The story of Farmer girl Fawn and Lakewalker Dag has been building through three books to this fourth, as the two of them continue their efforts to find a place in the world where they can live and have the family they want while also finding a way to deal with the crisis they see coming between their peoples and the ancient menace that threatens the whole world. This is not a stand-alone book; for those new to the series the preceding book Passage is a prerequisite at the minimum.
Warning - possible spoilers ahead.
The first two books, Beguilement and Legacy are much more focused on the relationship between Dag and Fawn. How they met, how they fell in love, and just what the two very different worlds they come from are like. Farmers and Lakewalkers do NOT ever marry each other - or so their two respective societies would have it.
Lakewalkers are set apart by their groundsense, an inherited ability to perceive the world in a different way that allows them to work what seems magic to Farmer eyes and fight an ancient foe. The enemy is Malices which emerge at random from the land and threaten to use their vastly more powerful groundsense to drain ground from the world until it all crumbles. Only Lakewalkers can resist the mind-enslaving, ground-ripping power of Malices. Farmers are little more than fodder for Malices - yet they fear and distrust the powers of their only protection, the Lakewalkers who ceaselessly patrol looking for the threat. Only Lakewalkers can kill Malices with their sharing knives, made from the bones of their own dead and primed by the death of a Lakewalker as his or her final gift in the centuries long war against their deadly foes.
Dag Redwing is a nearly burned out Lakewalker patroller more than ready to die, seeking only to take down as many Malices as he can with the years he has left. Having lost his first Lakewalker wife and his left hand to a truly terrible Malice years ago, he is totally unprepared for what happens when he meets the young Farmer girl Fawn Bluefield fleeing her own personal disaster. Caught up in a Malice outbreak, the two them together take down the Malice - he supplies the Sharing Knife, hers is the hand that uses it to teach the Malice how to die. As the two of them seek to survive the aftermath, they fall in love.
From there the story continues as Dag and Fawn first deal with her family, and then with his in the first two books. Both begin to grow and change as neither could have imagined before meeting each other, shaped both by the love they have for each other and the events they face. Fawn is becoming much more than the naive Farmer girl as her hungry mind is opened to a much wider world. Dag becomes reborn as her enthusiasm reopens his eyes to a world he had become numb to. The two of them begin to see that the old ways of Farmer and Lakewalker are no longer adequate to cope with a changing world. By the end of the second book, Dag is ready to move on from being a patroller as his groundsense begins to change and develop; Fawn has become much more confident in herself and more experienced - but is still hungry to see more of the world. Together the two of them embark on an epic journey down the great rivers of the land to the sea.
This journey is the third book, Passage. Dag and Fawn embark on a flatboat for a weeks long trip to the sea. Along the way they begin to accumulate their own 'tribe' - Fawn's younger brother who has someone inserted himself in their trip, a couple of young Lakewalker patrollers fleeing their own personal mess, the young boatboss Berry Clearcreek and her crew seeking a missing father and fiance. Working as crew on the flatboat, Fawn and Dag begin to try to find a new way between Farmers and Lakwalkers; educating both sides about each other, breaking through the misunderstandings. Dag's groundsense powers are growing and changing as he fumbles his way to becoming a medicine maker to Farmers. Fawn finds her common sense and bright mind are needed to keep Dag centered as he goes far beyond the bounds of anything he had ever imagined. By journey's end they have reached the sea and survived another great threat.
Dag and Fawn have made some progress with their plans to find a way to close the gap between Farmers and Lakewalkers, but they are a long way from having the answers they need and they keep finding more questions. Horizon begins with Dag not knowing what to do next, and becoming more and more unsettled as he tries to get a handle on his new abilities. It takes Fawn's insight to set him on a way forward. They seek out a master groundsetter among the southern Lakewalkers to teach him what he needs to know.
