Louis McMaster Bujold recently released the sequel to her 2001 hugo nominated fantasy Curse of Chalion.

The sequel, Paladin of Souls is set roughly 3 years after the events of Curse of Chalion, but it does not have the same protagonist. Instead, a minor character in Curse of Chalion, Iselle's mad mother, the Dowager Royina (the Queen's mother) Ista Dy Baocia, is the center of this story. This means that Paladin of Souls does relatively stand alone, a pleasure given so many sequels and series in the SF&F field where this is not true.

Lady Ista, recovering from the loss of many of her family and freed from the terrible god-induced visions (the events of the previous book) has no desire to be trapped in the life of a royal widow, retired to a remote castle and living on the sufferance of her kin. Feeling guilty about her past, she decides to go on a pilgrimage of atonement.

As she travels her peaceful pilgrimage is interrupted -- it appears that the events of the past have new repercussions that the nearby kingdom of Roknar are taking advantage of. The practical and sensible 40 year-old Lady Ista, who lacks knowledge of sword or sorcery, finds herself unwilling thrown into the fray by the 5 gods of her kingdom.

Overall the book is not as good as Curse of Chalion -- both books gain by have older protagonists who have history, scars, and fears, but it doesn't work quite as well in this one. Lady Ista resistance to her fate is not quite as believable or as sympathetic as was the similar protagonist of Curse of Chalion. Also, Lady Ista's "free will" over the destiny and fate determined by the gods is this book was less believable, as was the 'romance' aspects of the book. However, the book is still quite enjoyable and thus I give the book a Style rating of 4: Classy and Well Done.

This is, of course, an RPG site, so why do I recommend this book to RPG players? First I must explain my biases -- I am partial to what I call "low magic" fantasy worlds. These are worlds where magic is not commonplace, but miracles and saints are among us, and life is almost as hard as it was in medieval times. The Harn setting I felt was reasonably representative of this, as well as a number of books that I based my own Alvatia campaign on: George R.R. Martin's series starting with Game of Thrones, Elizabeth Moon's low-magic but D&D inspired The Deed of Paksenarrion and Legacy of Gird, Katherine Kurtz saint and priest-magic oriented Deryni Series, and Scott Baker's excellent (but now out of print) Firedance.

Paladin of Souls fits well into this style. It goes a lot deeper into the magic and theology of the world first introduced by Curse of Chalion. The five gods (The Son, the Daughter, The Mother, The Father, and The Bastard) are an interestingly different set of gods, and fit well in a semi-historical medieval campaign. The saint's are present, but rarely around when you need one. Life is hard, injuries are often mortal, and life is hard.

I got at least a dozen ideas out of this book for my Alvatia campaign, thus I give it a Substance rating of 4: Meaty.

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