Customer Reviews

The Oathbound (Vows and Honor)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Tarma is a Shin'a'in warrior of the Dhorisha Plains, sworn to serve her Goddess. Kethry, a former noble, is a White Winds sorceress working toward Adept status. The two are paired together by the that oath they have sworn, and they begin their journey as mercenaries. Along the way, Tarma and Kethry encounter a number of dangerous foes that they alone may have the strength to defeat...

"The Oathbound" is the first book in Mercedes Lackey's Vows and Honor Series. It was my ninth Lackey book, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by it. I picked it just to get the background on what was happening the world of Velgarth 100 years previous to The Heralds of Valdemar Trilogy. I found myself unable to put it down towards the end. The action was intense for the last 150 pages or so.

Tarma and Kethry were very engaging characters, and I loved their interactions with each other and how they were so accepting of the other's differences. It was refreshing to see people from completely different backgrounds become best friends with no prejudices.

However, I would not recommend this book to young readers. One of the characters is perversely sexual in a purely evil way.

Bottom Line: A fun read (Yeah, Girl Power!) for all mature readers, not just sci-fi/fantasy people.

Tarma is a shin'a'nin sword sworn. This means that she has dedicated her life to the goddess in hope of saving her clan, which was all but wiped out years before. Kethry is a noble born sorceress who, after fleeing a forced marriage, has become a blood sister to Tarma and is intent on helping her bring her clan to life again. Unfortunately this is easier said then done. Traveling as freelance mercenaries, Tarma and Kethry move from town to town in hope of work to help them make money. But when they find work it is far from simple. And when they can't find work trouble still seems to find them. Kethry carries the magical sword Need, that is made for a woman only to fight with and will never harm a woman. And when Need feels a woman in trouble it immediately rushed off to save her, dragging Kethry and her blood sister around behind them. What kind of adventures will they face?

Having already read seven other Valdemar books, I was very excited to pick this one up. Like many of Mercedes Lackey's other earlier books, it's filled with a real energy that just makes Tarma and Kethry's adventures just thrilling. The characters of Tarma and Kethry are strong and exciting. You can tell that they really have a strong bond with each other. I can't wait to read the other Vows and Honors book and the short story collection that goes along with it. The only problem I had with it has to do with the fact that although this is the fist Tarma and Kethry book, it starts very much int he middle of their story. The first Tarma and Kethry story is a short story in a separate anthology, one that I haven't read. Although Mercedes Lackey does a good job of explaining what happened in the past I would have liked it a lot more if I had actually got to read the story that happened before hand. It really sounds interesting. But beyond that I really liked this story and I know that any fans of Valdemar will love it too.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story is of two oathbound sisters, a Shin'a'in swordmaster and a White Winds sorceress, who face trials and tribulations while attempting to rebuild their clan.
I liked that Tarma and Kethry did not mesh together perfectly. After all, they had been together only a short time. It would have been ridiculous to portray them as best buds, when they really didn't know that each other that well. There are moments when the two women are awkward around each other, which you don't see in the later books, Oathbreakers and Oathblood.
Anyways, this is an extremely enjoyable book. I only wish I could give it more stars!

The description doesn't make clear that this is actually what's sometimes called a "paste-up" book. It's really a collection of previously published short stories just strung together as chapters in a book. For me, this makes for some tedious reading.

It's bad enough that the characters get re-introduced at the beginning of each story, and there's a lot of rehashing of past exploits. (This was, of course, necessary when the stories were being published separately.) The worst part is that there's very little overarching storyline. Don't expect an epic such as in The Last Herald-Mage series, or even a coherent book-long story as in By the Sword.

Of course, Oathbreakers is more of the same.

Though I have read almost all of the Velgarth books before, this was actually a new one for me, and I was eager to see what I'd make of it. I am sorry to say that I'm of mixed opinions.

