Arrow's Fall (The Heralds of Valdemar, Book 3) (Paperback)

by Mercedes Lackey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The kind of novel that belongs on every fantasy lover's bookshelf...carefully wrought, entertaining reading by a brilliant and dedicated author."

-The Midwest Book Review

"Absorbing...enjoyable, warm and delightful."

- Fantasy Review

"So well crafted you'll want to read it an entire night. The Heralds are all people you know, or wish you knew."

- OtherRealms

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Description

With Elspeth, the heir to the throne of Valdemar, come of marriageable age, Talia, the Queen's Own Herald returns to court to find Queen and heir beset by diplomatic intrigue as various forces vie for control of Elspeth's future.

But just as Talia is about to uncover the traitor behind all these intrigues, she is sent on a mission to the neighboring kingdom, chosen by the Queen to investigate the worth of a marriage proposal from Prince Ancar. And to her horror, Talia soon discovers there is far more going on at Prince Ancar's court than just preparation for a hoped-for royal wedding. For a different magic than that of the Heralds is loose in Ancar's realm--an evil and ancient sorcery that may destroy all of Valdemar unless Talia can send warning to her Queen in time!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: DAW (January 5, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886774004
• ISBN-13: 978-0886774004
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #149,423 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 3 in The Heralds of Valdemar Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really, really good!, July 5, 2000

By	"princess_elspeth" (California) - See all my reviews

If you like fantasy, you'll love this book!

Of all the Valdemar books, this is one of my favorites!

If you have liked any of the Valdemar books, your sure to like this one. Of course, read the first two books (Arrows of the Queen and Arrows Flight) in the Arrows series before this one.

It's about the Herald Talia. When the princess Elspeth is looking for eligible suitors, Talia and her friend Kris are sent to a foreign country to check if a prince is really as kind as he seems. When they arrive, they realize that Ancar (the prince) is going to kill his father, most of the other court members, and them! I won't say anymore because it could spoil the book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect End to an Awesome Trilogy, June 22, 2002

By	Leanna "moondance34" (South Deerfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Talia has just completed her intership in the field and can now begin her career as Queen's Own Herald. Her first major assignment is to investigate a marriage proposal from Prince Ancar of the neighboring kingdom of Hardorn and to make sure that all is order there for the Queen's visit. She teams up with Kris again to complete this task only to discover that Ancar has his own dark plans for them, their Queen and Valdemar...

"Arrow's Fall" is the final book in Mercedes Lackey's The Heralds of Valdemar Trilogy. This has been one of the best trilogies I have ever read, and this was the best book of this trilogy. It had incredible emotional power, and I found myself crying at various moments throughout the last 100 pages or so. The ending was unbelievable and utterly perfect. It made me cry even more than the other parts.

"Arrow's Fall" is a much darker book than its predecessors, so I would not recommend it to young readers. I do feel that the darkness adds depth and credibility to the story, but for mature readers only.

Bottom Line: A GREAT read! What a fabulous trilogy!! I dare you to read it without crying at least once.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best of the three, October 20, 2004

By	D. Black "Paike" (NOVA, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I finished the third book the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, Arrows Fall, by Mercedes Lackey. It is by far the best novel of the three, but in the wider scheme of fiction and even fantasy...it remains mediocre. Since this book was written early in Lackey's writing career, you can see how her style and plots improve from one novel to the next. That said, the villians are still cardboard; right down to the evil laugh. The main characters, such as Talia, Dirk, Kris, and Elspeth, become more fleshed-out though. They become more understandable to the reader and their personalities finally become consistent.

More than issue with the plot, this time, I find her writing style simplistic. The voices of the characters, their senses of humor, are very similar to each other. Everyone has an annoying cute petname like "catling" or "dearling" and too often, regular dialog is punctuated with exclamation marks. It gets annoying because it's over-used and unnecessary.

I also had issues with the part of the book in which Talia is captured and imprisoned by the evil Prince Ancar and raped and tortured. Her rape gets about a paragraph of attention and is written off as if it's not a big deal because she's so devastated by the death of her friend and that she might never have the chance to make things right between her and Elspeth and her and Dirk.

I was placated somewhat to see the after-effects of rape brought up and dealt with but it was a bit too easily resolved (oh, we've got mind-Healers for that!).