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Feb 16, 2009

Kate rated it:

I figured out a long time ago that Lois McMaster Bujold is one of THOSE authors--basically, if she writes a book, it's good. Period. And the Sharing Knife books are no exception. McMaster Bujold's worlds feel real, and her characters matter. This series is a little slower paced than some of her science fiction, but they're still very rewarding reading.

Horizon is the fourth book in the Sharing Knife series, in which a farmer girl and a one-armed Lakewalker man meet while fighting a te More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2010

Wealhtheow added it

Fawn, Dag, and their never-ending beige adventure.

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Tatiana rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Allie rated it:

Quite an appropriate conclusion to the series and entirely in keeping with its self-proclaimed theme of education, understanding and compassion. Of course, this ending really isn't an ending at all, rather belonging to the Hope for the Future School of Stories that End with a New Beginning. All of which somehow required an epilogue akin to stopping in for a quick visit with your relatives, only to be forced to examine the family photo albums for hours on end. Because, contrary to personal b More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

MB rated it:

1st read: This book is wonderful and with a very satisfying ending too! I have so much enjoyed the "Sharing Knife" world--it is such an interesting fantasy 'take' on a alternate frontier America.

I especially enjoy how Lois McMaster Bujold portrays a strong marriage partnership with love, respect, and caring between two strong and multi-dimensional characters. One partner's weaknesses are counteracted by the other partner's strengths and vice versa. So that the couple is More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 30, 2011

ms bookjunkie rated it:

For me, The Sharing Knife series is incredibly emotionally satisfying. Just that, by itself, is enough to gain it a place as a comfort read on my keeper shelves. But more, the adventure, the world building and all, felt fresh to me, and I could not at any point presume to guess what would happen next. That in itself is utterly refreshing. Alright, maybe the small things could be predicted, but the big picture was a blank slate to me, and gave me that feeling I had at thirteen when I discovered D More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2009

Jeffrey rated it:

A satisfying conclusion? to the sharing knife series.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Nicholas rated it:

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1872730.ht...

The end of the four-volume Sharing Knife series, in which the romance / action plot, of mutual suspicions between two human cultures, equally threatened by an 'orrible supernatural menace, resolves in entirely satisfactory manner, with much character-building wisdom being imparted to the foolish younger relatives. But I found myself a bit dissatisfied with Bujold's use of the very rich background she has developed, for three reasons: first, th More...

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Feb 16, 2009

Rosalyn rated it:

I loved this book. The Sharing Knife series has an interesting premise--in a world that the gods have apparently abandoned, the Lakewalkers (a group of people with semi-mystic abilities) maintain patrols to destroy malices, evil beings that grow by feeding off the life forces of all living things. Lakewalkers maintain a tenuous balance with farmers, who lack the Lakewalkers' abilities and tend to look askance at some of their cultural practices. Over the course of the series, however, a Lakewalk More...

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Feb 10, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

So, I will endeavor to review the final book in a series without spoiling the other three.

Frankly, I'd hold up The Sharing Knife series as how to do a multi-book romance without plunging into unbelievable melodrama. The 'will they or won't they' is settled in the first book, leaving books 2-4 as a story of a young couple with a 'forbidden' relationship trying to carve a place in the world. Book 4 opens with Dag and Fawn in the south, where the problem of Lakewalkers and farmers is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 09, 2011

mangoesnkiwis rated it:

This series could have been so much better if it was less about the romance and more about...everything else.

The malices/mud-men/mages and all the back story with the Lakewalkers and their magic and whatnot was really compelling. The world was really interesting, and a lot was made of how dangerous the north is but we never get anything except for a vague reference to the character Dag's time spent up there. The whole story with how the Lakewalkers essentially need two deaths to be More...

