Choices has 18 different stories, each averaging about 20 pages, and they come in a wide variety of flavors. Most of the stories in this collection focus on a Herald on the circuit encountering a unique situation. In one, "Of Crows and Karsites," the Herald crosses the border when he encounters a strong empathic attack. He learns that there is a young empath just coming into her powers and he must sneak her out of the village and into Valdemar before the local authority in the bordering realm deals with the matter in their own, particularly cruel and superstitious way.
In another story, a Herald comes into a town just after a local Baron has passed away and his son is collecting taxes, particularly one where each family is required to give up their "best beast." Where the previous Baron was lax on this rule and allowed the families to submit lesser livestock for their taxes, the new Baron is intent on the letter of the law. This story focuses on the Herald learning of a family that has had a recent hardship and knows that if they were to give away their stud ram, they would not be able to survive. The Herald works to find a way to not only stay true to the letter of the law, and help the family but, maybe, also teach the new Baron that there is flexibility on how to interpret the law.
There are also some stories where Heralds find themselves dealing with their own families, and how their personal relationships change with their new responsibilities. In one, "With Sorrow and Joy," a Herald returns home to learn of his father's death. When he learns that suspicion of the death falls on his sister, the Herald works to discover the truth. Meanwhile, control and ownership of the family lumber business is in question. The Herald not only has to deal with the grief of his dead father and the guilt of their last fight when he went to train, but he has to keep the composure befitting of a Herald on-mission to find out the truth behind the death.
Similarly, in "Who We'll Become," a Herald-in-training returns to her home where she was the lady of the manor. When she became a Chosen, she relinquished control of the area to her sister and went to learn how to use her newly uncovered gifts. When she returns to her family home, she finds that she not only sees the familiar area differently, but that her sister has made some unexpected changes. The conflict in "Who We'll Become" is subtler than in most of the stories in Choices. In the end, it primarily becomes a "You can never go home again" type of tale, something generally only explored as a subplot in many books and not always the main focus.
Not all of the stories in Choices follow Heralds. "Feathers in Deed" takes place not long after the Mage Storms have wrought the land. In it, two characters are on a journey to heal themselves after the magical storm has changed them both. The woman of the pair has been transformed to have birdlike features, while her friend, a griffin, has become blind. In "Unceasing Consequences," a newly-landed noblewoman from a merchant family works to get a mercantile business up and running and finds her time divided between trying to remember her mother's techniques and managing an estate. In the midst of her other troubles, the father of a young man who has come to learn under her barges in, worried about what his son is learning and the lad's personal leanings. The noblewoman must put many different skills to use in order to ease the father, and maybe even help her new business grow just a little.
Choices: All-New Tales of Valdemar's last story is written by Lackey herself and follows the sword Need in an adventure not too long after the Mage Storms swept the land. In this story, Need and her welder at the time, a young mage named Mel, come across a village that is being terrorized by a strange monster. With the help of some locals, the giant two-headed beast is tracked down and the Change Circle that created it is found. While Need supplies Mel with expert fighting ability, what they really need is a master magic user and Need only grants magical talents to those that know how to fight. Need and Mel will have to work with their new allies in some unexpected ways to take down the monstrous creature roaming the forest.
The Valdemar backdrop is a rich world for Lackey to return to over and over again. Inviting other authors to dip their toes into the realm is a great way to not only expand the universe, but also shed light on a wide variety of aspects of the world. If the entire universe were on Lackey's shoulders, then little stories like those following a random Herald returning home to solve a murder, or one of a noblewoman having to deal with a father who is worried about his son's future would never be written. While these tales aren't the major events of the Valdemar setting, they are still great additions that make it come alive just a little bit more. Choices: All-New Tales of Valdemar is another strong addition to that world and to any fan's library.
