Title: Redoubt
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: The Collegium Chronicles #4, Valdemar #10
Rating Out of 5:  5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Daw fantasy
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: Without the armor, without helmets, without the padding, this was just a romp.

CAPTURED!

Life at the Heralds’ Collegium in Haven has definitely improved for Mags. He’s even become something of a hero since risking his life to rescue his girlfriend Amily – daughter of Nikolas, the King’s Own Herald – from Karsite kidnappers. His training as an undercover agent for the crown is progressing. he is no longer the “foreigner” so many students distrusted. Life is good.

But Mags still doesn’t know who his parents were, and though he knows there are skilled, determined assassins hunting for him, hired by Karse, Valdemar’s longstanding enemy, he doesn’t know why. So it is necessary for mags to be always on his guard.

Mags has grown extremely strong, agile, and remarkably adept at running across rooftops, slipping down drain pipes, and sneaking unseen along dark alleyways. But now it is time for Mags to graduate to a new role: Nikolas’ partner and information broker. And Mags discovers that he’s quite good at his new job. So good, in fact, that Nikolas decides to let him run the undercover operation in town along one hot summer night.

Mags has barely unlocked the shop when everything goes black in a blinding flash of pain.

He wakes with an agonizing headache, bound, blind-folded, in a conveyance of some kind. But worst of all, he’s head-blind. No Mindspeech – he can’t even sense his Companion Dallen. And if he can’t sense or hear Dallen, then no one can sense him. And if no one can sense him, then this may well be his demise.

We all have a past, and no matter how hard we run from it, it will come back to haunt us. It’s true that the past has shaped us and all of those wonderful clichés, and Lackey reminds us beautifully of this in Redoubt. Mags doesn’t remember his past, but it constantly reappears in his life to torture and harass himself and his friends. It’s a fact that both fascinated and frustrated me throughout the story – it was easy to understand that Mags’ biological family had some amount of importance, but that was it. I like to know things, so not knowing drove me a little crazy. So, it was wonderful to finally find out more about his family and past.

Not only is Mags forced to confront his past in Redoubt, but it also takes him hostage – quite literally. He is taken, drugged and enforced to relive moments that he never knew existed. Although I know that my past won’t literally turn up out of nowhere and take me into the woods, it is a strong reminder that ignoring what has been before can bite you in the ass.

Mags’ horrifying upbringing is a bi-story throughout the series, and his innate toughness is really bought to the fore in this story. It is such a strong reminder that we can survive whatever is thrown at us, as long as we are strong (or stubborn) enough. He is in the worst of situations, but his physical and mental stubbornness allows him to survive and eventually return to his people.

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Title: Changes
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: The Collegium Chronicles #3, Valdemar #9
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Daw fantasy
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: Mags noted how the young man was acutely sensitive to any vibration, looking almost immediately when the floor trembled the slightest bit as someone nearby dropped something heavy.

THE SPY TRAINEE

Mags was a Herald Trainee in the brand new Heraldic Collegium in Haven, Valdemar’s capital city. Though his background of unimaginable poverty and abuse set him apart from most other trainees, nonetheless he had found his own special group of friends. Bear, Lena, and Amily were all students whose situations in life set them apart from more usual trainees, and together the four friends struggled to help one another find the solutions to their individual problems.

But Mags’ friendship with Amily brought him to the attention of her father Nikolas – the King’s Own. The seemingly immortal Companion Rolan had Chosen Nikolas to suit the specific needs of the current monarch, and those needs were for an agent who could collect information surreptitiously – a King’s Own spy. Nikolas recognized the same traits in Mags that Rolan had recognized in him. Both were inconspicuous with an almost uncanny ability to fade into the woodwork. Both could mimc low-class behavior and pidgin speech. Both were unusually expert at observing the situations around them, and at ferreting out hidden motives.

So Mags began training as Nikolas’ partner. They worked in disguise at night in one of the seedier parts of Haven, where Nikolas had set up a false identity as a pawnbroker and fence. Hiding in the shadows behind the desk, pretending to neither hear nor speak, Mags could better “observe” the clients, and even the surrounding neighborhood. And Nikolas could send him out on “errands” to chase down leads.

