Eye Spy

Valdemar: Family Spies, Book 2

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this second installment of the Family Spies series, set in the best-selling world of Valdemar, the children of Heralds Mags and Amily must follow in their parents' footsteps to protect the realm.

Mags, Herald Spy of Valdemar, and his wife, Amily, the King’s Own Herald, are happily married with three kids. Their daughter, Abidela, dreams of building on her parents' legacy by joining her father's network of spies, hoping to offset her seeming lack of a Gift. 

But when Abi senses the imminent collapse of a bridge only moments before it happens, she saves countless lives, including that of her best friend, Princess Katiana. The experience, though harrowing, uncovers her unique Gift - an ability to sense the physical strains in objects. 

Intrigued by the potential of her Gift, the Artificers seek to claim her as their own - but only the Healers can train her. Through training with both of them, Abi discovers unique facets of her Gift, including a synesthetic connection to objects that allows her to “see” as well as feel the strains.  

Her Gift may also grant her a distinct advantage as a spy - there won’t be a building in the entire kingdom of Valdemar with a secret room that she doesn’t know about. With the help of her mentors, she must hone her gift to uncover the hidden secrets in the depths of Valdemar.

©2019 Mercedes Lackey (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

I love this one

I've always been a Lackey fan. This one follows the same wonderful Valdemar tradition. The narrator was excellant and truly helped the characters appear for me.

Refreshing departure

If you're shocked at this point that Mercedes lackey would dare poke fun at certain American politicians, then have I got bad news this round. It was pretty spot on for low hanging fruit.

Anywho, as to the story, I really enjoy when we get a chance to see valdemar from new perspectives (I was actually introduced to valdemar in the oathbound stories. MAN was I confused). This time we see from the artificers POV, and it was fantastic. Engineering and architecture ate sexy again!

This was a better book than its predecessor. But..

...The author took the opportunity to make some truly petty Trump digs. They aren't unforgivable, but when I realized who "Dudley Remp" was supposed to symbolize, it soured my enjoyment for a while. This is very early in the book, and is pretty blatant, so it's not really a spoiler.

She did, however, make up for what looked like an erasure of the character "Tuck", who was not even obliquely referred to in the previous book. it looked like giving in to backlash. At least in this book Tuck was acknowledged, but not named, being explained as a deep Crown secret. That was fine. Again, it's very tangential, so not a spoiler.

A lot of the usual plot devices from the earlier books aren't used in this book, and that's refreshing. The earlier works are so steeped in sexuality, usually central to the plot, but this book thankfully breaks that formula. It's welcome to see a character grow and succeed without the proof being a relationship. it didn't detract from the story one bit, and imho made it a much better story. Less formulaic, more considered.

The annoying metaphorical comparisons with Trump didn't ruin the book for me because the rest of the book was genuinely excellent.

great book

The narrator is a great one. Many of the Valdemar books read by other narrators mess up the pronunciation but Nick Podell doesn't. The story is a great one, a continuation of Mags and Amily's children

While well worth a credit, left me wanting more

It’s a good book but the plot is simple. The narrator is wonderful and made the experience entirely entertaining.

Enjoy mag's family!

Hopefully the next chapter in Mag's family will be just as captivating! and maybe alittle longer...

More than one path to success

Maggs daughter, Abie, finds satisfaction and success in an area that doesn't require a companion.

Excellent

Good story. Great narration. Voices were well done. Thoroughly enjoyable. I’ll be finding more read by Nick Podehl for sure!

Barely above meh

Check every outbuilding, check every nook and cranny, except for the asymmetrical fireplace in a room of perfect symmetry. No suspense. No real peril.
You know what would have been absolutely lovely in these books. Bear and Lena's children, Lear and Belinda (Bena for short). Lear sings like and angel and fights like a demon. Bena has a healing gift so strong that she makes Bear's father look like his best magic is pulling his thumb apart and putting it back together. So many lost possibilities. And inconsistencies.

A very good read

the second book in the valdemar spy series is a very good listener I love the fact that we get to find out what happened to Mags kids

Another brilliant book

To be fair I must have nearly every book this author has written on this world. I have read about gryphons, hark brothers, herolds and herold mages - so many different stories and I've cried (especially brightly burning don't start that one without tissues) and laughed over them all. I was glad to be able to get these on audible and they do a good job of them.