Another lovely little anthology of Valdemar stories! My average rating across all of them is a 3.8.

A Herald's Bag of Magic
Phaedra Weldon
Cute little parable about how a herald's life isn't glamorous and there's magic in everyday things, but some of it I found hard to believe. I couldn't imagine a working Herald could just take 3 months off with no explanation when I'm sure he encounters hundreds of kids in each village who think they want to be Heralds and don't know what it entails. Also, there were little details that just felt odd; for example, Luke said that Aoibheann didn't sound like a name and he didn't know how to pronounce it, but we, as readers, know it's pronounced Ay-veen; it's not a hard name, unless you see it written, which he hadn't. It was a good story but I wanted a bit more thought about these things, personally.

Suffering Knows no Borders
Dylan Birtolo
I like this one; solid writing, and a bit of a reminder that everyone on Velgarth is a person, even when the wars are on. It did feel like it ended a bit abruptly, as if there was more story to tell, but I found it quite enjoyable.

Needs Must when Evil Bides
Jennifer Brozek
This was a LOVELY little story of a teenage maid and an old lady helping rescue a household that had been taken hostage. I wish there'd been more answers (what's in the chest!) and it felt like some of the denouement was cut for space but I loved this one.

In Memory's Vault
Kristin Schwengel
A sweet little story about a guard station cook helping use his skills to save someone's memories. I liked how it was paralleled with the healer having to be reminded of his skills that he had without the Healing Gift. There was only a scrap of plot, but it was enough that, with the specific foods and spices referenced, it was grounded in Velgarth.

Look to Your Houses
Fiona Patton
It's a fun read, though there's not much meat to it; it's basically an on-the-ground look at a guardhouse in Haven, with all of its various foibles, as it has to get itself in shape to receive a new lieutenant. Its strength is in the charm of the dialogue and character interactions.

What You Know How to See
Dayle A. Dermatis
I really liked the premise of this — a master artificer is going blind, and has to lean on the people she trusts to help her do her work — but it feels unfinished; it resolves around covering for one mistake she made, but she doesn't fully learn to trust, and there's no reaching out to solve it at a systemic level.

Good Intentions
Stephanie D. Shaver
Plainswoman gets stuck in an outpost with a racist, sexist, xenophobic control-freak of a guard captain and manages to very satisfyingly save the day. Really satisfying read for this one!

Beebalm and Bergamot
Cat Rambo
It's a beautifully written story about a small town gathering around to avoid big business polluting their waters. Really lovely narrative voice that built an image. However, it didn't really feel like a Valdemar story to me; there were a couple of offhanded mentions of Heralds existing elsewhere in the world, but that was the only thing specific to this world and those seemed an afterthought.

The Stable Hand's Gift
Ron Collins
This story is PURE Valdemar, both in tone and setting — a person making a hard choice to help a kyree who's being tortured, changing her mind on the world as she knew it and embracing doing hard, scary things to make the world a better place. Loved this.

Warp and Weft
Diana Paxson
A continuation of the storyline of Andry and Deira from earlier Valdemar short stories, this one is really about Deira coming to understand Andry's life as both a Herald and a man, and Andry understanding the support he needs as both a regular person and a Herald (both wife-to-be and Companion). Very sweet, though I found the buildup was defused a bit too easily for my personal preferences.

An Enchantment of Nightingales
Elisabeth Waters
It's a sweet story, though it meanders a bit in its throughline; it ended up being more of a character vignette than a central plot, a moment in time around some sisters who got separated. I enjoyed it. It didn't really resolve the central conflict, but it set things up in a way that I'd look forward to a future story that did.

Where There is Smoke
Brenda Cooper
In the aftermath of a bandit raid, a mother looks for her missing child. This one has the 'camera' super close, and her fear and grief is devastating. Extremely well-written.

What a Chosen Family Chooses
Dee Shull
I loved this one! A travelling circus comes to a town that's made itself into a surveillance society, everyone watching what everyone else does and making sure they're appropriately conservative. I loved the tricks that they pulled out to rescue a young girl who needed saving, and it was set SO nicely by having one of the carnival folks be nonbinary and having to perform a gender to fit in there — it gave a real sense of the stifling situation and how some people might need to escape similar ones, without needing to focus on any actual microaggressions. As a queer reader and author both, this one really rang true to me.

