Review: Passage.

“‘…The only equal weapon I’ll ever have is my wits. But without knowing things, my wits are like a bow with no arrows. Don’t leave me disarmed.'”

“The Sharing Knife Book 3.: Passage” by Lois McMaster Bujold

Of the books in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife series, the third book Passage is so far my favorite. In a way, the first two books, Beguilement and Legacy, were set-up books: in the first, we were introduced not only to the characters and the world, but to farmer girl Fawn’s way of life, while the second book brought in the intricacies of Lakewalker Dag’s very different society. In Passage, the two worlds are joined together as Fawn, Dag, and a collection of various friends along the way embark on a quest to spread knowledge of the two different peoples. It brings to light a lot of the mysteries of the Lakewalkers, as well as brings in many more character, so the story no longer focuses on just Fawn and Dag, but their new friends from all walks of life, as well.

The pace of this book rather resembles the big, wide, lazy river that its characters are traveling down, sort of languid and relaxed and meandering…and I kind of liked that. At the end, there’s a rather large event that occurs, almost too suddenly, and is resolved just as quickly, almost as if someone thought the tales of traveling the river and spreading knowledge wasn’t enough to make the story strong enough, so there had to be something. Important things do happen, so the even is important to the plot, but it does feel a little tacked on. I can understand why some people might find it boring, but I rather liked how it felt as though I was traveling on that boat with them, and could have traveled on that boat further. I felt fully immersed in this world, finally, and quite content to just visit for a while. I also finally started to feel as though the connection between Fawn and Dag wasn’t so forced; you really see how they’ve come to need each other in this book, and I liked that.

Ultimately, it was a really pleasant book, really extending on the things that made me excited at the end of the last book. It’ll be really interesting to see how things come to a head in this last book, because it’ll likely confirm some of my theories or just prove them to be poppycock. We’ll have to wait and see. Onto the Horizon!

Books read: 011/100.