Legacy

Newly married, it is time for Dag and Fawn to go back to his home at Hickory Lake and introduce her to his family and culture. There they run into all kinds of problems starting with Dag's mother and brother. They don't accept that the marriage cords are valid despite being able to use their ground senses to see that they are. They can't accept that Fawn, let alone half-breed children in the future, can have anything to offer the Lakewalkers in their mission.

Before matters can come to a head and a Council session be called, there is a major malice outbreak under a farmer town called Greenspring near the Lakewalker settlement of Raintree. They are calling for help. Fairbolt Crow, who is the Patroller Captain, drafts Dag to lead the show more rescue attempt. Dag isn't keen since his last leadership role cost him his hand, his wife, and most of his patrol. But he is the most experienced and knows the most people. He is also the tactician who might be able to prevail.

Fawn asks if there is something he can do to their marriage cords that will let her know his condition they way Lakewalkers can tell about each other through theirs. He does something that lets her know where he is and if he's all right. Therefore, when they run into problems with this very powerful malice, Fawn is one of the first to know about it.

Determined to go to him, Fawn takes off with a stolen map and her chubby horse despite being told that she should stay behind. Finding her husband groundlocked in some way despite the death of the malice and with the healer who traveled with her baffled, Fawn uses her brain and some clues that she put together to save Dag though he is gravely injured.

Even though they killed the malice and Fawn saved Dag's life, they still find themselves facing the Council when they return. But Dag has grown because he loves Fawn. He's finally come out the other side of the grief that crippled him after his first wife's death. He's developed new abilities as a healer that he didn't have as a younger man. And his is starting to question the way things have always been done.

The worldbuilding is fantastic. The writing is excellent. The book is filled with fascinating characters who grow and change as a result of the things they do and see. I am eager to see where Dag and Fawn go next in their journey together. show less

Newly married, it is time for Dag and Fawn to go back to his home at Hickory Lake and introduce her to his family and culture. There they run into all kinds of problems starting with Dag's mother and brother. They don't accept that the marriage cords are valid despite being able to use their ground senses to see that they are. They can't accept that Fawn, let alone half-breed children in the future, can have anything to offer the Lakewalkers in their mission.

Before matters can come to a head and a Council session be called, there is a major malice outbreak under a farmer town called Greenspring near the Lakewalker settlement of Raintree. They are calling for help. Fairbolt Crow, who is the Patroller Captain, drafts Dag to lead the show more rescue attempt. Dag isn't keen since his last leadership role cost him his hand, his wife, and most of his patrol. But he is the most experienced and knows the most people. He is also the tactician who might be able to prevail.

Fawn asks if there is something he can do to their marriage cords that will let her know his condition they way Lakewalkers can tell about each other through theirs. He does something that lets her know where he is and if he's all right. Therefore, when they run into problems with this very powerful malice, Fawn is one of the first to know about it.

Determined to go to him, Fawn takes off with a stolen map and her chubby horse despite being told that she should stay behind. Finding her husband groundlocked in some way despite the death of the malice and with the healer who traveled with her baffled, Fawn uses her brain and some clues that she put together to save Dag though he is gravely injured.

Even though they killed the malice and Fawn saved Dag's life, they still find themselves facing the Council when they return. But Dag has grown because he loves Fawn. He's finally come out the other side of the grief that crippled him after his first wife's death. He's developed new abilities as a healer that he didn't have as a younger man. And his is starting to question the way things have always been done.

The worldbuilding is fantastic. The writing is excellent. The book is filled with fascinating characters who grow and change as a result of the things they do and see. I am eager to see where Dag and Fawn go next in their journey together. show less

Summary: Fawn and Dag are an unlikely couple, and no mistake. He's a Lakewalker, and she's a Farmer, but after facing down a malice - an evil creature that absorbs life force from everything around it - together, their lives are now inescapably intertwined. After they convinced her family that Lakewalkers are not evil necromantic sorcerers that eat children (or at least that Dag wasn't), they were even married... but now they have to return to his family. And considering that most Lakewalkers think Farmers aren't even fully human, getting his family and his community to accept their marriage as valid - let alone to accept Fawn into their lives - is going to be quite a challenge. And, to make matters worse, Dag is soon called away to show more deal with a malice attack larger than any they've seen for years, leaving Fawn alone in some very hostile territory.

Review: Legacy is not really a stand-alone book; it starts less than two hours after Beguilement ends, and the two should really be considered as the two halves of a single book, rather than two independent volumes in a series. If Beguilement was a romance novel dressed up in fantasy clothes, then Legacy picks up all of the fantasy-ness that wasn't used by Beguilement, and packs it in at a breathless pace. Not to say that there aren't quite a few touches of romance around the edges of Legacy, but it feels like much more of a "proper" fantasy novel than did its predecessor. Both flavors of story are equally enjoyable from my perspective, but I do worry that people who read the first one and went "What's with all this lovey-dovey sexy stuff? When do we get to the good part about the knifes made out of human bone?" may have dropped the series without reading the second book, which is where all of those "good parts" are waiting. All of the threads that were left hanging and unexplained by the end of Beguilement are picked up again in Legacy... and then some.