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Mar 24, 2011

Marlee rated it:

I really enjoyed the first three books of this series, as in falling into the book and not coming up for air. But, in this book I felt that the editor had just decided to take a break and the book was published without a proper review. So, yes, Bujold writes a good story. But a good editor would have eliminated the use of the adjective "little" to describe Dawn over and over again until she seemed like the incredible shrinking woman, and the use of the word "large" was a litt More...

10 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2011

Scott rated it:

Horizon is the fourth and final book of Bujold's Sharing Knife series. In it, we find our heroes, Dag and Fawn Bluefield, returning north with the intention of settling a place of their own. Dag, already a veteran Lakewalker patroller, has become more than that now: medicine-maker, groundsetter, husband, father/brother figure, and all-around leader to a small conclave of Lakewalkers and farmers. Dag wants for simple things, but his life is anything but simple. As he and Fawn and a myriad of othe More...

0 comments like

Jun 22, 2010

Dlora rated it:

This is the fourth book in the Sharing Knife series and for your best enjoyment and understanding, it would be better to have read the other books. The motivation for the action, the background of the characters, the complexity of the fantasy elements all would be better understood by starting at the beginning of the series. However, you can read this book as a stand alone if you want too; it would just be better if you led up to it.

The overall setting of the series is described well More...

2 comments like

May 25, 2009

Korynn rated it:

Whereas I thought at the end of the 3rd book,Fawn and Dag were going onward and outward, they merely turn around and go back, determined to push the barriers of their world, unable to turn their backs on possibility and responsibility. The book starts slow and Bujold has abandoned overt romance for the casual romance more familiar to her prior readers. There is an awful lot of discussion of the uses of magic and theories regarding its applications to the point that the first half is slow and rat More...

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May 01, 2009

Kerry rated it:

As I’m sure I’ve said before, I’m a Lois McMaster Bujold fan-girl. I’ve read almost everything she’s written (I think the only things I haven’t read are The Spirit Ring and the book of essays, Dreamweaver’s Dilemma). I’ve read the first three books in her Sharing Knife series and it was always a foregone conclusion that I would be buying the last one when it came out, and in hardcover at that (ever since I kind of accidently bought Memory in hardcover, Bujold has been a hardcover author for me). More...

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Apr 07, 2011

Books-treasureortrash rated it:

Book Review: 2 Treasure Boxes

This is a story about battles. A fight against evil creatures, predjudice and old concepts. Dag, the magic wielding Lakewalker and his young bride the Farmer-girl Fawn continue their story with plenty of adventures. They have found a new Lakewalker camp where Dag can learn to use his developing maker abilities, but it isn't long until Farmer versus Lakewalker troubles start to appear. Add into this story a new kind of Malice and you have an interesting t More...

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Mar 02, 2010

Lighthearted rated it:

Dag and Fawn continue their mission to bring Lakewalkers and farmers together. Dag also finds a Lakewalker Maker willing to train him. Predictably, Dag pushes the limits of his host Lakewalker camp and he and Fawn must travel onward in search of a home. Predictably, they also gather an assortment of characters to join their journey.

Dag and Fawn both annoy me a great deal in this installment. While I want their mission to succeed, I want it to seem less preachy and I want them to More...

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Jan 22, 2011

Sue rated it:

The fourth and final book in the Sharing Knife series continues with the adventures and trail blazing of the main characters of Fawn and her husband Dag. A controversial couple, they crossed the lines by falling in love and marrying, then combining their two different life styles and cultures. Then discovering they weren't part of one way or another, they started to spearhad a new way of life and thinking that will accomodate them both and teach others tolerance and acceptance. A modern day d More...

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Sep 11, 2009

Amanda rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 31, 2010

lynne rated it:

Having labored my way through books 1-3 and assuming the tale stopped there, I was surprised to find out recently that The Sharing Knife series went on to #4.

I think if you made your way through the previous books, this one has a bit of a payoff / is a slightly more satisfying read, because Fawn and Dag are now trying to start a new type of interaction and cooperation between farmers and lakewalkers.

