I enjoyed this. I rather suspect that I would not have if I didn't know the while series so well.

A return to the cozy comfort of a good Valdemar read. OTOH -- and mind you, this is hidden for spoilers -- what the actual fuck was that ending? He melts the capitol and the -entire reason- for the rest of the series. Wtf?? I'm still going to read on because I can always do with more *adult* Valdemar stories (looking at you Mags) but why do that? :| ( )

The beginnings of Valdemar and how it all started is an interesting read. I'm curious to see how things will go, how they will manage to move the society from where it is to what becomes Valdemar. There are hints as things go along and I'm nicely brought back to the world and I had fun reading it, I'm tempted to revisit the books, I know I'm missing a few and I will have to invest in filling the gaps in my collection. ( )

This book finally tells the story of how Valdemar came to be. It has been hinted at a bit in some of the previous books but not spelled out in detail. The current Duke of Valdemar works very hard to convince him Emperor that there is nothing special about his dutchy. He tithes the horses he breeds every year and secretly works on a magical plan to move everyone under his care to as far as gate magic can take everyone. There are mages in this book and more magic is used in this than is in the latter books. The empire is run on magic and war to constantly expand the borders to feed the war machine. The Duke is recalled to the capital where he finds out just how much things have changed there since he was a child hostage of the Emperor. Most of the staff are magical constructs powered by enslaved vrondi and the Duke befriends them and incorporates them into his plan to escape and free them as well. There is a good stopping point at the end of the book but it certainly doesn’t cover how the Heralds came to be but I am certain that will be in the next book of the series.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
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This story tells about the beginnings of Valdemar. It begins in the corrupt Eastern Empire and Duke Valdemar rules a rural and hopefully overlooked dukedom. Its two major products are barges and very finely bred horses.

Duke Kordas Valdemar is at least the third generation that has been working to remove his goods and people from the Empire and start a new life somewhere else. Now that the mages who have stayed under the emperor's view have discovered a spell to make gates into new lands far away, the plans can begin to be realized.

But Kordas is called to the capitol with the latest tribute shipment of horses. He sees that even more has changed for the worse from the time some years earlier when he had been kept as a noble hostage in the palace. Human servants have been replaced by dolls powered by captive Vrondi and the city is almost empty since anyone not immediately needed to support the palace has been sent to the Southern border to fight in the emperor's long-running war.

Kordas, being the kind of man he is, becomes determined to also free the Vrondi, rescue that latest group of noble hostages, and rescue anyone else in danger. And danger is imminent because the emperor has captured a child earth elemental to provide magical power for his mages to use and its very angry parents are getting closer.

Meanwhile back at home, Kordas's wife and sister-in-law are mobilizing the transfer of people, goods and supplies to their new home.

I really enjoyed all of the magic and intrigue. This was an engaging audiobook presentation. ( )