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Paladin of Souls: A Hugo Award Winner (Chalion series, 2) Mass Market Paperback – April 26, 2005
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length496 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperTorch
- Publication dateApril 26, 2005
- Dimensions4.19 x 0.99 x 6.75 inches
- ISBN-109780380818617
- ISBN-13978-0380818617
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A well-paced and exciting book, PALADIN [OF SOULS] is a perfect blend of might, magic, and character development.” — Library Journal
From the Back Cover
Follow Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the most honored authors in the field of fantasy and science fiction, to a land threatened by treacherous war and beset by demons -- as a royal dowager, released from the curse of madness and manipulated by an untrustworthy god, is plunged into a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm.
About the Author
One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold burst onto the scene in 1986 with Shards of Honor, the first of her tremendously popular Vorkosigan Saga novels. She has received numerous accolades and prizes, including two Nebula Awards for best novel (Falling Free and Paladin of Souls), four Hugo Awards for Best Novel (Paladin of Souls, The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance), as well as the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novella The Mountains of Mourning. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. The mother of two, Bujold lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Paladin of Souls
By Bujold, Lois McMasterHarperTorch
ISBN: 0380818612Chapter One
Ista leaned forward between the crenellations atop the gate tower, the stone gritty beneath her pale hands, and watched innumb exhaustion as the final mourning party cleared the castle gatebelow. Their horses' hooves scraped on the old cobblestones, and theirgoodbyes echoed in the portal's vaulting. Her earnest brother, theprovincar of Baocia, and his family and retinue were last of the manyto leave, two full weeks after the divines had completed the funeralrites and ceremonies of the interment.
Dy Baocia was still talking soberly to the castle warder, Ser dy Ferrej,who walked at his stirrup, grave face upturned, listening to thestream, no doubt, of final instructions. Faithful dy Ferrej, who hadserved the late Dowager Provincara for all the last two decades of herlong residence here in Valenda. The keys of the castle and keep glintedfrom the belt at his stout waist. Her mother's keys, which Ista had collectedand held, then turned over to her older brother along with allthe other papers and inventories and instructions that a great lady'sdeath entailed. And that he had handed back for permanent safekeepingnot to his sister, but to good, old, honest dy Ferrej. Keys to lock outall danger ... and, if necessary, Ista in.
It's only habit, you know. I'm not mad anymore, really.
It wasn't as though she wanted her mother's keys, nor her mother's life that went with them. She scarcely knew what she wanted. She knew what she feared -- to be locked up in some dark, narrow place bypeople who loved her. An enemy might drop his guard, weary of histask, turn his back; love would never falter. Her fingers rubbed restlesslyon the stone.
Dy Baocia's cavalcade filed off down the hill through the town andwas soon lost from her view among the crowded red-tiled roofs. DyFerrej, turning back, walked wearily in through the gate and out ofsight.
The chill spring wind lifted a strand of Ista's dun hair and blew itacross her face, catching on her lip; she grimaced and tucked it backinto the careful braiding wreathing her head. Its tightness pinched herscalp.
The weather had warmed these last two weeks, too late to ease anold woman bound to her bed by injury and illness. If her mother hadnot been so old, the broken bones would have healed more swiftly, andthe inflammation of the lungs might not have anchored itself sodeeply in her chest. If she had not been so fragile, perhaps the fall fromthe horse would not have broken her bones in the first place. If she hadnot been so fiercely willful, perhaps she would not have been on thathorse at all at her age ... Ista looked down to find her fingers bleeding,and hid them hastily in her skirt.
In the funeral ceremonies, the gods had signed that the old lady'ssoul had been taken up by the Mother of Summer, as was expected andproper. Even the gods would not dare violate her views on protocol. Istaimagined the old Provincara ordering heaven, and smiled a littlegrimly.
And so I am alone at last.
Ista considered the empty spaces of that solitude, its fearful cost.Husband, father, son, and mother had all filed down to the grave aheadof her in their turn. Her daughter was claimed by the royacy of Chalionin as tight an embrace as any grave, and as little likely to return fromher high place, five gods willing, as the others from their low ones. Surely I am done. The duties that had defined her, all accomplished.Once, she had been her parents' daughter. Then great, unlucky Ias'swife. Her children's mother. At the last, her mother's keeper. Well, I amnone of these things now.
Who am I, when I am not surrounded by the walls of my life? Whenthey have all fallen into dust and rubble?
Well, she was still Lord dy Lutez's murderer. The last of that little,secret company left alive, now. That she had made of herself, and thatshe remained.
She leaned between the crenellations again, the stone abrading thelavender sleeves of her court mourning dress, catching at its silkthreads. Her eye followed the road in the morning light, starting fromthe stones below and flowing downhill, through the town, past theriver ... and where? All roads were one road, they said. A great netacross the land, parting and rejoining. All roads ran two ways. Theysaid. I want a road that does not come back.
