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Beguilement (The Sharing Knife #1)

by Lois McMaster Bujold (Goodreads Author)

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 4,797 ratings · 445 reviews

An epic fantasyof devotion, destiny, and perilous magic, from one of the mosthonored writers in the field--multiple Hugo Award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold

Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family's farm. But on the way to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier-sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers a...more

Paperback, 372 pages

Published April 24th 2007 by Eos (first published October 10th 2006)

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Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Best Romance in Traditional Fantasy

6th out of 83 books — 155 voters

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

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Jun 07, 2007 thefourthvine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sff, romance

Note: I believe I am the only person on the face of the earth who hated this book. If you liked it, this review will annoy you. Also, be advised that there will be spoilers for what we might loosely term the plot in what follows.

This book suffers from three main problems:

1. A fascinating world that gets built in the first few pages and then utterly abandoned in favor of

2. An amazingly unengaging, unbelievable romance between a typical Bujold guy and

3.Mary Sue

The thing is, this is actually a so...more

49 likes · like · see review

Feb 22, 2012 Carol rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: hardcore Bujold fans

Shelves: female-lead, fantasy, skimmed, yuck

I cry foul! I thought Bujold wrote sophisticated fantasies in interesting worlds (Hugo winner? Hello? ), but this one is strictly pedestrian, and I don't mean in an alternative transportation, heart-healthy way.

We follow a pregnant farm girl who has left home with the half-formed intention of seeking a new life in the city, when she's captured by a 'malice' (really??), a sinister force that is converting animals and people into frightening biddable mud-men (David Edding's snake powered mud-men,...more I cry foul! I thought Bujold wrote sophisticated fantasies in interesting worlds (Hugo winner? Hello? ), but this one is strictly pedestrian, and I don't mean in an alternative transportation, heart-healthy way.

We follow a pregnant farm girl who has left home with the half-formed intention of seeking a new life in the city, when she's captured by a 'malice' (really??), a sinister force that is converting animals and people into frightening biddable mud-men (David Edding's snake powered mud-men, anyone?) for Evil Purposes. Thankfully, a member of the ~~Native American~~ Lakewalker ~~tribe~~ patrol is on the track of said mud-men and the malice. He saves her, they take refuge, she's stolen again when he leaves (!), they kill the malice together and then fall in love in a farmhouse interlude. (Believe me, I'm spoiling nothing, as this takes place in the first 60 pages and is utterly predictable).

The rest of the story is about discovering their love and commitment Against Outside Forces, to the Dismay of their Families. (Ah, the timelessness of Romeo and Juliet). The fantasy world setting and the Evil Forces are forgotten as we zero in on their burgeoning relationship. In fact, it's a vaguely creepy, as it takes place between a worldly, widowed 55 year-old man and a naive 18 year-old farm girl, and of course involves teaching her about The Joys of Sex, titillating any eleven-year olds reading. But don't worry about the age difference--his people are long-lived (calling Edward...). The one positive--he's differently abled, as he has only one hand. Oh, and he's tall and thin; she's short and round (forgive me, oh Librarian, but I heard "jack sprat" echo in the background once I heard their descriptions).

Normally, I wouldn't even rate a book like this, except it was so dismally envisioned and written that I can only surmise an evil Doppelganger has taken Bujold's place and is endeavoring to destroy her reputation. As a public service I'm sharing my thoughts, in hopes of steering you towards--oh, I don't know. Go pick something from your TBR pile.

If you are truly in the mood for some fantasy-world, naive-female romance, skip this and read a more original fantasy version, Winds of Fate. At least the characters are more sophisticated in their development, and the world-building deeper, and better integrated.(less)

