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106 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Happened Next, March 18, 2010
This review is from: Oath of Fealty (Hardcover)
Twenty-two years ago, Elizabeth Moon wrote Sheepfarmer's Daughter (Deed of Paksenarrion), which began the story of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, who ran away from a forced marriage to become a mercenary solider. Paks' tale continued in Divided Allegiance (The Deed of Paksenarrion, Book 2) and concluded in Oath of Gold (The Deed of Paksenarrion, Book 3). The entire trilogy was later published as a single volume, The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel. The end of the trilogy was very well done, especially for a first novel, but it left any number of loose ends. Paks' "Deed" had left entire countries in disarray.
Moon returned to Paks' world with two prequels, but both were pretty dark. They have never been as popular as "Deed." And, besides, they offered only the barest hints of what happened in Paks' time after the events of "Deed."
Now, at last, with "Oath of Fealty," Moon has returned to the world and time of Paksenarrion. While we have had to wait a very long time to hear the rest of the story, the good news is that Ms. Moon's formidable plotting and writing skills have improved over the years. ""Fealty" is a page turner, even more than "Oath of Gold" was. We follow events across the Eight Kingdoms and even into Aarenis as the impact of Paks' actions spread across her world. The story picks up the evening of Duke Phelan's arrival in Lyonya - the last scene in "Deed" - and follows the very different consequences for the Duke's captains, Dorrin and Arcolin, for the Crown Prince of Tsaia and other major and minor characters from "Deed." Paks herself appears, but she is a relatively minor character in "Fealty," important but not the focus of the story. Despite the lapse of 22 years, the characters and events are consistent; too often, in late-arriving sequels, there are annoying inconsistencies and contradictions. Not here.
According to Moon's blog, this is the first of a projected trilogy. Certainly some of the characters are left in peril at the end of "Fealty," and there are important plot threads left unresolved. But this is a complete novel, just as the books in the first trilogy were. It is also an immensely satisfying read. Dorrin, in particular, is well-written and has moments that the 22-year younger Moon probably could not have written.
Bravo, Ms. Moon. Exceptionally well done. While Moon has written "Fealty" so it can be read without having read "Deed," I suggest that "Fealty" will be much more satisfying if you read "Deed" first.
My very highest recommendation. I very much look forward to the next book.
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32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wanted to like it more than I did, March 19, 2010
This review is from: Oath of Fealty (Hardcover)
I loved the earlier books, in fact have both the individual books and the omnibus edition. Was so excited about this book coming out I pre-ordered it as soon as I could.
Just a heads up, this book isn't about Paks, it is about the many people affected by her actions during the last half of Oath of Gold. Which, I admit, I was very curious about when that book ended!
That said, I really, really wanted to like this book more than I did. It's not that I hated the book, I did like it. I just found the multiple plot lines didn't work for me. I've read other authors who employ this device with much better success (Sharon Shin, Kristen Britain). And one of the reasons they are successful is there are multiple times where two or more of the strands intersect. Here there really wasn't, which made it seem like I was reading four parallel stories instead of one integrated one. I did like each of the stories, Ms. Moon does a great job showing each person's view and making them distinct. I particularly liked Dorrin's story.
As with the first two Paks books, Ms. Moon does leave things open ended with a definite path the next book could follow. And I'll definitely be pre-ordering that one as well because, even without the threads weaving as much as I would like, this was a good read!
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's all too easy, March 17, 2011
I've never read Moon before, so I came at this book without the background of the earlier Paks series.
The book kept me interested enough to read it, which is why it gets 3 stars. But truly, I kept wanting this book to be better, to be more mysterious, to present more *conflict* and tension about what was going to happen to the characters, but that just never developed. To be honest, the book felt a little "workmanlike", as if the author had to put out another book and went through the motions of producing fantasy, but was a little tapped out in terms of truly interesting plot. To her credit, what she does, she does relatively well; but I'm curious as to whether her earlier books showed more passion and fire.
Most of you have probably read plenty of Moon before, so the following is probably old hat: Moon presents a distinctly military approach to writing. She is listed in the book as an "ex marine", and she clearly seems to relish drawing on that background, taking great pains to lay out command and control structures, the life of someone in the military (adjusted to a fantasy setting of course), etc. That's fine: you have to write what you know. I don't find it particularly compelling myself, but I do at least appreciate the fact that here we are dealing with someone who knows what they are talking about. So many fantasy authors romanticize and fantasize warfare and armies without having any concept of the reality behind them.
Where the book falls down for me is that everything is just *too easy* for the main characters, particularly Dorrin. I think the most glaring example of this is that this woman, who has never known anything about magic and who has followed a religion that bans magic, is basically handed super magic powers with nothing more than a page or two of discussion about how they were "awakened" and then trained. From that point on, she is a virtual wrecking ball of magic, effortlessly outdueling entire legions of magic users, magic users who had gained their abilities from hideous human sacrifice rituals. What did Dorrin do? It's like the author needed to find a way to make Dorrin safe from her magic enemies, could think of nothing else, and just decided "hey, she is just a natural magician". Dorrin does not need to learn to control her very powerful magic, there is no cost to her in using it, she does not need to take time to cast spells but instead it just instantly jumps to her use. What fun is that? Go read, say, Stephen Donaldson's White Gold Wielder for an example of the kind of strain and sacrifice a protagonist must endure to have any access to their magic power.
You know what this is like? It's like playing a first-person shooter with the "invulnerable" cheat codes on. Sure, when you're 12 you think it's fun to be able to go through the world infinitely powerful and invulnerable, but it quickly loses its charm because there's no *drama*.
And that's what this book lacked for me: drama. I never felt like there were any real conflicts (the notable exception being the demonic possession of the sargeant in the southern story). Time after time, the protagonists wanted to do something and immediately proceeded to do so. The southern captain wanted to defeat brigands, and everything he did just worked. He was able to manipulate bankers, he was able to outwit bandits and win battles, all seemingly too easy. The protagonists all feel like they have "cheat codes" on.
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