[B7G]⇒ [PDF] Free Redoubt Book Four of the Collegium Chronicles A Valdemar Novel Valdemar Collegium Chronicles Mercedes Lackey Books

Redoubt Book Four of the Collegium Chronicles A Valdemar Novel Valdemar Collegium Chronicles Mercedes Lackey Books

Download As PDF : Redoubt Book Four of the Collegium Chronicles A Valdemar Novel Valdemar Collegium Chronicles Mercedes Lackey Books

Redoubt Book Four of the Collegium Chronicles A Valdemar Novel Valdemar Collegium Chronicles Mercedes Lackey Books

Let me start off this review with a condolence to those who chose this book to be their first adventure into Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth and the Heralds of Valdemar. This book is not an accurate indication of her previous (almost profound) books, which are in short, outstanding. I find that it's difficult and somewhat silly to say that a book "hurt" my feelings, but frankly I've never been this disappointed with a literary work before.

In the previous books of the Collegium Chronicles many people had problems with Mags' country bumpkin speech pattern. I didn't have as much of a problem simply because Lackey alluded that this was part of the face, part of the work that Mags' would be doing. That being said, I liked the loss of the bumpkin speech, it's just too bad that the loss of his accent came with a loss of his character, and the tragic loss of actual plot. (Ladies, this book is like watching Magic Mike, you don't show for the story, you come for the so called "eye candy". In this case, the candy is not half naked men, but a white creature with four hooves and a person in uniform)

I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I'll make my criticisms brief.

Once again, there is little resolution with regards to Mags' past. The little we get is practically useless,comes at the bitter end of the book, and makes no sense.

There's no character development aside from Mags coming to terms with certain fears, Amily being able to walk, and a kerfuffle for Bear & Lena(primarily Bear). The 100 or so pages of Mags' dreams do little to add to the story or to character development. Imagine reading a nightmare journal, and that's about half the story.

The other half is a recap of Kirball (fun but not exactly worthy of a plot point), and stolen recaps of the other books. Literally. Cut and Paste memories(both part of the dreaming and not).

Readers will meet new characters at the end(and I mean the end because we don't really meet them until we're down to the dregs) with interest. However, this comes with two caveats. 1) Readers will be interested because they're familiar with the world of Velgarth or 2)they will be interested because Lackey provides little information and leaves lots of undesirable and confusing guesswork.

It's obvious Lackey's heart isn't in this series anymore. I just wish that she would have realized that even if her heart isn't with Valdemar anymore, there are reader's who ARE invested in Mags' tale. Readers don't need Mag's to be the amazing stories of yesteryear, but is it too much to ask that Lackey write something worth reading, even if it won't be treasured? I hate hate hate to give Lackey a poor review, but this book isn't a book, it's a cop-out.


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Redoubt Book Four of the Collegium Chronicles A Valdemar Novel Valdemar Collegium Chronicles Mercedes Lackey Books Reviews

Not a bad book, but certainly not one of her best. It was nice seeing some more about the characters; what's happening and so on. But I guess putting out as many books a year as she is has really hurt the quality of her writing, in my opinion. Either that, or she has incredibly lazy editors (my vote is mostly going towards the editors). There were a lot of typos in this, and even some paragraphs and story elements that were... not right. Like, characters doing the same things twice in a row from one page to another. Shouldn't the editors be catching this stuff? It's ridiculous that a published book like this would have THIS many errors. And I can't blame it all on the author; they have editors and proof readers for a reason. They are supposed to catch the errors. I'm floored that a company would even allow the printing of a book with that many errors, especially on the grand scale that a Mercedes Lackey book warrants.

Aside from that, it wasn't a bad book. The plot kept my attention throughout, even if some of it was reused and recycled from other books. Sometimes tried and true just WORKS. Especially when you are reading it more as a guilty pleasure than for a true read.
There was a good deal of character development (which I like) also a fair bit of 'mini-climaxes' to keep my interest when the character development was getting a bit too rich, or too detailed or there was some action tossed in with the character development. So, made me happy. I like detail, I like character development, action and emotion. Get these in good measure. Somehow the typical 'perfect rhythm' was a bit off (hence the 4, not 5 rating). But it was very good, all in all, just could have had a bit better rhythm, so it might be a bit easier to read.
I've read all of the Valdemar books, most several times; the Last Herald Mage books in particular are among my most favorite ever and are always a joy to revisit. Mage Storms, Mage Winds, the Gryphon series...all beautiful gems!

So what is going on with this Collegium Chronicles?? Did Mercedes Lackey herself write this or just lend her name to some fanfic?

I made it through the first three in the series and couldn't help but notice that the scope and depth of Valdemar seemed to be shrinking rather than being opened up. Then this latest installment came out, I purchased, and cannot get it read...

Well, I did try...slogged through chapter 1 (the author telling every last detail of a royal wedding), forged ahead into chapter 2 only to get waylaid by an 'of course' thrown in most every paragraph (once I noticed I couldn't un-notice...sorry). The story was going nowhere so I flipped ahead a couple chapters...got a kirball game...flipped some more, planning a kirball game...one more try, folks were sore because a kirball game was tied and no one won any bets....geeez! Enough of the kirball already.

At that point I skipped to the last 100 pages and found, yay! a story going on. There is some nice stuff there with a Karse monk and his Suncat who help Mags. As others have pointed out, there is really nothing resolved at the end, just some more clues to ensure there will be...sigh...a fifth book. May we all hope for something worthy of the Valdemar series.
Let me start off this review with a condolence to those who chose this book to be their first adventure into Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth and the Heralds of Valdemar. This book is not an accurate indication of her previous (almost profound) books, which are in short, outstanding. I find that it's difficult and somewhat silly to say that a book "hurt" my feelings, but frankly I've never been this disappointed with a literary work before.

In the previous books of the Collegium Chronicles many people had problems with Mags' country bumpkin speech pattern. I didn't have as much of a problem simply because Lackey alluded that this was part of the face, part of the work that Mags' would be doing. That being said, I liked the loss of the bumpkin speech, it's just too bad that the loss of his accent came with a loss of his character, and the tragic loss of actual plot. (Ladies, this book is like watching Magic Mike, you don't show for the story, you come for the so called "eye candy". In this case, the candy is not half naked men, but a white creature with four hooves and a person in uniform)

I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I'll make my criticisms brief.

Once again, there is little resolution with regards to Mags' past. The little we get is practically useless,comes at the bitter end of the book, and makes no sense.

There's no character development aside from Mags coming to terms with certain fears, Amily being able to walk, and a kerfuffle for Bear & Lena(primarily Bear). The 100 or so pages of Mags' dreams do little to add to the story or to character development. Imagine reading a nightmare journal, and that's about half the story.

The other half is a recap of Kirball (fun but not exactly worthy of a plot point), and stolen recaps of the other books. Literally. Cut and Paste memories(both part of the dreaming and not).

Readers will meet new characters at the end(and I mean the end because we don't really meet them until we're down to the dregs) with interest. However, this comes with two caveats. 1) Readers will be interested because they're familiar with the world of Velgarth or 2)they will be interested because Lackey provides little information and leaves lots of undesirable and confusing guesswork.

It's obvious Lackey's heart isn't in this series anymore. I just wish that she would have realized that even if her heart isn't with Valdemar anymore, there are reader's who ARE invested in Mags' tale. Readers don't need Mag's to be the amazing stories of yesteryear, but is it too much to ask that Lackey write something worth reading, even if it won't be treasured? I hate hate hate to give Lackey a poor review, but this book isn't a book, it's a cop-out.