The Curse of Chalion

From the moment that Cazaril trudges up the road to Valenda, fate seems to take a hand. Or perhaps the gods were gently guiding Cazaril long before. Who knows? His first task is to find some form of employment in this town where years earlier he had been a Page. And once he has managed to sustain mind and body, he can look to reclaiming some of his honour. Yet each step brings him closer to events which will transform both himself and the land from which his honour springs.

In this rollicking work of high fantasy, Bujold masterfully moves the chairs about in order to set up the ordering for the momentous events that will follow. And although plot is of necessity to the fore, she paints a bold portrait of her protagonist, Cazaril, and the show more two young women he is employed to serve, Iselle and Betrix. The political manoeuvrings of this medieval-like world might have been sufficient to hold any reader’s attention, but this is also a world in which the gods have a palpable presence. They lie behind the curse that enfolds Chalion and its eventual cure through the bravery and self-sacrifice of Cazaril.

I especially enjoyed Bujold’s pacing throughout. She provides just enough explanation to keep us riveted while continually pressing the larger plot forward. It gave the effect of brisk leisureliness, unexpectedly. In so doing, Bujold manages to encompass an epic story — what might have taken volumes for another writer - in one tome. Nicely done!

Gently recommended. show less

I've been told by many people that this is a really good book, and I have to agree. Aside from having good characters, good character development and a good story, I very much like the image portrayed in The curse of Chalion of the way the gods interact with the world. I like how the saints tend to be rather wary of their gifts and how in the end, that's not the gods fault; they have to work with the tools at hand just as much as we do. Cazaril's bemusement at the end was very well described; I loved his conclusions about how the gods marvel at the ways of matter as we do at the possibilities of spirit. Despite the protagonist of this book being male, I'm impressed with the way it does not give short shrift to its female characters. show more Some of them may be young to begin with, but they show great courage, determination and wisdom, as well as kindness and friendship, especially when they grow into their power. Chalion's society may view women as less than men, none of its characters see that as anything other than another rule that can be used to advantage in their political games. A lovely book, I must certainly check out more books by this author! show less

What a happy re-read, lucky me. I had also managed to forget the book completely - except for the very beginning, the ending (the characters that end up together, that is), and that there was some kind of curse, lol. Obviously, it added to my enjoyment.

I really cannot thank Lois McMaster Bujold enough for her books. The writing is as great as always, creating characters that are vivid and alive. The plot is tightly and cleverly crafted. It is also taking its time at the very beginning, which is fine - you enjoy the worldbuilding and the details, getting to know the characters.

How can broken people heal? How do you remain human in horrible situations? How do you grow when thrust into a new role? What happens when good deeds snowball in show more unexpected and oh so right ways? I love how the answers are woven into the book.

I am left with a lovely “good book hangover” :) show less

A nice way to start off the new year--the first book I finished in 2008 turns out to be, I think, a perfect genre novel.

And it's not as easy to write one of those as you might think. You have to give your readers some of the conventions of the genre, because that's usually why they're reading it in the first place. You also have to make it seem fresh, not just a tired rehash of whatever came before.

This book has all the stuff you look for in a political-intrigue-type fantasy (princesses, dark magic, sinister courtiers, etc.) and takes it seriously unlike some of those lame Hey Look At Me Subverting The Conventions writers.

At the same time, it has characters that are more than just chess pieces (imagine, women that are strong but still show more believable within the society of the period!), and a plot that's kind of like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel--you just jump in and hold on and have faith that it's going to come out all right in the end. show less

I read this because of my friend Jenne's 5 star review....I'm not quite as enthusiastic, but on the other hand, I started reading it last night, picked it up this morning, and read non-stop until I finished it. Bujold does a great job in creating a complex society and political scene that doesn't get so complex the reader forgets half the characters and plot threads. And she did it in a stand alone novel that is less than 500 pages. And, my new criterion for good fantasy: no bards running around with lutes!

