The Sharing Knife, Book 3: Passage - Epic Fantasy Romance Novel | Adventure, Magic & Love Story | Perfect for Fantasy Readers & Book Clubs

Lois McMaster Bujold has created a rich world that continues to unfold in the third book of The Sharing Knife: "Passage." Loosely laid upon the landscapes and folk rhythms of what would in this world be the lands north of the Ohio River, Bujold has crafted a wide green world still recovering from a centuries old disaster, one the Gods have fled. Lakewalkers guard the land, using their inborn abilities to sense and manipulate "ground" - energy that fills the world, especially in living things.They fight an ages-long war against recurring outbreaks of the disaster that appear at random, dangerously powerful monsters called "Malices." By its nature a Malice is an extremely powerful manipulator of ground. Each one that emerges threatens to consume all the ground of the world like an intelligent but hopelessly mad cancer. Only Lakewalkers can resist the mind controlling powers of a Malice, and only they can provide the means to kill a Malice.Lakewalkers share the land with Farmers, people without the ground sensing abilities of Lakewalkers. Encouraged to settle in exchange for the support they can provide in terms of food and other tools needed by the stretched thin Lakewalkers, Farmers in turn are protected by them from outbreaks of Malices, which they call Blight Bogles. The two groups have an uneasy coexistence.Farmers fear the strange powers of the Lakewalkers; rumors of black sorcery and worse abound. Farmers resent the aloof Lakewalkers barring them from land they deem unsafe to settle; many farmers think Blight Bogles are just a myth to keep them out of Lakewalker hunting lands. Lakewalkers in turn stay apart to protect their bloodlines, and to avoid the temptation of becoming overlords. They dismiss farmers for their lack of groundsense, and their inability to resist being turned into mind-slaves by a Malice. They also fear farmers in their greater numbers; Lakewalkers have repeatedly come to grief at the hands of farmers driven by fears and prejudices. The customs and mores of each group baffles the other.It has been not quite six months since the one-handed battle-weary veteran Lakewalker Patroller Dag Redwing Hickory crossed paths with teenage runaway farmer girl Fawn Bluefield. Thrown together by a shared triumph and tragedy, the two reached across their very different worlds to fall in love. Dag returned her to the farm and suffocating family life she'd fled, where Dag managed to persuade her family to let the two of them marry in defiance of kin, custom, and Lakewalker law. (The 1st book: Beguilement) Fawn gained access to a much wider world and the love and respect of a man who continues to amaze her. Thanks to Fawn's ever hungry mind, bright spirit, and love, Dag rediscovered joy in living, began to come to terms with his own tragic past, and is now reaching with her for a dimly glimpsed future.An abortive attempt by Dag to find a place for them within the Lakewalker community (the 2nd book: Legacy) was interrupted by a major Malice outbreak in a neighboring hinterland. Dag led a company of Lakewalkers who succeeded in taking down the Malice - but was badly injured in the fight and then ensnared with others in a residue of the Malice's twisted groundwork. Defying orders and expectations, Fawn rode to his rescue and enabled Dag to release all who had been trapped with an inspired bit of groundwork.Despite all this, the two still faced an attempt by the Camp Council to end their marriage which Dag stalemated by announcing his intention to leave with Fawn whatever they chose to do. In the aftermath of the outbreak he had come to the realization that neither Lakewalkers or farmers could continue as they had, for the next such outbreak might be unstoppable if Lakewalkers and farmers remained divided. They left, not knowing the answers, only that they had to start seeking them.Now, (the 3rd book: Passage) the two of them have embarked on a journey. As a belated wedding gift Dag has determined to take Fawn on a river boat all the way to the sea, hundreds of miles away. A brief stop at the farm of Fawn's family turns into an extended stay while they help with the harvest. Dag is still recovering from his injuries, and uses the time both to heal and to begin trying to bridge the divide between farmers and Lakewalkers. Aided by Fawn, he slowly begins to help them understand who Lakewalkers are, what they really do - and what it costs them. In doing so, he reveals more than farmers have ever known - and more than his people would permit.When the time comes to continue their journey, they are joined by Fawn's feckless older brother Whit who has begun to find farm life as stultifying as she did. Despite misgivings, she allows this for Dag's sake; he looks on Whit as a volunteer for his efforts, as an extra pair of eyes, and as a buffer between the two of them and the rest of the farmer world. They revisit the scenes of Fawn and Dag's first meeting, where Whit is astonished to discover his sister really is a hero. In short order they reach the Grace River. Dag attempts to obtain a spare sharing knife from the Lakewalker camp there, only to find his mixed reputation has preceded them with complicating effects. Fawn finds them passage on a flatboat captained by a young farmer woman who is on a quest of her own. Aided by her uncle and a younger brother, she's seeking family members and a fiancee who went missing on the river a year earlier.If Fawn has been growing and changing, Dag too finds himself becoming someone far different than he had ever imagined himself. Released from a life where the expectations for every day never changed, he now has to deal with unaccustomed uncertainty. Further, his ground is changing as well. He begins to develop abilities he had never suspected in himself. With an idea to try to reach out to farmers by using his healing skills, he begins to experiment - forced by circumstances as much by design. If Fawn had been the one to blossom and discover new strengths in the first two books, Dag is now the one attempting to remake himself in midflight as it were. While Dag struggles to meet the challenges thrown up at him by the journey and his own evolution, Fawn begins to understand just what it is she really does for Dag, and how much he really needs her. It's a surprising role reversal that will take all of her uncommon sense, wit, and love to pull off.A journey is a traditional plot device for story telling and character development; Bujold employs it to good effect as the cast she assembles around Fawn and Dag interact with them, and the events that take place along the journey. To say more would be to spoil the surprises. Let it suffice to say that Dag and Fawn find some answers - and more questions beyond them. They find joy and tragedy, comradeship and opposition, comedy and drama, all against the backdrop of the river and the people along it. Perhaps the greatest gifts are the ones they never expected. If there's a flaw in the book, it's that the end will leave you eagerly awaiting the next book to pick up the tale.Highly recommended! For the ambitious (and to pass the time waiting for the fourth book), try reading all three books in order to appreciate how the larger story flows, and the characters develop.