74. Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold (Fantasy) 377 p.
Legacy picks up right where its prequel, Beguilement, leaves off. Dag and Faun soon arrive at his home, the Hickory Lake Camp, and face opposition to their marriage from almost all the Lakewalkers. When Dag is injured on Patrol, Faun may be the only person who can save him.
I actually finished this a few days ago, but I was too disappointed to review it sooner. I didn’t enjoy Beguilement, either, but at least when I finished that one I had the hope that the story would become interesting in the second half. Instead, the story became even more uninteresting. I wouldn’t have thought it possible that an author as fabulous as Lois McMaster Bujold could write a more boring book than Beguilement, but Legacy is her dullest work to date. I actually debated not finishing it, which shows how little I cared about the characters or the resolution of the plot. I still think the story should have been published as one volume. The division is senseless, and perhaps if the two halves had been left as one, some of the more stultifying material would have been cut.
You know what I’ve realized I hate, after reading this book? Characters who are misunderstood, misjudged, or maligned by all/most of the rest. Miles Vorkosigan, Bujold’s greatest creation, has some serious handicaps, both physically and in getting people (particularly his fellow Barrayarans) to take him seriously, but even he is only misjudged by a small number of other characters. And those characters are generally presented as being ignorant or bigoted. In The Sharing Knife, so many people misjudge Dag, Fawn, and their relationship that Dag and Fawn just seem like Mary-Sues.
I complained about the climax of Beguilement coming less than one-fifth of the way into the book. Legacy doesn’t do this, but it may as well have, for all the excitement it gave me. Books like The Vor Game, Komarr, and The Curse of Chalion have showcased Bujold’s talent for creating vivid plot climaxes that thrum with urgency, a talent that seems to have been MIA during the writing of The Sharing Knife.
I have a few specific, spoilery-type problems with the plot, but I’m just not in the mood to write about them today. Maybe some other time.
Books read: 74/100 (74%)
Pages read: 22,257 (89%)
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Lois McMaster Bujold, Wide Green World
