The eighteenth Valdemar anthology is centered around the theme of feuds. There are twenty-two stories including a new novella by Mercedes Lackey. Many of the other authors are frequent contributors to the Valdemar anthologies.

The stories take place in a wide variety of places and have a wide variety of main characters. From heralds to bards and even one story starring a kyree, glimpses are seen from all over Lackey's fantasy world.

All of the stories were enjoyable. Some made me feel that I was entering an established set of characters and situations which I found to be accurate as I was reading the author's brief biographies at the end of the book.

I have not read all of the previous anthologies though I own most of them. I'm not a huge fan of short stories since I find that I want to know more than a short story can fit in. I felt that way about a number of the stories in this anthology. I wanted more information and more adventures for the main characters. I did enjoy Lackey's new novella starring Vanyel and Savil. That one felt long enough to satisfy me.

After the first few stories, I felt that the theme of feuds was too repetitive but later stories expanded the idea of feuds to one-sided ones and other varieties. Fans of the previous anthologies and those just hungry for another look into Lackey's Valdemar will enjoy these stories.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!! A fabulous book of short stories in the wonderful world of Vladimar, I loved that with these short stories I was able to read a story before sleep each night and not worry about staying up to late, lol. All the writing was suburb and engaging!

Another good compilation of Valdemar stories so an enjoyable read. Nothing really stands out but the overall theme of feuds seems to have helped.

I discovered the magical world of Valdemar over 30 years ago and I've loved it ever since.
I started off with the Gryphon books (Black, White & Silver) and have read nearly every book that Mercedes Lackey (and others) have written about this wondrous place.

I haven't visited Valdemar for a few years so I was really looking forward to stepping back into my favourite world. And this anthology sure did not disappoint. A few of the stories even moved me to tears.

My favourite story of course was the last one, by Mercedes Lackey herself. Vanyel has been the stand out character for me across all fantasy books I've ever read. The Last Herald-Mage trilogy is my go to when I want to lose myself. It was like meeting old friends to find Vanyel and Yfandes working together with his aunt Savil and Kellan.

I certainly recommend this anthology to anyone who loves a good fantasy escape.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

“Alas, the price of anger is often the loss of something that could have been lovely.”

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the e-ARC of Feuds.

I read the Last Herald Mage trilogy in high school and have carried a love for Vanyel and Valdemar in my heart ever since. A few months ago, I decided to read the rest of the Velgarth novels and short stories and now find myself at the end (until next summer). From Arrows to anthologies, this has been a wild but immensely enjoyable ride. I find it very difficult to assign one rating to an anthology - like the Velgarth stories at large, I find the Tales of Valdemar to be 4 star reads in general with a few stories I could do without and a handful that I find to be standouts worthy of 5 stars on their own merit.

As a notice to new readers, in all of the anthologies we have a mix of standalone short stories and continuations of miniseries that stretch between collections. While it should be possible to pick up any of these and read the stories within, if you plan to read all or many of the anthologies, I would start at the beginning so you can see the stories unfold, and see some fan favorites like Ree who haven’t shown up in the past few anthologies. All of the anthologies take place across Velgarth and across time and focus loosely on their titular theme, and Feuds is no exception with settings and characters like Bards and Blues at the Collegia, Heralds and trainees on circuit, and everyday heroes across Valdemar.

The stories in this anthology cling tightly to the theme of feuds, and we see a diverse and enjoyable collection of how they unfold. To me, the standout of the collection was Uncivil Blood by Lackey. I had just told my partner a few days ago that Vanyel’s appearances in the Healer Vixen seemed like a desire to write Vanyel again. I’m glad he finally got an anthology spotlight. It was very enjoyable and fantastic to see him and Savil together again. While one scene seemed directly out of Lackey’s Closer To Home, the ending is very different.

That said, I would highly recommend this anthology, as it’s my favorite written so far. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for a 5 star scale.

I enjoyed this collection of Valdemar short stories more than the others I have read. It was enjoyable to have something to read that I could dip in and out of. There was excellent variety and all very well written. I also enjoyed revisiting Heralds Vanyel and Savil in Misty’s contribution. A must read for fans of Valdemar!

Valdemar is one of the first fantasy worlds I fell in love with so I was excited to see this new collection. I like seeing other authors get to play in this playground, but it does mean that some stories are better than others. Mercedes Lackey finishes the anthology with one of her own which was great. I thought feuds were an interesting topic to tie all the stories together and I liked that most of the feuds were found to be silly. I liked that there were a lot of stories centering around the bards as I don’t think they get enough focus or attention as they have quite the vantage point for seeing the right stories. This collection is fun and one that either a long time fan or a new fan could read and follow easily.

Anthologies are always a mixed bag when the contents are from several authors however the unifying theme of Valdemar does a lot of that heavy lifting. This was an enjoyable collection and I always have a weakness for open universes. Classic fantasy edited and contributed to by one of the greats.

Overall another good collection. Some are new tales, others are continuations of stories or characters introduced in previous anthologies, although they can be read as stand-alones as always.

Lackey finishes the anthology with a new Vanyel and Savil tale, which will be enjoyable to many fans.

Occasional spelling errors and incorrect names do detract from enjoyment at times.

Lovely read. I read this book in a day. It's that good. Feuds by Mercedes Lackey is that girl in a book form. I rated this book 4 stars because I couldn't put it down for a second.

As with all anthologies, some stories are better than others. This book has plenty of standouts. The Mercedes Lackey story alone is worth the price of admission; it is a Vanyel story. We haven’t had a new one in years, maybe decades.