Lois’s answer to “I’ve been thinking that the Sharing Knife books are your strongest and have the most profound emoti…” > Likes and Comments

I'm often a bit weary of books with a strong romance element, but in the Sharing Knife story it felt genuine and true to the - well developed - characters, so in this case I very much enjoyed it.
And I loved the originality of the world and how it provided the setting both for an interesting story line and an "invitation to think about the nature of things" - for lack of better way of putting it.

I didn't like it the first time I read it, when it came out, but I read it again after reading Knife Children and I *loved* it then. I don't know. Maybe people are just approaching it at the wrong time of life? I was younger and Miles-mad the first time I gave it a go-round.

I also had a harder time with it the first time around - I vaguely recall Patrick Rothfuss describing this as a "this pretzel is a terrible lasagna, 1 star!" problem, where the reader expects a totally different book and responds to this book not as it is, but as they thought it ought to be.
I've had this with several authors I really like (Martha Wells comes to mind as well) where I read one series, picked up another one, was flummoxed because it was not like the first series, and came back to it a second time and fell in love.

@Liz, what a terrific way to describe the issue! I will totally steal (with attribution, of course) the pretzel/lasagna metaphor from here on.

I love all your books (she gushes :) ) and yes they are different. I find in general that when I like an author I will even read their works when they chose to write in a genre I don't much read otherwise. Not that its the case with Sharing Knife. I'm not quite sure what genre I'd call it other than fantasy - which might be a problem for people with more pigeonhole minds. I'd call it a relationship book - so many books labelled as romances are very formulaic and it is anything but. Sharing Knife isn't just about the central couple with everyone else as a background, it is it about the web of personal interactions and all their variations. I do particularly love the line about one of the council who are voting on Dag's fate "has a spine like custard" - I can't remember the characters name (something Heron?). It is about people of all ages and has all the nuances of how you see life differently over time. I do also love the line about Fawn discovering that most young creatures are cuter when they are dry and fluffy regarding the overly charming young Lakewalker on the riverboat journey. (And I love that you come back to him in Children of the Knife.)

I love the Sharing Knife tetrology because the romance is central to the entire plot of the book. There is a bit of set-up to introduce the characters but the action kicks off as Dag's rescue of Fawn, and her rescue of Dag from a living death into life again. All the subsequent action arises from this meeting and the development of their relationship. It is a structure rarely seen in Fantasy, and I hope newer writers are inspired to write more by Lois's work.

I have loved the Sharing Knife series since I first read it ages ago. I reread it 2 or 3 times a year and never get tired of it. I was SO excited when I found Knife Children. Now I have 5 books to read rather than 4. I think they resonate with me so much because they are different from Miles. There is humor, pathos and a strong understanding of human nature in here, good and bad. Thank you for writing these books. I would love to go back to this world again, maybe to see Remo and his kids, or Nattie Marie grown up. No matter, whether you do or don't I still have these 5 to enjoy over and over again.

As Marti Dolati said, the romance is essential to the plot, and as Carro said, the non-central characters are also essential, not just background. This is profoundly good writing -- literature, not just mixed genres.