The Sharing Knife: Legacy

Multiple award winning author Lois McMaster Bujold returns with the second installment of her latest fantasy series The Sharing Knife: Legacy.

The story picks up immediately after the events of The Sharing Knife: Beguilement as we join our heroic couple Dag Redwing and Fawn Bluefield a scant few hours after they are married. They now have to travel back to Dag's home to explain their forbidden marriage to Dag's kin.

While I did think that the characterization, which is a strength of all of McMaster Bujold's work, was great I still was a bit disappointed with this book. The main plot thread running through the entire novel was whether or not folk could learn to accept Dag and Fawn's marriage. I guess that doesn't really speak to me as it seems like such a foreign concept that it did not hold much drama for me at all.

It was a good read but it won't be going to the top of my stack anytime soon. For some great fantasy work by her check out the Chalion series.

The Terror

While I love the multiple award winning author Dan Simmons I was initially reluctant about picking up his latest novel The Terror. My reluctance stems from the fact that the cover of the book reminded me of reading a book by Cassie Brown in eighth grade English entitled Death on the Ice.

Death on the Ice recounts the 1914 Newfoundland sealing disaster in which two thirds of 132 men died as they were left alone on the ice for two days. While The Terror is the fictional recounting of the doomed expedition of Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage.

Both books deal with the horrible trials encountered by men lost on the ice but The Terror brings things to a whole new level as the sailors are also being stalked by a super-natural entity which I can best describe as a Wendigo but is more accurately called a Tuurngait.

The story is told partially in flashbacks and from multiple points for view, most notably Captain Francis Crozier but remains quite easy to follow.

I highly recommend this novel even if you are not a fan of the setting as it is a well crafted suspenseful story with great characterization. I believe that most people would love to be as noble as Dr. Goodsir.

Update: Podcast interview on NPR.

Ysabel

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay is his first novel since his Fionavar Tapestry series in which the story takes place in present day. The story is set in Provence, France as a young Canadian boy is accompanying his father, a photographer, on a photo shoot. Almost immediately the reader along with Ned, the boy, stumbles into the middle of a story that has been going on for a very, very long time.

I purchased this book at a reading by Guy Gavriel Kay that was sponsored by Perfect Books at the Clocktower Brew Pub in Ottawa. It was a real treat to hear Kay speak about the time he spent in Provence researching the places he describes so eloquently in the novel. After a dramatic reading by Kay I did get a chance to meet the author to which I had a typical fan boy moment which is better left undocumented.

I absolutely loved this book and I devoured it over two days. I cannot recommend Kay more highly to anyone who wants to read some truly beautifully realized fantasy novels.

Updated 2007/08/11: My friend Alexandre reviews Ysabel as well. Alexandre was with me at the reading by Guy Gavriel Kay.