Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15555 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

Robert Jordan, New York Times best selling author of The Wheel of Time Series
"Fresh, intriguing, and as always from Lois McMaster Bujold, superb."

Synopsis
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...

Customer Reviews

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.

Fantasy with a difference, set in a twisted Spain
Near historical or distorted historical stories have been some of the best of fantasy literature in the past twenty years; Mary Gentle's work, and Guy Gavriel Kay's, for example. Bujold's Chalion is much less explicitly Spain than Kay's Al Rassan is. Her Roknari are not explicitly Moors; Iselle is not explicitly Isabella of Castille. Chalion is rather, to Spain, as Kay's Tigana is to Italy; capturing real and essential truths about its locus in time and space while allowing itself to be very free with invented detail. And, in Bujold's hands, this works brilliantly.

Like so much - too much -- fantasy fiction, the Curse of Chalion deals with dynastic succession. But Bujold tells her story from the point of view of an extraordinarily well realised, well drawn and engaging character, the betrayed and beaten soldier/diplomat Cazaril, a man so beaten down by the slings and arrows of - is his case, literally - outrageous fortune that he no longer has personal ambition, but nevertheless a person honourable and loyal to the end.

Chalion exists in a world in which there is no magic as we conventionally understand it, but a world in which the Gods do occasionally intervene, through human agency. Being an agent of the Gods is a deeply uncomfortable experience, and one which Cazaril must endure; much of the story, consequently, turns on the interesting and well realised theology of Chalion's religion, based in part (inevitably) on medieval Catholicism, in part on the Roman pantheon, and to a great extent on pure and creative invention.

In summary, this is thinking persons fantasy. It helps that its extremely well written; it helps that its characters are engaging. But it stands out from among other well written, engaging tales because of its ability to provoke - and challenge - thought.

Excellent. My only quibble is in the detail of the ending. The story turns around two romances, the dynastic romance which drives the ostensible main plot and the more personal romance which drives Cazaril's own arc. At the end, however, Bujold brings the romance to a conclusion - at least all the conclusion she's going to give it - and then goes back to tie off two dangling theological threads. For the intellectual completion of the piece these threads needed to be tied off, but it would have been more satisfying for me, I believe, if she'd tied them off first and the romance last.

But this really is high quality fantasy and I look forward with keen interest to reading more of her work.