Наследство

The Sharing Knife #2

by Lois McMaster Bujold, Красимир Вълков (Translator)

Бюджолд описва с вещина света на Фаун и Даг и потапя читателя в две различни култури. Възрастен водач на отряд и вдовец, от една страна, и момиче, което е забременяло заради младежко увлечение, от друга. Бюджолд развива героите и взаимоотношенията им майсторски, така че да задоволи и почитателите на романтичната литература, и феновете на фентъзи.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy Romance, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2007

About the author

Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children.

Her fantasy from HarperCollins includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife tetralogy; her science fiction from Baen Books features the perennially bestselling Vorkosigan Saga. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages.

Questions regarding foreign rights, film/tv subrights, and other business matters should be directed to Spectrum Literary Agency, spectrumliteraryagency.com

A listing of her awards and nominations may be seen here:

http://www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bu...

A listing of her interviews is here:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

An older fan-run site devoted to her work, The Bujold Nexus, is here:

http://www.dendarii.com/

Reviews

[Grace A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a new couple breaking new grounds, challenging old landmarks, amidst prejudice and family drama while fighting magical monsters. What’s not to like?
This is the second book in the series. Fawn and Dag are a brave couple that puts other’s needs before their own but will not settle for anything that wants to tear them apart. Fawn is a quick thinker, in an outside the box kinda way. She is shunned and disdained in her husband’s community for not having magic but she’s saved lives where magic has failed, using only her wits. In spite all this, she stayed courageous and resilient; it also helped that Dag is unwavering and committed to their love and friendship.
It was an entertaining read!👌👍👏

[Lightreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of the Sharing Knife series, following directly on from Beguilement. Dag and Fawn, newly married, travel to Dag’s home with the Lakewalkers. There they meet resistance to their cross-cultural marriage, family drama, a new malice threat, and some strange new developments with Dag’s Ground powers (life force magic, basically).

Since it does not seem possible to review this book without addressing it, I’ll pause here to register my continued bafflement over the splitting of the volumes. It makes perfect sense! I mean, my God, we could never have a 200,000 word fantasy novel! Utterly unheard of! And everyone knows those romance readers all have teeny attention spans, anyway!

I’m annoyed because I think I would have liked the two books as one better than I liked either separately. Also, I gather the impetus to split them was an editorial one, and given I think it was a bad call on literary grounds, that leaves moneymaking motives. And that alienates me. A lot.

Ahem. The book itself is nice enough. I complained about some of the la-di-dah patness of the first volume, and this book turns around and delivers a nasty, prickly mess of people who never did and never will reconcile, let alone accept each other. I appreciated that, as well as the thematic topnote about living forward and prescribed paths and asking questions and how to know when you’re doing right and when you’re just compounding tragedy.



Dag murmured, "It used to happen up in Luthlia sometimes in the winter, someone would fall through rotten ice. And their friends or their kin would try to pull them out, and instead be pulled in after. One after another. Instead of running for help or a rope though the smart patrollers there always wore a length of rope wrapped around their waists in the cold season. Except if someone's slipped under the ice-well, never mind. The hardest thing. . . the hardest thing in such a string of tragedy was to be the one who stopped. But you bet the older folks understood."



The book is about being the one who stops, and in that sense it’s lovely, if unsubtle. I do have to admit to snorting more than once, particularly when the profundities tipped right over into clichés.



Fawn took a long breath, considering this painful thought. "Some_ times," she said distantly, with all the dignity she could gather, "it isn't about having
the right answers. It's about asking the right questions."


My God, if only someone had ever said that to me before! To be fair, these are appropriate things to come out of Fawn’s mouth, considering who she is and where she’s from, but I still rolled my eyes pretty hard.

The bottom line, though, is that this book entertained me, but it never moved me beyond occasional mild indignation on Fawn’s behalf. Dag is interesting (though a bit too close a reiteration of several recent Bujold male leads, if you ask me), and Fawn is all right, but I wasn’t there with them, and I certainly wasn’t feeling the romance the way I wanted to. Shame, really.

[Sherwood Smith]

The Sharing Knife: Legacy is the second half of the story that begins with Beguilement. It begins with a leisurely honeymoon scene before Fawn and Dag, who had spent most of the last book with her family, go to meet his--while the problems with malices continue to get more sinister as well as mysterious.

Fawn, the young heroine, is smart, capable, full of energy, and knows her own mind. She's emotionally balanced--probably more than Dag is. She is possessed of a generous spirit, and an equally vast curiosity about how the world works: she would never have been happy settling down to wifedom on the farm, though she would have done her duty without martyrdom, because she also finds satisfaction in the work of her hands, no matter how humble, and in her interest in and sympathy with the people around her. But she's capable of more, and Dag seems the one to give her the world.

