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490 pages, Paperback
First published August 14, 2001
* Back to that “I need words that mean..." quote.
I just want to mention that it is not highlighted in my Kindle edition of this book. It's funny the sort of crap that people do highlight on Kindle books. For non-Kindle users, I should explain that the highlight is a feature where users highlight their favorite sentences or passages of books and these are upload into the "cloud" at Amazon after the same passages have been highlighted by a few users the highlight appear on the e-book edition as "popular highlight". So far I find this to be a useless feature which I should turn off but don't because my curiosity always gets the best of me.
“Well, what is a blessing but a curse from another point of view?”I’ve been reading fantasy for a long time, however The Curse of Chalion revealed a new variation of the genre for me, which I loved. Here we don’t get to know a fantastical world, action-packed adventure with strange and out of our experience characters. It reminded me of a medieval world with power struggles not unheard of, but at the same time ultimately unique. It’s profound in that it doesn’t pretend to be more than it is, and in doing so it achieves much more than we could expect.
“Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I'd always thought kindness a trivial virtue therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at his ease before his own hearth.'As an unexpected challenge changes his life, he is thrown into the center of the power at court where he has to confront his old enemies. His talents and wisdom will assist but not avoid adversities.
'Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not whether, then how they may endure.' (Bergon and Cazaril talking over the past)
“I have had another thought on such fates that denies neither gods nor man. Perhaps, instead of controlling every step, the gods have started a hundred or a thousand Cazarils and Umegats down this road, and only those arrive who choose to.”The Curse of Chalion is not an action moved plot, but driven by people and their relationships. There is no sex, just a touch of romance. But don’t fear, it is never boring as the story moves gradually fitting together perfectly through Bujold's masterful writing.
Any man can be kind when he is comfortable. I’d always thought kindness a trivial virtue, therefore. But when we were hungry, thirsty, sick, frightened, with our deaths shouting at us, in the heart of horror, you were still as unfailingly courteous as a gentleman at ease before his own hearth.