sharing Sharing Knife thoughts
I was reminded by a recent fan letter about The Sharing Knife of this (very flattering) article on it, which may be new to most readers of this blog:
https://bracketyjack.livejournal.com/...
A point made somewhere, worth reiterating, is that The Sharing Knife is not a book and 3 sequels, but one book divided into 4 volumes. Makes a difference, speaking of story structure.
(Well, and the codicil novella "Knife Children", but that is indeed a tailpiece.)
Ta, Lois.
https://bracketyjack.livejournal.com/...
A point made somewhere, worth reiterating, is that The Sharing Knife is not a book and 3 sequels, but one book divided into 4 volumes. Makes a difference, speaking of story structure.
(Well, and the codicil novella "Knife Children", but that is indeed a tailpiece.)
Ta, Lois.
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Jo
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Sep 19, 2023 11:37AM
I find The Sharing Knife series to often be unreasonably dismissed for superficial reasons (age difference, native American similarity, "nothing happens in the first book", etc.). This is so very unfortunate since I find the series to be more moving than most of modern fantasy fiction today. The books gave me moments of dread that I can still recall impressions of, along with such moments of triumph that made wading through some of the dread worthwhile. Thank you so much, Ms Bujold for your gift of this world to us readers.
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Each time I've re-read The Sharing Knife book(s) they've grown in my estimation, and now they honestly might be my favorite of your stories, Lois. I think they're tremendously underrated among fans of your works.
What a great paper. I’ve read LotR more than 30 times, and the Sharing Knife probably 5 or 6 times, and I’ve never had the d’oh moment of the Dunedan and the Lakewalkers. Grrr. LMB, I reread your books … a lot. The sheer pleasure of the characters is so comforting!
Peter Lawson wrote: "What a great paper. I’ve read LotR more than 30 times, and the Sharing Knife probably 5 or 6 times, and I’ve never had the d’oh moment of the Dunedan and the Lakewalkers. Grrr. LMB, I reread your ..."
Thanks!
I really didn't think I was being that subtle with the parallelism or critique. (Or many other things about the books -- Berry the River Daughter ferex, though granted Whit is most definitely not inspired by Bombadil -- but oh well.) Reminds me of the many who don't twig to the parallelism about the the The Warrior's Apprentice and The Sorcerer's Apprentice till it gets pointed out to them and they get their own d'oh moments.
Although the trouble with pointing out such inspirations to some determinedly pattern-matching readers is that they then go off on an Easter egg hunt for exact 1:1 correspondences, and don't get them, and then wonder why the writer got it "wrong". It's a tricky line between recognizing intended correspondences, usually a treat for the writer, and making them up and reading them in according to the knowledge base or obsessions of the reader, which is usually... not. Academics can be both the best and the worst about this.
Ta, L.
Thank you for sharing this article. I have always loved LOTR since I discovered it in the ninth grade. I guess I would have been 14 or so. I’m 61 now. But since I discovered your sharing knife story it has become my favourite and I reread it more frequently! I love this analysis, and I love what you did in this story, so much. Thank you!
I recently reread the Sharing Knife series, and my opinion of it rises each time I do so. The connection with the Dunedain is brilliant -- there are also some similarities to the Dragonriders of Pern. But there's so much worldbuilding and character-building in these stories that one can find connections to everything from medieval philosophy to classic space opera.
