Review of "The Sharing Knife: Horizon"

[rhu]

[Review based on a pre-release galley copy from LibraryThing]

Bujold's "The Sharing Knife" tetralogy is a fantasy series set in a world where certain people, known as Lakewalkers, have a specific ability that we would consider supernatural. The novels trace the development of Fawn, a "farmer" (i.e., non-Lakewalker), and Dag, a Lakewalker.

I usually have a low tolerance for fantasy novels, but Bujold brings the same discipline to the Sharing Knife series that she brings to her hard-SF novels in the Vorkosigan saga. Having established the one difference between the world of "The Sharing Knife" and our own, she draws out what such a world would be like without piling on additional gratuitous fantasy elements.

I found the first three novels in the series very entertaining and gripping. In each novel, the characters grow as individuals and their relationships with one another and their wider world develop in ways thtat are sometimes unexpected but never feel forced.

Which brings me to "Horizon", the final novel in the tetralogy. When I tell you that I was somewhat disappointed in "Horizon," you should not take that to mean that the novel is bad. It's quite good, and I'm glad to have read it, but it does not rise to the level of its predecessors.

The biggest problem is that the pacing is off. One gets the feeling, reading "Horizon", that Bujold was starting to tire of this series, and felt that she had to complete a story arc that was originally planned to take more books. There are a lot of character-developing events that fill the book, but there's not enough room between them for the characters to breathe, grow, and inhabit their new selves. Also, the gradual buildup of threat, to be relieved in a climactic confrontation, doesn't happen --- the threat is absent for much of the book, then arises and is dispatched so quickly that it feels almost pro forma; this is doubly unfortunate in that the resolution of the threat is not only supposed to serve a dramatic purpose for the structure of this particular story but it's also clearly supposed to drive home the point of the entire series.

There's also a major difficulty in the series as a whole which "Horizon" brings to the surface. The protagonist of the series is Fawn, yet it is Dag who ends up being the more interesting character and the one who goes through the most development. Fawn's support for Dag --- not only emotionally and physically, but also in offering key insights at critical moments --- cannot be denied, yet despite her own personal growth she remains the woman behind the man.

Those are the shortcomings. The strengths outnumber them. Bujold's concept for this universe is a compelling one. Dag is a wise man who is as deft at manipulating societal foes as military ones. Bujold's evocation of rustic and river life is literary genius; as a city boy born and bred I found myself drawn hoplessly in to her depiction of a life that she clearly knows and loves. And as I said above, she holds the line --- no fairies, elves, orcs, or deus ex machina magic here. Bujold is not primarily interested in the fantasy elements; as with her masterful Vorkosigan saga, she wants to explore how societies interact, and the fantasy setup is merely the Macguffin for her masterful storytelling.

Comments

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I'm still undecided as to whether to get into it... hm.

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

I just finished it and returned it to the library and totally agree with you on all points. :-)