In this book, Bujold widens the lens on how this fascinating world works. She does not just give us terrifying monsters in order to keep the plot zippy, she hints at layers and depths below, or behind, those monsters, raising more and more questions about the development of history and culture, about how its magic works. About everything.

And because it's Bujold, we know that future stories will depend on all these tantalizing hints; we do learn that there was an apocalypse, after the people's ancestors gained far too much power. The Lakewalkers, with their grubby existences, actually have a surprising history.

As the stakes build, the questions become more important--and it's clear that these two books are the opening of a larger story. Meanwhile the characterization is complex and involving, and overall there is that nifty, hard-to-define humor that I believe springs from a sense of grace.

Terrible things can, and do, happen in Bujold's books, but they are never mean books. Compassion, sorrow, hard-won wisdom, infuse the humor with a lingering depth so that I spend days after I finish one of her books thinking it over, then retrieving it to reread passages.

[Lisa Butterworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I opened up Vol 4, and realized that I couldn't remember the series well enough to understand what was going on, so I went crazy and got all four books from the library and devoted my week to reading them all in a row. What a lovely week it was.

I am just so enthralled by this world she has created, the ground sense magic, the ancient immortal malices growing out of the earth, the difficult cultural divides, and so many lovely and starkly real characters.

This wasn't the most fun I've had reading a Bujold book, not packed with bigger than life action and rollicking good times. The pacing was lovely, but it was a very grown-up book (with magic) full of real adult problems: (magical) in-laws that won't accept you, a world not ready to make the changes it must make, and no easy answer for the questions what next. The world is falling behind the malice threat, and the so clever culminating battle with this beautiful powerful malice, and easy ending that turns out to be so difficult, the solutions (such as they are) coming from an outsider, a farmer girl, who doesn't know better than to try something wildly different. And the horrifying mound of bodies that pile up at the end. It's heart wrenching.

and the only solution is to get their two cultures (lakewalkers and farmers) to somehow work together, but the barriers to this happening are vast and so difficult.

I LOVE Bujold, she is a master.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was afraid thart the plot would be repetative, but it would seem that LMMB managed a new twist for every book int he series. higly recommended.

[Cheesecake · Rating 3 out of 5]

The saga continues...
Not as good as the first book, but still a great read.
I love the MCs. Fawn is forever curious and not easily daunted. Dag loves her curiosity and their devotion to each other is sweet and true no matter what obstacles they confront.

I gave only 3 stars because I HATE Dag's mother, Cumbia and brother, Darr. Such a pair of awful, prideful, narrow-minded racists!
I was hoping they'd get eaten by a Malice, but they don't. More's the pity.

In the first book, Dag warns Fawn that his family will be worse than hers when it comes to accepting their marriage. She didn't believe him after what her brothers tried to do to him. But it was true. Most of his camp/village were rude and some even outright mean to Fawn. They would all just call her 'Farmer-girl' and not as an endearment. The nicest of them were only being condescending.
But by the end a few do come round to treating her decently. And Dar and Cumbia will reap what they sewed.

Fawn and Dag also confront more Malice magic and Dag finds his magic is changing again. Just how close is the relationship between Malice and Lakewalker?

It ends on a cliffy again. A nice pause point...
I have to read the next and find out what happens to Fawn and Dag on their travels.
Safety is still mighty fine. We do learn a bit more about his first wife. But there's never any feeling of jealousy or envy. She died a long time ago and they were only married a short time. I liked that they were able to talk about her without any bad feelings. She sounded like she was a very nice lady.

[Mogsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series probably isn't for everyone, but I really dug it. It's definitely the characters that do it for me and also the way Bujold writes. I think she can write about Dag and Fawn doing any number of boring mundane things and I'll probably still enjoy reading it. Even so, I was glad for the action in this book, which made up for the slower pace of the first book.

Legacy picks up immediately where Beguilement left off, with newlyweds Dag and Fawn heading up north to Lakewalker country to meet his family -- and boy, are Dag's brother and mother real pieces of work. Needless to say, Fawn's arrival is met with suspicion and open hostility. While Dag tries to settle her in, a malice outbreak happens at the worst possible time, forcing him to leave his farmer bride at home while he heads up a patrol to handle the problem.

This novel is more interesting than its predecessor for a couple reasons. First of all, there's a lot more conflict in this novel -- aside from the protagonists having to deal with Dag's bitchy mother and asshole brother, the book also turns its focus back on the Lakewalker vs. malice war, which is good news for those disappointed by the first book because of its lack of progress on that front.

