Jacey Bedford's Journal

Audiobook read by Jennifer van Dyck.

I'd read good things about this series, so I really wanted to like it, but on balance I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Paksenarrion runs away from home to join a mercenary army rather than marry a local farmer. This book is the account of her first three years as she learns her trade in an army run by Duke Phelan. There's a LOT of detail about the minutiae of life in the military. (And I mean a LOT.) Paks flourishes. The training is good. The Duke looks after his soldiers, and Paks learns her trade well. She's gradually given small promotions and becomes one of the Duke's trusted minions. The good thing about this is the detailed and immersive worldbuilding, though it's in a generic medievaloid setting. The description is excellent, but, as a minion in the Duke's mercenary force, Paks doesn't have much agency, Sure, though naive at first, she learns her trade, is doggedly loyal, gains some loot, and always does her best, but... (You knew there would be a but, didn't you.) This is lacking in story. Paks doesn't really have much of an arc, though there are hints of one to come. She doesn't have much of an emotional journey either. Things happen to Paks, then other things happen, and then more things happen. The army marches here, the army marches there, Paks takes part in (well written) battles, and in sieges. She loses comrades, and saves comrades. I understand that the trilogy (The Deed of Paksenarrion) was written as one massive book and split into three, so this (long as it is) is mostly set-up. There's an incident at the beginning which I expected to pay off at the end, but it doesn't. (I don't know whether it will in subsequent books.) The narrator's occasional attempts at accents doesn't work particularly well for me. Because of her American accent , Paks often sounds like Pox, which is a bit unfortunate.

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booklog 2023, booklog, reading, books, fantasy, audiobook, Elizabeth Moon