Product Description

Lois McMaster Bujold has won the Hugo award four times, and the Nebula award twice. In this, her first epic fantasy, we join Cazaril -- a former soldier, and courtier who is about to embark on a perilous journey, rife with lethal treacheries, demonic magic, and scheming characters. Lord Cazaril has been in turn courier, courtier, castle-warder, and captain; now he is but a crippled ex-galley slave seeking nothing more than a menial job in the kitchens of the Dowager Provincara, the noble patroness of his youth. But Fortunes wheel continues to turn for Cazaril, and he finds himself promoted immediately to the exalted and dangerous position of secretary-tutor to the Iselle, the beautiful, fiery sister of the heir to Chalions throne. Amidst the decaying splendor and poisonous intrigue of Chalion's ancient capital, Cardegoss, Cazaril is forced to encounter both old enemies and surprising allies, as he seeks to lift the curse of misfortune that clings to the royal family of Chalion, and to all who come too close to them...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15303 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Curse of Chalion Lois McMaster Bujold abandons her usual military space-opera for good reason; this is an emotionally powerful, inventively plotted novel which needs to be fantasy to work. Cazaril, betrayed by his enemies into a crippling two years in the galleys, returns to court a physical and emotional wreck: appointed secretary-tutor to the young princess Iselle, he finds himself in direct opposition to his powerful betrayers. His preparedness to make the ultimate sacrifice and save Iselle from an unwanted marriage to one of them by a death spell that will kill him also has unforeseen results; he learns the hard way that the gods have plans for him, ingenious and mischievous plans.

Bujold does charm very well--we share Cazaril's sheer joy at mentoring the bright snippy Iselle--and she is also good at physical and emotional pain--Cazaril's sense of himself as broken and worn-out is entirely convincing. This is also a fantasy which includes some inventive thinking about the nature of gods and the consequences of curses; there is a nasty-minded logic to almost everything that happens here. Bujold's fans will read it without recommendation; many readers who have resisted the Vorkosigan books will find this an attractive and intelligent fantasy. --Roz Kaveney

Review
"Fresh, intriguing, and as always from Lois McMaster Bujold, superb." Robert Jordan, New York Times best selling author of The Wheel of Time Series "Bujold continues to prove what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics." Booklist "This is one of the great ones." Science Fiction Chronicle

Returning home to Cardegoss after escaping slavery in the galleys of the barbaric Roknari, Lupe dy Cazaril, soldier and former slave, is appointed tutor and secretary to the Royesse Iselle, sister to the heir to the throne. Caught up in a web of intrigue, he resorts to black magic - and finds himself an unwitting saint. Now only he can remove the eponymous curse that haunts the royal line. This is what might once have been called 'low fantasy'. In other words, its atmosphere is gritty and dark; the characters are largely flawed or unscrupulous. The trappings of romance are conspicuously absent: there are no magic swords, dragons, dark towers, non-human races or spectacular displays of supernatural power. What magic there is, is understated - spells are miraculous interventions by one of five gods (who form a celestial family of father, mother, son, daughter and bastard), rather than a species of heavy artillery. Instead, it is a fantasy of rare emotional sophistication and depth whose atmosphere is reminiscent of the earthy Elizabethan bleakness of King Lear (right down to some infelicitous uses of cod-Shakespearean prose - 'bethought himself', 'very heaven'). Cazaril himself is an unconventional but sympathetic hero. A fully adult man, scarred both physically and psychologically by his past, competent without being exceptional, he finds himself the unwilling host to a supernatural power. Bujold captures nicely his sense of being powerless but experienced, confused but still perceptive. It is a shame that the book lacks the sense of joyous energy imparted to Bujold's space-opera writing by her best creation, military genius Miles Vorkosigan; but then, this is a slower book, which aims for a different and more serious tone, and by and large succeeds admirably. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Lois McMaster Bujold was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1949. She attended Ohio State University from 1968 to 1972, but didn't graduate. She describes her real education as reading five books a week for ten years from the Ohio State University stacks, reading enormous amounts of SF as a teenager, and listening to her father, an engineer. She started writing in 1982, and sold her first story to Twilight Zone in 1985. Then Baen Books bought all three of the novels she had already written and published them in 1986. Her fourth novel, Falling Free, won Lois her first Nebula. "The Mountains of Mourning," also went on to win both Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novella of 1989, and The Vor Game and Barrayar won Hugos for best novel in 1991 and 1992. All her titles have been translated into fourteen languages (so far). She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota,with her two children, Anne and Paul.

