The Curse of Chalion

First, I need to pat myself on the back for my extremely precise triangulation of this book. I was in the mood for EXACTLY THIS, after re-watching some Lord of the Rings –> reading some trashy LOTR fanfiction –> and then wanting some more respectable high fantasy fanfiction. This delivered. In fact, it delivered too much!

This is book 1 in a high fantasy series Lois McMaster Bujold. I have apparently read the sequel to this, Paladin of Souls, which won both the Hugo and Nebula (double winner!!). I have largely forgotten that book, though I do remember it featured a middle-aged lady hero. And I will never forget when that happens. Now I think I should re-read it?

Anyway, the setting is a Renaissance southern Europe-feeling high fantasy world, infused with a strong religious fervor for either 4 (if you're Roknari) or 5 (if you're anybody else) gods. Our protagonist is Lord Cazaril, a lesser landed gentleman lord/courtier dude who has spent the last 20 years suffering various slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune. He is a galley slave at one point. This is all just part and parcel of living in this fantasy-Mediterranean (those damn Roknari!), and the story opens with a humbled, traumatized and ailing Cazaril dragging himself back to this one castle he used to be a page for. Since is a super noble, righteous dude - and smart! - the elderly “Provincara” (lady regent?) (played by Judi Dench in my head) enlists him to be the secretary/tutor/Chief of Staff for her daughter, a smart, sensible, 15-year-old princess named Iselle.

Then shit gets cray!

The great and ennobling

So I generally really enjoyed this book, it featured much pulpy entertainment. Some things I particularly regarded well were:

- The setting. I like LOTR but LORDDDDD am I tired of Anglo or Nordic high fantasies. Even though Bujold slips in some Celtic and Gaelic words here and there (according to my ebook dictionary), the tactile feel of this world - to me, at least - was very Mediterranean. All the various competing kingdoms - Chalion, Ibra, Roknar (KHAAAAAAAN), etc - felt like Italian city-states to me: Venice, Genoa, Rome. The Roknari, I assumed, were meant to be the Ottomans since they worshiped 4 gods instead of 5. And the whole kidnapping noblemen and making them row around the sea.

- The religion. This world is super-imbued with its religion; indeed, the religion becomes central to the plot and Cazaril's adventures. In short, there are 5 gods we hear about: the Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and Bastard (this is the one the Roknari exclude, I guess?). The gods seem to be tied to the seasons? And to some activities? Like the Son is all about military stuff? And lots of the noblemen seem to be aligned with one or other god. Anyway, apart from the general interest of this pantheon, I really enjoyed how LMB portrayed religion both in practical terms (believers, skeptics, rituals, etc) and in its SUPER NIRVANA SPIRITUALITY moments (boy, I highlighted so many great passages - she had a great way of describing peak experiences!). So that was fun.

- The humane humor. The characters are almost all believable people, and there were some laugh-out-loud moments of wit. Cazaril, in particular, had many moments of wry observation that were fun. Likewise, LMB embraced the occasional absurdity of the human experience: there was awkwardness and clumsiness and (understandable) stupidity.

The trashy

This book, however, is kinda pulpy fanfiction-y. Namely, here are the things I didn't love:

- The hurt/comfort. OOOOH BOY. So there is a popular fanfic genre, hurt/comfort, which, like all things fandom, was pioneered by Trekkies and basically means your favorite character suffers a lot and is periodically comforted. In this case, that character is Cazaril. He spends about 90% of the book suffering various physical problems, with much noble righteousness and wry wit. He is tired, sore, wounded, sick, etc etc etc. And on and on. I mean, I can deal with a couple tablespoons of character angst, but this was gallons.

- The slapstick. While I admired LMB's handling of humor, things did edge into slapstick once or twice. Various crows peck at Cazaril's head. If that amuses you, well, that joke is repeated.

- Well, I guess that's it.

This book was fine. It was fun. It was a little ridiculous. But it also had some really inspired moments. I can see why it's popular!