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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of good info but..., October 8, 2002
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.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rather disappointed, December 26, 2001
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.
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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
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.)
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