The Sharing Knife Series
by Lois McMaster Bujold

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted August 14, 2024
Edits and Addenda on October 5, November 12, and December 9

Beguilement / Legacy / Passage / Horizon / Knife Children

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A fantasy series from Bujold that is not connected to any of her other work. Four novels published one a year from 2006 to 2009, then a decade later a self-published novella. It is possible the publishers of the novels were not aware how many books there would be, since a blurb on the back of my paperback of Beguilement describes it as: "The first volume in an epic two-part fantasy…" There is an excerpt from the second book at the end (which I did not read), so I assume the paperback came out about the same time as the second appeared in hardcover. The first two were also issued in a book club omnibus, but as far as I can tell that did not happen with the others. It might mean that books three and four move on to different characters, but I won't know that till I get to them. As is my usual pattern, I have not sought out information, wanting to discover the story as Bujold intended, one step at a time.

I would describe Bujold as a very subtle writer, not prone to info-dumps, rather dropping in small bits of information sparingly, at her own pace. It might not be the pace the reader would prefer, but patience will be rewarded. I want to be sparing in what I reveal too. Some plot points need to be experienced as the story progresses, not ahead of time. So, I won't tell you what caused Fawn Bluefield to run away from home, other than to say she knew she made a mistake, and her family history convinced her she would get no sympathy from them, or anyone else in the community. She is on foot, traveling the road between her farm near West Blue, headed south toward the larger town of Glassforge. She stops at a well yard near Lumpton Market, to rest, obtain some food, and partake of the free water. A group of riders approach. The woman she had been speaking with implies she should hide, so Fawn goes to a nearby tree and climbs until she is sure she is hidden among the leaves. There are men and women in the group, and Fawn knows they are Lakewalkers, also called patrollers. One of the men comes over to lean against the tree and have a smoke, but Fawn is sure he is not aware of her. She is wrong, but how could she know of a Lakewalker's groundsense?

This world is comprised of the patrollers and the farmers, although the towns have other tradespeople. As I said above, details are sparing, but Dag, the patroller Fawn becomes entangled with, later tells her of his life, and some of the history of the land, at least as he had learned it. Previously, the world had been more advanced, with much larger cities, and technologies that were lost, which may have been created through sorcery. Then the blight came, but not much is known of it, mostly rumor. It may have been an alien entity, it may be demons from below. What farmers call blight bogles the patrollers know as malices. Their patrols are designed to hunt and kill malices. A patroller's groundsense might be something that evolved over time, in order to track a malice, since what a malice did was drain all life from the ground around it. All life; animal, vegetable, and mineral. Even rocks and soil lost their cohesion, dwindling to dust. If a land was cleared of malices, and kept clear, life could be restored. Dag could generally tell how long an area had been recuperating by observing plant and animal life. What connects Fawn and Dag is an encounter with a malice, but even before that, with a creature created by the malice, and of humans who were doing the malice's bidding.

Dag called Fawn "Little Spark," and later just Spark, due to how he first perceived her spirit, using his groundsense, while she hid in the tree near the well yard. Everything else he observed about her after that reinforced his positive opinion. She showed bravery in dealing with a malice, when even some patrollers might have frozen in fright. He sees her inquisitive mind, her insatiable need to understand, including the extra information she needed to understand if she was to make a life among the patrollers. That will not be easy, from either side of the equation. Both farmers and patrollers are human, but their cultures had developed separately, over a long period of time, to the point some might consider them different races, if not different species. Intermingling was not unknown, but it was generally discouraged. What patrollers could do some farmers considered magic, and there were other, less complimentary opinions of supposed patroller customs. I won't say I understand everything yet, but I am anxious to continue the journey. The details of groundsense, and most definitely the particulars of sharing knives, is still a bit vague. I won't even begin to unravel that yet, but there is sure to be more illuminating information in the second book.

Even when Bujold withholds information about things, whether that be the sharing knives, or other customs among Lakewalkers, she makes up for it in character development. Dag is one of the most sympathetic male characters I've read in a long time; brave, honest, loyal, respectful, while he could also be ruthless when the situation warranted. Maybe even more so than Aral or Miles Vorkosigan, or Penric kin Jurald. He is much older than Fawn, even older than he first thought, since she told him she was twenty, when she was only eighteen. So three times as old, even though he didn't look it. Unless killed by a malice, or dying in an accident in pursuit of malices, or felled by disease, Lakewalkers had a longer lifespan than farmers. But the differences in their ages, and the differences between their cultures, do not seem to be a barrier for them. This book ends with them married, and heading north to his home camp at Hickory Lake. He knows he will encounter just as much animosity toward the union from his people as Fawn had to endure from hers. I think they will overcome all the obstacles, but that does not mean the journey will always be pleasant.

