The Spirit Ring [Hardcover]

Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1992

Fiametta, the daughter of a creator of enchanted object d'art, finds herself running for her life, and only her own untried magical gifts can save her from a ring of demonic power that threatens her with eternal damnation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hugo and Nebula winner Bujold (the Miles Vorkosigan series; Barrayar ) makes her hardcover debut with this enthralling dark fantasy set in Renaissance Italy, where the church regulates magic and licenses magicians. After Uberto Ferrante assassinates the Duke of Montefoglia and takes over the duchy, master goldsmith and sorcerer Prospero Beneforte flees with his 16-year-old daughter, Fiametta. But he dies of a heart attack while being pursued by Ferrante's men for his magical powers and knowledge. His unshriven body is taken back to Ferrante to be used in making a spirit ring granting the usurper the strong powers of black magic. Fiametta, talented in magic and metalwork but untrained because she is female, joins with Thur Ochs, a young Swiss with untapped skills in necromancy, to rescue the souls of her father and of Ochs's brother, a mercenary soldier. Aided by a wise churchman, the two youngsters take on the ancient evil of sorcery used for devilish ends. In a perfectly natural manner, Bujold incorporates the concept of magic into this crisply paced, fully developed tale. She notes that Benvenuto Cellini served as the inspiration for the hugely talented, hugely egocentric Beneforte.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"LOOK OUT FOR THIS WINNER; IT EXCELS!"

-- The Bookwatch --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 369 pages
• Publisher: Baen (November 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671721429
• ISBN-13: 978-0671721428
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,695,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Logical Foray into Fantasy, January 18, 2000

By 

K. Bennett (Rolla, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit Ring (Hardcover)

This was the first Lois McMaster Bujold book I ever read (and now I've read them all) and it's still one of my favorites. What makes this book stand out from all the other Middle Ages, magical rings books is, first and foremost, this book makes sense! Bujold carefully lays down the ground rules for the use of magic in her world, and then she sticks to them. There's no "Deus ex machina" in The Spirit Ring, just a wonderful, witty, entirely "believable" story. As always in a Bujold book, there's mystery, comedy, action, and even a little romance.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate historical fantasy, set in a magical Renaissance, January 6, 2004

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Spirit Ring (Mass Market Paperback)

____________________________________________
"The Spirit Ring" is based on "The Grateful Dead", which is an old
folk-tale (young man pays for a pauper's burial, and is rewarded by his
ghost), Ms. Bujold's great-uncle's Ph.D. dissertation, and (I presume)
source of the band's name. This is, I think, her most personal novel. The
heroine's domineering, larger-than-life father must be, in part, LMB's own
engineer-father, though the character is formally modeled on Benvenuto
Cellini. The spunky, rebellious, and ultimately spectacularly successful
daughter is surely, in part, Lois herself (or at least a power-fantasy
wish-fulfillment mental self-image) [1]. Huh. I don't normally do (or
like) this sort of review, but it feels right this time. Read the book and
see what you think. LMB has said that the engineer-hero of "Falling Free"
was explicitly modeled after her Dad. And "The Spirit Ring" is her only
female coming-of-age novel. None of this will get in the way of your
enjoyment of the book, BTW, it's Bujold at her story-telling best, a fine
and stirring yarn indeed.

We're in the smokehouse at a rural inn:

Thur glanced up, then his gaze was riveted by what lay in the shadows
above the rafters... the nude body of a gray-bearded man, close-wrapped in
the same sort of gauze as the sausages... His skin was shrivelled and
tanning in the smoke.

"Pico was right," Thur observed after a moment's stunned silence. "Your
wife does smoke the most unusual hams."

Catti glanced up after him. "Oh, that," he said in disgust. "...He's a
refugee from Montefoglia who didn't quite make it. Penniless, it turned
out -- after the bill was run up."

"Do you often do this to guests who don't pay?" asked Thur in a fascinated
voice. "I'll tell Pico to settle our bill promptly..."

"The Spirit Ring" was Bujold's ninth published novel, first fantasy novel
and first hardcover. It didn't sell very well. I was vaguely aware of its
existence, but I'm not a regular fantasy reader and had passed it by. Don't
you make the same mistake.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than the cover implies, December 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spirit Ring (Mass Market Paperback)

A quite enjoyable book. Being a fan of the Vorkosigan books, I put off reading this book out of fear that a SF author's first (and at the time only) foray into fantasy wouldn't be up to snuff. I was quite pleased to find my fears were unfounded.

LMB brings a "scientific" approach to magic, which is quite refreshing compared to the average fantasy novel. While not at all all similar, it reminds me of Modessit's concept of magic (where there are systematic rules to how magic works).

The book does suffer from a slight lack of character development, and there aren't too many surprises at the end. But these problems are quite small when compared to the fact that the book is just plain fun to read.