Enough
Louisa Swann
A young woman survives an inexplicable fall into a sinkhole due to a sudden very localized earthquake and tackles her self-esteem as she tries to make it back. This one didn't work for me, personally; I wasn't invested enough in Riann's situation from the start, and the circumstances were so unlikely I thought it was going to be an interior journey in her visions rather than a literal one for a while. It's a good idea, I just feel it maybe needed a bit more development time.

Both Feet on the Ground
Paige L. Christie
A slightly-arrogant guardswoman and a slightly-arrogant Healer butt heads as they try to figure out how to harvest an herb with unique requirements but where the instructions have been lost to time. It was fun, though I found it hard to like the Healer more than the guardswoman — as someone with allergies, having a nurse who would throw a fit over someone telling you they're allergic to something makes me want to fire her by proxy, lol. Which makes me not the most unbiased reader!

Once a Bandit
Brigid Collins
A lord, aided by a group of Heralds, bully an ex-bandit who has come to live in Haven with his Herald lifeblooded. He has to prove his innocence against charges of theft. This is a fun little reverse heist, though it was hard to shake the feeling our protagonist didn't even like his lifebonded lover (given his repeated use of insulting terms — I don't know if witch or demon are really slurs in Valdemar, but he used them more like that than like endearing terms). Maybe these are characters from another anthology and I'm missing some of their dynamics, though; I'll keep an eye out!

Wooden Horses
Rosemary Edghill
A prop-builder for plays hatches a plan to rescue child slave labour from the mines and sneak them to Valdemar for safety, in a Valdemar-style take on the pied piper of Hamlin. It's cute, though a bit transparent in what the story is (the protagonist is named Hamlin, and the child he works with is named Rat) but a fun fairy-tale retelling.

Intrigue in Althor
Jeanne Adams
Set in Mags' time. A noblewoman returns to the home of her abusive, dead husband to face the ghosts there in order to save another noblewoman from an intrigue plot. It dropped me right in the middle and felt rich and complete, a great plot.

A Day's Work
Charlotte E. English
A child gang from the bad side of Haven gets dragged into noble business in a lucrative way. A fun little story of one-upping bad people here; I enjoyed it.

Old Wounds
Terry O'Brien
A Hardorn border town deals with a vicious wild pig and the citizenry grows closer with each other as a result. A nice little story, self-contained and very centred in the world of Valdemar.

Anything, With Nothing
Mercedes Lackey
A Herald, in the early days of the Kingdom of Valdemar when the Heralds are still new, shows what they're good at when he has to help defend a small town from a siege: making anything out of nothing. Absolutely lovely, a really fun read.

My copy of this title was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

After I read each story in the book I thought, “Wow, that was definitely my favourite”, until I got to the end of the book and realised that I enjoyed them all.

Some authors have provided stories in previous anthologies and subsequently were able to expand and build on those stories; which meant that old friends were revisited. I honestly love getting to revisit the characters and re-immersing myself in their worlds.

A worthy entry into the anthologies of Valdemar.

The latest in a long line of anthologies based in and out of Valdemar. Once again several repeat writers have contributed stories and they follow characters they have introduced in previous collections. A great themed anthology for fans and people wanting to try it out without a several book commitment.

I have read almost everything that Mercedes Lackey has written or edited. This is the first time I've been disappointed. The premise of the anthology, set in Valdemar, is to accomplish anything with few- if any- resources. While I did find a few stories to be interesting, the majority of them were not interesting or enlightening.

The world of Valdemar is fascinating and there's always something new to discover. This is an anthology written by different authors, I wasn't a fan of all stories but I enjoyed the anthology.
Well done, recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I love visiting Valdemar via these short stories. It is like visiting old fiends and doing a quick check in..

