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Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar (Valdemar Series) | 
 enlarge | Creator: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: DAW
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $4.02
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 11658
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0756405289
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.0876608
EAN: 9780756405281
ASIN: 0756405289
Publication Date: December 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Sixteen original storiesset in mercedes lackeys valdemar universe
Includes a new novella by Mercedes Lackey!
Todays hottest fantasy authors visit Mercedes Lackeys bestselling world of Valdemar, adding their own special touches to the ancient land where Heralds Chosen from all walks of life by magical horse-like Companions patrol their ancient kingdom, dispensing justice, facing adversaries, and protecting their monarch from whatever threatens. Travel with Tanya Huff, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Fiona Patton, Judith Tarr, Rosemary Edghill, and others in these exciting, all-new stories.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Valdemar Lite January 8, 2009
Lackey and Dixon's short story "Moving Targets" in the anthology of the same name is a refreshing, lighthearted break from the sometimes overly serious Valdemar series. Lackey shows that she can find a little humor in the world she created by lampooning her own work in a delightful Valdemar/Scooby Doo spoof. Once I realized what she was doing I started hearing the old Scooby Doo cast voices, and it fit perfectly.
Most of the other stories in "Moving Targets" are typical fare, some are very good, what Lackey fans have come to expect in these anthologies of Velgarth stories by many prominent science fiction/fantasy authors. However, they don't match well with the title story, being far more serious in nature. The downright plodding story of a young "Sworddancer" is so dull and serious I gave up on it after a few pages, unable to follow the story at all.
As a Valdemar fan (not a Velgarth fan, I tend not to care for stories set outside of Valdemar or Karse) this anthology took care of festering Valdemar withdrawal symptoms, but wasn't entirely satisfying.
 Enjoyable read as always January 6, 2009
Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors. I have re-read many of the Valdemar books and this set of short stories meshes nicely with the bigger books... Lots of little pieces are filled in and those familar with the series will probably enjoy it as much as I did. A good read even if you aren't familar with the other books. I love the different tones that other writers bring to the world, very nicely done!
 A few good stories... with the title one casting a terrible pall December 29, 2008
I generally like these anthologies, and the majority of the stories in here did not disappoint. Several of them actually used characters from previous short stories in previous anthologies, which gave the whole thing a nice sense of continuity (like The Cheat, A Dream Deferred, and Heart, Home, and Hearth).
Some of the stories deal with the issues of faith in Karse, namedly An Unexpected Guest and What Fire Is, and show some interesting facets of that land. Others, like The Power of Three, Dreams of Mountain Clover, and Broken Bones, show the immense strength of character that can be found through adversity (whether to push into new frontiers or know when to stay behind).
Some of my favorites include the very poignant Live On and Heart, Home, and Hearth, which is about family and its healing power. Widdershins showcases a seemingly ubiquitous talents of Heralds in a very unusual way, and was very engaging.
Passage At Arms was a look at the uncertainties of a very young Trainee, which might have been excellent if the author hadn't insisted on writing the Trainee's point of view in near stream-of-consciousness form. It contained more run-on sentences and parentheses than I've ever seen. As it was, the style of the writing distracted from an otherwise good tale.
The Cheat, which takes places in Mornedealth, was somewhat interesting, but I was never terribly interested in the dueling nobles of Richard Lee Byers' version of Valdemar, so I could either take that story or leave it.
Other stories ranged from blah to seemingly random. A Dream Deferred picked up the tale of a minor character from The Oathbound, but despite rescues and sword fights, it left me curiously bored. Haven's Own seemed to end abruptly and with nothing particularly resolved. I felt no real sense of completion with that story. And The Sworddancer, which took place as far as I could tell in a place I'd never heard of in any of the Valdemar books, seemed utterly disconnected from the series, aside from a few brief mentions of Heralds.
Then there was the crowning obscenity. The title story, Moving Targets, was a ham-handed attempt to put the Heralds of Valdemar in an episode of Scooby-Doo. The Valdemar series made up the core of my reading experience as a teenager, and I have many fond and glowing memories of discovering it. This story just seemed like it was blatantly destroying it. Is this what Valdemar has come to, ripping off 80s Saturday morning cartoons?
I know Lackey has had many internal canon issues with the series (events, history, places, and even characters laid down one way in one book are modified, rearranged, or completely changed in another, particularly the more recent ones) but this story violates all established canon to make it fit the Scooby-Doo pattern. And I didn't like it. Once I realized what was going on, I read the story with deepening horror and revulsion as the poor Heralds and Scooby-substitute Ryu (a kyree forced by the story to talk like Scooby instead of communicate telepathically like every single other kyree every mentioned in the series) were made to go through every cliche ever penned in a Scooby-Doo gang.
Dear sweet alligators and onions, Lackey even managed to force a Mystery Machine in the plot. And a cranky old man, and all of the Scooby-Doo lines ("I would have gotten away with it too if I weren't for you meddling Heralds!"). I have never been so disappointed with a Lackey story in my life. If this was some attempt at a parody or being cute, it utterly failed on every single level.
Though "Moving Targets" is terrible to get through, the majority of the other stories are interesting, help flesh out the world of the Heralds of Valdemar, and are in general a pleasure to read. I would recommend buying this book, but just ignore the first story as to preserve your sanity.
Not the best collection December 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have to agree with the reviewers who rated this collection poorly although I didn't think of Scooby Doo while reading it. However I am sure that I have read a version of this story somewhere else but I can't remember where. The "ghost" terrorising a village who turns out to be a fortune hunter was a very familiar theme.
Some of the other stories were very generic and could have been put on any fantasy world with very few changes. The one story that I did enjoy was "Heart, Home and Hearth" which appeared to be placed in the Empire (since it mentioned the Emperor) and looked at the survival of someone caught in a Changecircle. The others were either average or drivel.
The earlier collections expanded on stories mentioned in other books and that was what I wanted here. How did Vanyel get called Demonsbane? Who was the Karsite priest that he met and liked in his own time? How and why was the Great Betrayer the one approached for the truce between Karse and Valdemar? I wanted those stories or others about people already written about to expand their stories.
Get this book from your local library if you can. It isn't worth buying.
Good as always December 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Once again, we are transported to the world of Valdemar. The stories cover more than just Valdemar, taking us to unexpected places and times. The stories are well up to the standard set in previous volumes.
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