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Lois McMaster Bujold

The Curse of Chalion Paperback – 3 Feb. 2003

by Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

505 ratings

Book 1 of 3 in the Chalion Series

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Lois McMaster Bujold has won the Hugo award four times, and the Nebula award twice. In this, her first epic fantasy, we join Cazaril – a former soldier, and courtier who is about to embark on a perilous journey, rife with lethal treacheries, demonic magic, and scheming characters.

Lord Cazaril has been in turn courier, courtier, castle-warder, and captain; now he is but a crippled ex-galley slave seeking nothing more than a menial job in the kitchens of the Dowager Provincara, the noble patroness of his youth. But Fortunes wheel continues to turn for Cazaril, and he finds himself promoted immediately to the exalted and dangerous position of secretary-tutor to the Iselle, the beautiful, fiery sister of the heir to Chalion’s throne.

Amidst the decaying splendour and poisonous intrigue of Chalion’s ancient capital, Cardegoss, Cazaril is forced to encounter both old enemies and surprising allies, as he seeks to lift the curse of misfortune that clings to the royal family of Chalion, and to all who come too close to them…

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Product details

Paperback : 496 pages
ISBN-10 : 0007133618
ISBN-13 : 978-0007133611
Product Dimensions : 11.1 x 3 x 17.8 cm
Publisher : HarperVoyager; New Ed Edition (3 Feb. 2003)
Language: : English

Best-sellers rank 855,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
14,683 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
49,814 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
505 ratings

Product description

Review

"Fresh, intriguing, and as always from Lois McMaster Bujold, superb."
Robert Jordan, New York Times best selling author of The Wheel of Time Series

“Bujold continues to prove what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics.”
Booklist

"This is one of the great ones."
Science Fiction Chronicle

Synopsis

Lois McMaster Bujold has won the Hugo award four times, and the Nebula award twice. In this, her first epic fantasy, we join Cazaril -- a former soldier, and courtier who is about to embark on a perilous journey, rife with lethal treacheries, demonic magic, and scheming characters. Lord Cazaril has been in turn courier, courtier, castle-warder, and captain; now he is but a crippled ex-galley slave seeking nothing more than a menial job in the kitchens of the Dowager Provincara, the noble patroness of his youth. But Fortunes wheel continues to turn for Cazaril, and he finds himself promoted immediately to the exalted and dangerous position of secretary-tutor to the Iselle, the beautiful, fiery sister of the heir to Chalions throne. Amidst the decaying splendor and poisonous intrigue of Chalion's ancient capital, Cardegoss, Cazaril is forced to encounter both old enemies and surprising allies, as he seeks to lift the curse of misfortune that clings to the royal family of Chalion, and to all who come too close to them...

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Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Intelligent, deep, engrossing: Bujold at her best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 June 2019

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Bujold is a master of the flawed character and the deep, value driven plot. Here she produces one of her best works. Gods are real but not as you might like them, more as believable this way though. The hero is one, but doesn't look or feel like it. You have to be taught to see it.. and the journey is not just interesting but really impressive. I'll avoid plot spoilers because it was such a joy to discover this work of art.

It has a sequel (Palladin of Souls) and others in the same world (Penric's Demon, Hallowed Hunt) that are also brilliant but this stands alone perfectly well, and is perhaps the best of them.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

6 people found this helpful

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If you like Guy Gavriel Kay you will enjoy this.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2018

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I was lent this book back in 2001 when it first came out and, though enthralled by it, had unfortunately forgotten the name of the author and the title. Fortunately it turned up in my recommendations so bought a used copy.( Sadly, although the next volume of the Chalion books, which won an award,has been reprinted this one has not.)
I was so glad I did. Lois McMaster Bujold plunges you into the realm of Chalion which is beautifully realised and completely coherent. Unlike many sword and sorcery fantasies this is brilliantly characterised, multi layered, subtle, believable and unexpectedly humourous. The intrigue, violence and unexpected twists in the plot make this a very satisfying read from the first moment of meeting Cazeril trudging his way along along a muddy track to the unexpected resolution.
The three Chalion books seem to be a complete departure from her usual oevre for this author. I have read a few of the Vorsakian books and they are not to my taste, but for anyone who likes Guy Gavriel Kay's work the Curse of Chalion is highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

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How to deal with the Curse

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2016

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Had been several years since I got this from the library and read it. So when I saw it on kindle I grabbed it.
A great book, starts slow and inserts elements of backstory as it goes along, building up the characters and providing the 'hero' with a three dimensional element. Doing something for the right reasons even when its going to have major consequences then dealing with the consequences he thought he would by the element of what he planned, not have to deal with.
An old and in poor health man heads to where he had once served as a page many years previously, and the story builds from there.
Glad to have seen this story, must carry on the series in time.

