The Curse of Chalion

[elfs]

The Curse of Chalion is, understandably, not Lois McMaster Bujold's most popular work. The book is certainly not her best work; she is far too habituated to science fiction, and phrases from that genre keep creeping into her language. The one that leapt out at me most was "emotionally toxic," which while apt for the scene seemed out of place in Extruded Fantasy Product.

It is undoubtably some of the best Extruded Fantasy Product I've read in a while. And I have been refamiliarizing myself with the art of scene and sequel, so it is with joy and pleasure that I note the little scars scattered throughout this book where Bujold has sliced away everything inconsequential, every extraneous detail, leaving our hero with a stable world followed by crisis, response, widening crisis, emotion, decision, action, crisis... lather, rinse, repeat. Not a single moment to spare throughout the book, and it all leads to a satisfying if somewhat predictable ending.

It is understandable why Bujold is as beloved as she is: there are two Lois McMaster Bujolds. Lois #1 loves Miles and Cazaril and everyone in her books with a passion, and writes about them with that kind of dedicated fury all writers wish they had. Lois #2 is utterly without sentiment, and takes what Lois #1 writes and cuts and cleans and trims and rewrites until there is nothing left but something breathtakingly readable.

And, sigh, saleable.

Comments

[rapier.livejournal.com]

I really liked this book too. I did have my ambivalent moments where on the one hand, I was enjoying the hell out of the story, and on the other, I was very much "Curse you, Lois McMaster Bujold! I must find you and eat your liver, that I may gain your marketable writerly powers!"

/ and no, I wouldn't really hunt her down and eat her liver.
// mostly because that sort of thing so doesn't work.
/// ... does it?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, doesn't there seem to be something very... obvious about what she's doing? She's much better at blindsiding people with Miles, but it often seems to me that Lois #2's lack of sentimentality is what gives her her power. All too often, I'm willing to leave in draggy parts of a story because I like them, even if they don't help the story along.

I think that's really it. All the "how to write, scene and sequel, plot" and so forth books have it exactly correct. The problem is that the authors of those books can't follow their own advice. Lois does, and that's why she wins. (Now, if only David Weber #2 would rise from the dead, we could have a decent Honor Harrington set again.)

[katybeth]

Interestingly, I much preferred The Curse of Chalion to nearly all of the Vorkosigan books I've read.