By The Sword [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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One of Lackey's few non-series books, this one nevertheless fits into the Valdemar chronology as a whole. It takes places somewhere after the "Vows and Honor" series and before "Queen's Own", and tells the story of the legendary Captain Kerowyn. Kero is Kethry's granddaughter, although she barely knows her mage grandmother. Her sexist father wants to keep her chained in the kitchen, but Kero wants adventure and excitement. When bandits crash her brother's wedding, killing most of the guests and taking the bride prisoner, Kero rides to the rescue, making her both a hero and a pariah to her brother and father. So she hikes off to Grandmother's, where Tarma takes her on as a student. Later, she joins a mercenary company, then captains said company, and finally ends up being Chosen by a Valdemaran Companion. (If she didn't, we wouldn't really care about her, would we?) Along the way she falls in love, has numerous adventures, setbacks, foreshadowy meetings with important people, etc etc.

Good book, especially for Mercedes Lackey. I liked Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion series better, but you can't ask for everything. Nice, basic sword-and-sorceress tale, ties up a few loose ends re: Kethry and Tarma, and sets up the "modern" Valdemar series at the same time. Although it's technically a stand-alone, don't bother if you don't have at least a basic grasp of Lackey's universe already. If you do, you'll probably like this one.

"By the Sword" is one of Mercedes Lackey's best books. It's an honest, unflinching look at the life of a mercenary woman -- and a parable of how difficult modern women find balancing love, sex, partnership, and job responsibilities, all at once.

"By the Sword" tells the story of Kerowyn. She's Kethry's granddaughter (Kethry, as you might recall from the "Oath" books, was the mage partner of Tarma the Shin'a'in), yet grows up mostly ignorant of her heritage. That's because her mother dies young, her father is an idiot, and Kerowyn's been left to rule the roost at the ripe old age of 15.

As her brother is being married off, also at a young age, bandits come in and disrupt the festivities. They carry her brother Lordan's new wife off, kill her father, and murder many others on the way out. This inflames Kerowyn, who vows revenge.

Going to put on her brother's cast-off armor and grabbing a dagger, she's stopped by a rather mysterious woman on the way to see her grandmother. (Yes, she's so ignorant that she doesn't recognize Tarma, nor her significance in her grandmother's life.) She's warned to go back; this inflames Kerowyn still further.

Kerowyn goes to Kethry and tells her what's happened; Kethry passes along her sword Need -- which basically is a sort of magical guardian spirit. If you're a mage, it gives you ultimate fighting prowess. If you're a fighter, it gives you immunity against magic.

Kerowyn rides, finds the bandits, kills them, and brings Lordan's bride home. However, after she gets there, she realizes she's not cut out for the life of a noblewoman (they are of the minor nobility); she goes back to her grandmother and asks for more help.

At this point, Tarma steps in, and trains Kerowyn to fight.

The rest of the book deals with Kerowyn's training, some of her campaigns, her growing strategic and tactical prowess -- and something more. Along the way, as she watches others pair off and feels hopelessly alone (she's gifted with Mindspeech, making it even worse, as none of her mercenary compatriots have this particular talent/affliction), she finds her soulmate, Eldan. Who just so happens to be a Herald of Valdemar.

A lesser writer would have dragged Kerowyn into Valdemar at that point; wisely, Lackey keeps Kerowyn out, instead giving her more adventures, then finally getting Kerowyn and Eldan together in the midst of a long, bloody war.

As they deal with their love and duty, much happens. (I don't want to give the rest of the plot away.) And Kerowyn finds a way to indeed have it all, after all.

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite Lackey books; Ms. Lackey did an outstanding job with this one, as it is accurate, unflinchingly candid, yet still realistic without sacrificing anything in the characterization department.

Thing is, with someone else, Kerowyn wouldn't be so engaging. She's a tough, smart woman who happens to like her job -- as a professional mercenary soldier and captain. Most writers would draw her as a caricature; instead, Ms. Lackey showed Kerowyn as learning tactics, and coming to believe that people who fought wars should have ethics -- as it's bad enough as it is.

Five stars plus. Highly recommended.

Mercenary life and fantasy warfare never really interested me that much until I read this book. Why? Because up until that point, so many fantasy novels that I'd read showed either the overblown or the gritty tactics of warfare from the viewpoint of someone who'se brilliant, talented, a star general, and little to no backstory on how he got there. If there was that backstory, it consisted of said leader always having had a talent and getting promotion after promotion within the military with ease.

