I like the books Mercedes Lackey writes, she is good at creating a believable world and people to populate it. While her writing is not the strongest I do find it engaging ang and enjoyable. I like a series I can live inside of and her books are ones that have characters I feel invested in and a world I believe could exist. ( )

Most of the stories are good and faithful to the Valdemar Canon. Some including Lackey's are a cut above. ( )

Good stories - none wonderful, but none I really disliked. Again, most of these were sequels to stories from the previous book(s). A lot of them set after the Mage Storms, with people (Valdemarans and Hawkbrothers, among others) dealing with the sudden change in magic. And several of the rest set during or just after the Tedrel Wars. There's a lot of history in Valdemar, and a lot of stories to be told... ( )

This collection had no real stand-outs. There weren't any stories the were really good, nor were there any stories that really didn't fit in Valdemar. ( )

Sometimes these anthologies work for me, sometimes they don't. On balance this collection was better than some I've read -- less dialect, and a variety of eras, which was nice. ( )