Thank you to the authors, the publisher, and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review

While I admire Lackey’s willingness to let others play in her sandbox, I have to say that I prefer the original. These stories of inconsequential characters from throughout the universe of Valdemar are smaller stories that don’t impact any of the main story lines or any of the main characters we have met before. That doesn’t mean that some of these aren’t life or death stories, they are. As always with anthologies, however, the stories vary in quality and in substance.

As a matter of fact, I’d say a couple of these stories don’t even follow the canon set forth by the original, especially as it concerns the nature and behavior of the Companions themselves. Maybe that’s just because I’ve essentially read the entire series in the last six months. Someone who wasn’t as up to date probably wouldn’t notice the difference, but I am apparently cursed with timeliness.

If you’re a Valdemar super fan, this collection of stories was an easy read on a couple of quiet nights. It’s kind of nice being able to see the ordinary stories of the ordinary people of Valdemar. If you’re not a Valdemar super fan… well, you’re probably not going to pick up the 17th volume of short stories in a universe you’re not interested in regardless of what I tell you anyway.

A huge part of the charm of the Valdemar series is that, after so many years of chronicles, the world is large in scope, both in geography and in history, and there are plenty of times and places in which to set stories about how it came to be, what makes it tick – and the times and places when, in spite of everyone’s best efforts – situations have gone off the rails.

At the same time, it seems like a relatively livable place, allowing for stories where humans – with or without the help of magical, horse-like Companions – manage to fix what’s gone wrong or at least make a good stab at.

Or, when necessary, a good stab at whoever has done the wrong.

The stories in this SEVENTEENTH collection of Tales of Valdemar cast a wide net over Valdemar’s history, from not long after the Founding we’ve seen in the new Founding of Valdemar trilogy, all the way up to Selenay’s time, while geographically the stories spread across Valdemar and into the borderlands with Hardorn and Karse – if not just a bit over.

And it’s an absolute delight from beginning to end for anyone who has ever spent time in Valdemar, whether they’ve been visiting from the very beginning, back in Arrows of the Queen, just discovered Valdemar with the marvelous Founding of Valdemar trilogy (Beyond, Into the West, and the upcoming Valdemar) or who have dipped in here and there and then over the years.

Anything with Nothing, both the collection and the specific story by Lackey herself that closes out this collection, turned out to be the perfect way to get familiar with this world, once again, in preparation for discovering the final pieces of how Valdemar came to be in the soon-to-be-released book of the same title, Valdemar.

Escape Rating A-: The previous Tales of Valdemar collection, Shenanigans, featured stories that were all centered around the title theme, meaning that in one way or another they all featured tricks or pranks.

Likewise, the stories in this collection all center around the theme of making do or doing without, of persevering in the face of not having nearly enough. In other words, about creating pretty much anything out of not very much at all.

My favorite story in this collection is “Look to Your Houses” by Fiona Patton. It’s a slice of life story, as many of the stories in these collections often turn out to be, but in this case it’s the slice of a particular life, that of a City Guardhouse Sergeant caught between the rock of how things are supposed to be done and the hard place of how things actually get done when he’s forced to reconcile those two frequently opposing states of being in preparation for a new commander’s assignment to his station. The way that particular dilemma was handled, and the dichotomy between the rules and real life, gave me vibes of Sam Vimes and the City Watch in the Discworld. This story could have just as easily been part of the Discworld City Watch subseries and it would have fit right in.

My favorite purely Valdemar story turned out to be the title story, “Anything, with Nothing” by Mercedes Lackey, for the way that the town comes together, the way that Herald Tadeus steps up, the way that his Companion manages to insert her own bit of shenanigans AND the way that the mercenaries got completely flummoxed by a ‘Ghost Squad’ of well-led villagers and the instant communication that Companions make possible.

Many of the stories in this collection take place either as magic was fading or after it was already gone. In other words, in the run up to the Last Herald Mage trilogy and in the centuries after of managing without the big, flashy magic gifts.

