The Sharing Knife Volume One: Beguilement

50/50: The Sharing Knife Volume One: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold: Despite feeling like the book wasn't finished (which it wasn't- more on that later), I loved this! I like that Bujold tried something new with the romance being more of a focus in this book (and the age difference didn't bother me at all, but then it really never has in books by Asaro, Bishop, McCaffrey, etc. either). I haven't laughed this much reading a book since probably A Civil Campaign, also by Bujold. The characters were just plain special, but then this is the same author who created Miles Vorkosigan, so I shouldn't have expected anything less. Bujold has a special gift of writing disabled characters in such a realistic way. Both Dag and Fawn's Aunt Nattie were great and their disabilities just gave them more character, rather than making them pathetic or something. I can't wait for the second half of the book, which comes out next summer. Unlike most Bujold fans, I'm not bitching about the fact that this novel got split into two parts. She had a feeling even while writing it that this would happen and I think I might have been daunted by a book that was close to 800 pages long, but two 350 or so page chunks is much easier for me to deal with.

I really loved the world and the magic in this book. When Bujold started writing the Chalion series, I didn't know if I would like her fantasy because I'm such a picky fantasy reader, but I've loved her fantasy books, especially this and Paladin of Souls. I've seen some complaints about the sex in this book (it's even been called soft core porn- AS IF!), but I thought it added to the character development and enhanced the romantic aspect of the book. Other romantic fantasy authors could learn a lesson from Bujold.