Second, we also get a lot more lore and background of the world, as well as more details about Lakewalker magic. The magic system here involving "grounds" can get pretty convoluted, but is admittedly quite interesting and unique. I also love the world building, especially when it comes to Lakewalker culture. Consider how in many fantasy worlds, magic-users are usually the lords, the masters, and the upper class who live in castles and mansions holding power over the common magic-less folk. In contrast, Bujold's Lakewalker sorcerer-soldiers in this series live lives of sacrifice. Their existence is spartan, rustic and they dedicate their lives to protect the land and the farmers living on it.

I want to note, Beguilement and Legacy should be read back-to-back, since both were apparently written together. Whatever the reasons (I really don't feel like opening up that can of worms right now), the publisher decision to split them up was a pretty stupid one, since in my opinion the story would have been so much more cohesive as one big book, and it's not like 600 pages these days is considered too long for a fantasy novel.

[MsMiz (Tina) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bujold's story of Fawn, Dag, Farmers and Lakewalkers continue in Legacy. You learn very quickly how deep seated tradition closes off family and clan to that which is unknown and forbidden. Again, it is a story of how ignorance and close mindedness hurts not only those that you love, but those that could benefit from an open mind and understanding.

Luckily asking new questions and always sticking together keep Dag and Fawn together and safe through a lot that happens in this book. This book proves that listening to your own intuition will always out way listening to those that think they know best for you.

Bujold is a beautiful story teller.

[Cynnamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legacy is Band 2 aus der Sharing Knife-Reihe.
In Band 1 treffen ein Mann und eine Frau aus unterschiedlichen Ethnien aufeinander, erleben und überleben zusammen ein sehr gefahrvolle Situation und schließen letztlich im Heimatord der jungen Frau - gegen den Widerstand ihrer Familie und der gesamten Dorfgemeinschaft - die Ehe.

In Band 2 reisen sie zur Heimatsiedlung des wesentlich älteren Ehemannes, wo die aktive Ablehnung ihrer Verbindung noch sehr viel ausgeprägter ist und am Ende, getrieben von seiner Familie, dazu führt, dass das Paar ins Exil geht.

Das ganze läuft unter Fantasy, d.h. es gibt Zauberei und böse Monster.
Das Herz der Geschichte würde aber auch ohne ein einziges magisches Element ganz genauso funktionieren.

Bei der Ethnie der Frau handelt es sich um Bauern, dem Klischee entsprechend dickköpfig, engstirnig, ungebildet und vorurteilsbeladen.
Die Seenläufer (die ethnische Gruppe des Ehemannes) sind eher kriegerisch ausgerichtet und beherrschen in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen Magie. Vorurteile und Engstirnigkeit sind jedoch auch bei den Seenläufern mindestens gleichermaßen vorhanden.

Beide Gruppen werden von einem uralten Bösen bedroht, angegriffen und dezimiert. Bei der Bekämpfung des Bösen stehen sie sich jedoch gegenseitig im Weg, weil sie nicht miteinander kommunizieren und kooperieren (und das auch nicht wollen, weil sie sich lieber gegenseitig die Schuld zuweisen).

Aus meiner Sicht geht es daher bei dieser Reihe weniger um Magie und Fabelwesen, als um die sehr menschliche Neigung, sich in Gruppen abzugrenzen und sich lieber an künstlich geschaffenen Feindbildern abzuarbeiten, als tatsächlich an die Wurzel des Übels zu gehen. Man will auch keine Lösungen, sondern lieber eine Bestätigung des eigenen geschlossenen Weltbilds.

Bujold hat eine Art zu erzählen, die ich sehr schätze, da ich mich als Leserin den Figuren sehr nahe fühlen kann und für die Protagonisten großes Verständnis habe.
Es mag Leser geben, die sich von einem Fantasybuch deutlich mehr Magie und Action erwarten, aber ich bin mit dem Plot, so wie er ist, sehr zufrieden und fühlte mich außerordentlich gut unterhalten.

[Khari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book in the series is improving on the points I didn't like about the first book, the characters are starting to flesh out a bit and become more believable and not so caricature-like. The world is also starting to expand. Perhaps one of the reasons it is getting better is because Bujold is starting to bring more cultural conflict into the story now. This is one of the areas of her genius when she shows how different belief systems crash and merge between people but it was kind of lacking in the first book, perhaps because the first book was more of an introduction than anything else.