Quite a few of the stories center around characters who, because of that lack of magic, have more than a bit of imposter syndrome, as Herald Tad does in “Anything, with Nothing”. Those stories include “In Memory’s Vault” by Kristin Schwengel, “Warp and Weft” by Diana Paxson, “Enough” by Louisa Swann, “Wooden Horses” by Rosemary Edghill, “Intrigue in Althor” by Jeanne Adams, and “Old Wounds” by Terry O’Brien.

Even though the purpose of the Companions is to help keep Valdemar on the straight and narrow, to keep it working for most of its people most of the time, humans are still gonna human, especially when they believe they are away from the eyes and eyes of the Companions and their Heralds.

Meaning that several stories focus on the problems that result when, as the old saying goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” regardless of whether that power is ‘might makes right’ or ‘they who have the gold make the rules’ or the power of social opprobrium and the morality police.

Those stories include “Good Intentions” by Stephanie D. Shaver, “Beebalm and Bergamot” by Cat Rambo, and “What a Chosen Family Chooses” by Dee Shull.

There are also several stories about folks have either fallen into hard times or onto mean streets, both in Haven and outside it, or have otherwise been abused by the system in general, their fellow humans in particular, or a bit of both. “A Day’s Work” by Charlotte E. English and “Wooden Horses” by Rosemary Edghill are both particularly heartbreaking in this regard.

Last but not least, there are several marvelous stories in this collection that would have been equally at home in Never Too Old to Save the World, that marvelous collection of fantasy and SF stories that feature protagonists who become the ‘Chosen One’ in middle age or later. I particularly want to give a shoutout to four of these stories, “Needs Must When Evil Bides” by Jennifer Brozek, “What You Know How to See” by Dayle A. Dermatitis, “Warp and Weft” by Diana Paxson, and “Once a Bandit” by Brigid Collins.

While I haven’t listed every story in this collection, I did absolutely enjoy them all. And I’m aware that I’ve mentioned a few of the stories more than once, which hopefully gives you the idea that I liked them a LOT, because I absolutely did – even the ones that went to the darkest places and broke my heart.

So, if you’ve missed Valdemar the place and are looking for something to tide you over until Valdemar the final book in the Founding of Valdemar trilogy comes out between Christmas and New Year’s, I highly recommend picking up Anything with Nothing to get you in the mood for that truly epic story coming SOON!

Another nice set of Valdemar stories. This one was interesting since there was little in the way of new companion getting a herald but the world is more than that and this collection filled it in nicely.

I actually read the ARC long enough ago it was really a bit too early to post the review so of course I then forgot to write a review of it until the very last moment…. This anthology is another collection that’s a treat for series fans but would probably leave a newbie a bit lost. If you’re ready for another trip to place where hard work and human decency pay off and make a difference however small to someone this collection is like slipping into a warm bath and unwinding for just a little while. I’m usually not a big short story fan, I prefer novels, but this was the expected delightful entertainment this series had always given.

Every time I read an anthology of Valdemar stories edited by Mercedes Lackey, I feel like I’m coming home, with every anthology full of emotional stories. Every story in the anthology keeps to the theme well, that magic isn’t always an answer and that anyone can do anything with nothing. There were several of the stories that resonated with me, some more than others. But I also loved the entire anthology as a whole as it explored the compelling characters of Valdemar. 

If I had to say exactly what made me love these emotional stories, it is just that, they were emotional. Each story adds to the world of Valdemar. The stories explore magic but also loss and helping others. I love the different talents of the characters, most especially the ones without magic who find a way to help those around them with nothing but hard work and hard fought skills. One of my favorite stories was about an artist who figures out a way to help children escape terrible conditions with just a hobby horse. 

If you like anthologies and have followed the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, these stories will be just right for you. I think even if you haven’t read those, you will find these stories emotional and compelling as each story is complete within itself, not requiring prior knowledge of the series to enjoy. But if you do read this one, I warn you, you will want to read the others.

