Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold
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?
Horizon is the fourth book in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife series, and picks up pretty much immediately where Passage left off, with protagonists Fawn and Dag and their small group of farmer and Lakewalker friends about to embark on the long (and long-awaited) trek back home. I really enjoyed the supporting characters that we got to know in Passage, so I was pleased to see that they all had significant roles to play in this book too, as well as some new faces.
In fact, I was very impressed with Bujold’s ability to handle this cast of characters. When Dag and Fawn’s party swelled to twenty-five people, most of them new and unfamiliar, I was skeptical that she’d be able to pull it off without it feeling crowded, jumbled, or confused, or without some members of the throng being neglected on-page. But my worries never came to fruition — the characters were all distinct individuals, and I never got confused between them or felt like they were there to serve a purpose and then cast aside to be forgotten.
This book (and, indeed, the whole series) is rife with cultural conflict and bitterness between her farmer and Lakewalker characters, but Bujold never resorts villainizing one side, or even one character. Farmers and Lakewalkers alike do foolish or cowardly or noble or terrible things, and many of their actions are born out of the best of intentions, or in service of their own laudable and understandable intentions. I was really impressed with how deftly she handled these interactions and subtleties.
The Sharing Knife series was my first introduction to Lois McMaster Bujold’s work. I’ve enjoyed every one of these books, and Horizon was no exception. The plot starts at a slow-but-enjoyable simmer, carried along by the reader’s vested interest in the characters and conflicts. But when the action comes, it does so swiftly and mercilessly, and left me frantic to know how it would all work out. I will definitely be looking for more of Bujold’s books, and keeping my fingers crossed that this is not, as it seems to be, the end of Fawn and Dag’s story.