Customer Reviews

Amazing Book - Worth Reading
This book is, to be frank an excellent example of a good book. It is *astoundingly* well written especially in certain key locations, the characters have... well character.

The plot did lack a little momentum at the end but still more than sufficient I felt to bring to book to a excellent end, maybe not perfect but still excellent.

Frankly the first book of hers I have ever read but I wasn't dissapointed and even people who don't normally read fantasy who I lent the book to found it an also similiarly awesome read. It's a shame it isn't better known I feel since even though it's short I feel it's up there with "The Wheel oF Time" and "Magician". Well worth a read.

what a wonderful hero!
I think Cazaril is a real fresh break from the usual hot-headed heroine or rash young warrior who play major parts in most fantasies. His character is witty and he has got a very 3 dimetional quality. He is a very relaxed, logical and humorous.I wanted him to suvive and suceed in this world of gods and politics.

Cazaril is a little out of the main spot light, allowing both you and him to be casual observers of events in Chalion. I found this very relaxing to read, the writers style is very causual and doesn't waste your time.

The religion in the book is thoroughly believable as well as all the supernatural events. There are a few interesting plot twists and the pacing is excellent.

I don't want to bore you too much so just buy it now and make yourselves happier! enjoy

A gripping story in a fascinating world
From page one of this book I was gripped, and as events unfolded I found myself transported to a new world, that of the kingdom of Chalion.

Our guide for the story is Cazaril who we first meet as a tired and lame beggar making his way to the fortress where his erstwhile employer, the Provincara (rather like the Queen Mum) of Chalion, lives. Cazaril was previously a Castillar (a Noble) and a courtier but after a fortress he was defending was breached he was taken away as a prisoner of war by the Roknari peoples who forced him to be a galley slave on boats for eighteen months, thus his broken down health. His reminiscences of his history before the time we meet him in the story gradually unfold and prove to be more important to events that initially apparent.

Once Cazaril is accepted into the Provincara’s service again as a tutor to her granddaughter we meet other members of her family – her daughter Ista (who appears to be mad), her granddaughter Iselle the princess (Or Royesse), her brother Teidez the prince (or Royce), their elder half-brother Orico (the Roya) and his wife (the Royina) and various other courtiers. As you can see from the different terms given for the grades of nobles, it can be quite confusing and I would rather have enjoyed a table of degrees of nobility – might have made it a bit simpler.

What’s fascinating about this book (and its sequel, Paladin of Souls, which I read straight after this one) is the theological background to the story. Bujold has created an entire religious system based on five deities (the Father, The Mother, The Daughter, The Son and The Bastard) – the religious observance of the people of Chalion is portrayed brilliantly. Many of the events are shaped by the Gods and the influence they have in the real world, culminating in Cazaril becoming a living saint. And yet the hand of these gods is not always benevolent, and it is the way in which Bujold unfolds the story of the curse on the descendants of King Ias (the father of Iselle, Teidez and Orico) and the ways in which Cazaril and others try to break it.

There’s also a charming love story unfolding between Cazaril and Iselle’s handmaiden Betriz which adds a little spice to the story alongside a marriage for political gain between Iselle and a neighbouring kingdom’s heir.

What I found so enjoyable about this tale was the different setting of the quintarian religion and the way in which the gods played important roles in the story; Cazaril is a worthy hero with flashes of humour and real grit – I was rooting for him to succeed in lifting the curse.

The follow up to this book, Paladin Of Souls, is just as good – I heartily recommend both books.