The Valdemar universe is such a complex, massive and transversal piece of work (or rather, pieces of work) that it is pretty hard to talk about the latest addition to the series on its own. I personally read ‘Heralds of Valdemar’ when I was young, and then a few other entries later on, which have not been translated to French. I must admit that I was wondering whether I would be lost entering this after quite some time without reading anything Valdemar related, and I absolutely was not. Every short story is a dedicated homage to what Mercedes Lackey has created, every place of the world and every group of characters being extremely easy to comprehend for the reader. From the first short story on, each story is very engaging and immerses the reader into the magic. What makes this short-story collection so great, is the plurality of voices. Somes authors lean into fan-fiction, others distance themselves from what has previously been established (by leaning into fairy tale for example) , but all of them are so very respectful of the task they have been assigned to perpetuate another writer’s work. My standouts were ‘Suffering Knows No Borders’ by Dylan Birtilo, ‘Warp and Weft’ by Dizana Paxson and ‘What a chosen family chooses’ by Dee Shull, these were the stories where the language was the most striking to me, just filled with a true faith in magic. I would highly recommend this new book for fans of the series, but I do believe that overall, it could be appreciated by people who enjoy Fantasy in general and would like to get acquainted with Valdemar through details before getting to the big picture.

Not remotely the first Valdemar anthology, and hopefully not the last, ANYTHING WITH NOTHING is a reminder of one of the unsung joys of writing: playing in another writer's sandbox, or (conversely) letting other writers play in yours. This collection of short stories from both new and accomplished writers digs into unaddressed corners of Valdemar, introducing us to new Heralds and their Companions, as well as lesser-known people on the fringes of adventure.

First and foremost, there simply isn't a bad story in this book. Lackey's own title story, the final installment in the anthology, is naturally the most anticipated of the batch. And for good reason: it follows an allegedly less magically adept Herald and his Companion as they defend his town with what they have handy. "Anything with nothing" refers to a motto our story's hero lives by: if one must work underappreciated and undersupplied, one will eventually be able to work wonders with whatever is at hand, if anything.

That said, the entire anthology seems to follow this theme of "anything with nothing," in varying degrees. Our opening story follows young Luke as, initially reluctantly, he learns that true magic isn't the only skill that matters. In another story, a sign-painter rescues child workers with a hobby horse in a twist on the old Pied Piper tale. Magic gifts fail where hard work succeeds, traveling entertainers offer a young girl an escape from her overbearing mother, and untrained healers bring comfort where others cannot (or will not) go.

This anthology has many daring escapades, but it's at its most beautiful in its smaller, quieter moments. Across every story, though, we see that one doesn't have to be magically gifted to make a difference in the world. Some stories end triumphantly, with evil defeated; others end more softly, with the knowledge that things might not be fully fixable, but people are there to help. Regardless of the upshot of each story, all of them are equally uplifting.

Whether you're a long-time Mercedes Lackey fan or just wading into the world of Valdemar, this is a lovely read.

Mercedes Lackey has edited this Valdemar anthology of short stories about heralds, mages bards and healers with her usual skill. They feature the smaller communities and lower echelon of Valdemar surviving robber attacks, unpleasant nobles and jealous townsmen. Great human interest along side the magical companions.
Read and enjoy.

Anthology with something for everyone

Normally an anthology has a few stories I don’t warm to. This set of tales are all winners.
An equal smattering of derring do heralds, normal folk, guards and healers stories taking place both outside and inside Haven. The clue to the tales is in the title of the anthology. Many of the characters do win through using nothing but their own potential, or what’s available where they are at that moment. Making do brilliantly.
My particular favorite (although it was a hard call) was ‘Look to Your Houses’ by Fiona Pattern. Set in one of Haven’s least desirable areas. When a new lieutenant is to join the Guards down in the Iron Street district and everything including inventory reports were to be in order, well Sergeant Hektor Dann had to take action
This area was running more like a family with guards allowing for an old granny who needed some milk, or the missing guard house key (gone these last 20 odd years), or young lads spending the night in jail to sleep things off with no fine. So how to make the reports tally and everything ship shape ready for the new lieutenant who knows nothing about the families and traditions of this lowly area—the tanneries.
Just one of the often highly amusing stories in this collection. Although many are also times of testing and finding your destiny, settling into your own path.
Mercedes Lackey’s contribution is the icing on the cake!

