Bujold, Lois McMaster - Paladin of Souls

[oyceter]

And now, I confess to my flist that I think Bujold is just Not For Me. I read The Curse of Chalion a couple of years ago and wasn't too impressed. I've read most of Komarr and Cordelia's Honor, largely because people have told me that Cordelia's Honor is one of her earliest and therefore not best works. Both of the Miles books I ended up putting down when I was smackdab in the middle of the climactic plot moments, and I've never felt the need to pick them back up again.

Bujold being Not For Me is not just "I admire it technically but don't quite understand and maybe a reread will convince me otherwise." I think it's something about her prose or her characters that slides right off me.

Anyway. Ista is the middle-aged mother of the queen; her life has previously been torn apart by the will of the gods, and she's really not all that open to them anymore. She embarks on a pilgrimage, largely to get away from court life, but ends up entangled in a mess of demons and conspiracies in which the gods are trying to guide her to do something.

I like that Ista is a middle-aged heroine and that she's allowed to have second chances and love again. Other than that, I was mostly bored by the book. Despite Ista's horrific past and the presence of demons in this book, I never felt that she or any of the other characters were really in any danger. And I could have put this down at the giant climactic moment and not felt any need to pick it back up again, which is never a good sign.

I'm really not sure what it is. Part of me wants to say that Bujold's characters feel too well adjusted to me; I know people will come in and talk about Miles and how much angst he goes through, but there's something about the prose or the way it's written that doesn't make the angst feel real to me. Ah well.

Links:
- coffeeandink's review
- truepenny's review (spoilery)
- rilina's review

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I have a hard time explaining my problems with Crusie. I wish I had Mely's insight...one of the few times I've come out and said I didn't like Crusie's politics was in a coffeeandink thread, and Mely pointed me to this other thread with a very good discussion about Crusie and heteronormativity. Wish I could remember where it was.

In essence, Crusie takes a bunch of stuff that I *adore* the politics of, like women forming close bonds, sisterhood functioning as family, women making bold life changes....but the way the stories evolve, it's like it all gets twisted very subtly into those elements making stuff worse than it was to start.

Bujold does something kinda similar. Miles dates all these hot, really ooomphy women (bodyguards, admirals, etc). He wants to marry them, but they turn him down, often because he wants them to become a Wife as a profession. He eventually finds a woman, who is all Strong and Stuff, because she was abused and who he loves, and she says Yes, and does become his wife, and is supposedly his equal, because as a sideline she's a gardener. A really good gardener. It's like she took the view that women ought to become whatever they want, but then twists it completely, so that only by refusing that do they get the brass ring (the countess-ship). The emperor falls for a woman because she's zaftig and his mom died when he was young. Okay, yes, she's a businesswoman, but when the emperor's done proposing, her brain dribbles out her ears and she's overwhelmed by the desire to become a princess and there's a shiny white horse and everything.

It's hard for me to articulate, because it's like the whole thread of political ickiness is under the surface, sneaking around. In Fast Women, the heroine overthrows her whole life, and winds up the same place she was before: partner in a firm with a husband, her life revolving around him, and except for the change in the job type, there isn't much difference. Is this making any sense?

[oyceter]

*nods* Yes, that does make sense! Like she is trying to accomplish all these things, and on the surface she does, but then there is a lot of subtext that ends up subverting her textual message.

Hrm, I feel like I should reread and try to catch those! I did catch a bit with Fast Women, in which I was wondering why she had to be the guy's secretary, but not so much with the rest. Thanks!