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Jul 28, 2008 Kathryn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The Sharing Knife is about Fawn Bluefield, a young woman, pregnant but unwed, and scorned by the father of her baby. Fearing the shame and outrage that will fall on her when news of her pregnancy gets around, she decides to run away from home and make a new life for herself in the city of Glassforge, where she will pretend to be a widow. On her way, she encounters a group of Lakewalkers, a mysterious race of people who patrol the land, searching for and destroying malices, also known as blight b...more The Sharing Knife is about Fawn Bluefield, a young woman, pregnant but unwed, and scorned by the father of her baby. Fearing the shame and outrage that will fall on her when news of her pregnancy gets around, she decides to run away from home and make a new life for herself in the city of Glassforge, where she will pretend to be a widow. On her way, she encounters a group of Lakewalkers, a mysterious race of people who patrol the land, searching for and destroying malices, also known as blight bogles to the farmers. Fawn hides from them, and soon after continues on her way. Unfortunately she walks right into a fierce battle between the Lakewalkers and a malice of unusual strength. Two of the malice's slaves kidnap her, meaning to drain her and her unborn baby of life so that it will gain power. She is rescued by Dag, a Lakewalker who was tracking the two slaves, but not before the malice steals the life of Fawn's baby and she miscarries. Actually, during the fight to free her, Fawn is the one who kills the malice, by stabbing it with Dag's sharing knife, which is the only way to kill a malice. Sharing knives are made of human bone, but only bone from a willing adult donor. The knives are "primed", or enchanted, when a Lakewalker gives his or her death to it, that is they stab themselves through the heart, usually on the battlefield to avoid being taken by a malice, or in the face of incurable illness. Dag was carrying two sharing knives, one that was primed, to kill the malice, and one that wasn't. The one that wasn't primed is made from his wife's bone, who died twenty years ago. Unfortunately Fawn didn't know which to use, and so used both. The second knife is now primed, and Dag doesn't know how or why, although he puts that thought behind him, in the more immediate need to take care of Fawn.

Exhausted from the fight and the Malice's lingering influence, Dag and Fawn ride to a nearby abandoned farm, where Dag does what he can to help her. Eventually she is well enough that they can travel on to Glassforge, there to meet up with Dag's patrol of Lakewalkers. Not surpisingly, Fawn begins to develope feelings for Dag, who saved her life, and so does Dag; Fawn is pretty, spirited, and intelligent. Dag keeps his distance though, knowing that Lakewalkers and farmers do not mix, and Fawn does as well, still stung by her previous lover's rejection. When they arrive at Glassforge, Dag asks permission to leave and consult with a maker, to find out what must be done with the knife. His patrol leader and aunt, Mari, agrees, although they must complete their current patrol first. The Lakewalkers all treat Fawn with respect for her role in killing the malice, and kindly allow her to stay with them, since she is still too weak from her miscarriage to find work.

Eventually though, Dag and Fawn cannot hide their feelings for each other anymore, and against all better judgement and the advice of Mari, they become a couple. Not long after, Dag finishes his patrol, and he and Fawn set off for Dag's homeland, in the North. First however, Dag feels that Fawn needs to make an appearance at her family home, to let them know that she is well, since she ran away without leaving word.

While at Fawn's home, Dag proposes to her, causing an uproar. Fawn of course agrees and they make plans to stay in Bluefield long enough to have a proper marriage, before leaving for Dag's home.

On a scale of 1--10, this rates 5. I think Bujold had some really great ideas. Groundsense/magic? Awesome. A one handed protagonist? Awesome. A polyandrous society? Awesome.

But.

Fawn really annoyed me. Bujold tried to make her engaging, and strong, but it didn't feel right to me. Sure having Fawn kill the malice ought to have made her strong. But she only managed to kill it through a combination of luck and accident. And she just has no back bone at all. She seems completely dependent on Dag. Not a good start to winning me over.

However, I was more or less okay with that, and up until 2/3 through the book I would have given it a 7. But then they go on that stupid detour to Fawn's home! Right around page 250, I think, is where my logic circuit sent a BS alert to my consciousness and my disbelief slipped a few notches. All of a sudden they go from being on a journey to find out what happened to the sharing knife, to being in the middle of a family drama/romance. Which is not what I signed up for.

The main number one problem I have is the relationship itself between Dag and Fawn. It just feels wrong. Disturbing, almost. First of all there is the age difference of thirty-seven years. Yes, 37 years. On top of that Fawn lied about her age, telling Dag she was twenty when in fact she was eighteen. Two years difference might not make much difference to someone Dag's age (which is fifty-five), but there can be a pretty big difference between eighteen and twenty. There was for me, and I was a pretty mature eighteen year old. There is an even bigger difference between the eighteen year old me and the twenty-two year old me. And Dag wasn't even upset to find out she had been lying to him. And she wasn't upset to find out his actual age (which he had been hiding from her). Now, Dag does come from a long lived people; barring death in battle or from illness he can expect to live to 120 +/-. That's not the issue, so much as the fact that Fawn is still a teenager. Technically, physically, she is an adult, but mentally and emotionally? She still has some growing to do; she is not his equal. Take the reason she got pregnant in the first place. She didn't think she would really be grown up until she had slept with a man, which is a very juvenile and ungrown up idea. And she confesses this to Dag the second day after they've met. Granted, they'd both been through a lot, but I can see how he would be real attracted to her at that point. If she had exhibited any kind of real growth over the course of the story then that would change the lanscape a bit, but she didn't, not from what I can see.