A DAW ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

When it comes to the world of Valdemar, I often enter it like going out to dinner with an old friend. In this case, it's a banquet, and while I expect a variety of dishes at such a spread, I was hoping for more of a variety of flavors. We live in rough times, a lot of us are making do with less and making that less stretch further. I read for escapism, for that moment when chosen and Companion lock eyes and suddenly realize they're not alone in the world, that they are special, meant to be. That moment wasn't depicted in any of the stories, and most of the stories felt as if they were pulled from the lives of ordinary Valedmar, and that Valdemar is too much like the world in which most of us live, a place where people have to do too much with not enough.

I guess I should have taken my clue from the title, but I'd hoped that anything would be more magical and that nothing not quite as bleak. I enjoyed this visit to Valdemar, just wished it didn't feel so cold and that the candles would perhaps burn a little brighter.

Anything with Nothing is a collection of 21 short stories set in the world of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar high fantasy. These stories have been compiled and edited by Ms Lackey, however only one story in this anthology has been written by her - the rest are written by other authors.

I'll put in a big disclaimer here: I've not read any of the Valdemar series before, so I am coming into the world blind. Fans of the series may take issue with other authors dabbling in this world, however as a newcomer to this world, I found the stories engaging, cohesive and entertaining, and giving juuust enough of a hint of the overall series to inspire a newbie like me to pick up one of the main tales.

Recommended for fans of high fantasy. Each story is a short read, so one can dip in and out as time constraints allow, or one can binge the lot in a few hours.

~Many thanks to NetGalley and DAW books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

Another Youtube Review (Weekly Vlog likely to go up October 26th/27th) to come & Amazon Review will be posted when available
Blog Post will go live November 17th
Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for 10/28

I’m going to open this up with I might be a bit biased, but I loved this a lot. Valdemar was a world I loved growing up. I read these books semi-religiously. Sadly I haven’t picked one up in a long time, a fact I’m going to quickly remedy after returning to the world with this collection.

These all, for me at least, summed up the world of Valdemar. The stories were a fantastic mix of the best attributes that I remember loving in the world. The world is the same, the Heralds, Healers, and Bards all wander around doing good work. Most importantly, these all seem to capture the idea and what I love in this world. That bad things happen, really bad things. But in the end, hope is there and good shines through. It’s not grimdark, though truly bad things happen. Death and hurt and loss, but there is always some hope or light.

I really personally resonated with one or two of these stories, especially one that chronicled a new Mom being separated from her child and her fight to get back to her. So again, some bias goes into this rating. But I loved so many of these. There were perhaps one or two that I was less excited to read, which is impressive considering how many there are.

This was a read and then pre-order for me. I can’t wait to have a copy of this, and I recommend it for both old and new fans of Valdemar. Give this one a read.

5 out of 5 Companions

Anything with Nothing

For Valdemar fans, this is a perfectly good anthology. What I particularly like about these is that the stories fit in between the books – filling in other little bits of background. Fiona Patton’s Watchmen stories are a prime example, there are 14 of the stories now and I (for one) would love to see either a collection or a novel.

But I digress. As with any anthology, you probably won’t love all the stories, but I did enjoy them all and will be dipping back in and out as my fancy takes me. Might be a little confusing to start here, but it wouldn’t be too bad, I don’t think. (As usual, I think you should start at the beginning of a series, but YMMV)

I received a free copy from NetGalley for my unbiased opinion.


#AnythingWithNothing #NetGalley

A collection of short stories, edited and compiled by the author of the Valdemar books. These were cute, and if you are a fan of the Valdemar books, I highly recommend reading this. Because the stories aren't all by the original author, a few of them feel less authentic than others, but each of them left me wishing they'd just been a few pages longer. Like, 50-250 more, please? I think this would be a harder read if you don't know much about the Valdemar universe, but then again, maybe they'd be a good way to dip your toes in? 4 stars, because there were some consistency issues with the main universe, and I'm a stickler for that.

I was provided an ARC copy of this book through Netgalley. My thanks to the publisher and the author for providing it to me.