I acquired this last week as part of my book-buying excursion, and then I decided to reread it, since it's a new addition to my library that I had read only once before, last year, as part of my Hugo-winner quest. Lois McMaster Bujold has won four Hugos for best novel, three for books in her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction stories, one for Paladin of Souls, the follow-up to The Curse of Chalion. Since she had won so many awards for noncontiguous storylines, I decided to just read all of it in order, digesting the Hugo winners along the way. I generally liked the stories and characters, and I certainly appreciated what she was trying to do with the science fiction. She's exploring an extremely patriarchal (sexist!), militaristic (ableist!) society from the perspectives of an extremely capable, strong female outsider (Cordelia, the mother of Miles) and a physically disabled young man (Miles Vorkosigan) while subverting the hero tropes of traditional space operas. She certainly has a way with dialogue, some fascinating ideas that she explores, and a great sense of the comic. But the books that won Hugos were by no means my favorites: Barrayar, The Vor Game, and Mirror Dance. Well, okay, maybe Barrayar. But the dinner scene in A Civil Campaign has to rank as one of the most memorable in my experience.

But on to the fantasy series. Once again, while I liked Paladin of Souls okay, I preferred The Curse of Chalion. The protagonist, Lupe dy Cazaril, or Caz, is limping home a broken man. Well, he doesn't really have a home anymore, so he's hoping to find refuge in the home of the patron of his youth. He used to be a lord and knight but most recently was a slave. The widow of his former patron takes him in, sees his potential, and appoints him to tutor her granddaughter, a member of the royal family. Soon enough he is caught up in larger events involving his old enemies, court intrigues, and even the gods. Once again, good characters, interesting ideas, lots of action in the plot, nice dialogue. The things that make this book stand out: the limits of human endurance and discovering that they are much further than dreamed possible, the wisdom and perspective that comes with age and a life rich in experience, growing into leadership and understanding the dynamics of power, the strength of personal integrity to survive hardship and find the right path, the relationship between the divine/spiritual and the material planes and differences in theology and how they connect to cultural differences. The downsides: everyone's white, so no real racial diversity though some cultural diversity; most of the key players including the protagonist are men. The upsides: every woman character is strong and unique, even the ones that appear weak at first; some of the characters are gay--it is in fact a point of cultural/theological difference and a key plot element. And it is a very realistic portrayal of the emotional and physical damages that accumulate in war and servitude. The hero suffers but still succeeds in the end. ( )

An intreging story set in a complex world.: In The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold considers a variety of relisous questions regarding the nature of sainthood, of demons, and of God. Her characters are personable and interesting and the delemas they face are compelling.

Honestly, this book was really slow going at first. I think it's about a third of the way through the book that things actually start to happen. That doesn't matter, though, because the main character is empathetic, charming, and behaves like an actual person. He doesn't do things because it's heroic, he does them because they're the things he thinks he needs to do. It's a fine distinction.Once the book gets going, you'll probably have difficulty putting it down. One of the best fantasy novels I've read. ( )

The best of Bujold's outstanding body of work. Cazaril is 'Miles grown up'; Chalion is a realistically detailed country reminiscent of medieval Spain; the religious context is intriguing, and the doctrinal concept that Caz 'volunteered for his assignment' is sound. ( )

This book is part of my effort to read all joint Hugo/Nebula Award winners. While this particular novel did not win the awards, it’s sequel, “Palladin of Souls” did. I thought it best to read part one before taking on part two.

That having been said, I’m not sure I’ll proceed to “Palladin”. This genre, medieval fantasy, is not my favorite. While I thoroughly enjoyed J. R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire (at least the first three installments), I found this to be far less effective. The setting of “Curse” is the Spanish medieval kingdom of Chalion. Many of the characters, titles and place names are heavily influenced by the supposed Spanish setting, which I found only slightly confusing. More troublesome is the complete absence of any kind of map. Whenever an author creates a world and frequently refers to geographic settings and various competing principalities and kingdoms, how can you fail to include a map?

Again, making allowances for my general aversion to fantasy, this book was preferable to other works of fantasy which include magicians, elves, dwarves and dragons, in a cheap ripoff of Middle Earth. There is heavy emphasis on religion and spirituality, and a backdrop of magic that doesn’t consume the story until a sequence near the end that just gets silly.

