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57 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simpler than her other worlds -- but no less believeable, December 11, 2006
Lois McMaster Bujold has become one of my favorite authors. She has all the skill of worldbuilding of, say, CJ Cherryh, an unrivaled ability to combine humor and unstoppable action, and the ability to draw believeable characters about whom I care desperately. She also knows how to write a romantic love story. Beguilement draws upon all those strengths -- but it's somewhat different than Chalion and the Vor universes.
This is a much simpler tale. For example, it doesn't have the history that the Vor universe has... a history that slowly dawns on you as you figure out the reasons each society adopts given attitudes, and the reasons that Miles Vorkosigan is unlikely to discover simple answers. The books in the Chalion series are built on the premise of gods who can, indirectly at least, interact with the world they created. In Beguilement, the world in which Dag and Fawn live has a history, some of which the author has not yet revealed to us, but the world doesn't draw your attention away from the story. Most of the time, anyway. It also doesn't have the non-stop action that characterizes several of the Vor books (which makes me think of James Bond in Space).
As a result, you don't have to have your brain in operation full-time; Beguilement is a book to relax with rather than to cause you to think deep thoughts.
Some of the reviewers here are disappointed that this is just another love story, but I think they may be missing the clues that Bujold leaves all over the place; you just know that the newlyweds will have more to cope with in the next book than convincing Dag's family to accept Fawn. It's obvious that Dag and Fawn will encounter something far more dangerous than the cultural clash that forms the tension through much of this book.
Personally, I love the "grounding," the special ability of Lakewalkers to connect to living things, which serves as the "indistinguishable from magic" skill to the mundane "farmers" who populate most of the world. This is a quick read, but Bujold painted a lot more in the background than fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.
I think you'll appreciate this book most if you come to it with an easy expectation: think of it as a summer beach read. It's more than that, I think, but it doesn't have the action or emotional density of her earlier novels. That's fine with me, because I thought this was plain good fun.
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36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
False Colours, June 4, 2007
Bujold is one of my favorite fantasy authors, on a par with Patricia McKillip and R. A. MacAvoy when she's firing on all of her imagination cylinders. But this book was a bit kinder, gentler, sweeter, and umm, duller than I was expecting from her. I was looking forward to another "Spirit Ring" and got a double-decker romance. To be fair it has a decent monster, but only in a cameo role. It's a quick "Look, there's the Monster!" in Chapter 5, then nothing fantastical appears for the rest of the book.
Okay, well the hero heals a bowl on page 289.
It's usually an indication of laziness, when a second character has to explain why the book's heroine is special, rather than showing her in action and letting the reader decide. Normally Lois McMaster Bujold's specialty is finely wrought, believable characters, but in "Beguilement" she rushes the reader to judgment. We are told right away that Fawn Bluefield is likeable, intelligent, and pretty. There is no real reason for the author to do this, since Fawn is on stage through the rest of the book, and she really has all of those fine qualities. Maybe the author's `tell rather than show' policy is the reason why "Beguilement" seems more like a romance than a fantasy.
Most of the magic and action take place in the first 50 pages of "Beguilement," and after that we are treated to lots of background, world-building, and a slow but obvious romance. However, there's not much of a plot. If I were to leave out what little magic there is, I could summarize the plot as: heroine runs away from home, falls in love, and with the encouragement of her lover, is reconciled with her family. It could almost be a Jane Austen novel except for the monster.
And that pesky bowl.
I'm not really complaining, though. I like romances, and am looking forward to the next installment of "The Sharing Knife." I just feel like I bought the first book of the series under false colours.
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48 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not Bujold's best, October 11, 2006
I am a HUGE Bujold fan and have been since Warriors Apprentice. Paladin of Souls is one of my all time fav books with Chalion somewhere in the top 10. After having said this, I was not really that impressed with Beguilement. I am used to having Bujold explore the faults and flaws of her characters and the overcoming of these to further the story. She did this a little bit in Beguilement, but not as much as she normally does. I am very interested in Vol 2 and will buy it on it's release date, I am not saying it is a horrible book. Just it is not what I have come to expect from her. More than anything, Beguilement is a love story. I guess, for me at least, she focused too much on the love story and not enough on the other aspects.
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