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Liked It “I asked a friend for a recommendation in the fantasy genre since I'm new to it. I tried this one out first and was surprised by how much I liked it. It's a romance book too, but doesn't include the gratuitous sexuality that usually scares me away from that genre.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “A bit too much romance. Not that I'm opposed to romance, just in this case it took away from the fantasy element of the story too much. I also didn't like that he was so much older than she. Once again, not that I'm opposed to older/younger romance, but it didn't work for me this time.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“I asked a friend for a recommendation in the fantasy genre since I'm new to it. I tried this one out first and was surprised by how much I liked it. It's a romance book too, but doesn't include the gratuitous sexuality that usually scares me away from that genre. ”
Sheila C wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The Sharing Knife, Volume one, Beguilement (2006) 361 pages by Lois McMaster Bujold.
John L wrote this review 3 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I love Bujold's writing, and judging from the number of Hugos that she's won, I don't think I'm the only one. With her books it's not read 40 pages and pick it up again tomorrow. It's I'll read one more chapter, man I'm sleepy, but just one more chapter, and pretty soon I've finished the book. I read "The Mountains of Mourning" in Analog (May '89) and "Weatherman" (Feb '90) which convinced me to buy one vorKosigan novel after another. After about the second or third one she became and has stayed my favorite author. Right through the Chalion series and now this one.
In The Sharing Knife, Bujold creates a rustic world with lakewalkers and farmers. Farmers includes all of the ordinary, non-magical, human population. Lakewalkers are what we would consider magical, though to themselves, groundsense is as natural as sight or hearing. Their world has random outbreak of malice (what the farmers call blight bogle). The lakewalkers spend most of their energy into patrolling for and destroying the malices.
Fawn, a young farmer girl, has run away from home, thinking of going a village or two away from her home and getting a job there. Dag and his lakewalker patrol are called in to fight bandits outside of Fawn's destination, Glassforge. The bandits are actually part of a malice. Fairly quickly we have Fawn getting captured and rescued a couple of times, the second time helping with the rescue and saving Dag's life as well. Then the story takes a romantic turn. The two of them being thrown together, by themselves, much of the time.
In exploring this romance, Bujold is showing us the two cultures. Usually the farmers and patrollers keep there distance from each other. We get to see the stereotypes, prejudices, fears, and misconceptions that the farmers have about the lakewalkers and vice versa.
Dag and Fawn go back to Fawn's home, not returning Fawn to her home, but just letting her kin know that she is OK. And so volume one finishes with Dag, Fawn and her family.
I'm really trying not to give away too much plot, because I think this is a great story. Really easy reading. It may be quite a lot like a romance novel (I've never read anything from the romance shelf, just SF and mysteries, and maybe a couple classics), but it's got the great SF/Fantasy element of the groundsense/malice, it's got humor, and the characters are well constructed.
I finished this one Friday and I've already finished volume two, and have started on volume three. ”“A bit too much romance. Not that I'm opposed to romance, just in this case it took away from the fantasy element of the story too much. I also didn't like that he was so much older than she. Once again, not that I'm opposed to older/younger romance, but it didn't work for me this time.”
Robin M wrote this review Friday, November 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“First of 4 books - all are great!”
BkWyrm wrote this review Tuesday, September 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This promises to be an excellent series”
Norman H wrote this review Monday, August 31 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“An interesting story. The pace is a tad slow for my current taste. This book doesn't have much closure. I'm hoping the next one will...”
Jim-Mike wrote this review Thursday, July 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I have read other works by Bujold that I liked much more such as the Paladin of Souls. None the less it was still a good book.”
Keith wrote this review Thursday, June 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Borrowed it off my mom's bookshelf, never read any Bujold before & was pleasantly surprised. Not spectacular, but a very feel-good story.”
Kesih wrote this review Tuesday, June 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“I just recently discovered Lois McMaster Bujold (I don't know why it took so long) and I'm having a grand time reading as many of her books as I can find. I thought Beguilement was sweet, with interesting characters--especially Fawn/Spark!, Dag and Fawn's aunt--and I read it from cover to cover in no time. I ran to the library to check out volume 2 and it is just as good. My only complaint is that the Big Bads--the Malices--aren't complex adversaries. They're pure evil killers, yes, but they're dumb. In a book that gets a little boring after a while. However, that's a minor complaint. I recommend both volume 1 and 2 and I plan to read volume 3 as soon as I can.”
Sheila C wrote this review Tuesday, May 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“amazing story. cannot wait to read volume two. loved the characters and the story both.”
californiameaghan wrote this review Friday, January 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
