By the Sword
core novel 1991 Valdemar
Record
| First published | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.28 (21,703 ratings, collected 2026-09-12) |
| Page count | 492 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0-88677-463-2 |
| First-edition date | 1991-02 |
Synopsis
A standalone Valdemar novel follows Kerowyn, granddaughter of the sorceress Kethry, who has managed her family's keep in the years since her mother's death and looks forward to a measure of freedom once her brother marries and takes over the household's affairs, leaving her free to pursue her love of training horses and hunting. Those plans are shattered when her family's ancestral home is attacked, her father killed, her brother wounded, and his intended bride kidnapped. Driven by grief and urgency, and drawn into the orbit of a sorcerer connected to her grandmother's past, Kerowyn is forced into a journey far from the quiet domestic life she had expected, one that marks the first step toward a very different destiny than the one she had planned for herself.
Where it sits
- Universe: Valdemar
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Mercedes Lackey
Notes
- Bridges Vows and Honor into the Heralds of Valdemar continuity (Kerowyn's story).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within Valdemar (standalone work): position 10 of 60: previous Winds of Fate (1991) · next Winds of Change (1992)
Sources
- Mercedes Lackey official site
- Valdemar Wiki (Fandom)
- https://www.isfdb.org
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Lackey
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/331869/by-the-sword-by-mercedes-lackey/
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