Magic's Price

Overall, this series was a lot of fun and I look forward to checking out the Arrows trilogy some time soon. I was a little confused that the first book of Arrows spoiled something that only developed in this book, the last installment of the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, but yet Arrows was published before!

This trilogy was groundbreaking at the time it was published (the late 80s to early 90s) for not only having its protagonist as homosexual, but also imagining a world where this was normalized (although homophobia isn't absent entirely, which is fine because that sounds increasingly like our current modern society as well). Although Vanyel is homosexual (or shaych, as the book calls it), his sexuality is never fetishized and there isn't any gratuitous scenes revolving around that. Whatever love, romance, and physical intimacy is pretty much on the same level as any other romance in any other book.

I was a little worried I'd be completely lost since it's been a while since I last read the first two books, but Lackey does a really good job at very slowly reintroducing the reader into the world of Valdemar. Instead of being plunged into the deep end of things, which I have almost come to take as a default way for fantasy books to go, there was something soothing and refreshing about how slowly Lackey takes to re-introduce the reader into the world. I never once felt lost or like I need to read a summary of the previous two books to get back up to speed with the book.

The world of Valdemar is extensive and this series is just one out of many that Lackey has written for the universe. It's the predecessor to something like the Cosmere books by Brandon Sanderson, where everything links to one another and there're little nods and winks in each series to other characters and events that happen in other series, so that's really fun. I'm looking forward to re-visiting the Arrows trilogy after this.

Vanyel has grown so much since the very first book, where he came across as a whiney brat imo. In this one, he's around his late 30s to early 40s and clearly has worked through so much of his pain, suffering, and grief to come through as a much wiser man, though he somehow does not come across as jaded. Stefen was a nice foil to him, although the age gap between the two was a little eyebrow-raising - I guess this may not have been that problematic at the time it was written. I know Stefen is meant to be Tylendrel's reincarnation or something so that kinda explains why he's so young, since Tylendrel only passed 17-18 years before the events of this book, and the age gap will always exist if this reincarnation thing is going to happen.

The book really escalated quickly in the last quarter. Things, even dreadful things, start happening left right center and I could barely keep up with what's going on. Spoilery thoughts: thought Van's being the victim of sexual abuse was a bit unnecessary and almost seems out of character for this book, and indeed this trilogy, which hasn't been particularly sexually violent just until then. i was so happy when it turned out that Fandes hadn't actually died earlier though. I did wonder why so many important things took place "off camera" though, like how exactly Van and Fandes defeated Leareth, and we didn't even get to see Randale and Shavri die, or how Trev and Jisa's marriage panned out!

This is a series I'd definitely recommend to any fantasy lover, but I'd also give the caveat that this needs to be read in context of the time it was published. By today's standards, the homosexuality in this book is probably mild and nothing in comparison, but I can see how impactful this would've been back in the time it was published.