One more thing. Where is the angst? Dag has been shutting himself off from romantic companionship for twenty years, because of the death of his wife. Then he meets a new girl (I just can't think of Fawn as a woman) and falls in love again, just like that. Not to mention the fact that the sharing knife made from his first wife's bone, that he meant to one day plunge into his heart, is in the posession of this new girl, who has possibly rendered it useless, and therefore made his wife's sacrifice in vain. WHY ISN'T HE ANGSTING? He should not be asking her to marry him, what, three weeks after they first met? If there is any situation in fantasy fiction that calls for angst, this is it. Not that I have a particular fondness for angst; it can wear thin pretty quickly. But it is a natural part of human emotion. I expect just a hint of it from Dag, but there really isn't any.

Alright, this is fantasy, and I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief. But the things I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief for--groundsense, malices, etc... do not have any real world counterparts. People, however, are both real life and fictional. And just because I've decided to go along with whatever you concoct doesn't mean that if the people in the story do something like, well, this, that I can just accept it, no questions asked. If anyone had asked me what I thought was going to happen in the story, I would have said that Fawn definately developes feelings for Dag. He saved her life after all, it's a natural enough thing to happen. Dag might start feeling a little attracted to her, but he just has too much emotional baggage to simply say, here I am, I'm yours. Not to mention the guilt he should have felt over being attracted to/in love with someone that much younger than him. Over time, in which Fawn grows and matures, Dag gets over his issues, and then they get together.
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Dec 25, 2008 Tatiana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Like most Bujold, this was a fast interesting read. She grabbed my attention with the viewpoint character, Fawn, who was likable and quickly made me care what happened to her. The world/society/setting seems underdeveloped, but that probably comes clearer in the rest of the series. Also, when it comes to fantasy, I really like Tolkien, and everyone else seems to fall short in the world development area, naturally. In other words, she didn't invent 14 languages yet for this universe.

Bujold is al...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Lisa Butterworth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoy Bujold's imagination. Her fantasy ideas are never like anything I've ever seen before and her worlds are so rich and complex and utterly believable. And she is so good at letting them unfold slowly and naturally and at making characters that I totally fall in love with.

This is actually the second time I read this book, I don't usually read books twice, but I bought it for a quarter at my mom's library last week because I didn't have anything to read and I was desperate.

I had bee...more I really enjoy Bujold's imagination. Her fantasy ideas are never like anything I've ever seen before and her worlds are so rich and complex and utterly believable. And she is so good at letting them unfold slowly and naturally and at making characters that I totally fall in love with.

This is actually the second time I read this book, I don't usually read books twice, but I bought it for a quarter at my mom's library last week because I didn't have anything to read and I was desperate.

I had been rather disappointed on my first read of this book, it reads something like a romance novel (and I do enjoy a good romance novel) but that isn't what I read Bujold for or what I'd been in the mood for maybe.

On this second read-through though, I was so much more struck with the world she was building and the philosophies behind it. I loved it so much!

Everything in the world is filled with a quality (called ground)(kinda a plutonic ideal aura) that makes it its own essential self, that when you create something new, the ground itself shifts and changes and holds that creation together. This ground was a source of an disappeared ancient mis-handled magic, but remnants of that magic sometimes leak back into the world in frightening creatures called malices. And these immortal malices suck ground (and turn into a gray lifeless dust) everything around it, from animals and humans even to plants and rocks, getting stronger and more cleaver as it steals the intelligence and knowledge in all those stolen grounds. Only the lakewalker peoples can see ground ("farmers" can not), and only the lakewalkers can teach the malices to die. But the malices are multiplying while the lakewalkers are slowly dwindling, no longer able to keep up with even their minimal patrols. It's becoming apparent to a few that a new way must be found, that the strict social divisions between lakewalkers and farmers are making matters worse, that the world is slowly coming unraveled from every direction, and yet few can yet see it.

Oh it's so lovely, I want to go read it again. (less)

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2012 jD rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1_library-yes, 2012, 2_audio-book, fantasy_adventure_worldbuilding, fantasy_romance, magic_wide-range

I really enjoyed this story. The audio book was very well done, nothing was missing in the delivery . The story flowed smoothly not just due to a talented narrator but because it's well written prose. Ms. Bujold has legit skills.