All in all, probably a winner for medieval fantasy wonks, though as stated, I’ve read better in the genre. I suspect I’ll proceed to “Palladin”, but more so from an obsessive compulsive desire to cross it off the Hugo/Nebula list than for any great need to see this story through. ( )

Just finished listening to the audio book version - it was brilliant. Its great to have a fantasy story that has little or no comparisons to Lord of the Rings. The characters were well developed and kept developing throughout the story. The story itself was simple, but had complexities built-in and the world was explained very well. Lots of unexpected twists and turns. I've found a new fantasy author who also does Sci-fi - so I'm doubly blessed. ( )

This book has a lot of important characters, so it kept me on the fly most of the time, making me think... who is that.. flip back a few pages. the dy in front of every name is confusing. The plot was amazing though and enough to keep me interested and yearn for more. I like that the main character is not perfect, far from dastardly gorgeous and aging. It was a nice point of view and there was so much going on that I had to keep reading. ( )

This book is stellar. Bujold's tendency to feature older or disabled heroes makes my heart go pitter pat, and Caz is both. The in media res opening of the story yanks me right in, and because these characters have such vast respect for each other, the emotional heartstring tugging Bujold's notorious for is that much more successful. And the worldbuilding and the pantheon just shatter me. These gods are terrifying and awesome, in the literal sense of the word. ( )

Note: "The Curse of Chalion" is the first of three books set in the same world, an award-winning sequel and a prequel, but I've read none of the others. So, Chalion can be read as a standalone; it's that self-contained.

* "Five Gods, it really is you. My lord dy Cazaril. I bid you welcome to my house."

Cazaril, protagonist and sole (3rd person) narrator of the book, has nowhere to go when he returns to the royacy of Chalion. Once a page, a courtier, a captain, castle warder and courier, the intrigues of a fellow noble gave him yet another role to play: For the past one and a half years, he has been a galley slave on an enemy country's ship and escaped only when he was washed ashore at the kingdom's coast.
He turns to the Provincara, in whose household he once worked as a page, for help, wanting nothing but a place to stay, nothing but a chance to live, out of sight and forgotten by the rest of the world, but the lady has other plans.
She wants him to take up yet another post, to be the tutor of her granddaughter, the princess Iselle (and to the princess's maid, Betriz), which should be an easy enough job for a man who can't get his broken body to do much else, but while Cazaril is grateful that she doesn't send him away, he also fears his new assignment: Being that close to the princess means that he will one day have to return to the royal court at Cardegoss, the very place where certain scheming nobles would be very interested in hearing that he is still alive...

* "What's the matter with him?" - "A madman, I suppose." - "Well, he'll fit right in here, then, won't he..."

Caz himself is easily the most memorable character of the book. He has one of the most distinctive narrative voices I've come across in a long time and you wouldn't mistake him for anyone else... it probably says quite a lot when he can, toward the end of the story, cheerfully inform us that the lady's nose is much more astonishing than a pebble and have it make perfect sense. I reread bits of the first two or three chapters before writing this post and seeing him think, in the state of mind he is in then, hurts, which is the highest praise I can give: He is, as the blurb on the back of the book so aptly puts it, "a man broken in body and spirit" and it's reflected in his narration as well. (There is another dialogue between him and his friend Palli that sums it up very well: "We slaves--" - "Stop that!" - "Stop what?" - "Stop saying that. We slaves. You are a lord of Chalion!") The good news is, we can only go up from there.
Cazaril's character development is excellently done and takes quite a few unexpected detours along the way; he ends up a character who's both likeable and intriguing and I have to give props to the author for writing him in a way that makes sure we feel for him, that makes us love and cry and hurt and celebrate with him - but never, not once, are we supposed to pity him. (Thank you.) Caz has his flaws and he has his strengths, and it's been a while since I've enjoyed a "reluctant hero" type so much. I love him dearly.

This does not mean that you'll easily forget about the other characters: They play their roles well, develop personalities of their own and form a strong ensemble cast to carry the rest of the book: Whether it's Iselle and Betriz, who have their own ideas about where they want the plot to go, Caz' childhood friend Palliar, who greets him most enthusiastically and refuses to keep his nose out of other people's business, especially when the people in question start complaining, the brothers Jironal, two formidable villains with intricate plans and a debt they'd rather not pay, "Mad Lady Ista" who is, of course, not half as mad as people say she is, or Umegat, a servant in charge of the royal menagerie and so much more than he seems to be at first sight (hint: he glows. No, really.). Or any of the other people running around in hat book. Orico, Teidez, dy Ferrej, dy Sanda, Bergon. You'll know all these strange names by heart by the time you've reached the final page 502.

