First impressions were not favorable. I grew bored and I found my eyes wandering over the pages and there were times I was about to put down the book and go "well, maybe later". However, once you get past the hurdle of the first fourth/fifth of the book, then things picked up and became interesting and I was suddenly rather glad I started to read Paladin of Souls when before I was somewhat regretting my reading choice.

I went to reading Paladin of Souls without reading the first book in the Chalion series. I was under the impression that one did not need to read the first to read the second, and found that this was correct for the most part. The second book refers to several characters and events in the first book, but there was no feeling like one had to read the first book to understand the second. Perhaps if I read the first book the beginning of the second would not have been so dull for me, but who knows.

Ista is an interesting main character. She is older than the usual fare (40, actually) and unlike a great deal of other main characters, a large part of another tale she had been a part of has already ended, and she is embarking on another (though it is not so much as an adventure, but an well disguised escape). When she isn't railing against the gods (for good reason), I found her interesting and engaging. Too bad that a good deal of her character was this abhorrence for the gods who failed her in her previous tale. That, however, was more of a personal preference. If she did not curse the gods, then her current tale would not have happened the way that it had, and a great portion of events would have turned out differently. She also gets better about it the more you read into the book, which was a nice thing to see.

During her so called pilgrimage (she's pretty much using that as an excuse to take a holiday), she begins to interact with the gods once again (while cursing them roundly in her mind) and somehow an entirely new adventure sparks off for her. The plot was built up well, and the variety of other characters were done nicely. Liss, for example, was a great minor character, as was Foix (who I somewhat adored, haha). The ending of the book was satisfying and complete, and overall, I enjoyed reading Paladin of Souls.

I'd give Paladin of Souls 3.5 stars, rounding up to four. It was a very solid book, but not, hm, great. Or rather, it was very, very good, and just shy of great for me. Ista was a delight of a main character, but a few niggling things were off about the direction that the author chose, and I can't seem to articulate why very well. Still, it was a good book.