{"id":448,"date":"2010-07-09T14:56:30","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T18:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/?p=448"},"modified":"2010-11-16T01:21:21","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T06:21:21","slug":"the-sharing-knife-horizon-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/2010\/07\/09\/jun\/the-sharing-knife-horizon-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold-b\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold: B-"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From the front flap:<\/b>
\nIn a world where malices\u00e2\u20ac\u201dremnants of ancient magic\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcan erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets and themselves from the farmers they protect, so when patroller Dag Redwing Hickory rescued farmer girl Fawn Bluefield, neither expected to fall in love, join their lives in marriage, or defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the perilous split between their peoples.<\/p>\n

Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold every malice at bay forever. Yet for all the customs that the couple has challenged thus far, they will soon be confronted by a crisis exceeding their worst imaginings, one that threatens their Lakewalker and farmer followers alike. Now the pair must answer in earnest the question they’ve grappled with since they killed their first malice together: when the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world’s deadliest foe?
\n
\nReview:<\/b>
\nIf I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like Dag and Fawn, The Sharing Knife: Horizon<\/i> would be one of the most boring books I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever read.<\/p>\n

Having reached the end of their river voyage, Dag and Fawn pause long enough to witness the marriage of Whit and Berry before parting ways with Fawn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brother and his new bride and heading to New Moon Cutoff, a Lakewalker camp where a renowned medicine maker, Arkady Waterbirch, lives. There, Dag finds an explanation for some of his abilities that is far more positive than the dark alternatives he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been fearing and apprentices with the fastidious Arkady for several months. <\/p>\n

Arkady is opposed to Dag practicing medicine on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153farmers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but when a child stricken with lockjaw needs his help, Dag goes willingly, knowing that he might be sacrificing the incredibly valuable apprenticeship as a result. The boy survives, but Dag\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions throw New Moon camp into a tizzy so he decides to head back up north with newly pregnant Fawn rather than succumb to the restrictions the camp leader wants to oppose on him. A little way down the road, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s joined by Arkady, staging his own protest against the leader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision. <\/p>\n

Along the way they acquire various traveling companions\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfarmers and Lakewalkers both\u00e2\u20ac\u201duntil their party numbers more than two dozen. Dag fashions a trio of necklaces designed to help veil farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grounds and protect them against malices. These are put to the test right at the end of the book when the party stumbles upon a particularly awful malice and Fawn (with help from Whit and Berry) proves again how resourceful and useful farmers can be if allowed to help. The implication is that the tale of this deed will spread far and wide and help foster a sense of cooperation between the two peoples.<\/p>\n

Most of the book focuses on what Dag is learning and, true, it can be kind of interesting sometimes. Bujold has created an admirably consistent world for her characters to inhabit, so all of the detail about the healing techniques Dag is learning pretty much makes sense. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that the narrative moves so slowly<\/i>. I never do particularly well with a story whose whole plot is, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And then they walked a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essentially what this book becomes in its second half. <\/p>\n

Also, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too many characters at the end. Some of the new ones are interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fond of Dag\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s patroller niece, Sumac, and I can see why the half-Lakewalker siblings Calla and Indigo are important as a preview of what Dag and Fawn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own children might be like\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut many are nondescript. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to forget some of them are even there; I certainly did so more than once.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I did enjoy The Sharing Knife<\/i> series and, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to fault it for being too long and rambly, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any particular recommendations for how it could be made shorter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the front flap: In a world where malices\u00e2\u20ac\u201dremnants of ancient magic\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcan erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets and themselves from the farmers they protect, so when patroller Dag Redwing Hickory rescued farmer girl Fawn Bluefield, neither expected to fall in … Continue reading “The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold: B-“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,7,47],"tags":[26,45],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-m","category-review","category-horizon","tag-fantasy","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}