If I have any regrets about The Curse of Chalion, it's that I went into it with such high expectations. This is a beloved book, one that, if you express a preference for fantasies that favor courtly intrigue over magic, will be recommended again and again.

Chalion was very nearly a hate-read for me, but I suppose I'm glad I persevered, as the ending did soften my attitude to the novel as a whole. This novel follows Cazaril, a warrior nobleman who's been brought low in the world and, as the teenaged Royesse Iselle's advisor, saves the kingdom and regains his rightful status. It's a familiar story about a disenfranchised man coming back into his power, and if it felt fresh in 2001, it's only because popular fantasy fiction had been so show more dependent on a very narrow set of stock protagonists, princess ingenues and assistant pig-keepers.

It's a linear story—refreshingly so, relying on strong execution rather than twists. Bujold surprises us with an interesting take on magic, one that's rooted in miracle and faith. Cazaril's journey is revealed to be one of spiritual submission rather than material uplift, genuinely upending my expectations for the character. There's some intriguing gender stuff: intimations of male sexual trauma, an interrogation of masculine heroism, a dash of Immaculate Conception-adjacent body horror.

And yet I have rarely read a novel about court politics that was less interested in politics. The antagonists are flat and pulp-y, so insubstantial that they're not even all that fun to hate. They certainly don't provide the kind of complexity that makes for a really fun melodrama of manners. This flatness extends to the way identity is treated in the novel. Period-typical racism against our Moorish/Turkish stand-ins is never fully explored, let alone challenged; the existence of Umegat, our model refugee fleeing a wickedly intolerant enemy state, only reinforces the characters' prejudices. Oh, and don't expect any upstairs-downstairs shenanigans, as literally every named character of import who appears at first glance to be lowborn turns out to be an aristocrat or a saint.

I think Bujold is trying to do something interesting by making this an essentially domestic story—Cazaril is not a politician; he cares not a whit for the welfare of the kingdom and is purely devoted to Iselle out of personal compassion and loyalty. This is supposed to be feminist, I think? I would certainly prefer my political operatives to care less about personal glory and more about the welfare of teenage girls, but even if you can get behind the book's "princesses in charge" white feminism, we're left with the impression that no one in this court is all that bright and that Cazaril, for all his intelligence and education, has absolutely no interest in the wider political implications of his queenmaking activities.

I haven't even gotten to the most common complaint about this book, the age gap in its central romance (35-year-old Cazaril is paired with a literal teenager). In this, as in all else, the small-c conservatism of this novel wants to have it both ways. It wants a veneer of realism (age gaps were hIsToRiCaLlY aCcuRaTe), but it also wants to believe that Cazaril's good intentions are enough to obviate the structural inequities of the time period it's portraying. Nevertheless, the novel provides its own evidence that there is harm in him lusting after his sixteen-year-old pupil's best friend, including a truly bonkers passage in which he repeatedly ogles both of them when they're swimming, something that their female chaperone thinks is funny and not gross(??)

The Curse of Chalion isn't an unsuccessful novel, and if I was feeling (cattily) kind, I might concede that it's honestly too lightweight to deserve the weight of criticism I've heaped upon it. I do think that there's a place for small-c conservative genre fiction, because the reality is that most of us live small-c conservative lives and at most can aspire to personal transformation. But the failure of these kinds of novels is their dishonesty: not only do they declare that the world can't change, but they refuse to map the contours of the world as it is. show less

My first impression of this book, a slow-moving fantasy novel that reveals little of the inner world of its characters, was that it is a pompous exercise in "world building" fantasy, where the thread is valued more than the cloth. About 50 pages in, however, I "got it". The Curse of Chalion is a Science Fiction story trapped in the body of a fantasy. It raises questions about the nature of faith, through its long-suffering protagonist (think Emilio from The Sparrow), and tells an operatic story of alliances and betrayal. This was an intellectually engaging fantasy, not another Tolkienesque warrior-chosen-by-the-hand-of-fate-coming-of-age story, and it was very hard to put down.