Books: The Sharing Knife series

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement
The Sharing Knife: Legacy
The Sharing Knife: Passage
The Sharing Knife: Horizon
By Lois McMaster Bujold
Last book copyright 2009
453 pages

The Sharing Knife series is a set of fantasy stories that I enjoyed very much. The four books make a whole but I hope that the author will revisit this particular world.

I wrote about the first book here. I read it in January and have since completed the other three books.

Dag is a Lakewalker. These folks have a special ability to sense the ground, or maybe the aura, if you're looking for something to compare it to, of other people. This gives them innate abilities and only a Lakewalker sharing knife can kill a bad beastie called a malice.

Dag meets Fawn, a farmer girl. The farmers and the Lakewalkers generally don't care for one other and don't get along. But Dag falls for Fawn and vice verse.

During the four books, they marry and have great adventures. The characters grow and learn and the world grows and learns along with them, which I liked very much. The author skillfully draws this fantasy world, based very much on a primitive era of this world.

The last book brings us an epilogue that assures peace for the main characters, which is always welcome. While I think the author is through with these folks, there is plenty of room for other stories if she wants to return to this place and time.

I recommend these for all readers, but a few mature themes - pregnancy outside of marriage, a lost pregnancy, etc. - may warrant review by a parent for younger readers.

This is some of the best fantasy I have read in a while.

4.5 stars