Bujold, Lois McMaster
PALADIN OF SOULS
Lois McMaster Bujold
EOS 2003
HC 456 pgs
ISBN#
0-380-97902-0
Hmmm . . . I'm not sure the title and cover-picture really fit the story. Our heroine is a saint, gifted of the gods, not a magician. And she doesn't go around carrying ghosts with her like the picture implies. It is a good book just the same, though I preferred its predecessor CURSE OF CHALION (see review). PALADIN OF SOULS can stand alone, but the reader might appreciate it better after reading CURSE OF CHALION which sets the scene.
It is three years later and the Dowager Royina Ista finds she can no longer tolerate the claustrophobic atmosphere in her family castle of Valenda. She decides to take a pilgrimage under the guise of praying to the gods for a grandson. In reality she needs forgiveness for a prior sin: she was an accidental accomplice to murder many years back. But Ista is not speaking to the gods for the goddess Daughter used her sorely in the past. Ista only hopes this vacation in the country can refresh her spirit. Yet what begins as a simple journey soon becomes a bizarre fight against soul-eating demons and the foreigners who wield them.
Ista is first captured by the marauding Jokonans from across the border. She
is rescued by the best swordsman in the region, a handsome border-lord who turns
out to be one the the sons of the man Ista helped to murder. But this man is not
what he seems. For one thing, he is a walking corpse (literally) and doesn't
even know it. His beautiful and devoted wife is carrying a demon. And this
handsome man's brother--renown for great intelligence--is secretly laying near
death and no one is doing anything about it.
Ista is forced by the Bastard god to solve this problem, a problem that
multiplies and grows worse as each chapter progresses. The Jokonans are
invading. They are using this demon-magic to hasten their siege. The god Father
of Winter also comes in to ask Ista's help and she wants to scream in defiance
with this thrice blessing of sainthood. But she accepts this calling. She gets
help from some demons--one who infests a horse, and another a friend--and she
also gets help from a lovely young lady named Liss, a fat divine of the
Bastard's Order, and two of the chancellor's old friends (Ferda dy Gura and his
brother Foix). Ista soon finds herself responsible for souls, for she must very
quickly learn how to separate the demons without killing the hosts . . . before
they and the Jokonans can kill her.
I found this book a pleasurable and easy read. Ms Bujold's style is rich with
description and meanders through characterization enough to snare most high
fantasy fans to her side.
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