This is the latest novel by Lois McMaster Bujold (best-known for her novels about Miles Vorkosigan) and the sequel to The Curse of Chalion.
I'm not coming into this story without prejudices. The fact is I loved Chalion as a well-written work with interesting characters, a rather refreshing setting (not a Celt in sight! ) as well as an attempt to treat religion seriously.
The sequel is not--quite--as good, honestly, but I still enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it. Its story focuses in on a supporting character in the previous novel--Ista, the dowager royina of Chalion. She is someone with a serious burden of tragedy, guilt and frustration, serious enough to hope she'll be one of the "lucky" few who know true oblivion when they die--bereft of all memory of their pasts. Her journey, which begins as a literal one following her mother's death, is to becoming a very different person.
Not wanting to spoil those who'll read the book, I won't dwell on the plot but simply point out that we meet many new characters and explore parts of this world we've not known before. Bujold has a genuine talent at world-building and having it all fit together, which shows very well here. The division between Quintarians (who worship the Five Gods) and the Quadrenes (who claim one of the Five is the equivalent of Satan) is really quite interesting, and makes for quite an echo of the differences between the two societies. Bujold, not surprisingly (if you know here works), focuses on a story of imperfect redemption. It makes for a bittersweet, but also very loving story, and reserves the greatest condemnation for those who refuse to bend. The villains of the piece never doubt, never feel guilt, never waver from the strict interpretation of their rules. In other words, they are so infused with their own arrogance they cannot grow.
Likewise the relationship between the Spiritual and Material is explored in a way that's genuinely inextricable from the story! Bravo! And all of this is tied up with a very human story of people who've tried, and failed, so now have to find the courage to try again.
What's not to like? Well, some will find the ending a little too neat. Myself, I thought there were details left unexplained that left me itchy--odd, because the same kind of details were left that way in Chalion and didn't bother me at all. And honestly, this tale proceeded at a much more breakneck pace, one I thought that distracted from the story in some ways.
But I strongly recommend the book anyway--a compelling read. "O let my name be in the Book of Love; if it be there I care Not of the other great book above. Strike it out! Or write it in anew. But let my name be in the Book of Love!" <i></i>
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