Book Log 4/2009 - The Sharing Knife #1: Beguilement

[jacey]

4) 10/1/09

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Sharing Knife #1 - Beguilement

All the reviews said: ‘Good, but not as good as Curse of Chalion,’ so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. On the whole I would agree, but to my mind it will be a very exceptional book that is as good as 'Curse of Chalion', so what to we have here? While maybe not Bujold’s best, it’s still very good indeed. A fantasy, but also more of a romance in that apart from a few monsters (inhuman and human) the plot is fairly well kept within the bounds of a boy-meets-girl scenario, even though neither the ‘boy’ nor the ‘girl’ are exactly typical. Lakewalker patroller Dag rescues and falls for young Fawn Bluefeld, a young woman from a farming family much less than half his age. He has to slay a monster first, but that’s his job. Scarier than the monster is Fawn’s family because Lakewalkers and farmers don’t mix and there’s much cultural misunderstanding.

I have a soft spot for Bujold’s damaged heroes and there is a comparison between Dag and Cas (the hero in Chalion) in that Dag has that same charming lack of awareness of his own heroic qualities while at the same time having certain knowledge of his own abilities which inspires the reader’s utter confidence in the fact that if he says he’ll do something, he’ll do it or go down trying. Cas is still my favourite hero, but Dag is up there in the top ten list and that’s saying an awful lot. I deliberately didn’t buy the second in the series until I’d read the first, but now I wish I had because I’ve ordered it and can’t wait for it to arrive. While I was at it I ordered the third one too.

Comments

[zeborah]

I deliberately didn't start reading the first book until I'd got access to the second. I'm glad.

I've been trying to remember what Pat Wrede said about it probably a couple of years ago; sometime I'll sit down and wrestle with the Google Groups search. But there were definitely interesting things going on with the structure that bear more pondering.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I always find Bujold books are worth pondering for technique. The trouble is that's very difficult to do because when you sit down to read an analyse you get swept back up into the story and forget to look for the very things that have caused this to happen. I've never read anything of hers that I haven't loved. Probably me least favourites were the first Cordelia book and maybe Ethan of Athos.

[elen-sentier.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I ought to order The Curse of Chalion from the library ... ???

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Oh, my gosh, yes. If you haven't read it. Or better still go out and buy a copy because you won't want to give it back. Ever. I won't give you any spoilers. Just read it. Now!