A review by tjoliverbooks
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon

5.0

A fully realized story that gets more engaging as I read through it. All loose ends seem to tie together perfectly by the end, and events unfold slowly at first but I understood why by around page 500. If one can patiently wade through Paks days as a private in Duke Phelan's army, there are many amazing passages ahead. Paks is not an "every-woman" nor a "Mary Sue", she's a legendary person made "real" through our following her experiences which lead to her earned status as Paladin of Gird. This was a novel in 1020 pages, broken into what publishers thought were more marketable chunks but do not actually work well as stand-alone books. Reading them all together makes far more sense as a lover of reading good fiction. I'm amazed by Elizabeth Moon's fantasy world building as much as by her grasp of military life and how that can apply to a fantasy setting. I enjoy grittiness and limits on magic in such a setting. I also applaud Elizabeth Moon for writing a fitting end to her epic story, a feat so few authors manage to do well.