Subject: Re: What book to start with?
From: William George Ferguson
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001

On Sat, 21 Apr 2001, "Jalinth Kirkwood" wrote:

>I have read a couple of the Elves in LA and found that they were good,
>so I decided to read some of her fantasy stuff, but I have no idea where to
>start. Could someone please provide some assistance?

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.  It's been a while since I played this.

Of course, you should start with If I Pay... (ow, ow, ow, okay, not)

ML's fantasy stuff, other than the modern urban fantasy books (which
would include the 'elves in LA' ones), fall into one large grouping,
one smaller grouping, and some doublets and standalones.

The smaller grouping is the 'Free Bards' books.  While I strongly
recommend  the original one, "Lark and Wren", mileage varies on the
others.

The large grouping would be the Velgarth books (also referred to as
'the Valdemar books' or 'the Herald books', although not all of them
feature Valdemar or Heralds).

These all take place in a world called Velgarth.  The largest subset
of books are about a kingdom called Valdemar and its defenders, the
Heralds, who ride, and are linked to magical horse-like steeds called
Companions.

The first written stories in Velgarth were about a
Swordswoman/Sorceress duo named Tarma and Kethry.  These were based on
a group of filksongs written by Mercedes Lackey (who was a filker
before she was an author), and were published in Marion Zimmer
Bradley's Sword & Sorceress Magazine.

Her first published novel was Arrows of the Queen (the first book of
the Arrows series, about Queen's Own Herald Talia), and her second was
Oathbound (about Tarma & Kethry, expanding and adding to a couple of
the short stories).  She wrote a second Tarma & Kethry book,
Oathbreakers, and for years these were referred to as the Vows and
Honor duology.  Very recently (a couple of years ago), she published
an anthology, Oathblood, which contained all the published Tarma &
Kethry stories, except the ones that were incorporated into Oathbound,
and added a couple of unpublished stories to round out their history.

The Tarma & Kethry cycle ties into the Herald cycle twice.  In
Oathbreakers, T&K interact with the then Herald-Heir, and in By 
The Sword, Kethry's granddaughter Kerowyn interacts with Heralds 
in various ways, several generations later.

There are also prequel and sequel books and stories set in Velgarth.

My recommendation on the Velgarth books is not to try reading them
based on internal chronology (shich can be confusing) but to read them
by grouping.  I would recommend reading the Tarma & Kethry books first
(Oathbound, Oathbreakers, and Oathblood), then the Arrows books
(Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, and Arrow's Fall), then either
The Last Herald Mage (Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's
Price) or By The Sword. (then read whichever one you didn't read
next).  After that explore away, with this caveat, certain trilogies
are direct sequels and should be read as super-sub-series (I just
liked typing that).  Specifically the Mage Winds Trilogy should be
read after By The Sword, the Mage Storms should be read after Winds,
and the Owl... books should be read after Storms, since these three
sets make pretty much a heel-and-toe history.

Other than these two milieus, there are some 'shared' books in various
groupings, there are an otherwise unconnected group of books which
are retellings of classic fairy tales, and there is a series (two
books so far, with a third supposedly on the way) coauthored with
Andre Norton, titled Elvenborn.