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Summer Reading
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Review: In one of my other reviews (Lord Valentine's Castle) I mentioned that even a dyed-in-the-wool adventure addict like myself can find that there are too many heroes out there. However, there are a few books which go beyond mere heroes to HEROES -- books with characters who define the very meaning of the word, who become themselves incarnations of the concept. Such is Paksenarrion, sheepfarmer's daughter who ran away to join the army and ends as a holy warrior, a Paladin.
Much, perhaps most, of the fiction inspired by roleplaying games is at best uninspired and at worst utter drek. I actually avoided reading this series initially because it was recommended in roleplaying groups, and in roleplaying terms, so I thought it was just another of the many (uninspiring) fantasy series being published by TSR at the time.
I could not have been more wrong. The Deed of Paksenarrion does, in fact, have its roots in roleplaying, but not in the usual sense. Rather than being written either as a sort of record of someone's favorite character in a game, or as a publicity/demonstration piece for some gaming system or mechanic, Paksenarrion was born (according to an email exchange I had with the author) from bad roleplaying: Elizabeth Moon, not gaming herself, heard some people playing "Paladins" (Holy warriors in the service of a god) and doing so very poorly. Her reaction was of course that "such a person wouldn't ACT like that"... and in thinking about what they WOULD act like, Paksenarrion was born.
The Deed of Paksenarrion is a character study as much as it is an adventure, taking place in a world which seems almost mundane at first and only slowly reveals the magic and mystery behind it. "Paks" learns the art of war before she learns anything of the greater forces moving the plots behind the scenes, and it's a very long time before she understands the part she is to play. We learn to feel for her so that even as she becomes embroiled in ever-more fantastic -- and sometimes horrific -- adventures, we remember her as the earnest young girl who walked an entire day just to enlist in a mercenary company. And sometimes, she remembers that as well.