A frightened gasp behind her jerked her head around. One of herlady attendants stood on the battlement with her hand to her lips, eyeswide, breathing heavily from her climb. She smiled with false cheer."My lady. I've been seeking you everywhere. Do ... do come away fromthat edge, now ..."
Ista's lips curled in irony. "Content you. I do not yearn to meet thegods face-to-face this day." Or on any other. Never again. "The gods andI are not on speaking terms."
She suffered the woman to take her arm and stroll with her as if casuallyalong the battlement toward the inner stairs, careful, Ista noted,to take the outside place, between Ista and the drop. Content you,woman. I do not desire the stones.
I desire the road.
The realization startled, almost shocked her. It was a new thought.A new thought, me? All her old thoughts seemed as thin and raggedas a piece of knitting made and ripped out and made and ripped out again until all the threads were frayed ...
Continues...Excerpted from Paladin of Soulsby Bujold, Lois McMaster Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- ASIN : 0380818612
- Publisher : HarperTorch (April 26, 2005)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780380818617
- ISBN-13 : 978-0380818617
- Item Weight : 8.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.19 x 0.99 x 6.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #432,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,188 in Historical Fantasy (Books)
- #13,847 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- #15,014 in Fantasy Romance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
A science fiction legend, Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most highly regarded speculative fiction writers of all time. She has won three Nebula Awards and six Hugo Awards, four for best novel, which matches Robert A. Heinlein's record. Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga is a massively popular science fiction mainstay. The mother of two, Ms. Bujold lives in Minneapolis.
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Top reviews from the United States
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I loved the former Royina, trapped by the suffocating caring courtiers, escaping to a pilgrimage, in a kind of Canterbury tales but with real magic spin.
Beautifully written, explorations of faith and devotion but also action and adventures. Loved all the characters. Highly recommended. Special find.
Really, if I could give it more stars, I would...
It's a low fantasy tale but is not grimdark.
There is romance and subterfuge, but they are not necessarily the main points of the story.
There are demons, but these are not like the Balrog of the Lord of the Rings or so many other tales.
Well worth the read if you enjoyed the first book.
Well, I was so totally delighted with THE CURSE OF CHALION , that I plunged immediately into the sequel, PALADIN OF SOULS, .
This novel picks up three years after the grand and happy conclusion of the first. Here, the Provincara who first sheltered Cazaril (the hero from CHALION) is dead, and Ista--she generally thought driven mad by her sorrows, but whom wise and deep-seeing Cazaril came to understand was one of the specially-sighted, a once-saint of the Mother goddess--remains feeling more trapped than ever in the fortress under the care of the kindly, but overprotective dy Ferrej and her own powerful brother.
She is still much angry with the gods for her sufferings and their meddlings-to her sense, poorly done and mostly ineffectual--in her life. She yearns, desperately, for escape. And so she does, under pretense of a pilgrimage to plead the gods at various holy sites for the boon of a male heir for her daughter and her husband, the rulers of Chalion-Ibra.
But the gods are not done with their reluctant and bitter saint, and the pilgrimage turns into an unexpected and harrowing journey into the demon-infested and tragedy-haunted northlands, where Ista must choose to truly be a saint and work with the gods or remain in defiance and turn her back on a great need in her land.
The choice will make or unmake her.
McMaster Bujold builds slowly, as she did with THE CURSE OF CHALION, but once the key characters are involved--first dy Cabon, the portly and dream-touched divine of the Bastard's order; then the amiable and heroic dy Gura twins from the first book; and the sexually magnetic and magnificent leader Arhys, lord of Porifors, who lives with an uncanny situation and wounds from the past and present; and his stricken brother Illvin, who haunts Ista's dreams and is haunted in dreams by Ista; the spunky female courier Liss; the beautiful marchess Cattilara, obessed and loyal wife of Arhys-- and once the most dreadful conflicts emerge, the pace quickens and much action ensues.
Will Ista find redemption, and will she become an instrument of salvation in doing so? Or is the dark conspiracy too much for a memory-haunted and shame-burdened royina (dowager queen).
As in CHALION, the spiritually focused and dramatic climax is a beautiful and wondrous thing to read and experience.
I still think that I prefer CHALION by a few hairs. I found the repeated capture and rescues in PALADIN a bit tiresome as we neared the grand conclusion. But the characters are sympathetic and flawed, and it is a pleasure to see them face huge obstacles. As in CHALION, there is a lovely romance we root for and heroic men and women who change the world into a better place by just doing what they can according to their abilities as the need arises, and sometimes, even doing what they think they can't, stepping out in faith or hope or love or for honor.
