“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.