panguitch's Full Review: Lois McMaster Bujold - Paladin Of Souls
If the timid protagonist of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion made me hesitate, you would think I’d balk entirely at the protagonist of the sequel, Paladin of Souls. Ista is a middle-aged dowager with skeletons in her closet and romance in her stars. Skeletons I can deal with. Romance from the perspective of a middle-aged woman? Let’s just say that before now I never pictured myself enjoying a novel whose heroine is marooned in a brooding castle where the dashingly gorgeous lord suffers a dark malady the mystery of which only the heroine can unravel. Thankfully, there’s more to it than the cliche would suggest. Much more.
The Story
The plot opens with Ista reinforcing her caretakers’ belief that she’s gone mad. The deaths of her husband and son, the intrigues she was subjected to at court, and her long hysteric depression are reason enough for their worry. What they don’t know is that guilt also twists at her. Ista is, in fact, a murderess. It was something she felt the gods had called her to do, something she did to save the kingdom, her family, and herself. But she had misunderstood their message, or been unworthy to complete the task. Because of her failure, the gods sent someone else to bring salvation. That emissary succeeded, and the castle walls where Ista once sought refuge now hold too many memories.
To escape she undertakes a penitential pilgrimage, though her feelings for the gods amount to little more than resentment. When her quiet tour of the countryside is complicated by a plague of demons, she learns the gods aren’t through with her yet. This time, if she can carry out their will, not only will she find redemption, but a second chance at life and love.
The Characters, Religion, and World
I’m not sure whether to be more impressed with Bujold’s writing or with myself for being a sensitive man, but Ista is a sympathetic character despite my distance from her. Okay, so maybe my heart doesn’t flutter quite as high as it’s supposed to when Arhys gallantly rescues her. Nor can I fully feel the wry envy Ista holds for the beautiful, young, slender, and tall Cattilara. But I’m smart enough to smile at her nickname, "Catti." I well know the feeling of being second best, like Arhys’s brother Illvin. And the play between Ista’s guards Ferda and Foix and her handmaiden Liss, well that’s pure entertainment.
These are well-written characters, driven by strong motives and distinct personalities. Bujold has done very well on this score, and the only slips may be the lack of a sympathetic Roknari figure like Umegat from Chalion, and the diminishing interest I felt for Cattilara. Liss provides an idealized youthful woman, as did Iselle and Beatriz in Chalion. Dy Cabon is a shadow of Cazaril’s intelligence.
What’s new here is the proximity of the five gods, Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, and Bastard. In Chalion, the gods felt remote even when they reached through the veil to touch people. In Paladin they become almost pedestrian. Ista meets several in rapid succession. The inscrutable mystery of their nature and will has been replaced by very human personalities. Although the bitter relationship Ista has with the gods, especially the Bastard, is not without interest, I preferred the feel of religion in Chalion, where the gods were always respected, even if that respect was riddled with confusion. In Chalion, understanding of the gods and their will was elusive. A matter of faith. In Paladin they become more like fairy godmothers, or relatives Ista feuds with.
This difference is tonal, and many readers may pass over it unconcerned. Even more jarring to me was the discrepancy in mechanics I felt between the two books. My understanding of demons from Chalion revolved around the seeming inviolate law that a demon came into the world when summoned by death magic, and left it as soon as it captured two souls. In Paladin an entirely other dynamic is introduced. Here demons do not kill people and take their souls to the Bastard’s Hell. Instead, demons escape from that other world and try to possess bodies in the physical world. This new formula has potential, and Bujold’s handling of it is inventive beyond expectation. But no foundation is laid for it in Chalion, and I felt as if the rules of the world had changed. Worse, I felt the atmosphere had changed, with magic becoming more commonplace than it had been. Where the magic of Chalion could better be labeled divine miracle, and was suitably rare, Paladin falls to outright sorcery as demons grant their power to the humans they possess.
Still, the medieval flavor of Bujold’s world is maintained. This is by no means a "high" fantasy. And if the story of Chalion seemed longer in the making, as if more care was taken in its writing, Paladin is nevertheless a good second novel for Bujold’s fantasy world. Its characters are strong, its plot consistently surprises, and its pace leaves little time for second-guessing. I was more than happy with it, notwithstanding all that mushy stuff.
– Panguitch
Paladin of Souls is not a continuation of the story of Chalion. It shares some characters, but is a sequel only in the sense that it occurs in the same world some years after the first book.
This winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year takes readers to a land threatened by war and beset by demons. A royal dowager, released from...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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