The Valdemar Companion

Title: The Valdemar Companion: A Guide to Mercedes Lackey's World of Valdemar Editors: John Helfers & Denise Little Publisher: Daw Books; USA Date of Publication: 2001 Details: Hardcover 497 pages ISBN: 0756400376

The Valdemar Companion is aptly named, as it has little value in and of itself, yet is an excellent source book for those who have read other books in the Valdemar series. A great deal of thought has gone into its writing; it is packed with information, interviews and even a completely new story by Mercedes Lackey. The layout is clear, with each section easily located and ordered so that the flow does not become disjointed or tedious. I would recommend this book for any fan of Mercedes Lackey with the warning, however, that it is not complete. Information on books written after the Valdemar Companion's release (Exile's Honour & Exile's Valour) is not included. Hopefully future editions will rectify this.

Review of Contents

• It begins with the official timeline for the Heralds of Valdemar series. This is found in all of the Valdemar books, true, yet it is an essential piece of information.

• The introduction by Mercedes Lackey follows the creation of the Valdemar series. In it, she explains how it all began, outlines what inspired her to continue and the challenges that had to be overcome. She finishes by briefly touching on her plans for the future.

• 'A Herald's Journey', a novella by Mercedes Lackey, follows the tale of young Tafri Tallyman as he makes the transition from poor carter's son to Herald, chosen of the companion Adelayan. This story focuses on the everyday work of Heralds, rather than the fantastical and unusual adventures that feature in Misty's other books.

• An interview with Mercedes Lackey, by Denise Little.

• A Travelers' Guide to Valdemar and the Surrounding Kingdoms, by Kerrie Hughes, is cleverly written as a first person account by a Bard Jeriko. More than mere geography, it includes details on journey times, local inhabitants and their customs, trading opportunities and the various religions that prevail in different areas. Unfortunately, information in the traveler's guide is not entirely in accordance with the two large scale maps further on in the book. There are also no scales on the maps and it is difficult to see how the maps join together (the first map is north of the second).

• The Music of Valdemar is divided into three sections. The first discusses music as it is used in the books, the people that practise it and it's practical applications. The second describes how the songs in the Valdemar books were taken from paper and made real. The third is a discography of those songs. Suprisingly, after wetting the reader's appetite for these cd's and tapes, information on how to buy them does not appear for another 62 pages, on page 201.

• An interview with Elizabeth Wollheim, the president of DAW books, by Denise Little.

• The Novels of Valdemar: short summaries of each book and short story in the Valdemar series by Kristin Schwegel and Denise Little.

• Virtual Valdemar: a short guide to Valdemar related sites on the internet. This section mainly promotes Queen's Own, the official fan club. It is severely lacking but given the dynamic nature of the internet, with websites appearing and disappearing so quickly, it was wise to limit it.

• The Valdemar Concordance, by Lee, Coulson, Hughes and Little, is probably the highlight of this book, providing a glossary of terms, characters, places and more. More than mere descriptions, the subjects are also explained and put into context.