Something else I want to say about Bujold's subtlety. She never shies away from the sexuality of her characters, of their thoughts and desires, but never in a graphic manner. Fawn was a naive and inexperienced girl. Not a virgin, but just barely. There is a scene about halfway in, the first time Fawn and Dag are intimate. It is not salacious or prurient, yet it is described in a way you know exactly what is happening. I have read several erotic stories over the years, but I don't think I have read anything as sexy as Fawn and Dag exploring each other's bodies. Their desire is palpable, and while at that point it was mostly hormones in action, by the end of the book we can sense their deep love, devotion, and respect for each other. Their relationship somewhat parallels that of Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan, two people from different worlds forced to cooperate to survive, and in so doing learning the depths of the other's soul. Dag's life doesn't parallel that of Miles Vorkosigan, except for the disabilities he has to endure and overcome. Those handicaps may have been what kept him from pursuing any other relationship after he became a widower some twenty years before. He lost his left forearm during a battle with a malice, the same fight that took the life of his first wife. Later, his right arm is broken during a fight with a thief. It might be hard to understand how Fawn broke down those barriers, even though it is easier to see the relationship from her perspective. Next month I will read Legacy, following Fawn and Dag on their journey to Hickory Lake. I am very much looking forward to it..

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Posted October 5, 2024
Legacy picks up almost immediately after the conclusion of Beguilement. I read somewhere that Bujold considers the series to be one novel. The story grew so long that she and the publisher decided to divide the first section into two parts, but she continued writing, the result again divided into two books. The way each ends and the next begins, at least for the two I've read so far, and the beginning of the third, it is clear the intent was for them to be one continuous narrative. Perhaps all were completed in draft form before the first was published, in a similar manner as Gene Wolfe did with Book of the New Sun, but that is just my speculation. As is Bujold's usual pattern, this is written in third-person, but the characters and their actions are described in such a way that each is distinctive, with internal dialogue informing us of their differences. The landscapes they travel through are equally easy to visualize.

It had been just two hours after their wedding that the couple stops to camp on their journey north. Dag tries to prepare Fawn for how their union will be received at Hickory Lake, which is just one encampment of his patroller group. They winter at another called Bearsford, plus there are patrollers in other regions. Farmers had heard tall tales about patrollers, and made up others, partly connected to the sharing knife traditions. I'm still not too clear on some aspects, but I do know the knives were fashioned from bones. Human bones. Their unusual properties came from being primed from the groundsense of the person from which the bone was taken, and reinforced by a 'maker,' a skilled artisan who fashioned the bone into a knife, and infused it with even more groundsense. I'm probably wrong, but the way I interpreted 'ground' is as the essence of a person, their spirit, as well as their blood, since the marrow of a bone is where the blood is produced. Think of it like the 'force' in Star Wars. Again, probably wrong, but that is my perception now. Farmers who did not know the full story, especially how a dying patroller gladly donated their bone to make a knife for someone else, thought patrollers were gruesome corpse eaters. Something else I won't mention reinforced that perception, even though it was wrong too.

This is a post-apocalyptic tale, which may or may not be set on a far future Earth. Lakewalkers got their name due to living on the shores of large lakes, which may be the Great Lakes in our world. I don't know if it was intentional, but Lakewalker culture is depicted similar to that of Native Americans, or other indigenous people. Family names are typically related to animals. Dag's family name is Redwing, so he is Dag Redwing Hickory, the latter identifying his patroller group. Their Hickory Lake camp did have a few permanent structures, such as patroller headquarters, and Stores, but every family lived in groups of tents, even if they called them cabins. The actions of patrollers on the hunt, and in fights against a malice, could be compared to those of Tolkien's Rangers. Dag suspects something his ancestors did led to the creation of malices, and to the downfall of their previous heights of civilization. In the past, his people would have been the lords, the farmers the peasants. Patrollers rebelled against the idea of being lords again, which led to the segregation of patrollers and farmers. Yet Dag also thinks that should be reversed, that both groups owed it to the future to cooperate. It was a farmer 'maker' who fashioned his prosthetic arm, and he had seen many other marvelous creations at Glassforge and other towns in the south. The main problem of getting other patrollers to agree to that is how farmers kept coming further north, clearing more land, which may have something to do with the more powerful malices they had seen recently.

