Thursday, August 8, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Sharing Knife Vol 4: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold




Horizon is the fourth and final book* (so far) in Lois McMaster Bujold Fantasy Romance series, The Sharing Knife.  As I mentioned in my review of the third book, Passage (See HERE), this book was apparently originally meant to be the second half of a single volume, with Passage being the first half, and in some ways that shows, with the book continuing the themes of that book - Dag and Fawn's attempts to find a new way forward for Lakewalkers and Farmers to work together - but the book still works as a satisfying whole volume on its own as well.

*This past year, Bujold added to the series with a sequel novella "Knife Children", which I plan to pick up eventually.  

 So yeah, Horizon is pretty good, as is typical of a Bujold novel.  The book has some issues that some other Bujold books have had - Bujold's take on the redemptive ability of men who commit variations of sexual crimes is....not something that's aged well (and this book isn't that old) for example - and some other issues still persist in this book I've highlighted in my prior reviews of the series.  Still, Bujold remains a master at character work and dialogue, and Fawn, Dag and several of the minor characters remain absolute delights to read about.  So yeah, I'd recommend this series for sure.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Down in the South, Dag and Fawn look for the next step in their journey, where they can somehow help Farmers and Lakewalkers find a way together forward....and find a place for the two of them to live in peace.  And when Fawn finds an incredibly skilled medicine maker at a Lakewalker camp down south, it seems Dag has finally found someone who can teach him about his own powers.  But Dag's desire to be a medicine maker to Farmers isn't exactly appreciated by this new camp, even down south where the threat of Malices is nearly non-existent.

Can Dag and Fawn really find a place for themselves in another Lakewalker camp that isn't willing to change?  It doesn't seem likely, so perhaps Dag and Fawn's journey isn't quite over, as the pair's romance and search for a path forwards takes the next step: one that may result in them facing their greatest danger yet..............
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The above plot summary is kind of scant given how I don't want to spoil anything, and really at this point if you've read the first three books in this series, you don't need much more to go on other than "the final adventure of Dag and Fawn!"  Once again we're following Dag and Fawn's journey as they search for both a path forward for their peoples and, well, for each other.  I should note that whereas I felt Book 3 lost the Romance angle under the Fantasy one, Book 4 brings back the romance to a little more prominence - and not just with Dag and Fawn, but with several other pairs as well.

So yeah, I'll hardly spend any more time here talking about how great Dag and Fawn are as a couple, though Dag has a real jackass husband move here* that Bujold glosses over by having Fawn be a bit more accepting of the result than others might be - it's in character for Fawn to be this way mind you, but still....blech.

*ROT13 Spoiler: Qnt sbetrgf gb purpx hfvat uvf tebhaqfrafr jurgure Snja vf jvguva ure plpyr bs sregvyvgl nsgre n fgerffshy cnegl naq guhf nppvqragnyyl vzcertangrf urer, n snpg ur qbrfa'g gryy ure nobhg sbe nobhg n jrrx nsgre ur svaqf bhg.  Onfvpnyyl gur snagnfl rdhvinyrag urer bs sbetrggvat gb hfr n pbaqbz naq Snja vf whfg rpfgngvp gb or jvgu puvyq, qrfcvgr ure univat rirel cbffvoyr evtug gb or znq.  Qnt trgf bss rnfl urer.

That moment aside, the characters in this story are again great, with several new characters being introduced alongside the old.  The cast from Passage (Book 3) returns, and are still great although they occasionally get the short shift due to the larger cast here, and the newcomers, particularly Arkady, Dag's medicine maker teacher, and Sumac, Dag's niece, are absolutely fantastic additions.  And again the plotting is generally really good, with the story never dragging and always drawing you in despite the fact that for most of the book, the only plot is "following Dag and Fawn's latest journey" without any clear antagonist or objective.  If you liked that in the prior three volumes, you'll enjoy that here.

So yeah, Horizon is great, and I want to stress that before I go on to this next bit: an event referenced in Passage is brought up again here, about a Lakewalker who used their powers on a Farmer to seduce her into sleeping with him.  It's a minor part of this book and only part of the epilogue really, but well....ick - this is basically the equivalent of a "good guy" character in his past having used a magical roofie on a girl to get laid.  It's also not the first time a Bujold book has featured a character on the side of good having done a clear sexual crime (or intended to) - this happens at least twice in the Vorkosigan Saga - and like in those books, Bujold seems to come down on the line that such actions are wrong but that the perpetrators can be redeemed by trying to take responsibility for the results, which is.....eh, especially in how it plays out here.  I should point out this plot point apparently centers the sequel novella to this book, so I'll save further discussion for there.

In addition to that little ugh, Horizon also continues its examination on the periphery of the issues of Farmer-Lakewalker intermarriage, with the topic of half-bloods coming up specifically.  Still, the book doesn't quite go into a full examination of the subject as I'd wish - particularly the book sets up an interesting fact that the southern Lakewalker camps, which have less structure and purpose due to the lack of Malices to hunt, seem to be losing a lot more Lakewalkers to intermarriages than the ones up north.  Then....nothing happens to examine this plot point further, and Fawn, who finds it out, never even mentions it to Dag, which disappointed me (my interest in this subject is more noted in my review of the second book btw, if you're curious).

Still, those issues aside, with great characters, typically fantastic dialogue, and a generally excellent journey and ending, Horizon is a great ending to this series and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for fantasy with a little more romantic persuasion.
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