Daughter of the Empire
The Empire trilogy is routinely ranked among the finest political fantasy ever written — proof that the 'invaders' of Magician had the richer story, and a model for every court-intrigue fantasy since.
Book Entry · Fantasy
The Curse of Chalion
by Lois McMaster Bujold · 2001 · World of the Five Gods, book 1
What is The Curse of Chalion about?
Cazaril — courtier, soldier, galley slave, broken man — limps back to the household where he was once a page, asking only quiet work, and is appointed tutor to the royesse Iselle, whose family labours under a generations-old curse. Protecting her requires him to attempt death magic, which is to say prayer with a body count: in Bujold's Chalion the five gods are real, present and constrained, able to act only through souls open enough to let them — and sainthood, Cazaril discovers, feels less like glory than like being a door forced off its hinges. Court intrigue, theology and late-won love, in the genre's most grown-up key.
Why it matters
Hugo and World Fantasy finalist (its sequel Paladin of Souls swept Hugo and Nebula); the modern benchmark for theological fantasy and the favourite Bujold of a sizeable faction.
Where does it sit in the series?
Bujold's theological fantasies of Chalion and beyond, where five gods work through cracked human vessels and sainthood is an occupational hazard.
In the Guide from World of the Five Gods:
- The Curse of Chalion (2001)
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