"Great epic fantasy"

Once he was a lord with his own title and estates until they were lost when his allies refused to ransom him. For many months, he was a slave on a galley ship until he found the opportunity to make a daring escape. Now Cazaril is walking back to Valenda, an estate where he began his military career as a page. He is given the job as tutorsecretary of the royal Iselle and her sister lady Betriz.

When the sisters and their brother Teidez are called to the court of Chalion, Cazaril accompanies them to try and keep them uncorrupted from the excesses at the royal residence. What they find is a weak king, an old enemy of Cazaril, and a curse that is put upon every member of the royal family. Although he is no saint, Cazaril is looked upon by the Gods to be the savior of Chalion if he lives long enough

Award winning author Lois McMaster Bujold writes a stand alone fantasy novel that is nothing less than fantastic. She creates a colorful imaginary world resembling medieval Europe, but makes that world and the people in it real. THE CURSE OF CHALION stars Cazaril, but a more reluctant champion this reviewer has yet to see. Ms. Bujold has imbued her novel with a bit of tongue and cheek humor to lighten this taut thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 7, 2001

Seeking a position in the royal household, Cazaril is offered the post of secretary to the Royesse Iselle, the sister to the heir to Chalion's throne, but his new assignment brings him face to face with old enemies.

Summary

Lois McMaster Bujold burst upon the science fiction world in 1986 with the first of the Miles Vorkosigan Saga novels, SHARDS OF HONOR. She has won the Hugo award four times, and the Nebula award twice. In this, her first epic fantasy, we join Cazaril -- a former soldier and courtier -- who is about to embark on a perilous journey, rife with lethal treacheries, demonic magic, and scheming characters Having already created a classic hero in the form of Miles Vorkosigan, and captured a cult following the process, Lois McMaster Bujold now takes up her prolific pen to produce an epic of the most fantastic magnitude. A brilliant and detailed landscape populated with illustrious and demonic characters, ushers the arrival of a hero for the twenty-first century. Cazaril has seen more of the world than he ever wanted. He has been a soldier, a slave, a courier and courtier, and carries the graces and scars of all four to remind him. Now he returns to his childhood home with nothing more than the hope of a quiet retirement. What awaits him however, is a less peaceful, and possibly more dangerous, journey than any he ever anticipated