One one hand, you can see that Lackey has advanced rather smoothly in her style in only the short time since publishing her first novel, and it was easier to fall into than, say, Arrows of the Queen.

This book also features Tarma, who is one of the very few human asexual characters I've found in fiction who are presented in a positive light. As a person who identifies as asexual myself, finding those rare few role-models is a treat, and this books deserves some praise on that alone. Think it's hard finding gay or trans role-models in fiction? try looking for an 'ace' hero and suddenly finding a gay or trans hero seems like a walk in the park!

On the other hand, this book did suffer from some very noticeable flaws. This book, the first in the Vows and Honour series, takes place after the previous publication of a few short stories involving Tarma and Kethry, including the tale of their meeting and vow-sharing. As a result, you open this book and feel like you've come in during the middle of the tale, which doesn't leave one with a very favourable impression.

The pacing suffered at times, too. This often felt like a collection of short stories that only halfway through turned into a cohesive novel. One quest presented devoted more pages to the character conversing in a common room than it did to one of the characters getting kidnapped by her twisted ex-husband, and the tension there was very difficult to feel. Some plot twists weren't twisty in the slightest, and sadly, the meat of the story could be seen coming a mile away.

Also in the "it felt like a book of short stories" vein, there was a great deal of repetition. The reader is constantly reminded of the fact that Warrl's shoulders came up to Tarma's waist, that Need was a magical sword, and that Kathry had amber-coloured hair. Perfectly fine to remind someone of if they're reading a collection of stories that were originally published far apart, but as for one book meant to tell a complete story, it got tedious.

Everything being taken into consideration, that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy reading this book. It definitely had its moments, even if it took a while to really get started. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to those who aren't already fans of Lackey's work, I'm still glad I took the time to read it, and nothing will change that.

because Misty does not make it clear that this is less a novel than a series of interconnected short stories. Hence, a reader expecting a novel would find it a bit choppy; there is much repeated exposition. I wish she could have included "Sword-Sworn", the story that tells how they got together, but I understand that there were legalities which prevented that. (It had been published in another anthology and the rights couldn't/wouldn't be released.)

I am a great fan of Mercedes Lakey and have read most of her books. The book The Oathbound is written in a manner that makes it new and fresh. I also liked the fact that each character in the story has an important role to play. The story could become a bit confusing unless you keep in mind that the events are not isolated, even though they may seem as if they are. If you haven't read this book, this begins where an article in Sword and Sorceress leaves off. Tarma and Kethry are trying to re-establish their clan but run up against difficulty(to put it mildly). They run up against demons and a set of really nasty people who want Kethry for dollrags.

It's amazing, lol. I loved all the tid-bit of words in Tarma's native tounge. It has an excellent plot and the book just keeps getting better as you read on. For those people who didnt give this book 5 stars, you need to re-read this book and find out what you missed, because you must not have gotten it all. One of the best book ever written along with all the rest of the Valdemar books. makes me wish I could travel to valdemar!

Trama and Kerthy are blood sisters by Trama's godess oath. Kerthey is a journywoman, white winds mage. While Trama is a "sword dancer" who does the bid of her tribes godess. As a group of for they travel, Kerthy, Trama, Warrel an intellagent wolf like creature and sword with a soul that is bound to Kerthy. They have many adventures including, facing Kerthys past,destroying a godling and meeting a mysterious haukbrother.

Her literary device in this particular book is not really the Lackey I'm used to. The book starts off very slow, which would be ok, if the middle of the book wasn't clogged and slowed down with a complete (far too detailed) recount of the beginning. She goes into such detail (specifically with the tales told to the priest) that you could start the book there and miss litte. Her character descriptions get old quickly, repeated use of similar descriptions over and over are all over the place. In fear of being too picky, I might mention there are many issues with her writing at the core, things like the word "contrived" used to describe the familiar, then used again in the very next sentance as dialogue from a character. Ok for die-hard fans, but I wouldn't suggest it as a start to anyone new to Lackey.