One person found this helpful

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Manuel Alfonseca

A fantasy adventure novel with depth

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2012

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The Curse of Chalion is one of the best fantasy novels of the latest years. It belongs to that rare category, which also contains Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, C.S.Lewis' Perelandra, Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz, or Anderson's Orbit unlimited, which combine an interesting adventure plot with important ethical dilemmas and deep questions about the nature of man and God.
In this novel, as deftly crafted as her Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold has pushed further the bounds of subcreation (as defined by Tolkien in his paper On fairie stories). She presents us, not just a coherent imaginary universe, but even a strange God, which rather than three persons displays five. However, under the superficial differences, this God is not unrecognizably different from the one we have heard about (I don't dare say that we know).
Cazaril, the hero, is clearly a figure of Christ: his death becomes the rent between the worlds, through which one of the divine persons enters the world of matter to lift the curse of Chalion, a kind of original sin. He is even, in some sense, resurrected. This parallel, however, does not push the story out of its logical lines, but is smoothly embedded in it. In fact, one could say, it is the other way around: the story pushes the message and makes it take the appropriate form for the world being described, in a show of the literary masterly of the author.
The book is interspersed with pearls worthy of being remembered. The following are a few of them:
To a man of certain age... all young ladies start to look delightful. It's the first symptom of senility.
[God] does not grant miracles for our purposes, but for [His purposes].
Prayer, he suspected... was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.
Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how, they may endure.
[God is] on our side... can we fail?... Yes... and when we fail, [God does] too.

Comment

What a great author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2013

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I read a lot of science fiction and it is of vary variable quality. I never bother with sword and sorcery as they just seem a little ridiculous a lot of the time especially with the cod-mediaeval stuff often used. However I have become a devotee of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan sagas. They contain regular SF mechanisms and happenings but mostly deal with real people in believable situations, working their way through to an understandable fruition. With this delight in her writing I sought to try her S&S work rather expecting to be disappointed. But not at all. No, not at all. Her writing is very similar to her Vorkosigan books and although the tribulations of her protagonists are because of, or dealt with, by more mystical means these people are real, believable and fascinating. I'm only halfway through this book but will be ordering more to make sure I don't miss out on the sheer joy the reading brings.

2 people found this helpful

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More brilliance from Bujold

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2016

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I discovered Lois McMaster Bujold a long time ago reading "The Vor Game", and have been a fan ever since. I'd long imagined I was in a minority until I recently discovered she seems to have won more awards in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres than pretty much any other author. And not surprisingly to my way of thinking.

The Curse of Chalion is fantasy rather than space opera, but it is still pure joy from start to end, for Bujold is as deft at one as the other. Gods and magic play their part but this is an adventure about people. The heroes are suitably flawed and the villains wicked but in a believable way. Written with pace and leavened with sly humour, it gets the pulse racing and the pages turning.

You may not come away from reading this feeling intellectually elevated, but you should have a smile on your face and feeling of well being.

One person found this helpful

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Sly Swing

One of the best!

Reviewed in Canada on 7 March 2020

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I've been reading science-fiction and fantasy since the 70's. Because of that, I've become more and more critical and don't often find an author that can really catch and hold my attention on many levels. Lois MacMaster Bujold has done this with this book. I remember reading some of her early pieces, but for some reason have lost her through the years. I'm really happy to have reconnected with her writing with this "Curse of the Chalion". Her writing style is great, her world building is very credible and there's also wit in there too! I'm really pleased and look forward to reading more or her's.

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Mina

Epic character-driven old-school high fantasy

Reviewed in Germany on 14 June 2015

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This took a while until it had pulled me in, but once I was hooked, I couldn't lay the book down. With its 500 pages, it allows a slow introduction to Cazaril, the unlikely protagonist of this story. He is on his way to the provincia he once served at as a page. “Once” meaning before he served as a commander in the king's army and got sold as a slave to the enemy's galleys through treachery in his own host. Caz is now a broken man and when he was first described, I was wondering if I really wanted to read the story of an old broken man. But as it turns out, this was the wrong question, for Caz is only 36 and slowly regains what he lost through his impeccable character, his discipline and determination to help those who helped him.
So he becomes the royesse's [aka the sister of the heir to the throne] secretary/tutor and is to accompany her to the capital and the palace that is a veritable snake pit. Machinations, politics and the discovery of a curse that has befallen the whole royal family. All that is revealed slowly, piecemeal, but as I said, the moment I was immersed in Caz and the royesse Iselle's fate, I just had to know if they could manage to outwit the king's and their own enemies at court and even more important, if they were able to overcome the curse on the family.

This is by no means an action-driven plot and the pacing therefore at times rather...measured. But it's worth it to dive into the slow but impressive emerging of the “old” Caz, the one not broken by slave masters and an overall miserable destiny, but one who is an anchor to the royesse and more and more friends and allies. And it's also a story about religion and the gods' means to indirectly work through people. I know this probably sounds boring, but it's not. At all.
Because the curse, how it came to pass and how it hopefully can be taken off is integrated in this totally alluring pantheon of the five gods – four resembling our seasons, rather pagan-like – and the last and most interesting one, the Bastard. Who is the god of all things lost, not belonging and rejected. A quite cool concept.
The world as such reminded me of renaissance spain or some such and it was wonderfully drawn, felt very real.

I liked the world-building, the characters [Iselle is one of the most adorable classical heroines ever – how she outwits so many people... awesome!] and especially the evolution of the plot from the struggle of one man to the redemption of a whole country. This starts slow, but ends in a huge bang. Great stuff.

