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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
4.5 rounded up
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Expertly written standard fantasy. Great characters with depth, wonderful world for them to explore. This is the predecessor to a book on the Hugo and Nebula list and I'm glad to have read it to dip my toes into the world. I don't have much to say about it, it's just solid and good.
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Expertly written standard fantasy. Great characters with depth, wonderful world for them to explore. This is the predecessor to a book on the Hugo and Nebula list and I'm glad to have read it to dip my toes into the world. I don't have much to say about it, it's just solid and good.
12/12 I've lost this book. :( I will find it and continue reading, what I read of it was good.
3/18/13 - I found this book!! Cleaning ftw!
4/30/13 - I go through spells where I devour 5 books a week and then spells where I play video games 16 out of 24 hours and don't spend a lot of time reading. I've been in the latter of those here lately, but nevertheless, whenever I did deign to sit down and read for a while, this book instantly sucks you back into the story. It is so different from many popular fantasy books, in that, our "hero" (and he really really is the hero) isn't some handsome young wanderer who discovers he has otherworldly powers and must stop the universe from imploding. No, this hero has baggage and a bad back. He's alternatingly frail and pitiful and smart and cunning, he's very very... human.
This book is wonderfully written and if you haven't read it, you're missing out.
3/18/13 - I found this book!! Cleaning ftw!
4/30/13 - I go through spells where I devour 5 books a week and then spells where I play video games 16 out of 24 hours and don't spend a lot of time reading. I've been in the latter of those here lately, but nevertheless, whenever I did deign to sit down and read for a while, this book instantly sucks you back into the story. It is so different from many popular fantasy books, in that, our "hero" (and he really really is the hero) isn't some handsome young wanderer who discovers he has otherworldly powers and must stop the universe from imploding. No, this hero has baggage and a bad back. He's alternatingly frail and pitiful and smart and cunning, he's very very... human.
This book is wonderfully written and if you haven't read it, you're missing out.
Just change the names of the countries, titles and gods and the first third of this book could easily have been historical fiction rather than fantasy. I kept thinking my friends who enjoyed Katherine and The Other Boleyn Girl would like it. Even when the fantasy elements did eventually come into the story they really weren't the be all and end all. What made me enjoy this book was the characters. I liked them and wanted to see what happened to them.
This is exactly the sort of fantasy I love. Slow to build, but full of great ideas and fantastic world and character development. At times it reminded me a bit of Hobb's writing style (this is very high praise from me) and I really enjoyed being able to follow a character who was 35 rather than a typical 'farmboy' etc. (although we all know I love a good farmboy story too)
This book focuses around Cazeril, a man who has had one hell of a life. Cazeril is a war veteran at the age of just 35. He's fought for various people and at many different battle-sites. He's a thoroughly tired out man by the time we meet him travelling on the road to Chalion, but he's also a really mysterious and interesting character to try and work out.
What I loved about this story was the depth. Starting off with a well-hardened character means Bujold allows herself to go straight into the story and to develop that and the characters as she goes. We follow Cazeril along the road where he uncovers the remnants of Death magic, and he also meets all kind of people who are both good and bad and somewhere in-between. There are lots of excellent character development scenes and thoughts I felt very pertinent to the plot. Basically i think Bujold can certainly write.
Probably my favourite element besides the development in this book is quite a surprising thing (at least to me). I actually found myself really enjoying the political machinations we were seeing unfold. In this story Cazeril joins up to a house and starts to serve a rather powerful young lady. Whilst serving under her many of his secrets are exposed (whether he wants that or not) and he also discovers many secrets of others around him. He's a careful and clever character who has a whole load of crappy life situations to draw on for experience, and this makes him feel so much more authentic and solid as a character.
This is a slower book for sure, but I think it really does pay off and the second half of the story really got all fired up fast. I would definitely recommend this book and I can't wait to try out the next one in this series and hopefully I will love that one even more :) 4*s from me :)
This book focuses around Cazeril, a man who has had one hell of a life. Cazeril is a war veteran at the age of just 35. He's fought for various people and at many different battle-sites. He's a thoroughly tired out man by the time we meet him travelling on the road to Chalion, but he's also a really mysterious and interesting character to try and work out.
What I loved about this story was the depth. Starting off with a well-hardened character means Bujold allows herself to go straight into the story and to develop that and the characters as she goes. We follow Cazeril along the road where he uncovers the remnants of Death magic, and he also meets all kind of people who are both good and bad and somewhere in-between. There are lots of excellent character development scenes and thoughts I felt very pertinent to the plot. Basically i think Bujold can certainly write.
