Oathblood

This is a collection of short stories featuring Kethry and Tarma. Some I had read in anthologies. but others were totally new to me. Two had been subsumed into Oathbound. Those I skimmed as I had just read that book and they were nearly the same.

Both the characters and the author matured and the stories steadily improved. In the end, I could tell that Tarma and Kethry knew they were good at what they did, but also didn't consider themselves "real" heroes. This quotation sums it up: "There’s your real heroes—the people who keep coping, keep trying, no matter how many blows Fate takes at them. Nobody’ ll make a song about them, but they’re heroes all the same."

If you read and enjoyed Oathbound and Oathbreakers, you'll enjoy show more finding out more about Tarma and Kethry. show less

This is a Tarma and Kethry short story collection - including the story of their meeting, which really would have made sense as the beginning of Oathbound. We get bits and pieces of it in that and the middle book, but it's nice to see it all laid out.

The stories are a mixed bag, as might be expected. A couple of them are the basis for scenes in Oathbound (more or less exactly - I didn't bother to reread them, in fact.) A couple of them are basically concept pieces - a poisoning mystery, a Murphy's Law farce, and couple of explorations of fantasy tropes. Those are generally fine, although slight. The ones I like best are the ones set later in the duo's career - the excursion into Valdemar to play with horses is a great deal of fun, and show more the final story involving Kethry's kids is top-notch.

Overall it's a fun collection, and probably works as well or better than Oathbound. Tarma and Kethry are just perfectly designed for short, episodic adventures. show less

I like the books Mercedes Lackey writes, she is good at creating a believable world and people to populate it. While her writing is not the strongest I do find it engaging ang and enjoyable. I like a series I can live inside of and her books are ones that have characters I feel invested in and a world I believe could exist.

There are some ups and downs to this book. On the up-side, this book is a bunch of short stories and doesn't pretend to be anything but that, no half-hearted attempts to string them all together into something resembling a coherent and continuing plot. It was nice to see a few interesting adventures that Tarma and Kethry have suffered through, particularly the one inspired by Murphy's Law.

Also, I finally got to read the story in which the two main characters met in the first place.

The down side is that about half the book consisted of stories that had been seen in other places, most notably the first book of the Vows and Honor trilogy. This would be fine if it was a standalone book unconnected to another series, but as it was, I'd show more already read some of what was being presented to me, with few to no changed in the presentation between the original short story and the time it made it to the first book of the trilogy. Rather disappointing, I think, to read what I'd already read, especially when I was expecting new things.

What was interesting, though, was to see the obvious progression of the author's writing talents. From the earlier stories to the later ones, it's easy to see Lackey's style become more solid, more confident as she grows into it. Her sense of humour is evident throughout, though; some things just never change.

Overall, I'm glad I can say that I've finally read this trilogy, which I think means I've read all the Valdemar novels except for one (and that one's in the mail as we speak). I'm equally glad, though, to say that I don't have to read it again; this was definitely my least favourite trilogy in the series. Decent, but not the best. show less

This is technically listed as the third part of the 'Vows and Honor' series of books featuring Kethry amd Trama, Lackey's answer to the fighting heroines that began to feature in the eighties and nineties. While similar to other females in the genre, this pair of mercenaries are somewhat more realistic but I believe that thinking any female fighter being an equal to a to a man one on one with the same sort of weapons falls foul of biology to a greater degree than any fantasy writer is willing to accept.

Despite that, most of these tales are good fun at the very least and sometimes thoughtful and not too preachy. One of the things I found difficult in these stories was to date them in terms of the rest of the Valdemar Cycle but later show more books in the Cycle make it fairly clearthat these are a generation or two before the original Heraldic books. show less

Oathblood, unlike Oathbreakers, is a collection of short stories involving Tarma and Kethry rather than an integrated novel. There is some overlap in stories from the first volume of the Vows and Honor series, Oathbound.

I didn't feel cheated, but then I find these two of Lackey's most appealing characters, and there was enough new material that even if you removed those stories from this volume, you'd still have a good value for your money. These stories deal not only with some gaps in the other books, but Kethry's progeny that are adopted into Tarma's clan post the events of Oathbreakers.

Although I think the previous two books are better introductions to these two characters and Lackey's world, if you like the first two books show more involving them, I think you'll enjoy this book as well, but I'd definitely not start here. show less

All the Tarma and Kethry short stories - including the beginning of the whole thing, what happened to Tarma when the raiders hit her Clan. They're not in chronological order - may be in published order, but I can't tell. It makes it a little difficult to interweave them with Oathbound and Oathbreakers, but it can be done - and makes those stories richer to know the rest of the events that are casually referred to in the books. Lots of favorites in here - the first one, and 'A Woman's Weapon' about the tanneries, and 'Threes' (which I find particularly amusing because I knew the song before I read the story!), and 'The Way It Should Have Been' (not sure if that's the actual name of either story or song - but it is the point of both). And show more some of the late ones - the Firebird one, and the one about the school and their kids...lovely. I don't like the one about the bear, but that's kind of the point of the story. Very rich, all of it. show less