The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold...

[fajrdrako]

Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favourite authors, mostly because of Shards of Honour and The Warrior's Apprentice and other books in the Vorkosigan saga. Which is a science fiction series.

In recent years she has been writing fantasy rather than SF, and I've yet to enjoy it as much. Even saying so make me feel like an ungrateful wretch, because she still has some amazing characters, wonderful insight into human nature, and engrossing plots. And it isn't that I prefer SF to fantasy - I generally read for style rather than content, and I'm not fussy about genre.

So. The Sharing Knife: Legacy is the second part of the story begun in The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. "Legacy" is so new it isn't published yet. There isn't even a picture of it on amazon.com yet, it's that new.

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement was a wonderful love story about a Lakewalker named Dag and a Farmer named Fawn, whom he calls Spark. There's every reason they shouldn't be together: their peoples don't intermarry, he's about three times her age (their peoples age at different rates), and their lifestyles are incompatible. But they get married anyway, and then deal with the consequences. In the first book, the 'consequences' were mostly Fawn's family, and the interaction is magnificent, as Dag uses every trick in the book (and a good degree of ingenious improvisation) to win over his new in-laws.

In "Legacy", the consequences are Dag's family and people as he and Fawn settle down to live in his territory and Fawn learns his people's ways.

Alongside of this there's an ongoing plot about the Malice, a sort of organic evil entity that would take over the world if the Lakewalkers weren't constantly vigilant and courageous in fighting it. Farmers often don't even believe the Malice exists. Which, considering its effects, was by the end of "Legacy" a little difficult for me to believe. If its effects are so devastating... well, even in a society without mass communications, people would notice. And care. And make sure the knowledge was shared.

Though I can't say I actually enjoyed the fantasy element, the action in Legacy had me on the edge of my seat when it actually got going. That being said... there was nothing much about it that I found unpredictable. (I was thinking: "I bet dag will do this and he did. "I bet Fawn will do that and she did.) I came to love Bujold's books for her wonderful ability to twist a plot into beautiful surprises, sometimes one after another. I loved her way with words - snappy quotations both wise and funny.

I missed that.

I was also disappointed in the sex scenes. I'd really loved the sex scenes in Beguilement. In Legacy, each sex scene seemed to be marked by a certain lack of enthusiasm by the Dag and Fawn - he was too tired, she had other problems - until this seemed like a constant theme. These were newlyweds, and the nature of the situation was the author's choice - I'd have liked a little more desire, or implication of desire, even if they never touched each other.

Moreover, I came to love Fawn in Beguilement because she was smart and brave and action-oriented. People told her she couldn't do things - she did them anyway. She followed her own course, against the wishes of her family and her society. She had confidence in her own wisdom.

In Legacy, she became passive. Where she had refused to live her life to please her family in Beguilement, she seemed willing to live her life to please Dag's family in Legacy, and his family was even more unreasonable than her own. When the action exploded, I was impatient for Fawn to act. It seemed so clear to me that she knew better than the people she was listening to, but she'd lost confidence in her own judgement - for no reason I could see. I was somewhat disappointed.

I also found my mind wandering into questions unposed and unanswered in the text. The Lakewalkers and the Farmers live and patrol roughly the same geographical area, though they live separately - they seldom meet, never mix. Both cultures are non-literate. Their societies are totally different and their mutual prejudices keep them from mutual contact. This has been the case since time immemorial. Hundreds of years, or more. And yet they speak exactly the same language. The same dialects of the same language. How is this possible? When their lifestyles have no points of contact or similarity, how can they have the same nouns, the same concepts, the same expressions? Wouldn't their languages have mutually evolved in different directions?

I don't know if Bujold has an answer for this and I don't particularly want to ask her - I tend to think of language as a weak point in her science fiction, as well.

I think Bujold has written some of the best science fiction novels ever. I keep hoping for that kind of oomph in her fantasies, and not finding it. It isn't that this isn't a good book, or readable. It's just that it isn't special.

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I like Lois's fantasies, at least as much as I like Shards/Barrayar/Memory/Komarr/ACC (with the exception of HH, although I do enjoy reading it now - it's just not in that upper league). However, I have the same meh response to TSK.

What was lacking for me, in the second book in particular, was any sense of growth in the characters. And while I wouldn't characterise Fawn as being truly passive (she does try), the fact that the solution was to effectively run away was not at all satisfying. Sometimes that is the only solution, but it didn't give me a sense of resolution at all, in that instance.

As for the language thing, yes. And with Lois's writing in general, there seemed to be a lot fewer of the quotable nuggets I love. You're right that her prose in general is not soaring, but I did miss those beautiful aphorisms that she can put out.

For me, also, I thought this was the straightest of Lois's books. While it sounds very schoolgirlish to say one has to find at least one of the characters attractive in some way, for me, it's the case. I think the only one who is remotely attractive (at least in the broader sense) is Dag's patrol leader. There's also the fact that the "young married couple setting up house together" theme is not one that resonates with me particularly. Or at all, actually. Writing about first love, building love, getting it on, etc etc, can be pretty universal, but that one left me well out of the loop. Normally it's not a big issue (I mean, most fiction is hardly queer-orientated), but it certainly adds an extra negative to the story for me.

Writing about culture shock can be interesting when handled well, but I have the impression that Lois slightly missed the target. I can't quite put my finger on why, although your highlighting of the language issue is part of it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments.

I loved Dag and Fawn in Beguilement, but they seemed less interesting in Legacy, more inclined to accept their problems without looking for solutions. As you say, no character development happened throughout the book, and the solution was both open-ended and unsatisfactory. I was left uncertain what their goals were - because they seemed uncertain themselves - and that doesn't make for much of a resolution.

And yes, a little too much simple domesticity.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Agree with all the above.

I found that Mari and Fairbolt, who weren't even on-stage all that much, often had more presence than the main characters. Dag and Fawn are interesting, and certainly appear to have the potential to shake up their world, but IMHO they're taking too long (in book terms) to get to that point. I feel that a good half of this book could have better occurred off-stage.

As well, the enemy is intellectually interesting, but not emotionally interesting. There's nothing -- except killing it -- in which the Lakewalkers can actually do anything about a malice. The malices (so far) have no relation to their lives. They're things, not people. (They almost remind me of the Bugs in Starship Troopers.)

On finishing previous Lois books, I've had a feeling of satisfaction. The characters may continue -- in fact I hope they will -- but the narrative has reached a suitable endpoint. Ditto Dorothy Dunnett's books; there may be hanging questions, but the central conflict in each book is resolved at the end of that book, at least for a time. Here the ending is too inconclusive. It reminds me of why I don't like many-volume fantasy bricks.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Mari and Fairbolt, who weren't even on-stage all that much, often had more presence than the main characters

Well... yes. And in terms of the analysis I was making above, it's because they weren't so passive, just letting things happen.

Dag and Fawn are interesting, and certainly appear to have the potential to shake up their world, but IMHO they're taking too long (in book terms) to get to that point.

Or even to get to the point of having concrete goals. Their goal is to be together. That was covered in the first book. Their other goal is to fight the Malice, but that's a goal shared by everyone - not unique to them, and as you say, not part of their lives.

They almost remind me of the Bugs in Starship Troopers.

Very like. I kept picturing something like the alien in Alien, though it isn't described that way. I certainly think "evil alien" rather than "magical force".

Here the ending is too inconclusive.

I didn't feel like an ending at all. Not even a lull in the action.

It reminds me of why I don't like many-volume fantasy bricks.

Depending on the book and the writing, I do, but they usually end on cliffhangers, and that wasn't a cliffhanger, either.