"Absent gods!" is a frequently used exclamation, with others from the word 'blight.' "Blighted" or "blight it!" The former is a curse against ancient gods (if they ever existed), who seemingly abandoned the world to chaos. Blight is what happens to the land, people, plants, and animals when a malice appears, if it is not killed quickly. We see the results in this book, even though the malice is eventually killed, but it could have been quicker if farmers had more information, how to recognize early warning signs, whereas most farmers had thought such things mere fairy tales. Dag wants to correct that misperception, but he may not get the chance, since he is brought before a patroller council to answer for his defiance of customs in marrying a farmer girl. He knew there would be opposition to his marriage, and as he suspected, the charges brought against him came from his mother and brother. Dag loves Fawn. She is completely devoted to him, wishing to be accepted into his family. Neither will back down. Dag may get his wish of trying to teach farmers, and also learn from them, but instead of being banished from the group, he voluntarily walks away. Or rides, since he and Fawn are granted their horses and other personal property. He had walked the lakes before, gaining as much patroller knowledge as any man, but now he wants to walk the world, to see how much more he can learn.

One other thing about names. Dag may have walked away from his family and culture, but he abides by one tradition. A man took the name of his wife, so he is now Dag Bluefield. I'm not sure if Fawn thought that was such a good thing, due to the conflicts she had had with her parents and brothers. But as I said, she is devoted to Dag, and will accept what he thinks is proper. Fawn was naive in the beginning, ignorant of the world beyond her farm and the small village of West Blue. But she was intelligent and inquisitive. Her killing of the malice in the first book, saving Dag's life, was just the beginning of her maturation. When she later fell in love with him, she was determined to undersand Lakewalkers, to prove to them, Dag, and most of all to herself, that she was worthy of his love and devotion. Only a very few accepted her, mainly because of their respect for Dag. Not fully understanding 'groundsense' or sharing knives, her inate intuition still enabled her to save his life once again. If that wasn't enough to gain the council's trust, then blight those bastards. She knew her worth, and so did Dag, and that is enough for her. Their continued journey will probably face more obstacles and hardships, but I am sure of their worth too, and will gladly follow them on that trail. Volume Three is Passage, which I will get to soon..

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Posted November 12, 2024
I am coming close to the end of Bujold's books, other than what she may write in the future. One more novel, and a story collection will wind up the Sharing Knife series, which is just as good as anything else she has done. Strong characters, intriguing plots, great world-building. It is possible she could have told the story in shorter fashion, but I love how she did not rush through it, giving us enough time to see character growth, along with the slow reveal of the many elements making up this world. Passage is an appropriate subtitle, as it would have been for either of the others, since each has been a passage from one place to another, and a passage of growth and enlightenment for the characters. This one could just as easily have used the first book's subtitle, Beguilement, although the context would have been different. In the first book I think it referred to how Dag was beguiled by Fawn, from the bright Spark (his nickname for her) that he sensed on their first encounter, even though she was not aware he had noticed her then. The beguilement continued the more he learned of her intelligence, inquisitiveness, and courage. That worked the other way round too, as she was witness to his strengths, and his compassion. The word beguilement is used many times here, but in the context of how a Lakewalker patroller could beguile someone else, particularly a farmer, if they used any of their groundsense abilities on them. Not all Lakewalkers have the same strength of groundsense, but the highest abilities were usually among "makers." Those who shaped the bone knives and primed them were knife makers. Others could embue strength to the materials they used to make bows and arrows, or fashion leather armor to repel arrows or spear points. The strongest makers were those of medicine, not just knowledge of herbs and salves, but also using ground projection to heal internal injuries.