Ha. You have to love epic fantasy, the first 300 odd page book is just the introduction.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my lower ratings for one of Bujold's books but still a very good one. This one was more a continuation of the story in the the first book than its own stand alone story, so don't skip Beguilement.

[Hilari Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rereading this quartet for roughly the 4th time, but I love, love, love all the Fawn and Dag books. I think they're right up there with her Vorkosigan books in terms of character (which is high praise) and the plotting is less hit and miss than with some of the Vorkosigan books. If you like Bujold and haven't read these four books, you're in for a treat!

[Jarmila Kašparová · Rating 5 out of 5]

In comments I read that some people consider Fawn to be Mary Sue. I think this comes from a trope, or a couple of tropes. Basically, you can only have two types of romances: one, people meet and have a very complicated storyarc together, during which they fall for each other; two, people meet and fall for each other and then the storyarc is all the world trying to separate them. The second case, seemingly involving less character development, is rather underused in modern fantasy. Which is too bad, because I actually love the (more subtle) ways two people evolve After they are married. This love between Dag and Fawn seems such a definite thing, something that cannot be broken, that it seems still - and you would think that their story must be dull, all lovey-dovey, with no relationship crisis in sight, and this being the middle book of a trilogy I did not worry if they both survive.
Doesn't make Fawn a Mary Sue, just a woman in a healthy relationship.
But still, the story managed to surprise me.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Lois McMaster Bujold. Just love her books, the complexity and the particular knack she has for writing a third act that pushes beyond what most authors would have taken for an end point, to see the larger repercussions. The Vorkosigan books are very dear to my heart, and while I've only read The Curse of Chalion from her main fantasy series, I loved that too. So when I saw this at the library book sale last year, I had to snap it up, even though it was second in a series, and there was no sign of the first book on the SF/F table.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Carolyn F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

This series just gets better with each book. I really liked the first book in the series and this one was even better. I just hate when people do something for someone's own good knowing that they're driving them away. Ugh! That part of the story had me totally invested. The malice part seemed really brushed over on how he was killed, it was more a story of the aftermath. Great fantasy series.

[Paulina Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continued with this series largely because I still needed something to read while waiting for the next Vorkosigan book. I will say, I liked this second book better than the first. Less rushed romance and more getting to the heart of this world and its central conflict: not the monsters but the people and their misunderstandings and prejudices.

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one better than the first. It's a lot of slice of life fantasy, but it's good and the characters and story are engaging.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The continuing adventures of Lakewalker patroller Dag and his new farmer-girl bride Fawn. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed this less than Beguilement, the first part of the duology. This one starts out, as that book ended, with a lot of domestic/culture clash stuff, but the Lakewalkers giving Fawn the cold shoulder was much less interesting that the farmers getting all up in Dag's face. The book really picked up when a new malice pops up, and that entire sequence—Dag riding off through Fawn's eventual entrance into the fray, as it were—was fabulous and exciting. However, the way the story finally wrapped up was frustrating to me: the jerks in the camp mostly get away with being jerks, whatever's going on with Dag's "ghost hand" is never fully explained, and, most disappointing of all for me, the relationship between Fawn and Dag doesn't really progress or change at all beyond the point it was at when Beguilement ended. All the conflict is external; apparently there is no more internal conflict once you're happily married.

This book was still totally worth reading, but I felt, especially since Bujold is such a good writer who creates such interesting characters in such fascinating worlds, that the plot of this book could have gone somewhere more interesting. Maybe if Fawn and Dag had set out on their journey a little earlier. Or maybe that's a book she still intends to write? I'd definitely read it.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

More from Lois McMaster Bujold. This time the action is with the Lakewalkers, who treat Fawn like a child or animal of some sort. Bujold is developing the world/civilization/society a bit more, which is interesting. We don't know how things got the way they are on what is clearly earth, or a planet almost entirely populated with earth life, but it seems something new is about to happen. Dag's becoming a maker of some type, and the malices are springing up faster and more frequently. The human population is increasing, which is giving malices an advantage. Lakewalkers are dwindling. Dag's and Fawn's marriage, which joins farmer and lakewalker seems be the seed around which the new way of being will form. I'm speculating here. I ordered the next book in the series. I hope it comes soon, because I want to know what happens.

This series so far isn't as good as my favorite Bujold book, Cordelia's Honor. But it's been a fun read. The gem so far came from the first book, the idea of Fawn being loved without being valued, and Dag being valued without being loved, neither of which really works or is satisfying. What everyone needs is to be loved and valued both. I find that to be a profound insight that explains why love is sometimes not enough. I'm vowing now (how convenient, right at new years) to both love and value my loved ones more.

