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meduse_jalouse 's review for:
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold
A wonderful choice for a nine hour plane ride as I contemplate what it means to start over.
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Original review from August 2015:
I'm really bad at writing reviews of books that are really important to me, because I try to say everything at once and it comes out as an effusive, tangled mess. And still, I try.
Paladin of Souls is a book about second chances. In younger days, Ista, then royina of Chalion, prayed for a miracle to save herself, her daughter, and her son from a dark curse surrounding the entire royal family; her prayers were answered, but the results were disastrous and destroyed both Ista's hope of lifting the curse and her faith--in humanity, in the gods, in justice, in reason. Betrayed by her husband and his closest advisor, and believing herself abandoned by the gods, she became a grieving, empty-eyed wraith that haunted the fortress of the Zangre and was known to all as Mad Ista.
Nearly twenty years pass from this time to the events of The Curse of Chalion, and another three before the beginning of this book. By this time, Ista has grown accustomed to ignoring the gods, and being (she hopes, but doesn't pray) ignored by them. But after the curse is broken, and the later death of her elderly mother (under whose watchful eye she has been kept away from sharp things and high ledges and anything remotely dangerous), she finds herself--suddenly, and rather urgently--feeling stifled and confined and yearning to *breathe.*
This flash of inspiration manifests itself in a pilgrimage to some of the more remote places in Chalion (specifically, "anywhere but home"), including some of the border provinces that butt up against the Roknari princedoms, at war with Chalion for centuries; through a series of accidents and impulses that Ista recognizes, belatedly and to her extreme anger, as divine intervention, she finds herself caught up in another and altogether more terrifying web of magic and necessity and the gods' murky plans. But is this a chance at redemption, or are the gods simply laughing at her?
And anyway, how can a failed saint, a failed lover, and a failed leader possibly hope to be any of these things again, let alone all three?
I love the Chalion books because they are perfectly formed and beautifully written. If the pen is mightier than the sword, then Bujold is one of the world's greatest weapons; she has a gift for using *exactly* the right words, so that the whole work comes together not as a story being spun but as a truth that exists, and that we can share. This is a story about rebirth and persistence and trust, but it's also a cautionary tale about the toxicity of silence and the lies we tell ourselves when we think no one else can help us. And it has a happy ending, which I think we all agree (even the gods) Ista deserves.
------------------
Original review from August 2015:
I'm really bad at writing reviews of books that are really important to me, because I try to say everything at once and it comes out as an effusive, tangled mess. And still, I try.
Paladin of Souls is a book about second chances. In younger days, Ista, then royina of Chalion, prayed for a miracle to save herself, her daughter, and her son from a dark curse surrounding the entire royal family; her prayers were answered, but the results were disastrous and destroyed both Ista's hope of lifting the curse and her faith--in humanity, in the gods, in justice, in reason. Betrayed by her husband and his closest advisor, and believing herself abandoned by the gods, she became a grieving, empty-eyed wraith that haunted the fortress of the Zangre and was known to all as Mad Ista.
Nearly twenty years pass from this time to the events of The Curse of Chalion, and another three before the beginning of this book. By this time, Ista has grown accustomed to ignoring the gods, and being (she hopes, but doesn't pray) ignored by them. But after the curse is broken, and the later death of her elderly mother (under whose watchful eye she has been kept away from sharp things and high ledges and anything remotely dangerous), she finds herself--suddenly, and rather urgently--feeling stifled and confined and yearning to *breathe.*
This flash of inspiration manifests itself in a pilgrimage to some of the more remote places in Chalion (specifically, "anywhere but home"), including some of the border provinces that butt up against the Roknari princedoms, at war with Chalion for centuries; through a series of accidents and impulses that Ista recognizes, belatedly and to her extreme anger, as divine intervention, she finds herself caught up in another and altogether more terrifying web of magic and necessity and the gods' murky plans. But is this a chance at redemption, or are the gods simply laughing at her?
And anyway, how can a failed saint, a failed lover, and a failed leader possibly hope to be any of these things again, let alone all three?
I love the Chalion books because they are perfectly formed and beautifully written. If the pen is mightier than the sword, then Bujold is one of the world's greatest weapons; she has a gift for using *exactly* the right words, so that the whole work comes together not as a story being spun but as a truth that exists, and that we can share. This is a story about rebirth and persistence and trust, but it's also a cautionary tale about the toxicity of silence and the lies we tell ourselves when we think no one else can help us. And it has a happy ending, which I think we all agree (even the gods) Ista deserves.