Paladin of Souls

Lois McMaster Bujold (author)

HarperCollins, USA: 2003; 482pp

ISBN: 9780380818617

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: identity, relationships, religion

Winner: Hugo & Nebula Awards – best novel

Following the events of The Curse of Chalion, there seem to be an unusual number of demons loose in the land and rumours that someone is controlling them.

Dowager Royina Ista, once thought mad and still treated as so by many, has been freed from the curse that shadowed the House of Chalion. Her daughter Iselle, now Royina, is happily married and working hard to forge alliances with Chalion's neighbours. Her own mother is dead and Ista has no further responsibilities. What is her role now?

Determined to break free from the cage of convention and over care that has irritated her for years, Ista journeys across the land she once helped rule. What begins as a pilgrimage soon becomes much more as her party encounter first a demon-ridden bear and then a raiding party from hostile Jokona. Worse yet, Ista finds herself once more the focus of a God's attention. Ista has lost faith in the Gods and wants nothing more to do with them. Especially not this one, the most mischievous and unreliable of them all. Willing or not, Ista finds herself drawn into a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered soul of a heroic man – and many others besides.

In this sequel to The Curse of Chalion, Bujold takes the reader further into the story behind the curse as well as beyond it. Rich in detail and peopled with a cast of subtle, complex characters and relationships, Bujold has once again created an absorbing, moving, page-turning narrative.

Same world: The Hallowed Hunt