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This one is harder to go into details without spoilers for either it or the Curse of Chalion (read that first), but it follows Iselle's mother Ista, after the events of the first book. She feels smothered by her overattentive companions (due to the aforementioned madness) and decides her only escape is a holy pilgrimage. Her household questions her capacity to make this decision and tries to surround her with enough pomp and ceremony to prevent anything interesting from happening, but she ultimately gets her wish for an adventure. She does not, being God-touched once before to disastrous result, get her wish to avoid the influence of the Gods once again. She must confront her past head on, and make peace with both the Gods and herself.
In terms of review, I'm going to copy paste this part across all three five gods books I've read. The theology and magic are excellent. The characters are strong, and, while in desperate circumstances and compelled to take impossible risks, do so in bold and interesting ways. There's some setup to get into the action, but Bujold weaves the stories together in a way that keeps the action flowing while making it impossible to predict what will happens next, in a way that never feels forced or unearned.
This one is harder to go into details without spoilers for either it or the Curse of Chalion (read that first), but it follows Iselle's mother Ista, after the events of the first book. She feels smothered by her overattentive companions (due to the aforementioned madness) and decides her only escape is a holy pilgrimage. Her household questions her capacity to make this decision and tries to surround her with enough pomp and ceremony to prevent anything interesting from happening, but she ultimately gets her wish for an adventure. She does not, being God-touched once before to disastrous result, get her wish to avoid the influence of the Gods once again. She must confront her past head on, and make peace with both the Gods and herself.
In terms of review, I'm going to copy paste this part across all three five gods books I've read. The theology and magic are excellent. The characters are strong, and, while in desperate circumstances and compelled to take impossible risks, do so in bold and interesting ways. There's some setup to get into the action, but Bujold weaves the stories together in a way that keeps the action flowing while making it impossible to predict what will happens next, in a way that never feels forced or unearned.
