Saturday, April 16, 2022

The Deed of Paksenarrion

I received an Amazon gift card and spent it on a trilogy some of you may recognize, and all of you should read: The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

How I missed it in my heyday of reading, I don't know.  They are read, now, and I am better for it!

Cover art from the used versions I picked up.


Book One - Sheepfarmer's Daughter - saw me power through from 8pm to 4am; an excellent book that reminded me a bit of Cook's Black Company and a bit of several military science fiction pieces I had read in the past.  Mostly mundane, with hints of magic that gave way to larger amounts near the end.


Book Two - Divided Allegiance - I made time to sleep, and frankly, am still recovering from all-nighting the first book.  This one includes several sections that read like D&D adventures, which I particularly enjoy.  Truly, it was others' comparisons to these books and D&D that led me to reading them.  Anyhow, I was not expecting the cliffhangerish ending, so of course, I picked up book three almost immediately.


Book Three - Oath of Gold - this took several days because of real life.  Stupid responsibilities.  The first part of the book is Paksenarrion's truly becoming a Paladin in the D&D sense: creating light, healing wounds, detecting evil, resisting fear, and even a magical mount appearing.  By midway, I could see the ending, but not how it would end, so I read on, and it ended quite well.

Overall, I am glad I finally took the time to read this trilogy, and I reckon by next week, my sleep schedule will be more back to normal.

If you are looking to run a paladin in a DnDish game, give these books a read to see a way it could be done and treated.  furthermore, the books provide a fairly cohesive world and demonstrate one way how a world with numerous active deities might function.  

The standard fantasy races of Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Orcs are included, but made distinct through speech patterns and nonhuman cultures.

Go forth and read!


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