Because, regardless of whether you want to classify the Sharing Knife series as fantasy tinged with romance, or romance in a fantasy universe, or whatever, the heart of the matter is that it just tells a damn good story. Bujold has created her usual wonderful characters that have firmly wormed their way into my heart, making every plot twist, whether it involves Fawn and Dag's relationship or the giant life-sucking malice, thoroughly involving, and capable of wringing out some serious emotion. (Seriously, when Dag explains his theory about what happened to Fawn's baby and the Sharing Knife, I collapsed into a soggy crying mess. Good stuff.) This was the sort of book that I told myself I'd read for half an hour before bed... but then they go off to fight the malice, so I have to keep reading to see how that turns out, and then something happens to Fawn, and I have to keep reading to see how THAT turns out, and then are they ever going to be together and happy? I'll have to keep reading to see... and that's how I wound up rolling into work the next morning with less than four hours of sleep under my belt. But the thing is: it was absolutely worth it. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Love. Love Bujold, love this series. If you like original, well-built fantasy with great characters and a solid dose of romance, you should definitely pick up this series. Don't read this one first... but do have it on hand immediately upon finishing Beguilement. show less

This series probably isn't for everyone, but I really dug it. It's definitely the characters that do it for me and also the way Bujold writes. I think she can write about Dag and Fawn doing any number of boring mundane things and I'll probably still enjoy reading it. Even so, I was glad for the action in this book, which made up for the slower pace of the first book.

Legacy picks up immediately where Beguilement left off, with newlyweds Dag and Fawn heading up north to Lakewalker country to meet his family -- and boy, are Dag's brother and mother real pieces of work. Needless to say, Fawn's arrival is met with suspicion and open hostility. While Dag tries to settle her in, a malice outbreak happens at the worst possible time, forcing him show more to leave his farmer bride at home while he heads up a patrol to handle the problem.

This novel is more interesting than its predecessor for a couple reasons. First of all, there's a lot more conflict in this novel -- aside from the protagonists having to deal with Dag's bitchy mother and asshole brother, the book also turns its focus back on the Lakewalker vs. malice war, which is good news for those disappointed by the first book because of its lack of progress on that front.

Second, we also get a lot more lore and background of the world, as well as more details about Lakewalker magic. The magic system here involving "grounds" can get pretty convoluted, but is admittedly quite interesting and unique. I also love the world building, especially when it comes to Lakewalker culture. Consider how in many fantasy worlds, magic-users are usually the lords, the masters, and the upper class who live in castles and mansions holding power over the common magic-less folk. In contrast, Bujold's Lakewalker sorcerer-soldiers in this series live lives of sacrifice. Their existence is spartan, rustic and they dedicate their lives to protect the land and the farmers living on it.

I want to note, Beguilement and Legacy should be read back-to-back, since both were apparently written together. Whatever the reasons (I really don't feel like opening up that can of worms right now), the publisher decision to split them up was a pretty stupid one, since in my opinion the story would have been so much more cohesive as one big book, and it's not like 600 pages these days is considered too long for a fantasy novel. show less

Reading some reviews I'm rather glad I hadn't read the Vorkosigan saga first. Not that I don't love that science fiction series of Bujold, which I discovered later, but I didn't go into this one with expectations shaped by that series. No, this isn't science fiction (although I think there are hints there could be a scientific explanation for what looks like fantasy). And yes, this involves a May/September romance between an eighteen year old and a 55-year old. If that bothers you, you might want to put the book down and back away slowly.

Above all, this isn't a stand alone book. You can even see that in the covers of the first book, Beguilement and Legacy. Put the two books side by side and they make one picture. The entire four-volume show more The Sharing Knife was conceived as one novel, then split up due to length. This is therefore the middle portion of a whole, and as such like many middles not I think quite as involving as the beginning and end books.

But yes, I do like this book very much. Fawn is from the farmers, who are in conflict with Dag's group of magical Lakewalkers. This takes place after their marriage and the inlaws are unhappy. And right there is a lot of what I like about Bujold as she works the implications out. Neither side has all the right or all the wrong in this. For me, anyway, a lovely blend of fantasy and romance. show less

Book 2 of The Sharing Knife series. Dag and Dawn arrive at the Lakewalker home at Hickory Lake, and I figured we'd see some drama around their mixed marriage that would be resolved so we could get back to Malice-hunting, but the entire book is consumed by the crisis of the marriage of our protagonists. We get a Malice crisis in the neighboring district of Raintree, so Dag rides out with a large crew to confront it. Dawn eventually follows when she senses a crisis through her marriage bonds, and plays a large role there.

But that doesn't end the crisis of the mixed marriage, which is the focus of the last part of the book as well.

So I like these books, and I'll likely read the rest, but I don't love them. I'm a bit put off by the show more winter-spring romance angle, and though the reader is meant to support True Love despite a 35 year age difference, it still reads a little creepy to me.
And the magic is kind of interesting- everyone and everything has "ground" that can be manipulated in various ways by Lakewalkers but not by normies- but the concepts don't really resonate too much for me.

What I do like is the emerging theme of tensions between Lakewalkers and farmers. It rings quite true that farmers would distrust Lakewalkers and see them as the cause of their troubles rather than their protectors. It looks like Dag and Dawn at the end are thinking about how to work on this problem, which feels like a good natural progression of their goals. show less

Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold is the second book in her fantasy series entitled” The Sharing Knife”. The story follows the meeting and romance that occurs between a young farm girl, Fawn and a mature warrior mage, Dag who fights to defend the land against vicious malevolent creatures.

In this volume, the two main characters are now newlyweds and travel to Dag’s home to seek acceptance of their marriage by the Dag’s people, the Lakewalkers. Unfortunately, Dag’s own family are totally against the marriage. They bring Dag and Fawn up on charges to the council in an effort to have the marriage annulled. Before this can happen though they receive word that a Malice has spawned and Dag must lead a patrol against this evil. Although show more they are victorious, Dag realizes that there is more to the culture and history of this land and he has decided that he and Fawn may be the ones to break new ground and challenge the old ways.

Lois McMaster Bujold is an author that I have come to rely on to deliver excellent stories, peopled with well rounded characters. She adds enough violence and danger to keep things interesting but the main draw here is the wonderful relationship between Fawn and Dag. I am looking forward to continuing on with their adventures. show less