And a pretty series comes to an end. Apart from the first book, it was great. One really nice thing about Elizabeth Moon’s writings is that she doesn’t waste time in each new book describing the characters and places from the others. Sure, it may suck for those who want to start reading in the middle, but she’s decided to give such people the finger. For people like me, who don’t like boring descriptions again and again, she comes as a breath of fresh air.
Here were a few unique things about this fantasy series:
- Female hero (Big change!)
- Real stuff. The author knows what she’s talking about and doesn’t demand impossible things of her characters – like becoming proficient in swordplay in a matter of months.
- Paladins!
On the downside, the hero Paksenarrion has no personal enemies as such. She’s just a vessel of the gods and this doesn’t excite as much as a nice confrontation that has been coming for a long time. Like Rand and Ishamael in “The Wheel of Time Series” or Gaborn and Raj Ahten in “The Runelords.” But even without a climactic battle, this series was original enough for me to enjoy it after being jaded by a lot of standard fantasy books.
The last book contains some pretty nasty stuff towards the end as Paksenarrion makes the ultimate sacrifice (literally ultimate – believe you me) and shows us once again that being in the god’s favor needn’t be all that exciting. In fact, it’s more a curse than a blessing. But that’s what we wanted after all and it’s what was missing in the first book. Nice recovery Ms. Moon! If you want to read a book that’s realistic in the midst of its fantasy and need to take a break from the same repetitious stuff that other authors churn out, you really can’t afford to give “The Deed of Paksenarrion” a miss.
thumbs up.