Thankfully the stilted lovemaking scenes didn't make it to this book. As su More...

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Oct 04, 2009

Hester rated it:

I have mixed feelings about this series. I HATED the first book; it struck me as an annoying romance. I trust the author, though, so I read the rest of the series and was happily surprised to see how it dealt with so many different issues.

Like the Vorkosigan series, the Sharing Knife series contains elements of Midwestern history and culture in her new world. The series is about reconciling cultures and about how the domestic interacts with the extraordinary. It is about the dyna More...

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Nov 20, 2009

Lightreads rated it:

In which this four-book romance fantasy wanders – by which I mean plot? What plot? – to a close – by which I mean babies for all!

Yikes. A friend called this the "never-ending beige adventure," which made me laugh. More than the book did.

I'm feeling kind of cranky about this book. It's intellectually boring, with a thematic conversation (communication, clashing and changing paradigms, etc.) little deeper than your average morality play. I could forgive intellectu More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Annette rated it:

I love that Bujold's books are character driven. I have no problem going between the adventures of Fawn and Dag and those of Miles Vorkosigan.

I read the other three books in this series years ago and waited for book four. And then it took me two years after it was published! It is well worth the wait.

I do suggest you read all of the books in order. If you don't, you can read this as a stand-alone since Bujold does an excellent job of exposition as you go through the story. More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2009

Rachel rated it:

This was a very satisfying conclusion to the Sharing Knife series. There's something quiet and contemplative about these books -- every time a malice appears (after book one) it seems oddly out of place and shocking. This book follows Fawn and Dag as they start to get some traction in their plans to change the world. The books are very much about changing the world one person at a time, and starting on a small scale. I think that's why I don't really feel compelled to give them a five -- tha More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2012

Mark rated it:

A mediocre conclusion to the series. Of course, mediocre Bujold is still a pleasure to read, and head-and-shoulders above most genre writers.

But the books drifted away from some of the more intriguing fantasy ideas as they went on, and what was left ended up as something close to the standard "fantasy as travelogue" idea. Again, the invented travelogue seems way more substantial than average when Bujold does it, I usually say one of her most impressive traits is communica More...

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Feb 27, 2009

Sbuchler rated it:

Genre: Fantasy

This is the forth, and it feels like the final, book in the Sharing Knife series. Like the other three the pacing of the book is rather laid back, and gives charm and flavor to the world. It's an enjoyable read, but... I expect more from Bujold then she delivered here. Dag and Fawn seem to acquire that which they've most been hoping for though the series. However, I don't really feel like either of them had to struggle or sacrifice to achieve that goal: they lucked into More...

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Mar 26, 2010

Kristen rated it:

At last, I found books that made me really understand the scope and depth of Bujold's talent as an author.

This series did a lot of things right by me. It rejected the standard (tired) fantasy genre tropes right and left to tell a genuinely moving story about a small group of people committed to changing the world. There are no kingdoms. No nobility. No boy or girl with a special destiny or super-secret pedigree of awesomeness. It's not set in a medieval, white European setting. More...

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Aug 21, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

I am truly dismayed by the snarkiness displayed by some of the reviews of this book and the series in general. To read a book written by a writer with a very definite style and a definite world view, one must adjust to the rhythm, to the language used, to the way characters react to the challenges in the story. If you don't like it or you can't adjust, walk away. Or simply state that this story is not for you.

The Sharing Knife series is definitely for me. I enjoy all of Bujold's More...

3 comments like

Mar 09, 2009

E. rated it:

Dag and Fawn continue in their quest to establish a stronger understanding between Lakewalkers and farmers while Dag struggles to learn how to use his newfound "maker" abilities. Fawn finds a Lakewalker mentor for her husband but still must face the hostilities and discrimination from the Lakewalkers of the south, most of whom have never shared her experience in encountering a malice, let alone killing one. The rest of their motley mixture of Lakewalkers, farmers and river folk must More...

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