Nearly all seasoned patrollers could manage minor healing through groundsense in the field, but anything serious would have to wait for the camp's medicine maker. In the case of Hickory Lake Camp, that was Hoharie, along with her assistants and apprentices. She noticed Dag had very strong groundsense projection, and tried to convince him to apprentice with her. He was, after all, getting pretty old for regular patrols. That might have happened if not for the camp council called to try him for marrying a farmer girl, as well as Hoharie objecting to him using Fawn as an assistant. Even before this situation, Dag had decided if anyone objected to him and Fawn as a couple, he had no use for them either, no matter how much he also revered Lakewalker traditions. Instead of waiting to be banished, he chose to leave of his own accord. He wanted to explore his new-found abilities on his own, with Fawn as assistant, and he also wanted to become more familiar with farmer customs, as well as informing farmers of Lakewalker customs, something even more alarming to other Lakewalkers. Their secrets, especially about groundsense, and sharing knives, were supposed to remain secrets to outsiders. Dag figured cooperation was the only way to heal the rift between the two groups, and it might be the only way to survive the Malice Wars. In the second book, if farmers knew more about malices they might have noticed the warning signs in time to avoid the malice, and time to call in patrollers. After Dag and Fawn left Hickory Lake they went back to West Blue and her family, since Dag needed a calm place to recover from the injuries incurred during his last malice encounter. They didn't stay long, but did help out with farm chores while there, then they set off to Glassforge again, then further south to hire a boat to travel down the Grace River. In the review above I mentioned Lakewalkers got that name because they lived on the shores of large lakes, even if some were dead lakes now. This book includes an even more expansive map than before, so if Dead Lake might be our world's Superior, or Michigan, then Grace River looks very much like the Ohio, and the Gray could be the Mississippi, with Graymouth a stand-in for New Orleans.

They manage to sign aboard as crew members on the flatboat Fetch, Dag as an oarsman, Fawn as cook and scullery maid. The boat's boss was Berry Clearcreek, who had built the boat herself from the same design as her father's Briar Rose. Her father, an uncle, and her betrothed, along with other crew, had gone downriver nearly a year before and had not returned, and Berry had received no word on what had happened to them. Even if the boat went down in a storm and all were dead, she would not rest until she knew for sure. Other crew included her younger brother Hawthorn, along with a few picked up by chance, or fate, take your pick. Hod was a farmer boy whom Dag had healed of a damaged knee, Dag's horse being the culprit, so Dag felt responsible. Hod became beguiled of Dag, having been positively affected by the groundsense projection used to repair his knee. So beguiled he felt the need to reinjure his knee to get another treatment. That led to Dad figuring out how to negate, or reflect the beguilement back onto himself. Word quickly spread of Dag's healing power, which was both good and bad news. It enabled him to educate farmers, and now boat people, how groundsense worked, and that he wanted others to know what had previously been Lakewalker secrets. Two young patrollers, Remo and Barr, are also brought aboard the Fetch, since they ran afoul of both farmers and their camp captain, so they are running away. At first they are appalled that Dag is revealing patroller secrets, but eventually they agree he has the right idea. Parts of their travels are idyllic; fishing, picnicking on islands or river shore, along with visits to towns and patroller camps along the way. There were dangers too, and not just from storms, sandbars, and the like. I won't reveal their most perilous adventure, but it was one that highlighted the fact that beguilement could be turned to nefarious purposes as well, and that some Lakewalkers were prone to going rogue. Dag had impressed enough boat people that they allowed him to lead the action against that rogue.

Fawn was the first character we met in this story, but Dag appears the more important most of the time. Except…even though Fawn is still learning about the world, her place in it, and about Lakewalkers, there are times her inate intelligence has shown her the way to giving Dag advice, and he continually marvels at her perceptiveness. Dag may be able to build the bridge between Lakewalkers and farmers, and if so, Fawn will be co-architect of its design. The book ends at Graymouth, on the shores of the Southern Sea. Dag had wanted the trip to be more wedding gift for Fawn, but she assured him even the dangerous parts were informative, especially her learning more about the process of priming and imprinting sharing knives, something she may have to do in the future at the end of Dag's life. She would not begrudge any experience they have together, knowing it would only strengthen their bond. Someone I haven't mentioned before is Fawn's brother Whit. Even though older, he is not as mature as his sister. He accompanies them downriver, and matures quite a bit along the way, maybe enough that Fawn won't feel the need to call him Half-Whit anymore. I have not looked ahead to what the fourth book will be about, but it seems they will probably go back upriver, maybe West Blue again, if not to Hickory Lake. Might they head to the far north, Luthlia, the place where Dag lost his forearm, and his first wife? Wherever they go I will follow, and I suggest you take the journey with them too. I give Passage another very strong recommendation..

