One of the things that I like so much about Lois McMaster Bujold is her incredible facility with plot. And by facility here, I don’t so much mean that she writes the greatest plots there ever were, but that she handles plot so well that she makes the most of the plots she does write. Actually, she often writes good plots as well, but Paladin of Souls is an excellent example of doing the most with the least. After all, the plot is pretty much ‘evil wizardy wizardy witch controls demons; good wizardy wizardy witch eats demons; let’s see who wins.’ But you don’t really notice that, because there is so much entertaining misdirection, incidental romance, and general knees-bent running around. It’s great fun, and totally absorbing, and that’s due to how good Ms. Bujold is at what she does.
I was also impressed, on rereading, that there is very little world-building in this one. The religion (which is the bulk of the world and the story) is fleshed out a bit, but was explored quite thoroughly in the first book. The town that winds up being the center of the story is not substantially different from towns described in the first book, nor is the landscape particularly new and different. That surprised me; in the Vorkosigan books, Ms. Bujold is remarkably good at continuing to do world-building in a series. Of course, she’s got lots of planets to play around with in a space opera, while in sandals-and-sorcery, she’s got less scope. So what I found impressive was that I enjoyed the book even without that world-building.
Well, and there’s more Bujold-related news from here. Somehow, it took Your Humble Blogger several weeks to bring together “Winterfair Gifts” has been nominated for a Hugo and all the Hugo nominees are available on-line to get “Winterfair Gifts” is available on-line. It wasn’t free, but it cost me less than three bucks, which was well within my own personal price point. The book, a collection of specfic/romance novellas, was well outside that price point, and evidently the library’s, as well, so I had given up on it until such time as her publishers see fit to include it in yet another omnibus edition of books I already own, to be borrowed from a library or a friend. I would be the last to read it, and possibly by the time had an opportunity to read it, my tastes would have changed enough that I wouldn’t feel compelled to. But no. Downloaded, and read, and enjoyed. A trifle, but now part of the story.
And now we’re a few days away from the publication date of the third Chalion book. This is a different situation: I want to own this book in paperback, and am willing to spend seven or eight bucks to do it. I don’t want to own it in hardback; I would prefer not to pay twenty dollars, but mostly, I just want it in paperback. I also don’t want to wait a year to read the thing. What I want to do is to borrow the book from the library, read it, bring it back, and then buy the thing next year, which will, bye the bye, be about when I am ready to reread it (see above Book Report). This is what I did back when I had privileges at a superlibrary. This is what I would do now, if I thought my library would have a copy of the thing anytime this next two months. Grr. Not that I blame them; they have a limited budget, and they oughtn’t spend it all on What Your Humble Blogger Wants. Still. Grr.
Maybe I’ll ask them if they can put it up for Adoption.