While reading the first two in this series I had this disjointed feeling between them as if the editor in a moment of selfishness decided to separate a perfectly good book into two in an effort to make more money. I still feel this way ,however, this new book continues like a sequel should and is a well thought out adventure with a swifter pace that tackles many of the issues brought up in the first two books. I enjoy the character development more as Dag learns more about himself and his purpose in life. I also enjoy the interesting mix and sometimes clashes between the farmers and the lakewalkers. All in all I felt very satisfied by this book and am looking forward with renewed interest to the last book. I feel as though the author has finally gotten her toes dug into this world and is finally doing a good deal of work to make it real to her readers and more fleshed out. The first two were more romance and a bit weak in the character and world building in my opinion. Not to mention just a wee bit too sappy. This one does a much better job at giving hints as to the secrets behind it all and adds some nice juicy conflict to spice things up.

I was very disappointed in this latest installment of the Sharing Knife series. Not because the story is uninteresting or poorly told, but because Ms. Bujold has fallen into a trap that one usually sees only in first time authors.

Note that I am a great Bujold fan. She has been my favorite author for some years now. I always pre-order, and always read her latest offering in a day or two. Her stories are always ingenious and well crafted. But this time she has slipped in crafting her basic premise. I'll try to talk about it without specifics, to avoid making a major spoiler for those of you who haven't read the book...

A neophyte author often solves the hero's current dilemma by some sort of gross overkill. For example, to get out of some local crisis, the hero invents an infinite energy machine, an endless matter duplicator, effortless teleportation, and so forth. At which point, the original concerns of the story should become insignificant in view of the enormity of what has just happened. But the author doesn't recognize that, so the story proceeds without its principals realizing that their civilization has just had its economic or power structures turned upside down.

In The Sharing Knife, part 3, this sort of thing happens. We already know that our hero is among the world's best scouts, warriors, healers, and lovers. However, to solve a specific local problem, she makes him into a superhero, able to kill anyone at a distance with a twitch of an eyebrow. If he were an evil man, he could be an emperor the next day. But, of course, he's a nice guy, so we don't worry about that...

Our hero is on a quest to foster trust between the magically talented lakewalkers and the more numerous mundane folks who fear them. Right. So he does this by demonstrating his new superpowers in front of a mundane audience. At the same time, they learn that some lakewalkers are actually evil. What I don't understand is why the plot doesn't then veer off into panic and riots among the mundane populace. Maybe we'll see it in the next book. Anyway, our hero has been given way too much ability this time, and it cheapens the story. Too bad.

I have read Bujold since she first started getting published. She is always a good and innovative storyteller. She has created a new world for Dag and Fawn with the mighty river as part of this latest book.
I was disappointed that marketing decided to split the 2 large books into 4. It is terribly frustrating to wait for the last one.
In Passages, Dag is exploring new realms in regard to groundsense and his abilities. And part of that is how Dag and company react to everybody. And how everybody react to them.

These books are among my favorites. The characterization is excellent, and the general background to the novels changes with each book. If you like Bujold's writing, you will like this book.

As other reviewers have said- this is not the place to start the series. Which I feel is unfortunate, because I was largely uninterested in the drippy romance that was the focal point of the first two volumes. However, Bujold did an excellent job of worldbuilding, and the underlying mystery of the world's history and magic kept me reading in the hope of finding out more.

And in this book, we start to explore the capabilities of Dag's magic, the complex social problems that helped enliven the prior books are attacked (and prove to be *complex*, and not trivial), and we get to see more of Dag and Fawn's world. The 'main' plot's resolution is more or less obvious at the point it is introduced, but the problems of the lively set of secondary characters were more than sufficient to keep me entertained for the journey.

If you were underwhelmed by the first two books, don't stop now. It just got better.