Review: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (World of Five Gods #1)

SiriusB Reviews Category / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended ReadsFantasy / religion4 Comments

A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril returns to the noble household he once served as page and is named secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule. It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it must ultimately lead him to the place he most fears: the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies who once placed him in chains now occupy lofty positions.

But it is more than the traitorous intrigues of villains that threaten Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle here, for a sinister curse hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion. And only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge — an act that will mark him as a tool of the miraculous . . . and trap him in a lethal maze of demonic paradox.

Review:

Dear Louis McMaster Bujold,

I read these books (The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls) years ago.  My reading group wanted to discuss “The Curse of Chalion” last month and that is why I reread it. I also wanted to note that Janine reviewed both of these books here at DA and you can find her reviews here. I realized that I remembered way less from the story than I hoped I would be remembering, but on the other hand more than a decade passed since I read these stories and I never reread them before now so it is not that surprising.

I think the blurb to the story is great. I would want to show this blurb to so many blurb writers (or whoever writes the blurbs, maybe it is the authors themselves, I am not sure). It gives you the basic set up, but it *hints* as to the rest, it does not summarize and spoil the plot as so many blurbs do that day. No, this is not a personal gripe, as I said many times before I am one of those weird readers who often seek out spoilers, I am just annoyed on behalf of those readers who do not want to be spoiled by blurbs and often cannot help it.

So, as the blurb says we meet up with Cazaril when he is broken in body and spirit – his war service to his country/state ended in several years of being enslaved and obviously treated horribly while being enslaved.

Luckily, his old household and the lady in charge of it still remember him and treat him kindly and the lady offers Cazaril a post as private secretary to her sixteen year old granddaughter whose fourteen year old brother may one day become a ruler of Chalion.  Their mother Ista is considered “mad” by many people (Man, one of the worst assumptions ever as one will learn later) and she is spending her days being taken care by her grandmother’s servants.

I loved Cazaril. Sometimes one meets a character who is just good and sometimes one believes in that goodness or not. I believed in his goodness and wanted his sufferings to end on a good note. I also loved his charge, sixteen year old Iselle, who took her fate in her own hands as much as she possibly could for the woman at the Middle Ages times. Now, it is made very clear that the world in the book is not *our* Medieval world, because the religious deities are Five Gods (as seen in the title), but I still got the medieval feel about it.

To me though, at least when I was rereading the book now, this was not only a story of Court intrigues and fights for power. To me more than anything else this is the story about the relationship between the person and the God. I am always interested to read a well written story where this theme features prominently and this book fits the bill for me for sure. I also have to note that I vastly prefer for the religion not to exist in our world and here we have Five Gods, even though Holy Trinity was definitely a thought that came to mind, here we have the Band of Holy Five (not a name from the book :)). We have mother, father, son, daughter and bastard, so whatever associations the Deities from this world will cause, it will be your own. Me? Besides being amused at how we have the Holy Five here, I also thought about Demetre and Persephone because we have the Mother of Summer and Daughter of Spring. I thought it was fascinating how the Gods in this world try to make their wishes known through the people who agree to serve as such. Some people agree more than others I thought.

The book certainly takes interesting views on what it means to be Touched by the God, to be God’s Saint (think hard about wanting to be a Saint here). I thought the idea about offering oneself without reservations so God can do their work through you was obvious enough, but it was so beautifully written, that I really liked it.

I said it was not only a story about Court intrigues and the fight for the power, but it certainly featured prominently as well in the story. I am glad good people won no matter how much pain and struggle and loss it took, that’s all I will say.

There are a couple of side romantic storylines, the story is not a full blown romance though and I would not pick it up for that.

Grade: B+

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