Rating: 
Summary: The best possible ending to the best possible trilogy!
Review: This is a wonderful book. "Winds of Change" is my favorite book of all time, and is nearly tied with this book. Throughout the series Elspeth has gone to get tutored on her magic powers to use them in the defense of Valdemar, and in the process has fallen in love with a mage of the secretive Taledras people, gone to war against an ancient evil mage, scouted the "uncleansed lands", etc. And now she has come home with help in defense against Ancar the tyrant. I was very satisfied with the ending! I felt an empathy in this book just as in many other of Misty's books, and in short, I have this one piece of advice for you: Read the rest of the series first, but READ THIS BOOK! Any other Heralds of Valdemar, feel free to email me! :)
Rating:
Summary: romantic and suspenseful
Review: This was clearly the best of the three in this triology.It had lovely, leisurely romantic interludes plus fast paced action. I was absolutely glued to it. This trilogy is quite liberal socially. The women are effective warriors and often the leaders while the men typically follow. Gay relationships are accepted as equal with straight ones. One of the lead good guys is gay. It's really neat how Elspeth and Darkwind work together as a team romantically, magically, and militarily. Sigh. I wish I had a relationship like that. Of course, it's probably just as unrealistic as the magic. Probably the ending is unrealistically happy as well, but then you sort of expect that in this type of book. At least it's not depressing. I still think there are entirely too many super-powerful mages and adepts running around in the world of these books. You sort of get to the point where you think adepts (the most powerful of the magical people) are normal and everyone else is stunted. I liked all the beautiful, powerful animals and animal-like sentient characters. They are very rich and diverse.
Rating:
Summary: romantic and suspenseful
Review: This was clearly the best of the three in this triology. It had lovely, leisurely romantic interludes plus fast paced action. I was absolutely glued to it. This trilogy is quite liberal socially. The women are effective warriors and often the leaders while the men typically follow. Gay relationships are accepted as equal with straight ones. One of the lead good guys is gay. It's really neat how Elspeth and Darkwind work together as a team romantically, magically, and militarily. Sigh. I wish I had a relationship like that. Of course, it's probably just as unrealistic as the magic. Probably the ending is unrealistically happy as well, but then you sort of expect that in this type of book. At least it's not depressing. I still think there are entirely too many super-powerful mages and adepts running around in the world of these books. You sort of get to the point where you think adepts (the most powerful of the magical people) are normal and everyone else is stunted. I liked all the beautiful, powerful animals and animal-like sentient characters. They are very rich and diverse.
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