The medieval Spanish/Portuguese echoes are strong here as in the first novel, and the villain is more gruesome. A curse of a different sort becomes the focus for humans and gods. Here, the Bastard god is at work, even as the Daughter goddess was focal in the spiritual action of the first book; and he is absolutely fascinating and quite a tease. The Father god, barely present in the first novel, gets a beautiful scene of his own, one that will resonate with Christians.
The climactic battle sequences are very strong, quite moving, and rivetting, as this is no conventional warfare. I won't divulge any details, because plot points would be ruined, but LMB certainly opened the conduit of creativity to come up with this powerful endgame. I wept, more than once.
This novel won the Hugo award, and it's certainly another fine offering from the very talented LMB. I look forward to delving into THE HALLOWED HUNT, even with the reviews not so glowing for the third in the CHALION series.
Highly RECOMMENDED
I love the way the world in this story is developed. The author brings you along with the story instead of giving you some contrived dialog or info dump. And the world is intricate, complex, consistent, and unique. I liked the way the religion of five gods conflicts with the religion of four gods. so similar and yet they hate each other, just like the Earth. Of course, the gods on this world are real and interact with humans, unlike the gods people invent here. But I suppose that is part of fantasy.
I am also impressed with Bujold's writing style and her mastery of vocabulary. I am not a big fantasy reader so I was not familiar with quite a few words. Luckily, my kindle know all so rather than viewing this as confusing, I look on it as an opportunity to learn. At any rate, her writing is beautiful but does not get in the way of the story.
The third thing I liked was her character development. Very nicely done. There are a whole lot of characters but she makes it easy to distinguish them. The main character goes from being a pampered, cloistered woman who longs for some small adventure. She hates her gods, for good reason as we find out, ad finds herself their puppet time and again. Nevertheless, as we follow the story we see her develop confidence and competence along with a new respect for the gods, while still not being overly infatuated with them. The love story is an aside, if you ask me. Got to have one, right?
At any rate, I liked the book. It's very entertaining.
This book will definitely go down as one of my favourites. I loved the Curse of Chalion, but I wonder if this one might just have topped that one?! Ista is an excellently written main character, and her inner dialogue is next to none. She is complex, shrewd, bright, funny, honest, and just a plain joy to read about. She most definitely kicks butt in this book!
The style of writing is right up my alley, with just the perfect amount of description, and flawless prose. The little clues laid out across the storyline, and the sudden turns of events just make it so entertaining, and its a real page-turner!
And the Gods and demons!! Not to forget the supernatural beings depicted in this novel, how - especially - the Bastard comes off as so human and relatable despite being precisely that - A GOD. It is so well-written, and the style of magic use in this universe is amazing! I love it when a writer does their own thing in describing the use of magic.
It was a pure joy reading this. Its a masterpiece!
Top reviews from other countries
Paladin of Souls is a loose sequel to The Curse of Chalion, although you could probably get away with not reading the previous novel. This book is primarily a stand-alone story revolving around Ista, the mother of the new Royina of Chalion, who finds herself at a loose end as her family moves on with their lives without her. Ista was a minor character in The Curse of Chalion, where she was often confused and frightened. Here, in her own story, we meet a much more capable and intelligent woman, but one who is frustrated at being treated as a near-invalid by her family.
This is an unusual epic fantasy in some senses. The protagonist being a middle-aged woman is a relative rarity in the genre and its primary thematic concern being with establishing or re-establishing a purpose in later life is a universally relatable one. There is also a lot of more familiar fantasy tropes, including romance, epic battles and formidable sorcery. Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most talented authors working in either science fiction or fantasy, with excellent prose skills and great characters, and she blends these elements together again her to create a novel which is vivid and engrossing.
It's not quite as successful as The Curse of Chalion, although it's close. Paladin of Souls has a somewhat slighter story than its forebear but unfolds over around a hundred extra pages, making it feel at least a little flabbier and less-focused than the previous novel. The book also spends a lot of time establishing the secondary cast in the opening chapters, but surprisingly only a couple of them played major roles in the denouement, the rest either just hang around or disappear for large stretches of time. They're a fun bunch of characters but ultimately don't feel like they have a clear purpose in the book.
That said, Bujold's world of the Five Gods remains an intriguing creation, effectively a magic-heavy version of Iberia in the 15th Century (fans of Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan will particularly enjoy this novel and its forebear, I believe). The characters are sharp and some of the plot twists are quite clever.
Paladin of Souls (****½) is a strong fantasy novel revolving around themes of love, war, family and honour. It's one of Lois McMaster Bujold's most critically feted novels, having won Best Novel in three of the genre's biggest awards, the Hugo, Nebula and Locus. The book is available now in the UK and USA.