By the Sword tells a slightly different story. For one thing, the hero of the piece is a heroine, still leading battles with aplomb but with the slight twist on the story by virtue of them being female. Which may be nothing to look twice at by today's standards, but there was less of a focus on heroines back in the early 90s, often unless it was to prove a point. Kerowyn doesn't need to prove a point that she's as good as a man by pointing it out at every turn. She does it by being a competant and talented leader who earns respect rather than demands it.

Secondly, although Kero is said to have a natural aptitude with swordwork and tactics, she still goes through gruelling training to perfect that talent, and what's more, the reader gets to see it. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to look sideways at pieces like I mentioned before, where the hero is the hero simply because they are, and where little is shown regarding them actually working for and earning the respect and skills that they command.

Internal inconsistancies in this novel as it relates to the rest of the Valdemar novels are, thankfully, at a minimum, which is in no small part due to the fact that the only time it really relates to what happened in other novels is at the beginning when Tarma, Kathry, and Warrl are around, or toward the end when it involves Valdemar and Heralds. It's a good standalone book in the series for that reason.

Though I have to admit, I do find it a bit sad when I can say that it's partly good because the errors are kept low. I love Mercedes Lackey, I really do, but the amount of timeline mistakes made through the series... Do not want.

Stylistically, this book is on par with most of what Lackey was doing at the time. Between then and now, her work still has gone on to be polished, but the feel of By The Sword style is much the same as what you'll find in just about any of her later Valdemar books, which for me, is a good thing. There's a reason that I class these books as the literary equivalent of comfort food. For all their errors and imperfections, I still love them to death, adore the world created and the stories told in it, and wouldn't want to be without them.

As a standlone, this is a book that can be skipped over without missing any major plot points, since some of Kero's backstory is mentioned again in subsequent Valdemar novels. On the other hand, it is a good tale of progression, with good messages about not taking crap from people who are flinging it, about standing up for what you believe in even if others think you're a little nuts, and about not just keeping quiet and accepting what others have decided for you when you're just plain not suited to it. The overall theme is about living your own life and not somebody else's, and that's a theme I can really get behind.

Recommended for fans of the Valdemar/Velgarth novels, for those interested in more of Valdemar's backstory, though I wouldn't recommend starting your journey into Valdemar with this one, since it hints at and mentions far too much that Lackey expects you to already know about Tarma and Kethry. If I hadn't already read the Vows and Honor series, I suspect I'd be frustrated at not getting the full story but instead only getting vague mentions of what came before, especially in the way that they're delivered.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, no?
About a noble, Kerowyn, who, since her mother died when Kero was ten (or something), is like a housekeeper/manager for her house, where she lives with her brother and father... Read more

Published on Dec 13 2002 by Myra Schjelderup

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner
This book continues where the Vows and Honor books leave off. Kerowyn is Tarma and Kethry's granddaughter and true Heir. This is a truly satisfying book. Read more

Published on Sep 18 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Mercedes Lackey's Best!!!
Kerowyn is a prisoner in her own life. Since the death of her mother, she has been burdened with all of the housekeeping responsibilities of her rather large home. Read more

Published on Aug 23 2002 by Leanna

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Impressed
This is the first book I have read by this author, and I really enjoyed it. It does take a while to get into, but once I was in I could not put it down. Read more

Published on July 7 2002 by Robyn Jade

5.0 out of 5 stars Kerowyn's Tale
Kerowyn (or Kero for short) has always know that she was not meant to be a "lady." She despises everything about them, rather spending her time learning how to fight and... Read more

Published on Jun 21 2002 by Nancy E.

5.0 out of 5 stars Kerowyn's Tale
Kerowyn (or Kero for short) has always know that she was not meant to be a "lady." She despises everything about them, rather spending her time learning how to fight and... Read more

Published on Jun 21 2002 by Nancy E.

5.0 out of 5 stars Kethry's Grand-daughter
Kerowyn is sick of being the housekeeper of her father's manor and tired of her boring life where the absolute catastrophe would be the food getting knocked over. Read more

Published on April 8 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars By the Sword
This is one of the best books I've ever read although Kerowyn does make stupid coices she tends to be brave and smart I definetly recomend this book to other people!

Published on April 2 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Novel!
This is the story of Kerowyn, a nobleman's daughter. Kero must choose between a dismal and structured life of a proper 'nobleman's wife' and the life of a mercenary soldier. Read more

Published on Mar 31 2002 by Serene

4.0 out of 5 stars A good Valdemar novel
Fans of Tarma and Kethry will enjoy this. (I have not been able to 'get into' their stories.) It is an enjoyable read. Read more

Published on Jan 3 2002 by LG

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