fictional characters, you know the author's done something right.

It's interesting to note that, as in many other novels of Valdemar, Mercedes Lackey includes song lyrics in the back of the book, relating to the trilogy that has just finished. Most of them are songs of Vanyel's exploits, but one, My Lady's Eyes (well-known to be Vanyel's mother's favourite song) has commentary before it that I believe we're supposed to infer was written by Stefan. It's a nice touch, and lends a bit more of a connection to the song lyrics we're seeing and the time they came from.

A great ending to a great trilogy. Lackey did not only tell Vanyel's story, but also did a wonderful amount of explanation and set-up for the future of Valdemar, which is a delight for fans of the series to see and to be a part of. Well worth reading! ( )

This is the third and concluding book in the Herald Mage series that begins with Magic's Pawn. I love the Heralds of Valdemar series this novel is a part of. The Herald Mage trilogy was published after the first set of books that begins with Arrows of the Queen, but is set hundreds of years before, so this wouldn't act as a spoiler (and indeed in a way Arrows acts as a spoiler for this set, since by then Vanyel is a figure of legend.)

Because of Arrows of the Queen, I knew Vanyel's fate and more or less where his story would end up--and certainly there's plenty of foreshadowing in the two earlier books in the trilogy--and even the title. I found it no less a journey worth taking for that; Vanyel is an appealing character and Valdemar with its "companions" (magical horse-shaped creatures) and rider-heralds is an appealing world to spend time in.

I also liked the character of Stefan, a bard and Vanyel's lover. Not only is he an appealing character in his own right, but that subplot gives some needed resolution to the tragedy of Tylendel and their romance cuts some of the bleakness of this novel and makes for a moving ending.

This isn't nearly five stars by the way because I don't recognize the flaws in the writing. There are more creatively imaginative books in fantasy, or even by Lackey, and the writing skill isn't extraordinary. But Lackey does have a gift, particularly in this trilogy, for making you care about her characters. I enjoyed the journey and found Vanyel's story moving; the trilogy is among my favorite books in the fantasy genre. ( )