Review

Rating: 9

This is a gentle story, and surprisingly rich. It chronicles the chance meeting of a young farmer girl and a middle-aged Lakewalker patroller, the love that grows between them, and the intriguing world in which they live.

More a story of love, emotions, and social tension than a story of magic or sword wielding, The Sharing Knife (a two book “omnibus” edition including both Beguilement and Legacy) often touched me deeply. Generally, I find love in literature to be either unrealistically pure, or unbelievably complex: in either case, not terribly realistic. But the love between the two main characters in this story has a sweet touch of realism.

There seems to be a intriguing and rich world behind the estranged societies of the Lakewalkers, who have a nearly magical bond with the force of life the call “ground”, and everyone else- the “farmers”. Somewhere in the past something happened that brought down a powerful and advanced society, and left its descendents to deal with vile outbreaks of semi-intelligent malevolence named by the Lakewalkers “malices”. The author deftly uses this background in a way that doesn’t demand that it be resolved. The questions of how the world came to be the way it is are left unanswered without leaving the feeling that I must seek out the next book.

Truthfully, I was more concerned about the people introduced to me in the story: Dag, the patroller who finds his life uprooted by Fawn, the farmer girl who helps him slay a ground-consuming Malice. The author wrapped me up in their lives, and led the story to a satisfying and consistent conclusion.

I’d happily read another book set in this world, or even about the same characters. But I don’t feel I *need* to read more. Lois McMaster Bujold has accomplished something rare in a market of never-ending series novels: a book (or pair of books, I suppose) that are satisfyingly complete and internally consistent and that encourages further exploration without demanding it.