Title:

The Curse of Chalion

Author:

Lois McMaster Bujold

Category:

Fantasy / Science Fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

February 24, 2025

he Curse of Chalion is one of the great, classic fantasy novels, and yet somehow, I had missed reading it (until now). It excels in all facets of great storytelling: plot, characters and world building. (The only thing missing is a map. Don't classic novels of fantasy come with a map?) The story is told in third-person, focused upon the character Castillar Lupe dy Cazaril. Cazaril is 35 years old, but he is a man broken by traumatic ordeals as a commander of a fort in a doomed siege, and then as a galley slave chained to an oar. Yet Cazaril has maintained his sense of honor and loyalty, which makes him an easy character to root for.

When we meet Cazaril he is plodding alone and on foot across the kingdom of Chalion. After a long convalescence in the coastal country of Ibra, he has finally recovered from a near-fatal beating he took on the Roknari galley where he a galley slave. Cazaril plans to make it to the city of Valenda, where he once served as a page in his youth. He hopes that someone in Valenda will remember him and mercifully give him a job in the kitchen or stables. In his battered state, Cazaril is vulnerable and weak. He takes shelter for the night in a ruined mill, only to make the horrific discovery of a corpse. It quickly becomes clear that the dead man committed Death Magic - calling a demon to claim the soul of a hated opponent, knowing that his own soul would be forfeit as well. Death Magic is of course strictly forbidden, but since the invoker perishes himself, it is impossible exterminate its practice entirely.

Cazaril staggers into Valenda and is gratified that he is indeed remembered. Indeed, Cazaril finds himself appointed as tutor to Iselle, who is the half-sister to the unwell King Orico who sits on the throne of Chalion. Because Orico has been unable to sire an heir, Iselle's younger brother, Teidez, is next in line for the throne. Working as a tutor allows Cazaril to slowly heal from his ordeal. This interlude also allows Bujold to reveal to the reader the Five Gods of Chalion, and to develop the main characters of Cazaril, Isselle, Teidez, and Iselle's chief lady-in-waiting, Lady Betriz. But this peaceful time ends when King Orico commands that Iselle and Teidez must come to the capital. Once at Zangre, plots and dangers rapidly multiply.

The Curse of Chalion is a long book - 442 pages. It starts slowly, introducing the characters and world to the reader - but there is still enough interest to keep the reader turning the many pages. Once Cazaril and his charges reach the capitol castle of Zangre and the court intrigue unfolds, the tension in the book ratchets up. It is not until nearly halfway through the book that the reader learns about the Curse of Chalion, and by then disasters and betrayal are everywhere. Bujold put some thought into how her characters would be challenged in this book. Not everyone gets a happy ending.

Although Death Magic is the only spellcasting in the novel, the gods are not entirely remote and silent. The Five Gods are Father Winter, Daughter Spring, Mother Summer, and Son Autumn. The Fifth God is The Bastard; souls not pledged to one of the four main Gods by default belong to the Bastard. Prayers are sometimes answered, but not always in the manner the petitioner intended. There are saints and ghosts and sacred animals.

I thought Bujold did a masterful job constructing the dangerous intrigue that quickly ensnares Iselle, Teidez and Cazaril once they reach the castle of Zangre. Their enemies are powerful, ruthless and willing to murder. Once I started this book, I didn't read any other book. I liked The Curse of Chalion well enough that I will now look for the next book the series, Paladin of Souls.