Thursday, August 1, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Sharing Knife Vol 3: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold:




Passage is the third volume in Lois McMaster Bujold's "The Sharing Knife," her fantasy romance series.  It's also the first half of a new arc - just as the first two volumes in the series were originally meant to be a single volume, Passage and its sequel (Horizon) were originally intended to also be a single book before being split for length reasons.  I really enjoyed the first two volumes - I mean I basically have enjoyed nearly everything I've read of Bujold's work - so there was no question I was going to move on to the sequel.

And Passage continues Bujold's standard of excellence, although it perhaps cuts down the romance element (our heroes now being successfully married) in favor of the fantasy ones.  Bujold's dialogue remains superb, and our central characters remain excellent - from young inexperienced but curious and smart Fawn to older experienced but magically changing Dag to the lesser characters introduced here - as we move on from the main duo's homes to travel further in this setting.  This may not be my favorite work of Bujold's, but it meets her high standard of excellence nonetheless and remains worthy of your time.

Note: As usual for Bujold works, I read this as an audiobook.  As such, if I misspell some names or concepts, that's why.  Still, the reader remains excellent and I do recommend reading the book in this format.  


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
Having been essentially cast out from the Lakewalker camp, Dag and Fawn set out on a journey with two purposes: first to try and figure out a path forward where Lakewalkers and Farmers can somehow cooperate to prevent the tragedies caused by unchecked Malices - like what happened at Rain Tree; and second, for Dag to fulfill his promise to show Fawn the sea.  So after a quick stop at Fawn's parents' farm, they set out to find passage on the river...with Fawn's brother Wit in toe.

Along the way, Fawn and Dag will pick up some strange new companions, and Dag will discover some new abilities he never knew he could do with Lakewalker "Ground" (magic).  But these abilities are uneasily close to the abilities of the evil Malices that Dag has fought all his life, leading Dag to wonder if he is becoming something else, something far more dangerous than he could have dreamed of.  And as they travel down the river towards the sea, Dag and Fawn begin to hear of a mystery of missing boats and sailors, and potential unrest as a result between Farmers and Lakewalkers.

To solve this problem - the problem of Lakewalkers and Farmers, of the missing boats, of even Dag's mysterious growing powers - might be beyond Dag and Fawn's capabilities, but no one else will try and so it may be down to them.....
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As with the previous two volumes in the series, Passage takes place entirely from Fawn and Dag's points of view, with the story alternating between the two perspectives from time to time.  Bujold is very skilled in using these perspectives, with her frequently switching POVs so that the reader isn't quite clear as to what the other is thinking at any given time (usually Dag), although the reader can have a pretty good guess from what they know.

This works because Dag and Fawn remain terrific characters, and excellent complements to one another.  They're still the same duo from the first volume in some ways - Dag, experienced and knowledgeable about the world; Fawn, inexperienced and young but curious - but they've each developed in various ways: Dag is now much more willing to try and figure out a new path, while worrying about the potential evil behind his new powers, while Fawn is a lot more willing to act on her own accord not out of fear, but out of a sense of purpose.  This combination, as well as their love and understanding for one another, makes them a strong duo to guide the story along as they keep getting into newer and different situations.


The book adds a bunch of new minor characters - Boat Boss Berry and her crew, Fawn's brother Wit, some more Lakewalkers, and a Farmer who gets caught up in Dag's new powers (in addition to some even more minor characters) - and they all are generally well done and add more to this new world.  And speaking of this world, the story expands it by spending the bulk of it following our duo as they travel on a boat downriver to the sea (per Bujold, the inspiration here is the Ohio River going down to the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico).  It's a fascinating look at another element of this world, following people who aren't rooted in a single place like the prior Farmers or traveling the road like Lakewalkers.

This expansion helps set the stage for several new conflicts that drive this book, some dealing with Dag's and other Lakewalker's powers, and others being a lot more mundane, and they all work incredibly well as a result.  As I mentioned above the jump, this story is a lot less Romance than the prior two novels - we're no longer dealing with how Fawn and Dag will make their love work and how they'll deal with their families - but it also doesn't have a central fantasy conflict throughout, with the story instead meandering from one small scale conflict to another based upon the setup of Dag and Fawn's search for a new path forward for everyone to prevent any future tragedies.  And this small-scale fantasy really works.

If I had a complaint with this book, it's involving a relationship between two of the secondary characters - Fawn's brother Wit and Fawn's friend and the Boat Boss, Berry.  It becomes clear early on that Wit has a crush on Berry, while Berry is still holding out hope that her betrothed is still alive.  Berry's a great fascinating character in her own right for the most part, as the boat's captain navigating the waters in search of her father, brother, and betrothed, with Berry having to respond to sexist quips from other boat captains in addition to some other less normal circumstances caused by Dag and Fawn's presence on the boat.  Through all of this, there's no sign that Berry is interested in Wit, and yet minor spoiler, that is what winds up happening in the end, and it kind of feels out of nowhere and a misstep for her character.

Still, the ending here is otherwise very satisfying, and I'm moving on to the fourth volume of this book pretty much immediately.  Can't wait.
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