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Horizon: The Sharing Knife, Volume Four (Sharing Knife #04)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Horizon: The Sharing Knife, Volume Four (Sharing Knife #04) Cover

ISBN13: 9780061375361
ISBN10: 0061375365
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In a world where malices — remnants of ancient magic — can erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets — and themselves — from the farmers they protect, so when patroller Dag Redwing Hickory rescued farmer girl Fawn Bluefield, neither expected to fall in love, join their lives in marriage, or defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the perilous split between their peoples.

As Dag's maker abilities have grown, so has his concern about who — or what — he is becoming. At the end of a great river journey, Dag is offered an apprenticeship to a master groundsetter in a southern Lakewalker camp. But as his understanding of his powers deepens, so does his frustration with the camp's rigid mores with respect to farmers. At last, he and Fawn decide to travel a very different road — and find that along it, their disparate but hopeful company increases.

Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold every malice at bay forever. Yet for all the customs that the couple has challenged thus far, they will soon be confronted by a crisis exceeding their worst imaginings, one that threatens their Lakewalker and farmer followers alike. Now the pair must answer in earnest the question they've grappled with since they killed their first malice together: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world's deadliest foe?

Review:

"Bujold's Sharing Knife series concludes on a cheerful note that will please fans of fantasy romance. The Lakewalkers have been humanity's only defense against the Malices, vicious creatures who turn their victims into murderous zombie-like 'mudmen.' Dag, a former patroller exiled for insisting that the deliberately aloof Lakewalkers reach out to farmers, has finally found a Lakewalker 'medicine maker' willing to teach him healing magic. When Dag disobeys the rules to help a seriously ill farm boy, he's kicked out again, and he and his pregnant farmer-born bride, Fawn, head north to a friend's home, braving mountains swarming with mudmen. The frontierlike setting and its postapocalyptic elements are the stars here. Although the first half of the book is slow going, Bujold piles on the action later, making her characters earn their happy ending." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Horizon is the highly anticipated conclusion to the sweeping New York Times-bestselling Sharing Knife series, hailed as a "saga of daring deeds and unlikely romance...with unique monsters and an original approach to magic" (Library Journal).

About the Author

One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold burst onto the scene in 1986 with Shards of Honor, the first of her tremendously popular Vorkosigan Saga novels. She has received numerous accolades and prizes, including two Nebula Awards for best novel (Falling Free and Paladin of Souls), four Hugo Awards for Best Novel (Paladin of Souls, The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance), as well as the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novella "The Mountains of Mourning." Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. The mother of two, Bujold lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

Jvstin, November 8, 2008 (view all comments by Jvstin)
(Note: I received an ARC in exchange for a review)

The Sharing Knife series comes to a stopping point, if not a conclusion, in this fourth volume in the story of Dag, a Lakewalker whose powers are maturing as he is growing older, and his young Farmer bride Fawn. The first two novels introduced us to the two of them, their romance, and the very different lives that comprise the two halves of their world. The third novel brought us on a grand river adventure south in the company of a motley set of companions ranging from Fawn's brother to a pair of runaway Lakewalker patrollers.

This fourth and final volume has the group start in the south, not long and not far where we left them by the sea, and takes us back to the north. Bujold shows a strong hand for story as Fawn and Dag meet the very different Lakewalkers in the south in New Moon, and then the characters that accompany them on the long road back north and east.

Such a long overland adventure is bound to be full of adventure, and, reaching back to the second novel, Bujold places yet another menace, a unique and dangerous malice and its horrifying minions in the way of the party. The action and adventure are a little more front and center in this novel as opposed to the third. The romance angle of the first two novels is less in evidence here. There is some, but less humor than the previous novels.

Bujold's strength,though, always has been strong characters, from the "top of the ticket" in Dag and Fawn, down to the minor characters, and even minor characters whom we meet only once. It's the characterizations and the interactions between the characters that Bujold homes in on. I remember listening to an interview of Bujold for the old SF Encyclopedia, where she talks about her desire to explore the psychology of characters (internal and external). Since then, I've looked for that in her novels and seen what she means by that. Sharing Knife: Horizon is an exemplar of her writing philosophy at work.

The end of the book neatly wraps up the story of Dag and Fawn in the Sharing Knife world, and it seems to me that Bujold is looking to the future where she is going to write novels with different characters, or a different world entirely. Sharing Knife: Horizon is an excellent capstone to the series. Once again, while it would be plausible for a new reader to pick up this volume and be quickly immersed in the world, I think the volume works best having read the previous books in the series.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061375361
Subtitle:
Horizon
Author:
Bujold, Lois McMaster
Author:
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Author:
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Publisher:
Harper Voyager
Subject:
Fantasy - General
Subject:
Fantasy - Epic
Subject:
Fantasy fiction
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Hardcover
Series:
Sharing Knife
Series Volume:
04
Publication Date:
20090127
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
464
Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1.41 in 22.08 oz

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Horizon: The Sharing Knife, Volume Four (Sharing Knife #04) Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$6.50 In Stock
Product details 464 pages Eos - English 9780061375361 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Bujold's Sharing Knife series concludes on a cheerful note that will please fans of fantasy romance. The Lakewalkers have been humanity's only defense against the Malices, vicious creatures who turn their victims into murderous zombie-like 'mudmen.' Dag, a former patroller exiled for insisting that the deliberately aloof Lakewalkers reach out to farmers, has finally found a Lakewalker 'medicine maker' willing to teach him healing magic. When Dag disobeys the rules to help a seriously ill farm boy, he's kicked out again, and he and his pregnant farmer-born bride, Fawn, head north to a friend's home, braving mountains swarming with mudmen. The frontierlike setting and its postapocalyptic elements are the stars here. Although the first half of the book is slow going, Bujold piles on the action later, making her characters earn their happy ending." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis" by , Horizon is the highly anticipated conclusion to the sweeping New York Times-bestselling Sharing Knife series, hailed as a "saga of daring deeds and unlikely romance...with unique monsters and an original approach to magic" (Library Journal).
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