Dag and Fawn are the main characters and the primary focus of this installment. I was so invested in these two that I missed the fact that the evil inhuman creatures being hunted were dropped for most of the book. I am surprised that wasn't a deal breaker for me but what...more I really enjoyed this story. The audio book was very well done, nothing was missing in the delivery . The story flowed smoothly not just due to a talented narrator but because it's well written prose. Ms. Bujold has legit skills.

Dag and Fawn are the main characters and the primary focus of this installment. I was so invested in these two that I missed the fact that the evil inhuman creatures being hunted were dropped for most of the book. I am surprised that wasn't a deal breaker for me but what can I say, I'm fickle like that.

Also, normally I like a little more killing and dark edges to my fantasy but this one won me over without my standard requirement of heartache. It's nice when a book surprises me. If these people were real, I would have liked them. They were so simple yet their souls were old. The love story is beautiful inspite of it being a May / December thing. The age difference was danced around for most of the book until I forgot about it. Then Ms. Bujold threw in the numbers and I cringed and had to drop my speed limit until my head stopped spinning. I had accepted the relationship at that point and would have had a tissy fit if the relationship has fallen apart. Had I known upfront, I would have never discovered this gem. Again, I am fickle and some things don't work for me. Thanks Ms. Bujold for expanding my horizon.

The story is exceptional fantasy with worldbuilding, magic, and cultural prejudice. The creatures are spirit that have no clear origin. They are call The Malice. They come into being and begin to build armies of people and wild animals. They take over their will and make them do unnatural things including eating people. Dag is a hunter of these beings and belongs to a tribe of people called Lake Walkers. They are not well understood or liked. They are very secretive for good reason. Fawn is a farm girl that comes into the knowledge of a bigger world the hard way.

Dag and Fawn's story is actually told over two books. I didn't consider this one a hard cliffhanger but it's clear that there is more to their journey. Apparently it's told in book 2, Legacy. I already downloaded it to my ITouch. Bring on the DC rush hour tomorrow. I am so ready to dock this puppy.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2012 Brenda Audiobooks Only rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-i-ve-listened-to, fantasy-with-thread-of-romance, 2-audible-com-books

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne - narration 5+*s

The Sharing Knife series of 4 books has an excellent narrator in Bernadette Dunne, she is one of the very best I've ever listened to.

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Dec 08, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay...first let us make no mistake. This is a romance, a love story. The synopsis may make it sound like an adventure, it may talk about the Lake Walkers, the Patrolers in mysterious terms...but it amounts to a love story. The inexperienced young farm girl meets the mysterious, older and more knowledgeable Lake Walker, shows herself more competent and able than expected. Then their love must overcome various and sundry obstacles (I'd mention a couple but that might be considered giving spoilers...more

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Aug 04, 2008 Hirondelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

What has happened to Lois Bujold? I was reading this and kept mentally comparing it to Shards of Honor, published 1986, also a sort of romance and also the start of a series. Maybe the fact that Bujold is now starting a fantasy series says something for the state of sf as compared to fantasy. Maybe I am biased pro-sf but this book was just so flimsy compared to SoH.

I better put some spoiler warnings, just in case,
(view spoiler)...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Lightreads rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, romance, fantasy, disability

This is the first book of a duology, a fantasy/romance with the emphasis on the romance. Our couple consists of Fawn Bluefield – farmer girl, eighteen, pregnant, running away from home – and Dag Redwing – one-handed, widower, fiftyish, from the militaristic Lakewalker culture. Dag and his patrol are tracking a malice, an immortal life-leeching menace which can only be dispatched with a sharing knife (a nice little conceit that is not worth ruining). The malice captures Fawn for nefarious purpose...more This is the first book of a duology, a fantasy/romance with the emphasis on the romance. Our couple consists of Fawn Bluefield – farmer girl, eighteen, pregnant, running away from home – and Dag Redwing – one-handed, widower, fiftyish, from the militaristic Lakewalker culture. Dag and his patrol are tracking a malice, an immortal life-leeching menace which can only be dispatched with a sharing knife (a nice little conceit that is not worth ruining). The malice captures Fawn for nefarious purposes – you see where this is going – and in the course of rescue and saving the world, Dag and Fawn are bound together by a bit of a magical accident.

Huh. That was . . . fine. Kinda weird, though. The summary above sounds like a whole book, but it’s barely the first seventy pages. The rest is unapologetic romance, the sort of stuff that is usually relegated to the last five pages of a fantasy book where the couple mutters to each other about how the folks back home really aren’t going to like this. And I don’t object to the romance. I like Dag and Fawn – though I really hope there’s an actual, you know, reason for such an unnecessarily large age difference, because he’s older than her father and it’s distractingly icky once or twice. Part of the point is, of course, the innocence/experience trope, and the wisdom and revitalization they give to each other, but seriously, he could have lost fifteen years just fine. And while we’re on the subject of things that through me out of the narrative, let’s talk about anachronisms – your barely literate farm girl should not be thinking in percentages. She gets the concept of half and half probability, I’m sure, but she does not know what fifty percent is. I’m just saying.

