I read 'By the Sword' before this book - which begins when the two protagonists of this series are older women - and liked both characters, especially the swordswoman Tarma, so decided to give this a try. I had originally decided to give it away after finding Lackey's Last Herald Mage series full of angsty wallow and sadomasocism, but was pleasantly surprised to find 'By the Sword' a workmanlike fantasy - with various flaws as I mentioned in my review, but still interesting. So I was expecting something similar from this book and wanted to read about the earlier lives of these two characters.

Unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed. Firstly, this book starts off when the two characters have already met - their origin story was published in a volume of the Sword and Sorceress series. That is rather odd - it isn't unusual for science fiction or fantasy novels to start off as short stories published in SF/F magazines, which are either expanded subsequently or else have other segments added on - Anne McCaffrey's DragonFlight, for example, where the opening 'Weyr Search' story won a Hugo award in its own right, or Vonday McIntyre's 'Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand' which won a Nebula award and appeared in a couple of collections of short stories, but still became the first part of her novel 'Dreamsnake'. So it is odd that the story of how the two main characters met is not reprinted here, though the events it covers are mentioned sufficiently that it's possible to work out the rough sequence.

Tarma is a plains warrior whose tribe had been wiped out by bandits. She had pledged herself to the tribal warrior goddess in her quest for vengeance and now is a superb fighter, who has been trained by the spirits of various deceased members of her tribe. Kethry is a mage from the White Winds school whose ethos is to travel while they are Journeymen until they develop the power and abilities necessary to progress to Master level whereupon they usually set up their own mage school. Somehow - and this is where it would have been useful for that original story to be included - she became bonded with a magic sword, Need, which works for women but not against women and has a tendency to force her to go to the aid of women who are endangered. In that first story, the two women apparently ended up bonded magically by the goddess and, because Tarma's vows make her "asexual" Kethry agrees to rebuild Tamra's tribe by eventually having as many kids as she can manage.

Slightly odd but I knew from reading 'By the Sword' that eventually she went on to have seven children whom the two women brought up and who formed the core group of the tribe, going on to marry people in other tribes who then joined, plus their eventual reputation etc lead orphans from other tribes to join. By the time of that later novel, the tribe is back up to strength and is wealthy from breeding the superb horses for which the tribes are famed.

This book, however, doesn't get the two far towards that goal. It is rather oddly structured with some episodic tales of how they become involved in a few incidents where Kethry is forced to answer Need's drive - a woman who is accused of her husband's murder in a classic "locked room" mystery, for example. But in at least some cases, the build up is there but then in a very odd structural quirk, the story then switches to afterwards, where the characters are sitting around with friends in a pub, discussing what has happened - the dramatic scene the reader didn't get to see - and congratulating each other on their legal expertise or whatever which resolved the problem. So that was one rather odd aspect of it. There was, in fact, quite a lot of exposition and people discussing and telling each other things rather than showing it dramatically: a tendency which was a little problem in 'By the Sword' but seems a big feature here.

There is also a large and disturbing aspect which might be a trigger warning for some readers. This book has a lot of rape - not described in detail, but it is there as a constant theme. Kethry had suffered it from an abusive husband - eventually she tells Tarma about it in a conversation. Tarma herself had apparently been gang raped by the murderers of her tribe, and in this story ends up having the same done again. But even odder she - and it seems Kethry - get over it in no time with no apparent lasting trauma. The only ones who don't are the poor young girls abducted by murderers and, very oddly, part of the retribution the two protagonists dish out is to put a glamour (spell of illusion) on the chief murderer so that he will end up subjected to the same treatment by his surviving men. This turns out to be a bad move on their part. And there is some very odd stuff in the last part of the book, also around this theme.

There were some aspects to the book that I liked: the relationship between the two women and the sentient wolf-cat creature who becomes the third member of their team, the details about horses - the author must have real knowledge of them - which are intelligent and trained to be as deadly in battle as their riders - and the friendship the women form with two mercenaries who give them good advice and don't subject them to unwanted advances. So those balancing points are enough to bring the book back up from the one star where it was headed to an overall 2 stars.
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{First of 5 Valdemar : Vows and Honour series; fantasy, sword and sorceress} (1988)

This is part of Tarma and Kethry's story which seems to have started in Sword Sworn, a short story found in anthologies such as Sword and Sorceress III. Tarma is one of the Shin'a'in, a nomadic tribespeople, who is the sole survivor of the Tale'sedrin clan. She is bound to the Shin'a'in Star-Eyed goddess who protects her as the Warrior and she is celibate as part of her oath. Kethry was an unwilling child bride but is now a sorceress of the White Winds school. She carries the magical sword Need (short for 'Woman's Need') which augments the powers its carrier doesn't have, so it gives Kethry the skills of a master swordswoman while not increasing her mage powers. The pair have sworn a goddess-blessed blood sister oath.

Both were ill used as very young women but have found their revenge and are now moving on to the next stage of their lives. Tarma wants to revive her clan through Kethry's descendants while Kethry, once she reaches Adept status, wants to found her own White Winds school. But first they need to earn the money and the reputation to attract high calibre clanspeople and mages. This book is a series of their adventures as they seek to do so.

Although there is a story arc, the chapters read like short stories collected together; there often seems to be a period of time between each adventure and we are often re-introduced to the characters at the beginning of a new adventure. The stories are fun but the reader is often left to guess at information that everyone is assumed to know, like commonly known legends (unlike Lackey's later writing where she 'tells' rather than just 'showing'); I would really have liked to have been told those legends. Do be warned, there is a fair amount of rape threaded through the book especially in the second half, although it is not graphic.

These stories are set in the same world as Valdemar but we don't visit the actual country although it (and the Pelagir Hills and Pelagiris Forest) are mentioned.

An interesting excursion into a world of mercenaries and magic.

3.5 stars
January 2022 ( )

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. ( )

Tarma and Kethry are Oathbound sisters. A strange pairing with Tarma being a Sworn Sword and Kethry being a mage. However, the goddess saw fit to bless the ties that bind them and so they travel together as mercenary's. The story felt more like a collection of short stories, each chapter a different adventure.

Kethry carries a gea, in the form of a sword called Need. Need calls to Kethry when women, and only women, are in trouble. Once the sword calls to Kethry there is nothing she can do, but answer.

I really enjoyed the main focus of the book being 2 women. The book, written over 30 years ago, and the author were way ahead of their time. I enjoyed it and will read more of the books set in this world.

Warning to gentle readers: There are many episodes of brutality against women. ( )

All I can say is, I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it wasn't for all the rape, which in addition to being an uncomfortable topic in the first place, was, in my opinion, made even more uncomfortable by some of the ways in which the topic was dealt with. ( )