Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Eos
Manufacturer: Eos
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: October 01, 2003
Publishing house: Eos
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1280813
Studio: Eos
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
One of the most honored authors in the field of fantasy and science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold transports us once more to a dark and troubled land and embroils us in a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm.
Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets -- for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road -- escape -- beckons. . . . A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion.
Yet something else is free, too -- something beyond deadly. To the north lies the vital border fortress of Porifors. Memories linger there as well, of wars and invasions and the mighty Golden General of Jokona. And someone, something, watches from across that border -- humans, demons, gods.
Ista thinks her little party of pilgrims wanders at will. But whose? When Ista's retinue is unexpectedly set upon not long into its travels, a mysterious ally appears -- a warrior nobleman who fights like a berserker. The temporary safety of her enigmatic champion's castle cannot ease Ista's mounting dread, however, when she finds his dark secrets are entangled with hers in a net of the gods' own weaving.
In her dreams the threads are already drawing her to unforeseen chances, fateful meetings, fearsome choices. What the inscrutable gods commanded of her in the past brought her land to the brink of devastation. Now, once again, they have chosen Ista as their instrument. And again, for good or for ill, she must comply.
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Rated by buyers 
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Firstly, I have devoured and loved everything this writer has done. Miles Vorkosigan and the very first book in this series rock. This book seems an ill-considered amalgam of bits of Chaucer's pilgramage tales and the 70's daytime soap opera "Dark Shadows", with its endless chatter and lack of action concerning an undead milquetoast vampire. Better luck subsequent book Ms. Bujold.
Rated by buyers 
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(Kindle review) Well-formatted for Kindle, reads cleanly.
One of my favorite books, a great combination of character, plot and world. Excellent follow-up to Curse of Chalion (also a favorite book).
Rated by buyers -
The main character of Paladin of Souls is unexpected. She's a middle-aged widow whose daughter is the Queen of Chalion. She's spent a good half her life in madness. She's carries a shameful secret from her past around with her. She was a minor character in the Curse of Chalion, but now we get to watch her rebirth after the madness has been lifted. Her development, slowly gaining confidence and insight into who she is at this life stage, is wonderful to watch.
One problem with Curse had been plot pacing. That problem is not present here. Ista grows fed up with the smothering atmosphere of her home and hits the road right away. All I can think here are cliches: non-stop action, the action doesn't stop, Bujold keeps the action coming, etc, etc. It doesn't make any sense at first, but at least it isn't boring, and as the story progresses all the seemingly random events start to fit together.
The only negative criticism I could come up with for this book had to do with the prose. Bujold had a habit of using negatives in a way that she must think sounds poetic or high-born, but got annoying with over-use. For example, saying "not a little" to mean "a lot." This is a minor complaint in a book that I otherwise thought deserved all the awards and praise it's gotten.
One could read Paladin without reading Curse first, although I don't recommend it - that could spoil your enjoyment of Curse
Rated by buyers -
This book is written with Lois McMaster Bujold's usual glorious prose, characterization and inventiveness. I read the very first sentence of this book and was sucked into it. I read it all night without pause, and I enjoyed every single second. This is far and away my favorite book from this series, although the whole series is extremely good. I re-read this book at least every couple of months and it never becomes any less interesting.
Rated by buyers -
"Paladin of Souls"
by Lois McMaster Bujold,
© 2003
This is an interesting little story of the development of a 'saint' in another place and time. The world is definitely not this one: the Gods are present and, to some, they can be seen and talked with. You can understand the desire of the heroine to leave her prosperous life. She was wedded and widowed young, suffered and recovered from a mental decline, and her Mother just died and was buried. She is the most important person in the castle, but she is blanketed by all the rules and protocols of the place. Her escape is thwarted and she is brought back, only she escapes again, this time it is successful and with a bit of the sanction of the others below her: she goes on a pilgrimage.
She has dreams and starts to feel she is descending into madness again, but her religious mentor on this pilgrimage, is also having some dreams, so maybe it is part of a plan she has to figure out. There a lot of excitement, ambushes, escapes and subterfuge. In the end she helps make things as right as possible.
The writing was very good, though at times it got a bit romantic, at other times it really soared with the best of writers ('her smirk lingered like perfume'). I enjoyed reading this book.
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