Anyway. Like I said, it’s really not the romance I object to, because I was the one shaking my head and muttering about how sketchy and unsatisfying the tiny pagespace given over to developing the romances was in her Chalion books. And I’m reserving judgment on the frankly weird shape of this book, considering it is the first volume of a duology.

It’s just that the last two hundred pages of the book felt more than a little candy-coated, and there is nothing more likely to bore me in a book. It’s not the pure domesticity I’m having a problem with, nor the fact that the single dangling magical plot thread is all but ignored for two-thirds of the book, because after they save the world the heroes really do go home to the folks and hang out in the kitchen a lot. We just don’t normally get to see it. And the next volume promises to address the plot. But there was just something sort of pat about the whole thing as they tended to each other’s old, quiet damages (and I genuinely like that sort of thing, too). I like both my romance and my fantasy to have a lot more rough edges to them, and romance/domesticity are not by definition candy-coated. This book had an awful lot of smooth edges, pregnancy out of wedlock and all. This sort of polished smooth structure worked very well in Curse of Chalion because the very ordained, this person fits into this slot in the story quality was part of the plot. But when you’re playing that out back home on the farm, it’s just, well . . . fine.

It’s a good book, certainly, with clever writing and a nice little cultural divide to explore. But I believe the intent was to loft a romance up there, arching over plot, rather than dangling it from underneath as an afterthought. And, well, I just didn’t make it all the way up there – I walked around carrying this book with me all weekend, rather than the other way around. I’m glad I borrowed and not bought, and I hope the second volume accomplishes a lot more for me.(less)

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Mar 19, 2010 Gamatst rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-romance-thread, audio-i-ve-listened-to

My first real Fantasy book. It drew me straight in and I enjoyed it thoroughly. A romance to keep me happy, very likable characters, an adventurous and different storyline.

I listened to the audio version after seeing the narrator raved about more than once. The excellent narration captivated me fast and has brought me much more enjoyment in the book than I might have gotten otherwise.

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 28, 2013 Melissa added it

Shelves: notworthit, didnt-finish

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have a big stack of YA books at home that I didn’t feel like reading this weekend. I’ll be honest, a lot of the time YA books drive me nuts. There’s always a love interest that involves a lot of bad feelings & sadness & awkward situations that could be avoided if some teenagers could just be better at communicating. Surely this fantasy book that inexplicably turned up on my hold shelf will be a welcome diversion from such things, I thought. And now the joke’s on me, for as soon as Dag...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, romance, favorites

The first time I tried to listen to this book, I was unable to get into it so it sat in my library for a year or more. When I finally gave it a second shot, I was able to wrap my head around it and throughly enjoyed it. It is an odd, post-collapse tale with a richly conceived world and characters. Fawn and Dag make an unlikely couple who have adventures in a profoundly disturbed environment. At its core, it is a well written and optimistic coming of age story written by a master writer. I listen...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, romantic, adult, ebook-deals, own-it-e-book, insta-love

This book had a really solid start, with plenty of danger and magical action. It seemed like it was going to be an enjoyable fantasy read. Then after a while, I realized that the "resting up" from this initial action was not just an interlude, but the rest of the book. Seriously two thirds of the story focus exclusively on the romance and the couple's relationship-type challenges like (view spoiler)...more

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May 27, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, 2007

This was the first Bujold novel I've read, recommended to me by the staff at Bakka Pheonix, and I have to say it's very sweet. It's got a similar tone to Kate Forsyth's work, if that gives you a clearer idea, and I really liked it.

Fawn gets more than she wanted after experimenting in the wheatfield with "Stupid" Sunny Sawman, and runs away from her parents' farm, heading to the town of Glassforge to find work.

She encounters a Lakewalker patrol, there to hunt down a malice, or blight bogle, whic...more

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Jul 20, 2007 Slither rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: incurable romantics.

Okay, I am a Bujold fan, honest I am. However, I am afraid this review will cause be to be exiled from the International Order of Bujold-lovers. This fantasy book reminds me of a cross between Anne Rice and Mercedes Lackey.