Probably my favourite element besides the development in this book is quite a surprising thing (at least to me). I actually found myself really enjoying the political machinations we were seeing unfold. In this story Cazeril joins up to a house and starts to serve a rather powerful young lady. Whilst serving under her many of his secrets are exposed (whether he wants that or not) and he also discovers many secrets of others around him. He's a careful and clever character who has a whole load of crappy life situations to draw on for experience, and this makes him feel so much more authentic and solid as a character.
This is a slower book for sure, but I think it really does pay off and the second half of the story really got all fired up fast. I would definitely recommend this book and I can't wait to try out the next one in this series and hopefully I will love that one even more :) 4*s from me :)
Започна така хубаво, защо беше нужен такъв посредствен край... :(
Ahoy there me mateys! I be readin' a lot of adult sci-fi and YA so far this year and had a hankerin' for some fantasy. I was goin' to read the paladin of souls but discovered just before I was about to read it that it be a book 2 of a series. So I picked up this book 1 instead. This was me first foray into this author's work, and I be hooked. I can't believe I missed enjoying her novels before. I will certainly be readin' the second book.
This was a slow-burning, delicious world-building, character-driven story. The main character, Cazaril, is a broken woe-filled man with absolute horrible luck. He is only in his 30s but seems ancient and weather-worn. When met, he is on a desperate journey to throw himself on the mercy of his former employer in an attempt to find a job, any job, wherein he may work and try to obtain some measure of peace.
Of course peace is not what he gets. Instead he is pulled into a horrible situation he wants no part of. Politics, gods, curses, magic and impossible odds. Anything else I can say about it would only be a diminishment of how completely awesome it is. Seriously, ye have to read it.
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
This was a slow-burning, delicious world-building, character-driven story. The main character, Cazaril, is a broken woe-filled man with absolute horrible luck. He is only in his 30s but seems ancient and weather-worn. When met, he is on a desperate journey to throw himself on the mercy of his former employer in an attempt to find a job, any job, wherein he may work and try to obtain some measure of peace.
Of course peace is not what he gets. Instead he is pulled into a horrible situation he wants no part of. Politics, gods, curses, magic and impossible odds. Anything else I can say about it would only be a diminishment of how completely awesome it is. Seriously, ye have to read it.
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
So slow, I wasn’t intrigued by the plot or the characters
A great character driven story, well written and thought out. It started a little slow for me, but after 50-100 pages it really picked up and the pacing was solid after that.
Read up to ~15% over 1-3 November 2024. So boring. And the 35yo man perving over a 16yo and 19yo (one of whom is the daughter of the woman he had a crush on as a teen) is WEIRD.
I re-read the whole thing in one sitting on a trans-Pacific flight and started the sequel as soon as I was done -- I'd remembered liking this world a lot as a teen, but I'd forgotten just how well Bujold's mastery of character sings in the context of fantasy. It was surprising to realise that the event in the novel which I remembered as its opening premise doesn't occur until 40% of the way through the novel, and the main character doesn't fully grasp the details that I found most memorable until 55% -- rediscovering that entire first half of the novel was lovely. (Especially since I'd also totally forgotten the ending.)
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2022 reread: another enjoyable revisit. How funny that j noticed the same thing this time too (eg that the story doesn’t really start til 1/3 in). This time I went straight on to Paladin of Souls rather than Hallowed Hunt which is a much smoother narrative transition.
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2023 reread: I think I am getting faster at rereading this, but it was still a comfort. I’m realising that I read Bujold the way I read my go-to comfort fanfic authors. In this case I was reading partly “for” an event that happened in the last few chapters, and all the bits leading up to it were just there for pleasant anticipation. Frankly, that fits with the theme of the novel itself, on reflection— the thing that needs to happen, also needs the whole book’s worth of events to get there.
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2022 reread: another enjoyable revisit. How funny that j noticed the same thing this time too (eg that the story doesn’t really start til 1/3 in). This time I went straight on to Paladin of Souls rather than Hallowed Hunt which is a much smoother narrative transition.
—
2023 reread: I think I am getting faster at rereading this, but it was still a comfort. I’m realising that I read Bujold the way I read my go-to comfort fanfic authors. In this case I was reading partly “for” an event that happened in the last few chapters, and all the bits leading up to it were just there for pleasant anticipation. Frankly, that fits with the theme of the novel itself, on reflection— the thing that needs to happen, also needs the whole book’s worth of events to get there.