Beguilement: The Sharing Knife

by Lois McMaster Bujold

As you are probably aware, Mrs. Bujold is the author of the Vorkosigan Saga; probably the best space opera ever written. More recently, she has turned her hand to fantasy with excellent results: The Curse of Chalion, The Palladin pf Souls,  and The Hallowed Hunt are all incredibly well written novels with attention to details of character that only Mrs. Bujold can achieve in her own inimitable way. Unfortunately, The Sharing Knife isn't quite up to her usual lofty approach to perfection. Don't get me wrong, its a good book, a really good book. Its just pales in comparison to her other works. Somehow, the characters just aren't as believable as Mrs. Bujold almost always makes them. The good news is that this book is the first in a series of four, so maybe we'll end up with a great VLN when its all said and done with.

    In this story, Fawn Bluefield hits the road from her family farm headed to the big city in order to find a job and hide her inopportune pregnancy. Unfortunately, in her world, evil is seeded into the ground and literally grows from the earth. She bumps into one of these intelligent growths and in the process meets Dag, the Lakewalker, loses her child, and learns that the only way to kill these creatures is to "share" mortality with them. To do this, one must use - you guessed it - a sharing knife.

   The Lakewalkers are a nomadic people and the self-appointed hunters of the evil that grows from the earth. A sharing knife is made from the bone of a Lakewalker who suicides for the purpose of providing the materials needed to make a knife. Histories are sketchy but filling in slowly as the story unfolds.

   As I said, this is a good story. But it brings to mind the only other "less-than-perfect" novel that Mrs. Bujold wrote; The Soul Ring. I am definitely of the opinion that this is the set-up for a major, panoramic fantasy novel. Let's hope I'm right.

*** At this writing, the last novel of this series has been submitted to the publisher. Mrs. Bujold's next work is a return visit to one Miles Vorkosigan. I can hardly wait! ***