And there’s some extremely disturbing sexual assault in Magic’s Price that it’s difficult to imagine could make its way to the screen. Though it’s an important narrative to affirm, the arc of a character realizing their queerness, dealing with self-loathing and familial shunning, and eventually finding reconciliation is a very ’90s plotline. While Lackey’s portrayal of queer characters was nuanced and light-years ahead when it was published, in many ways-happily-some of Van’s struggles feel outdated. There are a few caveats worth mentioning. Twenty years ago, Kit and I became friends at boarding school, and bonded over our love for Mercedes Lackey’s work, and we’re so excited to begin the process of bringing it to the screen.” Of their longtime friendship and love of Lackey’s universe, Cavallaro shared, “It’s an absolute dream to be adapting the Valdemar books alongside Radar Pictures and Kit Williamson. The “Valdemar” series was far ahead of its time in the portrayal of LGBTQ characters, and Lackey’s writing afforded them a level of depth and complexity that is still very rare, especially in genre storytelling,” Williamson said in a statement. “Vanyel in “The Last Herald Mage” series was one of the first gay characters I encountered, and as a recently out 16-year-old I can’t stress enough the impact that these books had on me. There appears to be a similar case amongst the creatives who are adapting Lackey’s work, Kit Williamson (Netflix’s EastSiders) and Brittany Cavallaro (the “Charlotte Holmes” book series). Readers on forums like Reddit still discuss how essential Vanyel’s books were for them. I have several friends who felt the same way about Valdemar and Vanyel, and I used to hook yet more friends into reading them. This profound realization was not unique to me. At an early age, through Vanyel, I learned about queerness and tolerance-and that the queer lead could love deeply and be loved, and also save the world.

As an adolescent, Lackey’s books meant more to me than any other, and I “lived” in them for years.

I can close my eyes and still recall how it felt to first meet Vanyel and experience what he did. He is a fully-realized queer protagonist who must confront homophobia both internal and external, but falls madly in love, has a sexy sex life, overcomes many traumas, and is every inch the hero. His sexuality is always in the foreground and unflinchingly part of the story and characterization that he grows with for three novels. While queerness had been present in fantasy and science fiction prior to this-including sympathetic depiction in Lackey’s debut trilogy “The Heralds of Valdemar” and Ellen Kushner’s gorgeous and groundbreaking 1987 mannerpunk novel Swordspoint-Vanyel was a character most of us had not encountered as young readers (or older ones). The first Vanyel book, Magic’s Pawn, was published in 1989.

Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey