115 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Playing footsie with the gods, November 4, 2003
I've been a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold since I was entranced by her Miles Vorkosigan series a couple of years ago. She has an interesting way of telling a story, combining fascinating characters with the ability to write action when the story calls for it. I was sure that she could write fantasy as well, and she proved it with The Curse of Chalion. Now, she has written a sequel of sorts, called Paladin of Souls. And once again, she hits the perfect mix.
Paladin of Souls is a sequel only in the sense that the events in the book take place after the previous book. Ista was the mother of two of the main characters in The Curse of Chalion, and she didn't figure that prominently in it. Bujold takes her, a relatively undeveloped character except where the curse was concerned, and gives her a living vibrancy. The reader can see why she went mad before, and why she is still seen as slightly insane. But we can also see the inner workings of her mind, and see why she is like this and how she can sometimes use it to her benefit. When one is touched by the gods, one is not unaffected, and Ista shows that effect. She's in her 40s, most of her family dead and her daughter off ruling the kingdom, and she's bored. She's also one of the only people who know the whole truth of what happened, and what lengths her family had taken to try and remove the curse. The entire book is told from her viewpoint, so the reader also gets to see her reaction to the events and the people around her.
Ista's not the only wonderful character, though. All of the characters in the book are three-dimensional, unless the book doesn't call them to be. There's Liss, the messenger girl who Ista enlists to be her traveling maid (mainly because Liss doesn't treat her like an invalid who will kill herself the first chance she gets). She mixes wonderfully with everybody, demonstrating how uncomfortable she is with the trappings of a royal court, but willing to do anything for Ista. Her two soldiers at arms, Forda and Foix, are loyal to a fault, but also men with their own emotions. Bujold makes great use of them as well, giving Foix a lot to do that a normal man-at-arms wouldn't get. Bujold's great strength has always been her characterization, and it's this skill that makes even the slower parts of the narrative (there are a few sequences that seem to go on forever) interesting in themselves.
The plot of the book is just as good, with Bujold slowly unfurling it as she goes along. Just when the reader thinks it's going one direction, it suddenly turns and goes somewhere else. It starts out as a story of redemption for Ista, and while that ultimately is the point of the story, it redeems some of the other characters as well. The fact that we care about these characters only adds to the strength. Bujold keeps the story flowing, with only the aforementioned slow parts bringing it down just a little. A couple of Ista's conversations with the Bastard (one of the five gods) drag a little bit at times, but the Bastard is such an interesting character that it's easy to forgive.
While the book is not filled with action and is a character-driven one, there are some great sequences that show she can handle fast-paced action as well. Everything is vividly described, and while there is a lot of blood flowing at times, none of it is too grotesquely described. There may be missing limbs, but nothing too outrageous. One thing I thought was a little bit less well-done was the final battle, though. It's a bit confusing at times, with events moving from the physical plane to inside Ista's head and then back again. Overall, however, Bujold does a great job, immersing the reader in the book, and never letting go.
The writing style is simply gorgeous. I read the book very slowly because I was just reveling in it. She captures the gentle humour of the characters along with the metaphysical aspect of the plot, almost making it lyrical. Her prose has really matured since she started with Shards of Honor. Don't race through Paladin of Souls to get to the finish line. Instead, savour it. Take your time and lose yourself.
I haven't read a bad Bujold book yet (there have been a couple sub-par books, but that's only when compared with her other stuff). This is yet another winner. It also almost demands a sequel (and she is writing another Chalion book), but perhaps she'll do what she did this time and go off on another tangent. Wherever Bujold leads, I'll be right there waiting.
David Roy
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming back from despair, May 21, 2004
This is one of those books with so much subtext it could float a battleship. There's a straight story on the top, very plain and not at all simple. Then under that, there's Lois McMaster Bujold with her literary stick stirring up your brain, getting all these odd thoughts to come floating out. As she always does.
On the straightforeward bit, this is the story of a woman who was a minor character from The Curse of Chalion. She's spent the past many years of her life in a deep despair, a depression and suicidal misery caused by a curse and exacerbated once the curse was lifted by the death of her son. She's watched over by kind, loving people who give her no freedom, no privacy and no trust. She has no love; even her daughter is far away and almost a stranger to her, and no prospects of friendship in her situation.
So she goes on a pilgramage, to get out and get away; an excuse but also an invocation of the Gods of Chalion. And as the Curse proved, the Gods of Chalion are listening... The Bastard God answers her with some very interesting problems.
So that's the straightforeward bit. It's how she does it that you have to see, because her writing is so amazing.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Wonderful Story!, September 23, 2003
PALADIN OF SOULS is not really a sequel to Ms. Bujold's masterpiece THE CURSE OF CHALION, instead it should be considered a companion piece, another part of the Chalion anthology. Why not a sequel? After all it does pick up just three years after the end of CURSE, many of the same characters are found in both, even the story line from CURSE is the basis for PALADIN'S. Sounds like a sequel doesn't it? Amazingly enough it really isn't. To begin with the story center has shifted away from Iselle, Bergon and of course Cazaril to the now curse free Dowager Royina Ista, the mother of the ruling queen. In fact the principal characters from CURSE are rarely mentioned in PALADIN, it is the secondary characters who now become the main protagonists.
The story revolves around Royina Ista, now free from her gods induced madness, and her attempt to break free from the confining restrictions imposed by her high station. Into her orbit fall the dy Gura brothers Ferda and Foix (one of my favorite characters from the CURSE) and a courier girl turned lady in waiting, Liss. In fact the twist of focus away from the original characters in CURSE is so dramatic and totally fresh that it becomes a completely new story, admittedly set within the familial universe of Chalion.
A wonderful story that is a pleasure to read? Yes, absolutely! Without flaw? No. One of its major problems is the pacing, it is very slow to start, almost ponderous. But after the first hundred pages it starts to click and begins to flow quite nicely. Its second major flaw is the constant delving into the composition and intricacies of Chalion's religion, overly much I think. In CURSE it was touched on just enough to ensure the free and unhindered flow of the story line, in PALADIN it is debated and pontificated enough to where it becomes a trifle bit dull.
All in all PALADIN OF SOULS is a wonderful story with interesting characters and an intriguing plot. While not quite as overwhelming as CURSE OF CHALION it is an exceptionally good piece of work that should be a 'must read' for fans of fantasy. You don't have to read CURSE first to appreciate this work but it would help, besides if you haven't read CURSE you have missed one of the best fantasy books published in the last ten years.
This one I would rate as HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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