* "Mercy, High Ones, not justice. Please, not justice. We would all be fools to pray for justice."

But. The characters are only one of the reasons why I love this books so much. Another is the writing itself, which is very solid and full of wit. Yet another is the worldbuilding, which is presented with almost no infodumping at all, just by being present and influencing people's lives. The best example, and easily my favourite, is religion. At first glance, Chalion's pantheon is one we've seen a dozen times before in a dozen other Fantasy books. But the closer we look (and trust me, we get a very good look at it in the course of the story), the more fascinating it becomes.
Sure, we start the circle of five Gods with the Daughter, the typical Maiden of Spring and the Mother, the equally typical Lady of Summer. We go on with the Son for Autumn and the Father for Winter and realise we have a happy little family and a complete cycle of seasons - and a God left, because I mentioned five of them. Number five, the Bastard, God of "all things out of season" could easily be their "bad guy," Chalion's equivalent of a devil or trickster god. Granted, he is a bit of a trickster, but he is also very much a member of the family, held in as high a regard as the other four.

Without giving too much away, I can say that I love the way religion influences both the plot and people's lives, from ceremonies on holy days to their view on the world. (One particularly interesting example is the attitude towards homosexuality, but I'm walking right into spoiler territory and will shut up now.)

* "Were you... were you a deserter?"

Religion isn't the only detail that makes sure we always know that we're in Chalion, not in Generic fantasy World Number 274917498. I'll name just one more and leave it to you to discover the rest when if you pick up the book yourself: When Caz, toward the beginning of the story, visits a bathhouse and is happily soaking in the water, the bath boy who brings wood for the fire to keep the water hot asks him if he's a deserter, because he's seen the scars on the man's back and knows that some of the only people who are punished by Chalion's law by flogging are deserters. Cazaril, who got his scars as a galley slave, doesn't have time to explain just that after he has told the boy that no, he's not a deserter, because the boy drops the bucket he was carrying and runs away as fast as he can. Caz remembers too late that the only other people punished like that are rapists... Needless to say, the boy's father and bathhouse owner throws him out faster than he can clear up the misunderstanding.

(What do you mean, "flaws?" Ah yes, of course, if I have to... There are a few instances were either the limited narration presents an obstacle (because we would love to know what happens elsewhere) or where some things fall into place a tad too conveniently. The latter complaint, however, isn't really one, as you will see once you know the whole story...)

Amazon is currently asking seven Euro for the book. To me, it's worth every cent twice over. ( )

Interesting book. One thing I noticed several times in it - the hero has some of Miles' gestures - that is, he's hurt and in chronic pain, and responds as Miles does (one I remember seeing several times was 'jerking his chin up' to dismiss how he's feeling and go on to what needs to be done, for instance). Not strong, and not in any way an interruption to the story - the gestures and attitude fit him as well as Miles - but the familiar words made me look at him to see if he was just Miles in a different coat. Nope. Very different guy, though I think he and Miles would get along just fine.

Rereading, a year later and not immediately following a Miles marathon - I didn't notice the physical gestures. There were a few spots where he still reminded me of Miles a little, but it was much more emotional patterning this time - Caz gritting his teeth and getting through because he was the only one that could do it. Also odd because I've read Hallowed Hunt several times in the interim, so the Quinterene rituals sounded very familiar rather than as odd as they had the first time. Still an excellent book - will be rereading again. ( )

A very readable and enjoyable book. The main character, Cazaril, has escaped slavery and is returning to Chalion - he's hopeful for any position at court, but finds himself tutor and secretary to the royesse (princess). Caz does all he can to protect his charge and attempts to lift a curse that has been plaguing the family.
Well written, great back stories which are important later on. ( )

I wasn't sure I'd like this as I have low tolerance for fake medieval speech, especially in alternate universes where something other than English is spoken (I'd assume a version of Spanish in this case). However I came to love the characters and their universe, and the theology is strikingly different from most in fantasy books--and the gods exist. Cazaril is an excellent creation and there's one scene which almost made me cry. And this is not easy. ( )

Routine medieval fantasy, though the main character is interesting.

