Paladin of Souls

Enjoyed having an older main character for once. Writing was great as per usual with Bujold, and I really enjoy the world-building.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Paladin of Souls takes place just after the events of The Curse of Chalion and focuses on one of the minor female characters in Curse. It can stand alone, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you read Curse first. This is another beautifully written masterpiece which won several prestigious awards, including a Hugo and a Nebula. Not only is Bujold an excellent writer, but her world of Chalion is believable and complex, the magic is deep, fascinating, and just plain scary. This is very far from the wizard-coming-of-age, orphan-boy-saves-the-world, or hunk-whips-up-on-the-bad-guys-with-a-cool-sword kind of fantasy epic. This is fresh. And highly recommended.

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Lois McMaster Bujold is an elegant writer, and I often just enjoy the way her words flow over the page. Paladin of Souls continues the universe of The Curse of Chalion. However, it references Cazaril and Iselle only in passing, instead following the Dowager Royina Ista into her life post-madness. Ista is a forty year old former madwoman whose widowhood is dominated by her late mother's overprotective court. She has never been in love and, having experienced her ultimate failure at age eighteen, has striven to leave no mark upon the world.

With the curse's lifting, however, Ista finds herself aching to escape her kindly prison and undertakes a false pilgrimage literally just to get out of the house. She is a unique hero in that she is neither young, strong, nor beautiful, and that is what makes her interesting and relatable. This story would not work if the main character was Iselle. It's about a grown woman with a grown woman's perceptions and priorities within the world. That is just far too rare in this genre.

The world itself also plays to my favorite theme of what happens when the Gods are just real. No faith necessary. Miracles, saints, and demons are all perfectly apparent and certain people are elected to play certain roles by ineffable but difficult to deny deities. Quintarian theology is explored much more deeply especially the nature of demons. Sadly, this means that a lot of the lovely ambiguity from Chalion (what's demon and what's a tumor?) is missing. It's all clearly Gods' work. For me, Chalion was superior in weaving mortal and divine together, but there is still a place for Paladin in this school.

Like Chalion, this book also took quite a while to get going. The slow start is worth it, and while the ending is a bit cheesy, it's also still quite appropriate. I've already picked up Hallowed Hunt, so I'll be finishing off this trilogy soon.