The Huntsman's Tale

I enjoyed this one as much as the first two! Nicholas and his friends and family travel to his family's land to help with his cousin with the harvest. There's a new lord in the area who is making all the local people's lives miserable. The first half of the book has a lot of details about medieval farming, which I found fascinating, but it isn't exciting at all. Of course, there is also a murder, and Nicholas, who is a busybody like all amateur sleuths, ends up investigating it.

Jordain is not as important in this book as in the first two, although he and a couple of his students have come along on the trip. Nicholas mostly teams up with another local lord, a blunt and honorable man who is an engaging character in his own right. A new and interesting female character is also introduced, and I see from the blurb of the next book that she plays a bigger role in the future.

I don't really understand why I like this series so much. Maybe it's the many hours I've sunk into Elder Scrolls games, wondering about the lives of NPCs. I recommend it, if you've ever wondered what Belethor at the General Goods store gets up to in his free time.

But Nicholas is very easy to like. He loves his family and he has so much compassion for everyone he meets. There's a strong religious element in these books; religion is important to everyone's lives, and in many ways, it's hard for them to comprehend rejecting any of the tenets of their faith. But Nicholas does try to understand others, even those who commit major sins in his eyes.

It's very different from how I view the world now, as an atheist, and even from how I was raised to view it (in the modern-day Catholic Church). As a small example, the characters briefly discuss the radical ideas of publishing the Bible or saying Mass in English, and no one can come up with a reason why these would be good ideas. So it all seems very quaint to me, yet these books show that these are all intelligent people with both good qualities and foibles, just living in a different era with different values. It's part of why I enjoy reading in general, seeing perspectives that are so far removed from my own.

I'm a fan of the (very light) romance in this series, because Nicholas and his love interest are so perfect for each other. Again, as a modern person, I would never have the objection he does to her future plans, although I understand why he feels as he does. Although she is not in this book much, the romance does move forward a little. I'm looking forward to the next book.