The story of Tarma and Kathry, shin’a’in swordsworn and white-winds mage, begins as a short story published in a collection. After two or three stories, the characters made it into a full-fledged novel set slightly before the events in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy. Although this book successfully stands alone, readers will want to read the sequel Oathbreakers, and may also be interested in Oathblood (which collects the short stories concerning the two main characters into a single volume).
The story is exactly what an experienced reader would expect from Lackey’s writing; well-handled and entertaining characters who main flaw is being too consistently moral while fighting villians too consistently immoral. The villians in this novel are no exception to Lackey’s usual pattern, constituting everything from a roving band of bandits set upon pillage and rapine to a godling of debauchery and blood-magic.
While the characters are well-handled as usual, the plot is somewhat disconnected – showing its origin in short-story format, and reading more like several novellas that don’t quite meet smoothly along the edges. There is little tension between the main characters, and absolutely no room for growth; the demands of the format require each episode to leave them in roughly the same condition that they began.
Readers who enjoy the world of Valdemar for its own sake will enjoy this book, and it’s two cousins. In particular, these three books are the best source of cultural information on the shin’a’in, and very nearly the only source for information on the forms of magic use that are not practiced by Herald-Mages or their enemies. Kethry’s use of magic is subtle, intricate, and spell-based; very different from Vanyel’s raw manipulation of energy (with occasional major spells). Readers whose attention is drawn primarily to the overarching plot of the Valdemar world should feel free to skip these in favor of By The Sword, which will provide all salient points of plot and history required for later events.
