The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

I needed to read a fantasy again after finishing The Realm of the Elderlings only a few months ago. When I got The Curse of Chalion as a gift, I didn’t know what to expect. This wasn’t a fantasy writer I had heard a lot about. I was more than pleasantly surprised!

The Curse of Chalion isn’t filled with the mind-boggling magical mechanics that I’ve come to expect (and love) of fantasy after devouring sixteen Robin Hobb novels in the last couple of years. In fact, the magic in this book is almost understated, but it is fundamentally woven into the reality of this world which is so much like ours in its court politics and intrigue, and yet, so so different…

Once a soldier, now a man broken by the trials of war, Cazaril is tasked with being the secretary-tutor for princess Iselle whose precocious brother is next in line to rule the country of Chalion. But Iselle has powerful enemies in court, and Cazaril is caught between the tussle for power among the nobility and a dark, magical affliction that threatens to ruin the royal family.

The book is about heroes, honour, humility, binding loyalty, and of course, about curses, but it elevates these ideas from the stereotypes they become in the hands of less masterful writers. Beautiful and surprising prose makes the book all the more delicious. The writer’s words, as Cazaril says, “mean more than they mean, words with not just height and width, but depth and weight, and other dimensions I cannot even name.”

I loved the book. In the span of just a few days, Bujold’s characters taught me a lot about life and commitment. Her writing, the questions it asked, her thought challenges filled me with this sort of existential dread, this fear of stumbling into truths that are difficult to digest. It was a demanding ride but I also kept wanting more of it. It goes without saying, I’m buying the sequel.