In today's episode, we are talking about the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. This series consists of (as of this writing) 37 books, 17 anthologies, and 1 Companion (basically an encyclopedia) book that talk about the history of the world of Velgarth focusing mainly on the nation of Valdemar. There's obviously a whole lot to talk about in this episode, so I do my best to hit mostly high points.
The Last Herald-Mage trilogy came out in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and has a gay main character, Vanyel Ashkevron. It is about his growing up, coming into his magical and mental powers, and his death. It is really impressive that it came out at the time it did, because the late 80s and early 90s were not queer friendly times, to say the least. The rest of the Valdemar books also had many queer characters, almost exclusively related to sexual orientation. There is a group who are made asexual due to an oath to their Goddess and there are some gender non-conforming characters as well. There is one character who is sorta trans and does not get treated well (they are a villain too, it's complicated). But for the most part, Lackey treats queer characters well. I hope you take the time to read these books because they are well worth your time and effort.
Timeline of Events in the Books
Our next episode will be about the show Pose.
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