Paladin of Souls (Chalion series #2) (Mass Market)

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 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. Her fantasy novels are more serious like high fantasy, but still have a few good chuckles here and there. The Paladin of Souls is book two of a fantasy series called World of Five Gods, with a full pantheon of gods and an interesting magic system. Book one is The Curse of Chalion. The series won the Hugo Award for Best Fantasy Series in 2018 and this book in the series won the "Triple Crown" of the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Locus awards for Best Novel. Brilliant writing, with wit and depth as well as some diversity of characters. 

   Tragic Ista, sad Ista, poor Ista, mad Ista...she's been called a lot of things over the years, some were even true, but nobody ever really knew her truth until Cazaril finally thought to sit down with her (in book #1 The Curse of Chalion) and asked for the whole story. Armed with the knowledge she equipped him with, Cazaril was able to finally lift the curse on her family and set them all free of it. With her daughter Iselle married, recently a new mother, and now several years installed as a successful and respected ruler, Ista finds herself without any goals or plans. Those were things she hadn't even contemplated in years, but now that she was free of the curse and a few people knew that she wasn't actually insane, she realized she might want something for herself. While recently becoming a grandmother was cheerful news, it would be a few years before she found it to be a time consuming occupation.

   Watching someone else ride off down the road one day, she was suddenly struck by a new idea, a first in a long time. She wanted the road, too. She wanted to leave her safe, comfortable, prison-like home and explore out on the open road. Would they let her? She had been confined due to her "illness" for so long, the idea of making decisions for herself was both exhilarating and terrifying and so she consulted with Cazaril, as she trusted him now. He comes up with a brilliant idea to send her out on a "religious" pilgrimage, a laughable idea since she had met a god and found him wanting, but a perfect cover for letting her range out and explore. Armed with a ragtag bunch of interesting individuals Cazaril set her up with and a herald she all but kidnapped who has zero clue how to be a ladies maid but is still better company than the ladies maid she had been stuck with for years who treated her like a delicate mad woman, she sets out to explore. 

   Things start out well enough, but then take a turn for the worse when their party is set upon by raiders, captured, then rescued by a handsome local lord and whisked away to his nearby castle where she finds herself suddenly wrapped up in a demented mystery straight out of a fairytale in which the lord is playing an unknown character, his equally handsome brother is filling in for the sleeping beauty, and Ista seems to be cast in the role of the galant royal come to save everyone. Excitement, adventure, intrigue, mystery, magic, and even a steamy bit of romance for this recent grandmother makes for a phenomenal and original story by an incredibly talented former local author.