#18 Beyond by Mercedes Lackey

 

This book finally tells the story of how Valdemar came to be. It has been hinted at a bit in some of the previous books but not spelled out in detail. The current Duke of Valdemar works very hard to convince him Emperor that there is nothing special about his dutchy. He tithes the horses he breeds every year and secretly works on a magical plan to move everyone under his care to as far as gate magic can take everyone. There are mages in this book and more magic is used in this than is in the latter books.  The empire is run on magic and war to constantly expand the borders to feed the war machine.  The Duke is recalled to the capital where he finds out just how much things have changed there since he was a child hostage of the Emperor.  Most of the staff are magical constructs powered by enslaved vrondi and the Duke befriends them and incorporates them into his plan to escape and free them as well. There is a good stopping point at the end of the book but it certainly doesn’t cover how the Heralds came to be but I am certain that will be in the next book of the series.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

#19 Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

 

Some teens feel like they are destined for something more but Tina knows it.  Tina is a clone of an alien commander that has been hidden on Earth with a rescue beacon implanted in her that will come to life and take her to the people she doesn’t know. Problems start as soon as the beacon goes off and her clone progenitor’s enemies come hunting her before her extraction can happen. Tina gets rescued and her artist best friend comes along for the ride.  Problems quickly crop up when the crew of the ship tries to give her the memories of her previous life and they quickly find out it doesn’t work for any info that has significant personal meaning to her. She can operate a ship but she doesn’t know anything about how to be the leader everyone needs her to be. The book wraps up well but there are two more planned in the series. Tina does grow in the book and learns to make her own path instead of just continuing what her clone parent had started.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss