In the Velgarth ‘verse, this is built into the living mythology: Companions Choose worthy, noble people to be Heralds. The better life often involves pain and anguish, but then, life is life. So, this is the patented Lackey formula: abused youngster is rescued and whisked away to a better life. The story itself starts with a fanfic-esque daydream involving Herald-Mage Vanyel, which seems to throw the whole story off foundation-we only get a sense of where we are when finally Talia reaches the Collegium. We seem to zoom in and out of Talia’s story, spending lavish amounts of time on her journey to Haven, and them skimming over drama that occurs at the Collegium. I believe this in part due to the way tenses change fluidly from paragraph to paragraph and the very odd way the book is structured. It’s not poetic, but it reminds me, faintly, of Robin McKinley, which no other Lackey book does, including Queen’s sequels Arrow’s Flight and Arrow’s Fall. The prose has an odd, dream-like quality absent from most or all of Lackey’s novels. Arrows of the Queen is the wish-fulfillment fantasy that started it all.
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