By the Sword

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Granddaughter of the sorceress Kethry, daughter of a noble house, Kerowyn had been forced to run the family keep since her mother's untimely death. Yet now at last her brother was preparing to wed, and when his bride became the lady of the keep, Kerowyn could return to her true enjoyments - training horses and hunting.

But all Kerowyn's hopes and plans were shattered when her anscestral home was attacked, her father slain, her brother wounded, and his fiancee kidnapped.

©1991 Mercedes R. Lackey (P)2020 Tantor

I've been waiting for this one

I've been waiting for this back story. I read the book and loved listening to most of the Audible versions, so I thought this one would be just as great. But the narrator falls flat with accents and mispronounced key words. I still listened to the entire book, but it would have been much better with Nick Podell. Sorry, but true.

Wonderful!

I absolutely love this book and the narration was great! A few names were mispronounced.

My favorite Valdemar book, but poorly narrated.

This book has been one of my favorite entries in the Valdemar world for a long time. I've long wanted to have it in an audiobook format. Unfortunately, the narration is... not great. It's not un-listenable, but it's stilted and awkward. The narrator's intonation makes it almost sound like a computer is narrating instead of a real person - the emphasis is often placed at weird places in a sentence. She also often speaks v e r y s l o w l y. The main character is meant to be a young military woman, but the performance gives her voice no energy at all. The narrator makes some stylistic choices that I also don't like (certain accents for particular characters, for instance), but that's more about my personal preference than anything. The bigger problem is that the narration overall seems poor quality - more like an amateur audiobook recording from a free website than the quality I usually expect from audible.

One of my favorites

I loved this book and was excited when it came out on audible. My only disappointment was the narrator. The odd British accents when speaking a characters, like Kerowyn, was very disconcerting. They neither fit the dirty or were well done. Had she stuck to her normal voice I would have had no complaints.

The Heralds Kingdom gets expanded

a fresh and good way to introduce fresh blood to the kingdom of the Heralds

Love this series!

Love this series! Highly recommended. All 20+books best series I have ever read or reread seven times…

Excellent!!!!

Amy Landon's narration elevates one of my favorite Mercedese Lackey books to near perfection! I've always loved the book and Kerowyn is an amazing character. A must listen for fantasy fans!

Good Book but not so good narrator

I do like this series (Valdemar). I didn’t particularly care for the narrator in this one. The voices used for Tarma and Warl were a little off putting and not at all what I expected. Especially after listening to Oathbound, Oathbreakers, and Oathblood immediately before this one. Those I loved. Will listen again only because I do like the series.

Book was good...

All -in -all, I found the book to be pretty good. This is Kerowyn's back story. Several things are explained, such as when Kerowyn and the Queen's husband were chosen, for two. There are several plot lines, skillfully woven together in this book.

The narrator was not good. Her pronunciation of Shin'a'in, for instance, was stilted, various, and all of them WRONG! Except for Kerowyn, her grandmother and her sword sworn, and a couple of Scottish accents, one nice and heavy, all accents were the same to me. HAVE mercy 😱 But, in all fairness, she has a lovely speaking voice

I think you'll enjoy the book despite the narration. Oh, there is sex in this book, huggy body, kissy face, off with clothes, fade to dark. There's not much sex, though, and it's tastefully written. Now, 🙋

In the grand tradition of Kethry and Talma

I have loved the stories of Kethry and Talma and I even bought a paperback in the last few years before they came out on audiobook. This series shows the fortitude, love and magnificence that women can have for other women and for all others. Although the books are written in a series, they each can stand alone.
One of the best things about Mercedes Lackey's stories is that she can celebrate a group of people without being condescending or negative to another.