Full review: http://www.fascinationplace.org/2008/... ( )

Her writing style does not seem fit fantasy too well, but the tale itself is interesting. The setting feels of medieval Spain (c. 12th and 13th centuries). There is action, theology, evil counsellors, duty and love in this quest to rid a royal family of a crippling curse, and to unite two kingdoms. ( )

Perhaps the best single work of this very fine author. The underlying theme is of testing a man to destruction - with a stunning epiphany at the end. This tale is not only full of character and action, but also of spiritual growth. The mystic vision takes this quite out of the realm of common fantasy; I think the author must have read Juan de la Cruz, but the spritual elements grow organically out of the story, and are not mere overlays. Very fine indeed. ( )

There’s this old-fashioned notion that something should actually happen in a story. The author of this doorstop doesn’t truck with just antiquated ideas, though. She teases us at first with a dead body that the main character discovers, which is promising, but then nothing happens.
Except that people talk.
And talk.
Then, after that, they talk some more.
The kind of novel that makes you go “What editor greenlighted this crap?” ( )

http://tinyurl.com/6hfdq5

It's surprising to me that I've never read anything by Bujold. She's won four Hugos and two Nebulas so I should have read her long ago, but I think I expected fantasy on the level of Anne McCaffrey. Those books make me cringe, but Bujold's books are much more well-rounded, a lot less silly and have characters that you can actually like.

Chalion is a cursed kingdom because of some bad mojo that happened several generations back. The hero (very) inadvertently becomes part of the solution, and the tale continues from there. The world feels much like 19th century England or thereabouts, so it has the Arthur-legend feel to it, which doesn't hurt.

The only thing about the book that rubbed me a bit wrong is the need for Bujold to push her "females can rule too" agenda a bit too forcefully, moreso as the book nears its end. I am all for feminist agendas, but hers became too obvious too quickly and ruined the effect for me. ( )

I re-read this in anticipation of reading the rest of the series, finally. When I read it the first time, I was disappointed because I had just finished reading McMaster's Vorkosigan books and was hoping that this would be in the same style. This time I tried to read it for itself and was much happier with it. There are still traces of McMaster's humor, a crippled hero, exploration of her favorite themes of loyalty and leadership, and twisty political intrigues, but the book is darker and touches on spiritual questions not really addressed in her previous books. I found her premise of how gods act in the world to be intriguing, though as an atheist, some of it seemed a bit apologetic in tone. Nevertheless, the plot is tight, the characters jump off the page, and the ending is satisfying. Cazaril, after being sold into slavery on a galley, returns to his old home and enters the service of a princess of a cursed family. Cazaril uncovers both political plots and hidden family truths to keep his "royesse" safe, and falls in quiet and hopeless love with her handmaiden. He discovers he is god-touched and tries to fulfill the will off the Daughter, whom he believes may be trying to lift the curse from Chalion through him, but finds that being the tool of the gods is no comfortable place. Through loyalty, love, and sacrifice, he succeeds. ( )

I don't crush on Bujold's works quite as much as seems normal, but I do find them solidly enjoyable. My take on this new series is that I miss the breezy pace of the Miles books, but I think the characters in this are deeper and better. Call it a wash. ( )

I adore this book. Cazaril is a terrific creation - appealing, clever, wise, good. One of the books I reach for when I need to raise my spirits. ( )

Love Bujold. Love. What a great storyteller! I'd give her novels five stars except her wordsmithing is merely good and not brain-wrenchingly excellent. But on the content level, her characters are interesting, her pacing is a marvel, and her story is a page-turner. I haven't enjoyed SF this much since I was a kid. ( )

First book of the new series and the best. Cazaril is deeper, more complex and more convincing than any other character in this world ... so far!

I've heard great things about LMB's science fiction works in the Miles Vorkosigan saga, and I've read a few of them, but I liked The Curse of Chalion much more than any of those. In particular, I found it was a clever reinvention of "swords and sorcery" into "swords and theology"--the only "magic" in the novel stems from the gods of the universe in which the story is set. ( )

Complex and fabulous character development. Oh Cazaril. I have a girl!crush on Bujold and will cheerfully buy anything she writes. This was engaging, intriguing and romantic in turns. It’s a great piece of fantasy with a unique take on our relationship with our gods. Please ignore the typo *gasp* in the blurb on the back and go read it.

http://scooterchronicles.com/2006/03/... ( )