- Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Baen Books; Reprint edition (Jan 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671318373
- ISBN-13: 978-0671318376
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 593,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A tale set in an Oriental fantasy world of myth and legend. The girl Taizu must persuade Lord Saukendar, paragon swordmaster, to restore the Throne of Chiyaden to its rightful heir. C.J.Cherryh's other works include "The Chronicles of Morgaine" and "Downbelow Station", winner of the Hugo Award.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Shoka was well on his way back to the porch when the apparition came out of the forest, a huge lump moving on two thin legs, that proved only a basket and a skinny boy in a hat. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Shoka was well on his way back to the porch when the apparition came out of the forest, a huge lump moving on two thin legs, that proved only a basket and a skinny boy in a hat. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is about love, honour and betrayal. About how the paladin of the title finds out that far from being loved by the people he is in fact feared and despised. How all that he believed to be true is a lie and all that he held dear was false.
With his world destroyed and his beliefs shaken the paladin retires to live in obscurity on a distant mountainside with only the bitterness at his betrayal for comfort.
In to this solitude comes a young woman who wants the paladin to teach her his skills so that she might avenge her family who have been killed in a rebellion against the emperors evil chamberlain. Despite his efforts to drive her away the paladin finds himself teaching the girl.
First respect and then love, which neither party is willing to recognise, grows between them and when the time comes for the girl to leave the paladin finds himself drawn back into the world. Unwittingly the paladin becomes the focus of a new rebellion and forces flock to his banner.
As with all Cherryh books the action largely takes a back seat to the characters and the real interest is drawn from the interaction between them. This isn't a book for people who want blow by blow accounts of battles or a sword fight on every page, it is a book for people who want to get to know the characters and get to care for them. That is Cherryh's strong point, she writes characters so well that you do care for them, even when they may at first seem to have very little to recommend them to you.
I give this book five stars, I have re-read it several times and can recommend it to anyone who wants a good, character led read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The Paladin could be described as attributing to the individual a most unfashionable concept; that of personal responsibility and the spirit of honour that must imbue all the choices an individual makes. Here we have cause and effect in its purest form.
What is so refreshing about the Paladin is that the reader is drawn into a pre-industrial society that is, for once, not mediaeval England. Strong characters are the central draw, male and female both, and with the obsessional traits that allow the reader to abandon the reality of 21st Century morality and cynicism.
A great read, a re-read, again and again.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The author's prolific output includes a large number of hard science fiction tales, a few magic or fantasy novels, and a few with high-tech artifacts in low tech societies where technology comes over as magic.
To the best of my knowledge "The Paladin" is her only novel which has no science fiction or fantasy elements: it is also very possibly C. J. Cherryh's best book.
"The Paladin" is set in a pre-industrial society, the location of which is not precisely identified but where the names sound oriental and the description sounds reminiscent of medieval China or Japan.
On a remote mountain just outside the borders of a troubled empire, a former Master Swordsman hides away on a hill, calling himself Shoka and tending his garden. Once he was Master Saukendar who served the previous Emperor, but the present monarch and Regent betrayed him, and he had to flee; legend has it that he killed twenty of the Imperial Guard in self defence on his way to the border.
For many years Shoka has retreated from the world, but then a youth with a scarred face comes to see him, begging the master swordsman for teaching in how to use a sword, with the intention of employing that knowledge to seek vengeance.
Shoka is about to send the suppliant packing when something catches his eye ...
This book is dominated by strong, believable, and very memorable characters: the interaction between them is a major part of the story.
In spite of the fact that it's a different genre, if you enjoyed the "Morgaine" quartet, you will love "The Paladin."
To the best of my knowledge "The Paladin" is her only novel which has no science fiction or fantasy elements: it is also very possibly C. J. Cherryh's best book.
"The Paladin" is set in a pre-industrial society, the location of which is not precisely identified but where the names sound oriental and the description sounds reminiscent of medieval China or Japan.
On a remote mountain just outside the borders of a troubled empire, a former Master Swordsman hides away on a hill, calling himself Shoka and tending his garden. Once he was Master Saukendar who served the previous Emperor, but the present monarch and Regent betrayed him, and he had to flee; legend has it that he killed twenty of the Imperial Guard in self defence on his way to the border.
For many years Shoka has retreated from the world, but then a youth with a scarred face comes to see him, begging the master swordsman for teaching in how to use a sword, with the intention of employing that knowledge to seek vengeance.
Shoka is about to send the suppliant packing when something catches his eye ...
This book is dominated by strong, believable, and very memorable characters: the interaction between them is a major part of the story.
In spite of the fact that it's a different genre, if you enjoyed the "Morgaine" quartet, you will love "The Paladin."
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good for the first half of the book... then dull and predictable
C.J. Cherryh has the unfortunate ability of being able to capture my interest in the first half of her books, and then utterly destroying it in the second. Read more
Published on 8 May 2008 by xenofan
Being Honest with Yourself
This book is something of an oddity, written as if it were a fantasy, but it could have just as easily have been placed into the 'historical' novel camp, with just some... Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2006 by Patrick Shepherd
One of my all time favourite books
Paladin is one of my all time favourite books. I've read it dozens of times and it's as good now as when I read it the first time. CJ Cherryh can really tell a great tale. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2003 by Mark
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