Southern Lakewalkers are almost a breed apart from their northern kin. Malices are almost unknown; Farmers cover the land, and the southern Lakewalkers are finding it harder and harder to maintain their traditional identity. Although Dag's new mentor is both fascinated and horrified by his experiences, he's also intrigued by Dag's discoveries and their ideas - but Fawn finds little welcome. Dag nonetheless begins to make real progress - and unsettle things when his past as a legendary northern patrol captain surfaces. Things come to a head when Dag is compelled by his new ideals to treat a young Farmer boy who would die otherwise, and is threatened with expulsion for deliberately crossing the line between Farmers and Lakewalkers.
Refusing again to compromise, Dag and Fawn begin a journey back to the north overland along the Tripoint Trace - trailing his mentor along with them! Again Dag and Fawn find themselves as leaders in a growing party of mixed Farmers, riverfolk and Lakewalkers as they seek to find a way forward. The story builds to a sustained climax as Dag and Fawn find their ideas and their hopes tested by a threat they had never imagined. Both will be challenged in ways they had never faced and others will be drawn in, in ways that had never before been seen.
Bujold does a masterful job of bringing the tale told over four books to an end. Along the way there is much humor, plenty of romance, wonderful characters, and enough excitement and drama to satisfy all. What began as an intimate romance between two people has expanded in the course of just over a year (book time) to a thrilling saga with a wider cast. While that expanded focus may not please those who just want the Dag and Fawn story, they still remain the core around which the story turns. The difference is that their relationship has now become so solid, they have much more power to affect those around them. Having been through so many changes in their own selves, they have now become catalysts for change in others and the story expands to watching those changes unfold.
It's a darned good read. Will there be more to come in the future? There's no way of knowing but Bujold has managed to bring all to satisfactory stopping point while leaving plenty of room for future possibilities. In the Vorkosigan saga Bujold created memorable characters in Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan with good stories around them - yet really hit her stride with tales of their son Miles. Will something comparable happen here? That question will have to wait for another day. Meanwhile there's quite enough here for now.
Highly Recommended.
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Hits all the right notes; a satisfying conclusion
Horizon is the fourth and final book of Bujold's Sharing Knife series. In it, we find our heroes, Dag and Fawn Bluefield, returning north with the intention of settling a place of their own. Dag, already a veteran Lakewalker patroller, has become more than that now: medicine-maker, groundsetter, husband, father/brother figure, and all-around leader to a small conclave of Lakewalkers and farmers. Dag wants for simple things, but his life is anything but simple. As he and Fawn and a myriad of others travel north, they come face-to-face with Dag's worst nightmare: a malice that has grown unchecked and become very powerful as a result.The Sharing Knife is, by it's very definition, about sacrifice. Dag sacrifices his usual way of life as a Lakewalker. Fawn sacrifices the stability of the life of a farmer to be with him. Others cross paths with Lakewalkers and farmers alike throughout the series and oftentimes come away missing something. A sharing knife itself is a medium of sacrifice, for it is imbued with the 'death' of a Lakewalker individual, and is the only weapon that can slay a malice.Horizon is very much a continuation (and conclusion) of the series. The story itself comes full circle in more ways than one as Dag and Fawn return north and, in inadvertent fashion, complete the quest most dear to Dag's heart: to seal the rift between farmer and Lakewalker and unite them against the common threat of malice. Perhaps the best thing about Horizon is the way in which this happens. I won't give anything away, but suffice to say Dag spends much of the first three books planting seeds which only spring forth in this final volume.I've said this before, but it bears mentioning again: the four books read as one. The style, the flow of the various plotlines; one can easily imagine Bujold having written the series in one long, continuous sitting. The writing is consistently excellent, with characters true to form and dialog spot on. This is not an action-packed thriller, yet Bujold has an excellent sense of moving the story along. I never felt like she was spinning me in circles or going down a path that had no relevance to the overall story. It's just great storytelling.I'm giving Horizon and the overall Sharing Knife series 5 out of 5 rockets. It really is an enjoyable read, with interesting characters, hints of suspense in all the right places, and a world that is believable and engaging. The 'magic system' is fresh and original, and not overdone in any sense. I'd recommend picking up a copy and giving it a read.
Top reviews from other countries
lucy shackelford
La Bujold bravissima scrittrice
Reviewed in Italy on April 19, 2021
