The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy: Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise and Magic's Price [B0667]

1990 HCDJ in nice clean condition, 900-pages. The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy is an omnibus volume containing the three groundbreaking, Lambda Award-winning novels that established Mercedes Lackey as a fantasy tour-de-force and her Kingdom of Valdemar as a place millions of readers return to again and again.

This Lambda Award-winning trilogy tells the story of Vanyel, persecuted and abused son of a Valdemaran noble, who finds acceptance at Haven when he is Chosen by the Companion Yfandes. Companions like Yfandes are magical horse-like beings with the power to communicate and bond with their Chosen, and trigger the potential for psychic abilities-and magic. But Vanyel discovers other things about himself at Haven as well. He discovers love in an unexpected place, then loses it, and nearly his own life. With Yfandes and his aunt, Herald Savil, he will travel to the home of the mysterious Hawkbrothers in search of healing and training, and will grow from a troubled and heartbroken Trainee to become the most powerful Herald-Mage in the history of Valdemar-and the one hope for Valdemar against an implacable foe bent on eradicating magic from the Kingdom entirely.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Wonderful! I love this trilogy. This is probably the 5th time I have read these books, and I'm just as enthralled with them now as I was the 1st time I read them."; "I first read this trilogy when I was a teen, around 20 years ago. I fell in love with them back then because it was the first book I read with a gay main character. I was just starting to really understand my own sexuality at the time and it helped me realize that being queer wasn't a bad thing. I have my original copies of the trilogy, newer copies, the physical version of this omnibus."; "Gay wizards got me through 2024. This is a very interesting fantasy series that I do recommend, even if it jumps from light and breezy to dark and horrible from chapter to chapter."; "This trilogy is GAY, GAY, GAY. Classic pulp-fantasy heavy on the melodrama featuring star-crossed lovers, magical ponies, and LOTS of TRAUMA. I'm actually glad I found this as an adult because if I had read this series as a closeted teenager it would have been even more emotionally devastating."