Waiting on Wednesday (60)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Closer to Home, by Mercedes Lackey (DAW Hardcover, 7 October 2014).

 Mags was once an enslaved orphan living a harsh life in the mines, until the King's Own Herald discovered his talent and trained him as a spy. Now a Herald in his own right, at the newly established Heralds' Collegium, Mags has found a supportive family, including his Companion Dallen.

Although normally a Herald in his first year of Whites would be sent off on circuit, Mags is needed close to home for his abilities as a spy and his powerful Mindspeech gift. There is a secret, treacherous plot within the royal court to destroy the Heralds. The situation becomes dire after the life of Mags' mentor, King's Own Nikolas, is imperiled. His daughter Amily is chosen as the new King's Own, a complicated and dangerous job that is made more so by this perilous time. Can Mags and Amily save the court, the Heralds, and the Collegium itself?

*****

I've been enjoying this series, and I'm still interested enough to see where she goes with it next. Technically this is the first in a new Herald Spy series, but since it continues on directly from the Collegium Chronicles with the exact same set of characters I'm guessing the distinction is going to be pretty subtle.

Waiting on Wednesday (24)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Bastion, by Mercedes Lackey (October 1, 2013, from DAW), fifth in the Collegium Chronicles series.

Mags returns to the Collegium, but there are mixed feelings--his included--about him actually remaining there. No one doubts that he is and should be a Herald, but he is afraid that his mere presence is going to incite more danger right in the heart of Valdemar. The heads of the Collegia are afraid that coming back to his known haunt is going to give him less protection than if he went into hiding. Everyone decides that going elsewhere is the solution for now. So since he is going elsewhere--why not return to the place he was found in the first place and look for clues? And those who are closest to him, and might provide secondary targets, are going along. With Herald Jadrek, Herald Kylan (the Weaponsmaster's chosen successor), and his friends Bear, Lena, and Amily, they head for the Bastion, the hidden spot in the hills that had once been the headquarters of a powerful band of raiders that had held him and his parents prisoner. But what they find is not what anyone expected.

*****

I wonder when Mercedes Lackey decided she didn't have to limit herself to trilogies? In a way I'm a little bit sorry she came to that conclusion, because this series has been rambling on without much resolution for at least the last two books, and I like stories with an ending, thanks large.

But I like some of the characters here enough, and I enjoy Lackey's style enough, to stick it out a bit longer in the hopes of reaching a satisfactory ending, so I will certainly read this, almost certainly soon after it comes out.