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Gregor Theis

Klasse Fantasy Roman, schöne und spannende Geschichte

Reviewed in Germany on 2 January 2004

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In "Curse of Chalion" geht es um die Geschichte des "Helden" Cazaril" (Caz), der in einer mittelalterlichen Welt als gefallener Edelmann, zum Sekretär/Lehrer/Berater der Schwester des Tronerben gemacht wird. Caz versucht den Fluch, der auf dem Königshaus von Chalion lastet, für seine Herrin aufzuheben.
Ich habe mir diesen Fantasy Roman gekauft, weil ich Lois McMaster Bujold als SF Autorin (besonders der "Miles Vorkosigan" Serie) sehr zu schätzen gelernt habe und bin nicht enttäuscht worden. Besonders mag ich die Helden der Autorin, die immer sehr menschlich bleiben. McMaster Bujold ist eine hervorragende Geschichtenerzählerin mit sehr guter Charakterentwicklung. Die Hauptperson "Caz" ist sympatisch. Die Welt um das Königreich "Chalion" wird gut und ausführlich mit ihrer Magie, Göttern und Gebräuchen beschrieben.
Das Buch beginnt etwas langsam und gewinnt in der zweiten Hälfte an Fahrt (und wird richtig spannend), um zu einem sehr schönen Schluss zu kommen (ein richtiger Abschluss, mit einer Auflösung aller Rätsel). Der Roman ist einfach zu lesen, da die Anzahl der Charaktere überschaubar bleibt und wir (zumeist) nur einen Handlungsstrang verfolgen müssen. Besonders gefallen haben mir die 5 Götter dieser Welt und wie die Menschen mit diesen umgehen.
Inzwischen ist mit "Paladin of Souls" ein weiterer Roman in dieser mittelalterlichen Welt erschienen, den ich auch sehr empfehlen kann.
Ich würde diesem Roman 4,5 Sterne geben (nicht ganz Herr der Ringe Niveau aber besser als die meisten Fantasy Romane).

6 people found this helpful

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Nancy T

Beautiful writing.

Reviewed in Canada on 12 August 2019

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Lois McMaster Bujold writes beautifully in every genre she attempts. I savored every chapter.
Her characters amaze me. I have read all her Vorkosigan books as they came out, and had postponed reading this book because I knew it was so different. But I am once again delighted with her writing.

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S. Menk

A little black and white and easy, but sometimes that's just right.

Reviewed in Germany on 14 August 2013

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The Curse of Chalion is certainly the kind of book that may well end up surprise you. What sounds like just another court game sort of novel in summary reveals itself a lot more than that.

Bujold's writing style certainly is flowery, but it befits the setting and allows for pleasant, tongue-in-cheek or dry humor to be present throughout the entire almost 500 pages. The book has a slow start, wich might be a turnoff for those easily bored, but even the slow start is packed with introduction to a rich world and its lore, characters to love and some plot developments that pay off much later.

The main character, Cazaril, is a mean who, upon first glance, is broken in body and spirit, though thankfully not in wit. I'll spare you the summary of his beginnings in this story, but tell you about how utterly relatable he is despite everything he's been through. Flawed, not believing himself capable of comparing to more dashing men, fiercly loyal and protective, utterly charming to the reader. With a quick wit and a deep understanding of the world he lives in, Cazaril somehow manages to stumble through the story with hardships and struggles without ever striking the reader as unrealistically fortunate or weakly bemoaning his fate. (Oh, he bemoans it. But it's entertaining).

The plot has several climaxes before the finale, adding to an evergrowing sense of urgency and threat. The plot twists are predictable to some extent if the reader keeps in mind all that's been told before - connecting some dots isn't hard at all. Rather than feeling lackluster, however, it pays off in good "aha" moments, allowing the reader to draw conclusions and be rewarded with the right payoff, although the one drawback of this is a slight lack of stunning surprises. This is balanced by some mysteries that aren't explicitly answered, but certainly surrounded by enough hints and information to allow the reader very educated guesses or suspicions (none of them, by the way, are left open or ajar in unsatisfying ways).

That's nitpicking, though. It's easy to root for the heroes of this story. The villains are vile, but not mustache-twirling, the stakes grow ever larger as we go one, the worldbuilding is exquisite, the interpersonal relationships charming, the female characters as strong and intelligent if the men (if not more, in some cases) despite not being liberated from their classically weaker/more passive role in this sort of fantasy-setting. Indeed, the ladies under Cazaril's tutelage, Iselle and Betriz, show remarkable character growth from strong-willed women to skilled players of the game of thrones, to drawk from a different canon here.

Theology is a big topic in Chalion, and the world's religion is different enough to ours to avoid sounding preachy or like an elaborate mirror-setup, but the story manages to handle the upsides and downsides of faith, prayer, religion and the presence of very real, involved gods with taste and some fresh ideas.

To make a long story short: A+, would recommend, will definitely read the other Chalion books (though they, too, are standalones), and thoroughly enjoyed this read.

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