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Posted December 9, 2024
For ten years this was considered the conclusion to the Sharing Knife series, until a later story was self-published. I haven't read that one yet, but may get to it before year's end. At this time I can say the entire series is recommended, even if some of my comments on the fourth book might contradict previous statements. One thing I had mentioned was the slow pace, but that was not a problem since it gave Bujold plenty of time for world-building and character development. It wasn't until the end of the second book that Dag realized he had previously unsuspected talents of ground projection, even ground-ripping, and possibly medicine making. Later, he turned his talent to sharing knife making, although it wasn't until Horizon he learned he had been successful in that endeavor too. At the end of Passage he decided he needed more instruction, and not wanting to return to Hickory Lake Camp to apprentice under Hoharie, he sought out someone else. Everyone he talked to around Graymouth mentioned Arkady from New Moon Cutoff Camp, a few miles north of Graymouth. Arkady was both impressed with Dag's abilities, but also critical of his "dirty ground," which came about because of his attempts at ground projection and ground ripping while not realizing the pitfalls. Arkady was able to convince other camp officials to allow Fawn in, although her activity was restricted to Arkady's home until she proved adept at concocting physical medical potions herself. Fawn, being a farmer girl and not a Lakewalker, had no groundsense, but she was intuitive, and was able to give Dag and others useful advice from time to time. She was eventually allowed into the medicine tent, and to help at a market where the Lakewalkers traded with farmers.

No matter how talented Dag was, all the other Lakewalkers, including Arkady, objected to his use of those talents to heal farmers. Dag had figured out a solution to "beguilement," but others were not inclined to try to help farmers because it had always had bad results before. That included an experience Arkady had, which ended with his wife leaving him. Everyone knew there were both mixed marriages, and mixed couplings, between Lakewalkers and farmers, but for the most part both groups discriminated against the offspring. Fawn and Dag had talked about children, and both were eager for that to happen, fully aware of the problems that might ensue. Fawn's brother Whit had married Berry Clearcreek, the boat boss of the Fetch. Many flatboat people journeyed from upriver to Graymouth, then either signed on to a keel boat for the return trip, or went overland on the Tripoint Trace. I have mentioned a couple of times that the maps of the area reminded me of the United States. Even if this is an alternate world rather than a post-apocalyptic Earth, it seems to have similar geography. While Tripoint Trace doesn't exactly match our Natchez Trace, it comes close. The Natchez trail didn't go as far north, but Tripoint Trace goes at least to Tripoint, a city situated at the confluence of three rivers, so maybe a stand-in for our Pittsburgh. Whit and Berry choose the keel boat route, but problems arise for Dag and Fawn that compell them to leave New Moon Cutoff via Tripoint Trace. Along with Barr and a couple of other Lakewalkers, including Arkady(!), they join with a farmer group also traveling north. That group included a sister and brother raised by their farmer mother, their Lakewalker father having left them long ago. Shortly before their departure, Dag's groundsense enabled him to realize something Fawn was not yet aware of. She is pregnant.

The trip up the Trace was slow, and mostly uneventful, which had me worrying for a while. How was she going to resolve the story, if the end result was for Dag to win over more Lakewalkers and farmers to his techniques, if the "final" book was this slow? The pace did not pick up until about 3/4 of the way, when another malice was encountered. Two actually, the second one being quite different, and perhaps more powerful, than any Dag had experienced before. This section proves Bujold is just as good at action sequences when she puts her mind to it. One other thing Dag had experimented with was a way to shield Fawn from the ground-ripping power of a malice, which a Lakewalker could accomplish by veiling their own ground. It wasn't until the malice encounter that he learns his attempt was successful, but he was still uncertain how long that protection would last. He had devised the same type of protection for Whit and Berry, whom they had met up with at a river crossing, and he wanted to produce them for more farmers, but he first needed them to be tested. He didn't even know about the success until later because he was separated from the group, and injured, but eventually reunited with the survivors. I won't detail the how and why, but for a time it seemed the farmers were more receptive to Lakewalkers, but after Dag's return to the group several of them feared the old wives' tales about Lakewalkers being corpse eaters. Preposterous of course, but myths have a way of lingering even when new information is learned.

The final chapter of the book, an epilogue, skips ahead a year or so. Dag and Fawn had settled in the Clearcreek community, Arkady joining them, even though he had also traveled north to Hickory Lake Camp with his new love, Dag's niece Sumac, encountered along the Trace on her journey back to the north. Fawn and Dag's child is a girl, Nattie-Mari, who it seems may have a bit of groundsense even as an infant, whereas even full-blood Lakewalkers usually didn't realize that power until puberty. Sumac is also pregnant at story's end. Unlike what I've said other times, I have looked ahead to the novella "Knife Children," only to find it is not about Nattie-Mari or Sumac and Arkady's child. Instead it is about another mentioned in this book, but I won't reveal anything about that until I read it. Bujold continues to be one of my favorite authors, and since "Knife Children" will be the last of her work for me to read, I sincerely hope she is now busy writing something else.

 

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