Brief plot description: A grizzled soldier meets a young girl. The soldier is fifty-five years old, and has a broken heart. The girl is eighteen and has run away from home after her one and only experience of sex turned out badly.

During the next three days, the two save either...more Okay, I am a Bujold fan, honest I am. However, I am afraid this review will cause be to be exiled from the International Order of Bujold-lovers. This fantasy book reminds me of a cross between Anne Rice and Mercedes Lackey.

Brief plot description: A grizzled soldier meets a young girl. The soldier is fifty-five years old, and has a broken heart. The girl is eighteen and has run away from home after her one and only experience of sex turned out badly.

During the next three days, the two save either other's lives, as well as the lives of many others. And the girl asks the soldier how people can make use of their hands while having sex and, among other things, learns from him that women can masturbate. And, by the end of the three days they are in love.

The two then spend a week having sex (she's very good, apparently) and this is described in some *ahem* detail. Then they head off to get married.

Now, this soldier has a magical ability to sense the psychic energy of people, animals and things. He uses this ability to heal the girl's psychic wounds, caused by her family's calling her stupid, and such-like. And she, although having no magic powers, reminds him of the beautiful things in life.

How sweet.

Now, I've nothing against May/December romances. But, an 18-year-old girl, who has only had one, unpleasant, experience with the opposite sex?!! Wouldn't this raise alarm bells, even if the two were the same age? If Heinlein had written this, he'd have been hung from the nearest lamppost for being a dirty old man. And, yes, most of the book is taken up with people questioning this pairing and, apparently, coming around to agreeing with them. However, Bujold didn't manage to convince me.

Does the soldier's magic ability somehow let him know that this is really in her best interests? This is certainly not stated. And this psychic-wound healing stuff comes too close to my taste to Mercedes Lackey's "unappreciated teenager meets magic person who sees the beauty of the teenager's soul, and will love said teenager forever" standard plot.

Or maybe it is that both people are Mary-Sue-ishly perfect in every way. Heck, even Mary Poppins was only practically perfect, and so can't hold a candle to these two.

Bah.
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Jul 27, 2008 Emmaco rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: romance, fantasy

Another book where I can't seperate my expectations (in this case based firmly on my high opinion of the author) from the book itself. This was my second time reading Beguilement and I think I didn't get much more out of it this time around. It's a very slow paced romance book set in a fantasy world. Despite some lovely moments the romance itself, and the main female lead, irritated me more than I remember. The world building in this series is excellent; I suspect I would be more impressed if it...more

1 like · like · see review

Hirondelle I got it waiting to be read, somewhere, just to see. The just to see is because apart from Paladin of Souls ( which I liked very much, though I got qu...more
updated Jul 27, 2008 12:18pm

Hirondelle I just finished it, and I both enjoyed it and was sad for it. I think if I did not know the author I might have judged the plot less kindly! It´s perf...more
Aug 04, 2008 08:52am

Emmaco I think she's meaner to the characters in the next book but I didn't get the impression they were anguished or particularly changed by their experienc...more
Aug 04, 2008 01:29pm

Jan 06, 2009 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my least favorite Bujold book to date. Really, it's nothing more than a romance -- and it gets rather sappy. Also, there are more detailed sex scenes in this novel than I've encountered in Bujold's work in the past, and I didn't like that at all.

I really did enjoy the first part of the novel...it was very interesting at first. I really liked the male protagonist, Dag. I thought he was a great character. The lakewalkers, the malices, the sharing knife...that was all fascinating. Bujold,...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Barrett Brassfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

I shouldn't be surprised at how much I enjoyed Bujold's first Sharing Knife novel. Every novel I've read by her pretty much ruled, from the Vorkosigan saga to the Chalion novels and Beguilement is no exception, although it differs in tone and content from her other work. Bujold's science fiction and fantasy novels are usually pretty unique in one or more respects and in Beguilement we meet Lakewalkers, folk who have a special connection with both the land and a person's connection to it, at leas...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Cameron Asbell rated it 1 of 5 stars

I tried to give this book a chance. This is the first book I have read by Bujold and I am not a nitpicker on fantasy books. The authors have to world build, character build, etc. all at once. So, even if they get some details muddied I am okay with that as long as the story is good. This story was awful. The heroine is a complete idiot and should not have been let out of her village without a helmet. She blunders from situation to situation and quite frankly the hero should have just let her wan...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first volume of the new fantasy series by one of my favorite writers. I read Curse of Chalion, the first volume in her first fantasy trilogy, a few years ago. I enjoyed this more as it really zeroes in on the two main characters – Dag the Lakewalker and Fawn the runaway farmer girl.

