The Valdemar Companion (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1205) [Hardcover]

John Helfers (Author), Denise Little (Author), Mercedes Lackey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Daw Book Collectors | Publication Date: December 4, 2001

Mercedes Lackey's nationally best-selling Valdemar series has become a legend in the annals of fantasy fiction. Now, for the first time, DAW presents a complete, authorized reader's guide to her endlessly rich and dazzling fantasy world...

"Compulsive reading." (Locus)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

John Helfers and Denise Little present The Valdemar Companion, an anthology of essays, interviews, maps, a concordance and one new novella focused on Mercedes Lackey's (Take a Thief) extensive Valdemar series. Michael Longcor discusses the "Balladeers, Buskers, and Bards" of Valdemar, and Kerrie Hughes offers a traveler's guide to Lackey's rich imaginary universe.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Made with the active assistance of Mercedes Lackey, creator of the fantasy kingdom of Valdemar, and DAW editor Betsy Wollheim, this is about as official a companion as there could be. It is high time, too, since Valdemar is beginning to rival Darkover in the number of stories set there and in the multitude of its fans. The book's actual contents include an introduction and a new Valdemar novella by Lackey, a traveler's guide to Valdemar and environs apparently commissioned by the queen of the realm, a summary of all Valdemar novels, details on Valdemar's music and Web sites, maps of Valdemar, and a concordance of Valdemarian names and terms. Exceedingly well done, it helps keep readers unconfused while wandering the enormous fictional terrain the Valdemar oeuvre covers. It does, however, rather cry for a similar companion volume about the rest of the prolific Lackey's work. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover; First Edition edition (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756400376
• ISBN-13: 978-0756400378
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of good info but..., October 8, 2002

By 

Rose (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Valdemar Companion (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1205) (Hardcover)

The Valdemar Companion has many details that would excite any fans of Misty. From the new short story about an "ordinary" herald, interviews with Mercedes and the editor Betsy, a discussion of how the works become music, a description of the online Valdemar where you can become a Herald, the "traveler's guide" where you get a better picture of the landscape, the summaries of all the Velgarth books up to Take a Thief, a discography of all the albums, and a concordance of virtually every character in her books, up to Take a Thief.

Even with all this wonderful information, I wanted more... Other than the wonderful cover art of Vanyel, the only artwork in the Valdemar Companion was the detailed maps of Velgarth. This from the series that would have a picture of the characters every chapter. I wanted more on the myths and legends of Velgarth and how it shaped that world. Perhaps even descriptions of all the different beings in Velgarth (with pictures) like the Companions, gryphons, kree, firecats, bondbirds, etc. Ha! Even a list of Shin'a'in proverbs! In short, I wanted more details of Velgarth, how it was put together, to learn all the details that makes it unique that you can't glean from the novels.

For those who have not read all her books, there will be spoilers. And for those of us who have read all her books, it's nice to have as a reference as you are rereading her books. Though, is it worth the price of a hardback? I suppose it depends on how great your need to have a complete collection...

All in all, I would have preferred if the Companion came out a little later (maybe after Exile's Honor so it could have included any info from that), with more thought on what the readers want.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rather disappointed, December 26, 2001

By 

LadyArwyn "Jean" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Valdemar Companion (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1205) (Hardcover)

I am not impressed with The Valdemar Companion. It starts off OK, with a general overview of how the concept of Valdemar came to be and a novella about a
young Herald Trainee, but after that it broke down.

The next chapter was an interview with Mecerdes Lackey, there was nothing there that any fan here doesn't already know. THen followed a long and wordy
description of every region of Valdemar. Rather than the descriptive but interesting way Jody Lynn Nye handled the Pern information, it was really dry, like a college
textbook.

After that was a map of Velgarth, I was rather confused if Velgarth is the world or simply a continent on that world, ther is no indication of oceans, only a couple
small seas, not enough to generate a decent weather pattern. In addition there was little or no indication of how the two maps fit together.

The last chapter was an index of places, characters and words that is useful to a newbie to Valdemar but to a veteran of the series it was just a little blurb.

All in all I was rather disappointed and I'm considering returning the book. The only reason to keep it is the novella at the beginning.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reference for the Valdemar books, January 3, 2002

By 

LG "LG" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Valdemar Companion (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1205) (Hardcover)

Best purchased by fans who have bought any of the Gryphon books, the Herald books, or the Oath books. The Novella is good. The Traveler's guide is humorous (and like any travel guide contains a few errors!). I found the interview with Ms. Wollheim a bit interesting. (She would like to see more of Vanyel too.) The story excerpts are good - I had to be careful not to read the ones for the few books I have yet to read. The maps were too few, and not area/city maps like I'd hoped. And necessarily the concordance is a little dry (they mention ALMOST every character mentioned in the books, even though some of those characters were NEVER fleshed out).
If you want to be able to quickly refresh about a particular Valdemar novel, or find a certain character, THIS is the book for you. (No, you can't have my copy. It may not be a 5, but it's still mine.)