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The Velgarth Saga by Mercedes Lackey is a sprawling series of novels and short stories that tell of the world Velgarth. I 1st read "The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy" when I was in High School. I had picked up a copy of "Magic's Pawn" at the local Food Town simply because I thought that the boy on the cover was cute! But one day came when I was home sick from school and I started reading the book with the cute boy on the cover, which I thought was extremely boring... so I skipped to the middle - only to discover that the boy I was drooling over (Vanyel Ashkevron) was also "shaych", that is, he was gay!!! Oh what a day! I quickly turned back to the beginning and did not leave my room until I read the entire novel! I soon picked up the other two volumes in his trilogy and was equally impressed with those.
I didn't really start reading the others in the series until September 1999, although I'd purchased them all with the intent of reading them. I've enjoyed all the Velgarth novels that I've read so far and I'm looking forward to all future Velgarth novels that I've yet to read.
This list of the Velgarth stories is (from what I've read so far) the order in which I believe they take place. But if you are interested in reading them, it is probably best that u start with "Arrows Of The Queen" & then simply read them in the order they were published - TRUST ME - I learned that the stories make much mores sense that way; it was just fun for me (and continues to be fun) to try to put the stories in chronological order.
Mercedes has announced that she's taking several years away from this series, so for the foreseeable future these tales are all that we have for Velgarth.
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The Black Gryphon
The White Gryphon
The Silver Gryphon
Blood Ties ** ~
Sword Of Ice (the short story) **
Magic's Pawn
Chance **
Magic's Promise
Magic's Price
In The Forrest Of Sorrows **
A Child's Adventures ** ~
Foundation
Brightly Burning
Sword Sworn *
The Oathbound, Part I (1-79)
The Talisman *
The Oathbound, Part II (80-134)
A Tale Of Heros *
Friendly Fire *
The Oathbound, Part III [Keys *] (134-190)
The Making Of A Legend *
The Oathbound, Part IV [Turnabout *] (191-302)
A Woman's Weapon *
The Birthday Gift +
A Dragon In Distress ++
Oathbreakers
Wings Of Fire *
Demon's Den ** ~
Spring Plowing At Forst Reach *
Oathblood (the short story) *
Sunlancer **
Exile's Honor [Stolen Silver^]
Exile's Valor
By The Sword, Book 1: Kerowyn's Ride
Take A Thief
By The Sword, Book 2: Two Edged Blade
Arrows Of The Queen
Arrow's Flight
Arrow's Fall
By The Sword, Book 3: The Price Of Command
VKandis's Own **
The School Up The Hill **
Winds Of Fate
Blue Heart **
Winds Of Change
Ironrose **
Winds Of Fury
Storm Warning
Storm Rising
Storm Breaking
Babysitter ** ~
Owlflight
Owlsight
Owlknight
A Herald's Journey***
A Perfect Day In Valdemar****
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^this short story was published in both horseFantastic & Werehunter - & eventually became the prologue of Exile's Honor.
* these stories were sold in one volume as "Oathblood". The collected stories tell tales of Tarma & Kethry, which were originally released as part of the Sword & Sorceress Anthology series - but were later incorporated into Oathblood & Oathbound.
+ & ++ there is one Tarma & Kethry story not included in the Oathblood or Oathbound: 1995"s "A Dragon In Distress" was co-authored with Elisabeth Waters & is available only in Sword & Sorceress XII - edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This book is no longer published so it's somewhat hard to find. The story itself is a sequel to another short story by Elisabeth Waters which was featured in Sword & Sorceress IX. I was hoping that Ms. Waters would expand the universe of those stories so that her tales would enrich Velgarth even more, but that will most likely never happen now, as I've read that Elisabeth joined a convent in 2001; I wish her well.
** these stories were part of a collection called "Sword Of Ice & Other Tales Of Valdemar". Many of these stories are hard to place & while I have put them in an order here which makes sense to me, I do not mean to imply that this is the order that they were intended to be in. Those stories marked with a "~" are stories that could really take place almost anywhere. I still haven't placed 6 of these stories.
*** this Mercedes Lackey novella was released as part of The Valdemar Companion.
**** these stories appeared in the 30th Anniversary Daw Fantasy collection.
*+* these stories appeared in a 2003 collection called "Sun In Glory & Other Tales Of Valdemar".