Pam's Book Log

7 January, 2003

This is the second fantasy novel by renowned space-opera author Bujold. Her previous effort in that direction, The Spirit Ring was mediocre, at best. (It was also the first Bujold book I read, and I finished it with a profound sense of confusion over why so many people loved her writing so much.) The Curse of Chalion, while not perfect, is much, much better. It is, in fact, quite an enjoyable and well-written book.

It's set in a fantasy world which seems to be inspired by Medieval Spain (although since I know next to nothing about Medieval Spain, I can't say how closely Chalion is modeled thereupon). The main character is Lupe dy Cazaril, formerly a competent and well-respected army officer, more recently a galley slave on a foreign ship. The book opens with Cazaril just recently freed, and mostly physically recovered from illness and abuse he suffered on the ship, traveling to the town of Valenda. His hope is to secure some kind of position in the household of an old noblewoman, whose late husband he had served as a page, back in the day. This old noblewoman is also the grandmother of the prince and princess who are first and second in line for the throne of Chalion. Cazaril lucks out and is hired to be the princess Iselle's personal secretary and tutor.

The first half of the book is about Cazaril's psychological recovery from his experiences on the galley, as he becomes a valued friend and advisor to the young princess. There's lots of exciting political intrigue, especially after Iselle and her younger brother are summoned to court, as the latter is officially anointed as his elder half-brother's heir. (Stupid patriarchal fantasy society. By this point in the book, it is obvious that Iselle is the only sibling of the three who actually has the intelligence and competence to rule a country.) In the end, Cazaril must resort to drastic measures to save Iselle from a fate worse than death, and this starts up the second half of the plot, wherein the titular Curse takes center stage, and Cazaril discovers that he's been chosen by the gods to find a way to break the curse, and save the royal line of Chalion from a long succession of fates worse than death.

There's a lot to like in this book. The characterization of Cazaril is excellently done-- not only in his initial state, as a completely, utterly broken man, but in the way Bujold shows, rather than tells, how his new appointment, and the subsequent relationships which develop between him and the princess, and between him and her chief lady-in-waiting Betriz, lead him to slowly rebuild his self-respect, his courage, and his will to live. This development is pretty much complete by the middle of the book, and even though the lifting of the Curse forms the main plot of the book, it's almost anti-climactic, after the very moving and well-executed "Cazaril's recovery" plot.

Another particularly nice aspect of this book is in the world-building. Unlike many fantasy novels, this one contains real, coherently-developed religion and real, active, no-denying-their-existence gods. The Chalionese recognize five gods: four who are associated with the seasons (the Daughter of Spring, the Mother of Summer, the Son of Autumn, and the Father of Winter), plus a fifth god, the Bastard, who is the patron of "all things out of season." I really like the notion of a god in charge of all the bits the other gods don't want or can't be bothered about.

So, to conclude the non-spoiler portion of this review: it's a thoroughly enjoyable book, well-written, interesting world, good characterization, good plot-- go read it already.

The rest of this review contains major spoilers for the plot. If you haven't read the book, and have any intention of doing so, read no further. I'm serious.

I really did like the book a lot, but there are two (fairly minor) aspects to the plot which I think were missteps on Bujold's part. They both play into a question which the characters themselves ask at one point, that is, how much of their actions are predetermined by the gods they serve:

Umegat pulled on his queue. "Do you think your steps were fated from that far back? Disturbing. But the gods are parsimonious, and take their chances where they can find them."
"If the gods are making this path for me, then where is my free will? No, it cannot be!" [This is Cazaril speaking. --PK]
"Ah." Umegat brightened at this thorny theological point. "I have had another thought on such fates, that denies neither gods nor men. Perhaps, instead of controlling every step, the gods have started a hundred or a thousand Cazarils and Umegats down this road. And only those arrive who choose to."
"But am I the first to arrive, or the last?"
"Well," said Umegat dryly, "I can promise you you're not the first."

Now, I have a particularly strong dislike for overly-strong predetermination, so Umegat's theory is particularly attractive to me. It's also more original than the typical "Chosen One" motif which is found in so much fantasy literature. So, I'd like it to be the correct interpretation of events. However, the way things turn out tends to support the "strong predestination" viewpoint, which makes the whole story less interesting, in my opinion. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

The first misstep is the almost gratuitous inclusion of a prophecy about how the Curse will be broken. It's not even a particularly cryptic prophecy; it's just very difficult to implement. While the prophecy does play a central role in a minor historical plot-thread, it's inclusion in the main Cazaril/Curse plot seriously decreased the dramatic tension. It's one thing to wonder how or whether an ordinary guy, acting on his own instincts, will manage to break a dreadful, supernatural curse, it's rather less interesting to read about how a Chosen Champion will follow the given recipe for curse-breaking.

The other thing, which I really, really, didn't like, was an eleventh-hour revelation that, rather than being a guy who was in the right place at the right time, and made the right decision, Cazaril had consciously given himself over to the gods way back before the book started, and that this resulted in everything which happened to him, leading him to the point where he can break the curse. That includes the selling-out of his previous command, the non-accident which led him to being sent to the galleys, etc, etc. Because this wasn't revealed until so late in the book, I kind of felt cheated: I'd thought I'd been reading one sort of story, while all along, it was secretly something else. I'd have preferred if that bit hadn't been there at all, but if it had to be, I don't think it was fair (or a good writing decision) for Bujold to just toss it in out of nowhere, practically at the end of the story.