In this universe, the Lakewalkers are responsible for tracking bandits and blight bogles – creatures who are not born but sort of evolve from the word around them, getting larger and more powerful until a...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Carol rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best fantasy slips you into a new world, and when you emerge, you see your own world in a new way. Bujold's world-building is consistently of the best, and The Sharing Knife books continue this high standard.

Fawn, a farmer girl, leaves home for a very good reason, heading off for the big city to find work and make it on her own. "Boggles" are so rare in these parts that farmers think they're just stories. Lakewalkers know that boggles are monsters that, if they're not killed when they are sm...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, novels, romance

Reading the reviews, the detractors seem to fall into certain categories. Those who were expecting something like her Vorkosigan series and are disappointed it's fantasy. (Hello, it's pretty explicitly marked as fantasy from the description to the cover.) Those who were expecting something like her Chalion series and are disappointed the emphasis on this first book is on romance. (Yes, it is. I think it's tons better than the usual book on the romance aisle, but if you sneer at books built aroun...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Estara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-read, ebook, read-in-2012

There was this really cheap promotion fot the whole Sharing Knife series as ebooks and although I own them in paper I just had to splurge.

This really is the most couple-centred work of LMB's, but at the same time it also contrasts two completely different lifestyles, Lakewalker and Farmer, through all four books.

But I read it for Fawn and her interactions with Dag and the fact that as soon as they get through their first real dangerous encounter and everything changes for both, they really respe...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Kater Cheek rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was sold to me by a fellow customer at a bookstand, and it came so highly recommended that he insisted that I buy all four of the series, as I would not be disappointed.

I have to say, I was expecting a fantasy novel with an unusual twist, and I spent the first half of the book disappointed and wondering when it was going to get good. We have the usual tropes of fantasyland. We have a peasant girl, a mysterious foreigner, and some magical bad-guys. Dag, the mysterious foreigner, saves F...more This book was sold to me by a fellow customer at a bookstand, and it came so highly recommended that he insisted that I buy all four of the series, as I would not be disappointed.

I have to say, I was expecting a fantasy novel with an unusual twist, and I spent the first half of the book disappointed and wondering when it was going to get good. We have the usual tropes of fantasyland. We have a peasant girl, a mysterious foreigner, and some magical bad-guys. Dag, the mysterious foreigner, saves Fawn, the peasant girl's life more than once, and in the process, she gets mixed up in his peoples' magic.

I guess the high recommendation set me up for failure. I'd heard about Bujold, but never read any of her stuff. What I'd heard about her is that she's the female author most often chosen as an exception to prove the "boys only" rule for a certain award. Because the person who recommended this book to me was also male, I expected a tense and action-packed fantasy epic full of swashbuckling derring-do that would appease even Frederick Forsythe and Tom Clancy fans.

And yet the pacing was slow, much, much slower than I had expected. I felt very little tension, beyond the rescue scenes. The setting is only okay. It's basically like any McFantasyland: ordinary American-ish folk with a relatively stable government that has a culture culturally more progressive than 1950s America and yet which somehow remains staunchly pre-industrial. The nomadic Lakewalkers are the one novelty, and they were not quite weird enough to entice me, yet weird enough that I found their role in the "farmer" society not fleshed out. As a fantasy novel, it's not that good.

Here's what they don't tell you on the cover: this is not a fantasy novel. This is a romance, first of all. Almost all of the tension and character-building revolves around the relationship between Fawn and Dag. This isn't really a novel either, at least, it doesn't read like a novel so much as volume one of a larger story. I haven't read the other books yet, so I can't tell if the plot will develop satisfactorily, but I can say that after finishing BEGUILEMENT, I don't feel like I have completed a story, not really. I mean, the plot arc ends, but it is so slowly paced that it doesn't feel like an amazing, "must read" novel, so much as the slow buildup to greater plots in later books.

Since I did buy all four books, I will probably read the second one. I know, it's irrational, but jsut because I understand the fallacy of sunk costs doesn't mean I'm immune to it. Also, I liked the book a lot better once I realized that it was not a fantasy and not a novel.

I recommend this for people who think they don't like fantasy and for people who think they don't like romance, and for people who think "oh, goody, four books" rather than "there are four of these? I hope they get better."(less)

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Apr 08, 2012 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, romantic-fantasy

A friend's mom lent me this book, and although i typically don't enjoy Bujold's books, you kind of have to read things your friend's mother lends you. Having said that, I'm actually glad I did. This book isn't really literary fantasy that pushes the borders of the genre or anything, but if you're looking for an enjoyable fantasy-romance, I'd say this is a good pick (maybe for a beach read or something?).