[Literary Lusts · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Legacy, Dag and Fawn go to Dag's Lakewalker home where they're not expecting much of a welcome once the Lakewalkers find out about their recent marriage. In the Lakewalkers eyes it's forbidden to marry outside their kind. Thankfully the head of Dag's patrol doesn't kick him out but his family is a different matter. A malice sighting interrupts their time together for a short while and even through Fawn plays a part in saving some patrollers, the Lakewalkers still treat their marriage as a negative. A lot of this book has Dag deciding for himself how much of the place is really his home and how much he's willing to put up with to stay here.

I wasn't quite as impressed with this book as I was with the first. It was a very slow book compared to Beguilement. But there were a few parts that moved quickly too. I think my problem with the book was more because of all the ill treatment the couple get from the Lakewalkers. I would have hightailed it out of there about halfway through the book. But in general the book still kept my attention and I still enjoyed it. From the ending it looks like the next book should be a bit more eventful so I'm looking forward to it.

[rivka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this two-book series. [Correction: First two books of 4, although these first two really must be read together.] This non-nuclear post-apocalyptic world is reminiscent in some ways of the early Sime-Gen universe. Life force as an energy that can be transferred, split of the human race into two distinct groups with different abilities and roles, and only vague remaining knowledge of the humans that preceded them. Not to mention strong cultural resistance from both groups at the idea of an intermarriage.

The details, of course, are very different. The underlying pseudo-vampirism of the Sime-Gen relationships is not normal here; accusations of similar transfers are serious in this world, although donations of "ground" are common. And all people, Lakewalkers and farmers alike, both produce and use this life force, unlike the bifurcation in the Sime-Gen world.

Sweet and fascinating by turns. Definitely recommended to all Bujold fans, and all spec fic readers who enjoy unique magic systems.

[Joe Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I read this? I have an aversion to starting a series and not finishing it. Also, I respect Bujold and I didn't believe that the entire series would be horrible. But book #2 isn't much of an improvement over book #1.

This book didn't suffer from the Horrible Borrowed Setting that the first book suffered from. (Yes, the characters carried over but the situations and events started to diverge.) On the other hand, it was mostly pretty boring.

Dag spent much of the book sitting around convalescing. He also spent a lot of time arguing with his family, who absolutely hated the idea of him marrying Fawn and preferred to pretend that it never happened and wasn't valid even if it had happened. There was a spot of action about 60% in but that just resulted in more injuries and more time spent convalescing. Then Dag chose to leave his home and culture and venture out into the great unknown, thereby ending the entire controversy.

So, boring. And not really recommended.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was split off from the first book for reasons of length rather than plot, but it manages well enough as its own story. I enjoyed seeing more of the lakewalker world (I'm a sucker for learning more about clever magic system design) and appreciated that the book doesn't particularly romanticize the life of a boat sorcerer over that of a farmhand. I still find Dag and Fawn adorable, and realistic in being entirely not predestined for one another. Merely lucky.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Dag and Fawn. They're both brave, compassionate, smart, stubborn, and so cute together! They're genuinely good for each other, despite all of the differences of their situations (age, culture, magic abilities). I've read very few romance couples with a bond as strong as theirs. I know I'm going to binge-read the next two volumes.

[Karen A. Wyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rounding up a bit.

The two protagonists, Dag and Fawn, remain sympathetic and interesting characters. The secondary characters introduced here vary in depth and complexity. Unlike Book 1, which in retrospect seems mainly to set the stage, this novel has a suspenseful plot. But the book's, and the series's, best element is the worldbuilding.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series continues to be an easy read, without being remarkable. If the age gap doesn't bother you, it's otherwise a nice romance with two protagonists who don't fall to miscommunication and always tackle their troubles with trust in each other, which is nice. Makes for a pretty plodding plot, but there's an interesting enough magic system in the background to keep it all together. I wish I cared more about the side characters, but like other things they're mostly just decent without being remarkable.

[Elar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there was a little bit less action in this book I liked it a lot more because background of Ground Powers and history of lake walkers are revealed. In addition to this we have innocent love story where young woman who tries to cope with a new hostile environment.

[Beth Swahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel was just as good, maybe even better than the first! The characters and relationships are deep and there is character growth throughout. The fantasy element is one of a kind and the love story is sweet and genuine.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in a series, this is so close a continuation of the first book that it just feels like more of the same book. I listed to it during long commutes and it made the drive shorter. It is a decent story but doesn't stand out as anything particularly special.

[Cindy Scudiero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread all 4 books in the series and enjoyed them even more the second time. I am not a dedicated fan of fantasy but Bujold is one of my favorite authors.