But this new job was far more dangerous than Mags had ever considered. For there were mysterious agents in the city – agents who sought to bring down the kingdom, and no one knew where they came from or who they worked for. They were smart, talented, and preternaturally fast. And most of all they were willing to do anything – anything – to bring Valdemar to ruin.

The challenges that Bear started facing with his familial issues really come to light in Changes. The conflict that starts to build in Intrigues is heightened and Lackey poignantly reminds us that family isn’t everything. I loved the contrast with Amily and Lydia’s families, they show exactly what unconditional love is all about. It’s a great reminder that blood isn’t everything and sometimes it is actually okay to say goodbye to family.

The other great theme in this story is that of Amily. She undergoes surgery to remove her crippling injuries. Not only is she able to finally walk around on her own, but Lackey reminds us that crippling sometimes isn’t just of the body, but also of the heart. Amily’s ability to simply move around on her own gives her a greater feeling of self-confidence and assurance. She undergoes physical repair, but it is the social and emotional restoration that really means something in this story.

Although this story is still focused upon Mags, it is the journey of his friends and pseudo-family that really drive it home. Lackey has an uncanny ability to take issues that we all face in our daily lives and use them to construct a story that engages and enthrals us. Her stories remind us that some issues are universal and love is worth fighting for, even if it’s not the love of our blood family.

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Title: Intrigues
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: The Collegium Chronicles #2, Valdemar #8
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Daw fantasy
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: This is important enough that they are about to be intercepted.

FOREIGN BLOOD

Mags has been an orphan working in a gem mine when his life was saved by his companion, Dallen, who took him to Haven to be trained as a Herald. Now he was never hunger and never cold. He slept in a real bed in his own room and, most importantly, he had Dallen, who was like another part of himself. And yet, aside from Lena and Bear, both loners like Mags, he couldn’t relate to most of the Herald, Healer, or Bard trainees. He was the only trainee who came from what – to the others – was unimaginable poverty. And since Mags had no tolerance for the chronic complaining of his fellow trainees, this kept him feeling like an outsider, even though he was part of an elite corps of students.

But there were other factors that contributed to his isolation. For Mags had been “recognized” by foreign assassins fleeing the court. These spies had escaped the Royal Guard and never been questioned. Now, Mags was an object of suspicion among his fellow students, and even some of his teachers. After this incident it seemed far more urgent to discover exactly who his parents were. And at Haven, he had access to the extensive Archives.

Poring through the Archives, day after day, Mags finally got some answers, but they were incomplete: his parents, found dead in a bandit camp, had been two of a number of hostages, some of whom had survived. These survivors had told the Guard that Mags’ parents spoke a language that no one understood or even recognized. So Mags’ parents were foreigners, though from what country no one seemed to have any idea.

But rather than help his situation, this information did just the opposite, for ForeSeers had been having visions of the king being assassinated by “one of foreign blood” and some had even Seen Mags with blood on his hands.

How could Mags defend himself against a crime that hadn’t yet been committed?

Intrigues returns us to the world of Mags’ and the building of the Heralds Collegium. Mags is finally settling in to his new life and his small group of friends. I love that he isn’t a popular kid, he has a select few with whom he is close, and that is enough. I’ve never understood the idea of quantity over quality with friends, and Lackey helps to drive this home. You only need a few people who really care about you, not an entourage of characters that just happen to be there.

Lackey always deals with the idea of the ‘other’ really well. Intrigues highlights this through the use of Mags’ foreign blood and the ease with which his peers believe in his guilt. The way he is completely ostracised from the group because of the vague predictions of a future teller is incredibly cruel. But, the way that his friends choose to rally to his aid is a reminder of the importance of quality in relationships, something that can be really difficult to find.

This theme of bad luck and misunderstanding is even echoed in Mags’ own friendships towards the end of the story. Childish misinterpretations and jealousies not only further this, but also remind us that we all have a little evil in ourselves. No one is perfect, and there is nothing more frustrating than reading a story about a perfect protagonist. Mags’ self-doubt and insecurities about his own worth as a human makes him even more relatable. And has given him a special place in my heart.

Image source: Homecoming Book