The character's are fairly typical; the young innocent girl who shows her mettle and impress...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Doris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book starts out with a powerful premise - a young woman running towards a new life to escape the old one that has let her down. She immediately runs afoul of a group of creatures, equivalent to a bogeyman, that kidnap, rape, and beat her. All that could still be a build up to a powerful story

-but-

I didn't like where it went from there. Young girl of twenty meets a mature man of 50 and they fall head over heels in love. I heard resonances of Lolita in here, along with several other books I...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Jacey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, romance

All the reviews said: ‘Good, but not as good as Curse of Chalion,’ so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. On the whole I would agree, but to my mind it will be a very exceptional book that is as good as Curse of Chalion, so what to we have here? While not Bujold’s best, it’s still very good indeed. A fantasy, but also more of a romance in that apart from a few monsters (inhuman and human) the plot is fairly well kept inside within a boy-meets-girl scenario, even though neither the ‘boy’ nor the...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Lissa Notreallywolf rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I enjoyed the first volume of this series so much I plunged ahead and read the next three volumes. I have marked it fantasy, but it has a very high level of romance, not that I would admit to reading romances! I cannot include the quote that made me love this first book because it really runs on for pages and it may not make sense if you don't get the build up. The scene is dinner at the Bluefields, where Fawn has returned with her much older lover, Dag. Dag belongs to the Lakewalker society a s...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I feel awkward writing a review and judging this book when this is clearly meant as just the first part of a much, much longer work, and while it wraps some things up it must be acknowledged that it does not stand on its own very well.
This is something that's obviously completely different than Bujold's usual works, where the plot takes center stage and the characters/romances weave in and out of it. Here we have a whirlwind romance between our two mains taking center stage about 1/3 of the way...more I feel awkward writing a review and judging this book when this is clearly meant as just the first part of a much, much longer work, and while it wraps some things up it must be acknowledged that it does not stand on its own very well.
This is something that's obviously completely different than Bujold's usual works, where the plot takes center stage and the characters/romances weave in and out of it. Here we have a whirlwind romance between our two mains taking center stage about 1/3 of the way into the book, and while Dag may be a familiar type of hero for Bujold to be writing (the wounded warrior), Fawn is definitely a departure from her usual female characters, as she is extremely young and almost totally out of her depth at all times, through no fault of her own. She's not unlikeable, but while it's not hard to see why she falls for Dag, and it's not completely out of nowhere that she attracts him, it's also perhaps not the choice we would have made for him. It's hard not to compare the romance to Aral/Cordelia and find it wanting, not for lack of skill on the part of the author but perhaps simply out of sympathetic frustration on behalf of Fawn. I think the notion of a relationship with Dag at Fawn's time of life with her family experience behind her would intimidate me, but perhaps that's what's really special about Fawn.
I know there's obviously more to the story, and I wish it had been developed more in the same volume, even if that made the volume much larger. But this was really kind of a romance/character novel within a fantasy setting obviously meant to set up a longer exploration of the world and development of Fawn's character. And while Bujold was doing that, she obviously made the effort to subvert a lot of the sloppy romance novel cliches and actually make the romance *work* in a more realistic way. She mostly succeeds in doing this, but in doing so we may not be swept up in the romance and silliness in the same way that we do in a Georgette Heyer novel. In the end, it seems like it's less of a romance novel than a relationship/marriage novel-- a genre not terribly well-developed. So ultimately it's a confusing book, simply because it's not at all what we may have expected going in, and it takes a completely different direction than we expect when we see things going on the way they do (and I think this happens at least twice). Every thing makes *sense*, but it's almost disorienting to have things progress the way they do. I definitely want to read the rest of the series, but it's definitely not what I expected. (less)

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About Lois McMaster Bujold

One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold burst on to the scene in 1986 with Shards of Honor, the first of her tremendously popular Vorkosigan Saga novels. She has received numerous accolades and prizes, including two Nebula Awards for Best Novel (Falling Free and Paladin of Souls), four Hugo Awards for Best Novel (Paladin of Souls, The Vor Game, B...more

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Quotes from Beguilement

“Lakewalker legends say the gods abandoned the world when the first malice came. And that they will return when the earth is entirely cleansed of its spawn. If you believe in gods."

"Do you?"

"I believe they are not here, yes. It's a faith of sorts.” — 5 people liked it

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Beguilement (The Sharing Knife #1)

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