Redoubt (Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles, #4)

by Mercedes Lackey

Life at the Heralds' Collegium in Haven has definitely improved for Mags. He's even become something of a hero since risking his own life to rescue Amily--daughter of Nikolas, the King's Own Herald--from Karsite kidnappers. But Mags still doesn't know who his parents were, and Bear, Mags' Trainee friend, was not one to let him forget: "You gotta deal with your past Mags, you have to. If you don't, it'll just keep coming back to haunt you, and one day it'll do something to you that you can't get out of."

Mags began his special training as Nikolas' undercover partner and future spy for the crown. Disguised, they work at night in one of the seedier parts of Haven, where Nikolas had set up a false identity as a pawnbroker and fence. Mags poses as his deaf-mute nephew, covertly watching and listening from behind the desk. He was especially good at the trait that had kept him alive as a child laborer in the gem mine--ferreting out hidden motives.

Now Mags has graduated to a new role: Nikolas' partner and information broker. Mags channels his old cunning self from the mines and discovers that he's quite good at his new job. So good, in fact, that Nikolas decides to let him open the shop alone one hot, summer night. Mags has barely unlocked the shop when everything goes black in a blinding flash of pain.

He wakes with an agonizing headache, bound, blindfolded, in a conveyance of some kind. But worst of all, he's head-blind. No Mindspeech--he can't even sense Dallen. And if he can't sense or hear Dallen, then no one can sense him. And if no one can sense him, no one can come to his rescue.

• ISBN10: 0756407451
• ISBN13: 9780756407452
• Publish Date: 2 October 2012 (first published 1 October 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: DAW Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 330
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kim Deister]

I really love everything Collegium Chronicles brings to the Valdemar universe. Even aside from the storyline itself, it gives such a comprehensive look into Haven and the world of the Heralds, of how it all works. For someone who is as big a fan as I am, this is wonderful. 

And Mags is a character who has become one of my favorites. There is so much to love about his story as we travel with him through this series and watch him grow. I think what draws me to Mags so much is the way in which, while he grows, his fundamental self doesn’t. He stays honest and sweet, noble and kind, no matter what he goes through. There’s something moving about him, about seeing a child come from literally nothing and watching him come into his own. 

While maybe this story isn’t as fast-paced as some of the others, I still enjoyed it just as much. It gave us some good insight as to Mags’ past, from before he even remembers. In essence, this is as much a survival story as a fantasy, which is in keeping with Mags’ history. He’s put in situations that no one and nothing could have prepared him for, and it is only his smarts and sheer determination that allow him to survive.