Foundation: Collegium Chronicles One - Mercedes Lackey

The Collegium Chronicles: Foundation
Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books
Copyright: 2008
9780756405243

The amazon.com product description:

In this chronicle of the early history of Valdemar, a thirteen-year­old orphan named Magpie escapes a life of slavery in the gem mines when he is chosen by one of the magical companion horses of Valdemar to be trained as a herald. Thrust into the center of a legend in the making, Magpie discovers talents he never knew he had-and witnesses the founding of the great Heralds' Collegium.

I started re-reading this series the other day, Foundation, Intrigues and Changes so far (I'm onto the third book now) and what I'm finding is that the three books do really well when you read them back to back. It's more like one story in several volumes so far - rather different than her other story sets (Last Herald Mage, Heralds of Valdemar, Mage Wars etc.). This series the story picks up immediately after where it left off in the previous book. My last review for Foundation can be found here.

Mags is the typical character-type for a lot of the Valdemar books, reminding me of Skif and Talia, although even more so than they were. Even so, the story is interesting, though rather quick-reading. The time-period is about three generations after the time of Vanyel and Stefen, and it's a time of change, because the Heraldic Collegium - familiar to us from all of the later books, especially the Arrows trilogy, is being set up and formalized.

The main thing I found frustrating about reading Foundation is that the story built up very quickly at the end and then ended almost right after. It just didn't feel like anything was really resolved - instead being left until the next book in the series: Intrigues. Even so, I still enjoyed the read.