The Curse of Chalion
Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy , Staff Picks , Fiction
Okay, I’m recommending a fantasy novel here, and I know that will have many of you scrolling on past. Apart from the Harry Potter books or maybe Tolkien, fantasy is pretty hard to push. But if you enjoy a writer who can twist familiar storytelling elements into something just a bit different, try Lois McMaster Bujold.
Bujold is best known for her science fiction series, the energetically satiric Vorkosigan Saga (definitely something a bit different), but she has written a few volumes of fantasy, too. I recommended her historical fantasy The Spirit Ring last year, and she’s currently writing a more traditional light-romantic fantasy series, The Sharing Knife.
But I wish she’d find time to do more in the splendid series that began with The Curse of Chalion in 2001. Its mix of old-fashioned fantasy and complicatedly original religious mythology was really intriguing.
Cazaril, a lord and general who was betrayed into two years of slavery on an enemy galley, is making his way back home, battered almost beyond recognition. His old patroness gives him a post as tutor to the Royesse (Princess) Iselle, half-sister to Chalion’s crown prince. The job isn’t exactly a piece of charity, though, as it puts Cazaril back within reach of his old betrayer when Iselle and her brother are summoned to the royal city. Dondo dy Jironal is now one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, and he’s making a play to marry the royal heiress.
There’s little that the returning exile Cazaril can do to save his royal charge from Dondo except to invoke a death-miracle from the gods. That’s a bit of magic that comes with a very high price: when the gods are involved, things don’t always turn out as expected. Cazaril finds himself the recipient of a strange and painful sort of sainthood. But as a tool of the gods, he may be able to help lift the curse that hangs over Chalion’s royal family.
That plot summary probably won’t have tempted many non-fantasy-fans. Plot alone gives little sense of the fresh and fascinating world Bujold has created and that she extends into two equally original sequels, The Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt. But try this as a beach book or a porch book this summer and see whether you aren’t seduced.
