You’re probably getting my drift by now, but let me inflict a philosophical euphemism on you at this point : Most things in life are not that easily gotten. Ergo : I’m disappointed in the first book – Beguilement. Yes, it had new ideas of fantasy, but it read almost like a romance novel, and not the nice kinds (read : woman has spine) either. No, really !
The woman here is Dawn Blufield, all of 18 years. She’s run away from home, because she’s gotten pregnant by a local boy, who’s refusing responsibility, and being generally mean and nasty. Also, desis hold up your heads now, because izzat and honor, and blaming the woman are apparently world-wide concepts, known also to the farmers of this novel. Thus Dawn, mortified by her parent’s embarrassment if they found out has hit the road.
The hero is 55 year old Dag, who’s a Lakewalker Patroller. Lakewalkers are people who guard the common folk against malices and blight bogles, which are evil monsters that suck up your “ground” or life-force. Lakewalkers have an acute sense of others’ “ground”, i.e.; they can sense happiness, sadness and rough edges in the ebb and flow of your life-force. So, Dag can sense Dawn’s “ground” , and she shines so brightly in it, that he calls her “(Little) Spark”. (Oh, kill me now !)
OK, so now the story : Dawn meets Dag. Dag secretly smitten. Enter Malice. Dag to the rescue. And then the event that propels the story (or at least that’s what I thought) : Dawn uses the wrong Sharing Knife on the Malice, and it mistakenly gets “primed”. That is a problem, because it has been “primed” with her now dead baby’s ground (she aborts due to the malice’s man-handling of her) and the baby hadn’t even been born yet. Dag doesn’t know what implications this has, because Sharing Knives are “primed” with Lakewalker “ground” and done by the LakeWalkers themselves. So, he persuades Dawn to come with them to his LakeWalker Patrol so that someone more knowledgeable about Sharing Knives, a Maker for instance, can find out.
Well, I thought that the “finding out” would be done quickly and then the story would proceed in a sci-fi-ish manner. But, instead, the rest of the book is devoted to Dawn and Dag making the journey to her home, to clear up the air so to speak, and falling in love along the way.
Now, I have no problem with romance (in fact quite the contrary), but let’s not act like lovesick teenagers here. The book, at this point has become quite Mills-and-Boon-ish in character. Dag, is the older, wiser, and worldlier of the two, and he longs to cherish her and protect her, blah blah blah . . . And she, actually is a teenager, vastly under-esteemed by her family, and forever taunted by her various siblings. But, but, but . . . she’s earnest and intelligent and kind and compassionate . . . And this really is true-blue love, where they communicate via ESP. OK, then !
This isn’t quite what I expected. If I did want to read a love story about a much older, more powerful man, who wanted to protect and cherish this wispy little woman with a heart of gold and a large brood of (nasty/dependent) siblings, I would go read Betty Neels instead. Granted, from what I can recall, her heroes are almost always handsome Dutch Doctors , and Dag is of unknown country, he sounds fairly Scandinavian to me – close enough, no ?
The book, like the rest of us, is not all bad. The characters are well-drawn – I liked Dag’s character quite a bit; he has his head screwed on right, has no fixed notions of “women’s” work since he actually nurses Dawn through her miscarriage. This might be due to the fact that his LakeWalker culture as portrayed is matriarchial, sort-of; when a man and woman are bound together, the man comes to the woman’s family tent and not the other way around. Plus he seems fairly liberal, except in the parts where he goes around calling her “Little Spark” 🙂 .
Dawn is a likeable character too, I only wish she wasn’t so small and petite, and needing to be “protected”. How about a 6’ woman with self-esteem issues – now you could really introduce some interesting psycho-babble there!
As a romance novel, this one isn’t so bad, but coming from the likes of Bujold, as highly regarded in the sci-fi genre as she is, this is a massive disappointment. This is a sometimes cringe-worthy, and sometimes awkwardly lovey-dovey novel in the guise of a sci-fi tome.
When I ended the book, I was actually quite amazed that this was the work of a Hugo winner. But after reading a few reviews on the net, I am convinced that there are a lot more folks just as put off by this book as I am, and that Bujold is quite at the nadir of her form here. Hopefully, her other books will be better !
There's something in what you say, but, having read the books, Fawn is not exactly a pampered, wilting violet. She rescues Dag from death at least once, and comes up with many of the good ideas that drive the pair, or serve to protect them. Besides, she serves, willingly and intelligently, as a bridge between Dag and other farmers.
One thing I don't understand is the title. Fawn is definitely not beguiled.
Martin,
She's not a wilting violet, but she gives off the impression of simpering, and requiring protection. Dag likes her and all, but always thinks of her as requiring "cherishing" – "Little Spark" etc – his attitude smacks (to me) of condenscension, and patriarchy. While being cherished is (probably) a good thing, and she has, as you say, many redeeming qualities, why does she appear to be so needy ?
Title – I agree with you, not sure why it's called "Beguilement".