The Curse of Chalion

On the surface, it's a fantasy novel, set in a world that looks very much like medieval Europe, save that the primary Kingdoms (Chalion, Ibra, etc) are made-up. It invents the Quintarian and Quadrene faiths as the primary religions (which are very central to the story), and is the tale of a God-tossed soldier, Lord Cazaril, who winds up quite accidentally the secretary and primary advisor to the Royesse (princess) Iselle as she navigates the political storms around her house and the curse surrounding them. It's a brilliantly structured book, full of little threads that all tie together with remarkable elegance at the end. Particularly interesting and unusual: while it's describing a fictional world, it is tightly based on real history. Iselle is basically Isabella I of Castille, and the book is telling a fictionalized version of the events leading up to her marriage to Ferdinand II of Aragon, and the birth of Spain as we know it. With the exception of our protagonist Cazaril, pretty much every central character is based on an actual historical figure, and the events of the story largely parallel the actual history. (The death of Don Pedro, one of the real-life suitors to Isabella, inspires the turning-point moment in the book, when the story kicks into high gear.) Despite its length, the book is necessarily greatly simplified from the actual history -- it's kind of amusing to note that this by-no-means simple plot isn't remotely as over-complex as the actual history of Isabella and Ferdinand. But that's how we get a satisfying story. The book is, notably, just barely fantasy -- it's nearly historical fiction. It's mostly describing a pretty authentic medieval world. Even the made-up religions intentionally parallel reality, albeit by no means precisely. The two religions at each other's throats are closely related: the Islam-cognate Quadrenes believe in the the Father, the Mother, the Brother and the Sister; the Catholic-cognate Quintarians add the Bastard to that set. And the story is only "fantasy" in that the hand of the Gods is strong enough that it is hard not to accept them as real -- they never actually appear as such (except in visions), but there are enough convenient "miracles" that it is a bit hard for people not to believe in them. Excellent book, and really a model for how to write fantasy-history. Highly recommended.

This was an unexpected book for me! When I read the book description, I confess I was not so excited about it.

However, I was not disappointed! It is a very elegantly written tale, and the world building is amazing! I thought it had a slow start at the beginning. At 30% of the book I was feeling nothing was going to happen, the pace was slower than I would have enjoyed. The main character, Cazaril, is presented as a broken man, escaped from slavery, and returned to his Kingdom (Royacy) searching for shelter. At these introductory chapters, I wrongly suspected there would be no magic or fantastic events in the story.

The author slowly builds the characters and unravels the magical and religious background of the kindgdom of Chalion. After it is clear that there is a dark curse going on and that Cazaril is the “hero” who takes action to solve the mystery (and gets deeply involved with it), the pace of the book increases greatly. From this point forward, I could not let the book down. I ended up loving Cazaril’s integrity, objectivity and sarcastic observations, and could not help but keep my fingers crossed for him. I really enjoyed the writing style of the book. It is classy but not over the top. The dialogues are great too, and the characters feel real and authentic.

All I can say without being “spoilery” is that it was a very pleasant read and I loved the ending, even though it may sound foreseeable for some. It is a great fantasy novel, very well balanced and with the right amount of magic in it.