The Curse of Chalion (Chalion series #1) (Paperback)
Other Books in Series
This is book number 1 in the Chalion series series.
Staff Reviews
Fans of Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, V.E. Schwab, Mercedes Lackey, etc...this is who you should read next! Bujold has won pretty much all the same awards as Martin and lived here in Bexley while she was doing it! Her writing has been favorably compared to George R.R. Martin enough that they have done interviews together. She also has a similar penchant for taking real world history and then placing it into fascinating fantasy settings. Her long list of sci-fi books fall a bit into the space opera genre, but with a touch more humor. The Curse of Chalion is book one of a fantasy series called World of Five Gods, with a full pantheon of gods and an interesting magic system. The series won the Hugo Award for Best Fantasy Series in 2018. Brilliant writing, with wit and depth as well as some great diversity of characters.
Cazaril was once a noble and a soldier, but was betrayed and sold into slavery. Upon returning to his homeland in rough shape mentally, emotionally, and physically, he begs for a job in the home of the grandmother of the current heir to the throne, where he grew up and had worked as a page in his youth. The Dowager remembers him fondly and hires him to tutor her granddaughter, the heir's sister Iselle, knowing his experience as a noble and a soldier could prove essential to the girl's training and her survival at court one day. Day by day he recovers, while braving this new and frightening role of mentor and tutor to a teenage girl whose life may be in significantly more danger than anyone realizes. Eventually Cazaril discovers there is a curse upon their family and he sets out to break it if he can. Friendship, loyalty, honor, love, intrigue, action, magic, curses, family secrets, interference from the gods and more from an incredibly talented former local author.
— JasonDescription
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.
About the Author
One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold burst onto the scene in 1986 with Shards of Honor, the first of her tremendously popular Vorkosigan Saga novels. She has received numerous accolades and prizes, including two Nebula Awards for best novel (Falling Free and Paladin of Souls), four Hugo Awards for Best Novel (Paladin of Souls, The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance), as well as the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novella The Mountains of Mourning. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. The mother of two, Bujold lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Praise For…
“Nicely detailed and wittily accented...Here’s hoping it launches a series of tales as well told as the Vorkosigan volumes.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)
"This is one of the great ones." — Science Fiction Chronicle
“Bujold continues to prove what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics.” — Booklist
“First-rate . . . this is space opera at its dramatic best.” — Publishers Weekly on Memory
