Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1)
by Lois McMaster Bujold
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lois McMaster BujoldEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-24
ISBN: 0061139076
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Book Reviews of Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1)
Book Review: Refreshingly different, but....
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is actually for the entire series, rather than the first book; despite being broken into four, I really don't feel that I can review only a single book. I've been a big fan of Bujold's fantasy since I came across the Curse of Chalion. Having seriously burned out on multivolume "doorstopper" epics long ago thanks to Jordan and GRRM, I've been on the hunt for well-written, engaging, smaller-scale fantasy ever since, and Bujold's work fits that bill nicely. She has the talent to work a smaller plot while at the same time keeping the feel of events that are epic in scope, and to convincingly portray a well-realized world on a smaller canvas. The world she presents in this series is well-drawn and enthralling. Refreshingly, her fantasy world setting is based on the American West in the mid-to-late 1800s, rather than on the way-overused medieval Europe. The farmers and the Lakewalkers are both well-developed peoples with clearly defined and contrasting cultures that are presented in enough depth to feel convincing without going overboard and drowning the readers in detail, and the "groundsense" the Lakewalkers possess is intriguing. Despite the fact that only Lakewalkers have groundsense, Bujold avoids the pitfall of presenting the Lakewalkers as a "superior" culture; like the farmers, Lakewalker culture has both strengths and weaknesses, and both individual Lakewalkers and farmers are shown as human beings with individual human frailties and failings. (In fact, the main theme of the last two books in the series is the struggle to bring the Lakewalker and farmer cultures to greater understanding of each other.) Her "malices" and their mud-man soldiers are perhaps a bit derivative but not enough to spoil the books, and the battle scenes are fast-paced. Her scene-setting descriptions are evocative and her characterizations are so well-drawn they feel almost four-dimensional (perhaps helped by the more familiar setting).
There's so much to like about this book series that I feel bad mentioning anything negative about it, but I do have to say that despite everything, the romance between Dag and Fawn bugged me. I really dislike romances with a drastic age or power mismatch between the couple, and unfortunately we've got both of those here. Dag is much, *much* older than Fawn (about thirty years!), and due to his time as a Lakewalker patroller, he has much more experience and worldly knowledge than she does. (In fact, much of the first book is taken up with Dag patiently explaining things to a curious but ignorant Fawn; needless to say, this flow of information only goes one way.) Not only that, but the "groundsense" that he and all Lakewalkers possess gives him an additional power that Fawn does not have, and Fawn is given no powers or advantages to compensate for this. In fact, at one point in the second book, Dag rather condescendingly refers to Fawn as an "apprentice adult," to which my response is, Dag, if that's *really* what you think of her, then you shouldn't be going anywhere *near* her in a romantic sense until you can see her as a *full* adult. By the fourth book, Fawn has basically turned into Dag's appendage; she accompanies him uncomplainingly on his quest to learn how to be a medicine maker, puts up with scut chores in the medicine tent so that she can learn how to be Dag's hands, and spends a lot of time basically assisting Dag in doing whatever he's doing. Does she have *any* talents and wishes of her own that aren't related to helping Dag to be a good medicine maker? Well, it doesn't appear so. Oh, wait: no, she wants to settle down and have kids. Which, there's nothing *wrong* with that, but what *else* does she want to do as well? (I'll also point out that I did find it somewhat unrealistic that the Lakewalkers' mechanical medicine skills would be as highly developed as those of the farmers, given that they can do so much with their groundsense; perhaps that could have been one area in which Fawn was allowed to shine.) The characters are so well-drawn and their romance so concretely realized that it's not a huge deal, but it did keep irritating me at odd moments during the series.
Nevertheless, the series is so solidly written, so well-constructed, the world so well-developed, that despite the irritating features of the romance, I still have to give this book series five stars. I would really like to see more books written in this world and I hope Bujold returns to it in future.
Summary of Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1)
An epic fantasy of devotion, destiny, and perilous magic, from one of the most honored writers in the field? multiple Hugo Award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold
Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family?s farm. But on the way to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier-sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers armed with mysterious knives made of human bone, they wage a secret on-going war against the scourge of the ?malices,? immortal entities that draw the life out of their victims, enslaving human and animal alike. It is Dag?a Lakewalker patroller weighed down by past sorrows and present responsibilities?who must come to Fawn?s aid when she is taken captive by a malice. They prevail at a devastating cost?unexpectedly binding their fates together as they embark upon a remarkable journey into danger and delight, prejudice and partnership . . . and perhaps even love.
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