The Curse of Chalion. Lois McMaster Bujold.

Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Curse of Chalion. Harper Voyager, 2006.

This is the first book in the Chalion series, though actually I read one of the later books first. It was a "found this on my bookshelf" situation, and I enjoyed it enough that I then sought out The Curse of Chalion so that I could continue being in the series' world. It took me a while--I think I read the first book over a year ago--but here we finally are.


I don't have all that much to say, except that the story was enjoyable, the writing was good, and I really liked some of the characters. That last one is the most important to me--if I don't become invested in at least one or two major characters, I usually end up setting a book down before I'm halfway through it. I got attached to the protagonist and cared about his goals, so that's step #1. And then there were also a few other "secondary" characters that I warmed up to, as well, which makes it that much better.

The second book in the series, Paladin of Souls, was a little more interesting to me than this one, primarily because the protagonist in Paladin is an older woman who was mad at one time (more like god-touched, though I suppose the difference is a bit academic, really) and is now carefully cared for and watched over by her loving retainers...who are driving her fucking crazy. I liked Cazaril (the protag of Curse), but I loved Ista (protag of Paladin). In Curse, we get a somewhat more standard protagonist, a young man, and there's more than a little bit of a "will he get the girl" focus. Don't get me wrong! It's a good story, and I'll probably read it again at some point. I just think the concept behind Paladin was more unusual and, to me, more interesting.