The Deed of Paksenarrion (Five Stars)

fantasy
The Deed of Paksenarrion
Elizabeth Moon
Baen Publishing Enterprises
©1992
ISBN 0-671-72104-6
1024 pages
CAN $26.50 / US $18.00

"Complete at last in a single volume – the finest trilogy of the decade!

"Never in our experience has a new author burst upon the sf/fantasy field to such immediate enthusiastic recognition as Elizabeth Moon with her fantasy trilogy, Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, Divided Allegiance, and Oath of Gold. Now at last we are able to offer all six hundred thousand words of The Deed of Paksenarrion in a single trade edition. Note that because of its size the complete Deed of Paksenarrion will probably never be offered in a mass market edition."

Well, that little blurb doesn’t say much about this truly extraordinary trilogy. This was loaned to me by a dear friend and I devoured all three books. Now, I have read fantasy all my life, some of it good and some of it rather poor, but this is exceptional. I even prefer reading this trilogy to (gasp!) The Lord of the Rings, which I have read faithfully every year for as long as I can remember.

Sheepfarmer’s Daughter introduces our heroine as a young girl who runs away from home (doesn’t want to marry the pig farmer) to become a mercenary soldier. The depictions of soldier training and battle are second to none, as I have learned that Elizabeth Moon has military experience. You will never find a more true account of mercenary companies, their travels on roads thick and muddy, their encounters with pillage and plunder, and the heroic pursuits that Paks finds herself on. Not wanting to be a hero, only wanting to serve her Duke, Paks finds within herself some extraordinary abilities that may even be Gods-gifted.

In Divided Allegiance Paks leaves the Duke’s service to follow the call of her Gods, to join the Fellowship of Gird. While in training at Fin Panir she is offered to become a paladin – a dream far beyond most peasant girls. However, in her travels she is captured by dark elves, tortured and mutilated before her eventual rescue. Evil has replaced the good in her mind and the high-ranking members of the Fellowship try to excise it, leaving her without the evil, but also without any courage and she cannot be a soldier any longer. The end of this book was the most tragic thing I’ve ever read, as this highly decorated and intriguing woman is left huddling in ditches and freezing and near death. The worst riches-to-rags scenario I’ve ever read and I was crying and crying the first time I read it.

Oath of Gold describes the lengths Paks goes to save herself, to put faith back in the common people. Beyond her wildest dreams and after many ills she is finally healed and called as a paladin once more. It becomes the deed of her life’s work to return to the service of her duke and rescue him from peril.

I wax on and on. This is a completely fabulous trilogy that anyone who enjoys fantasy should read. Parts of it are disturbing, only because they so closely echo our own hopes and pains. The reader feels like a part of Paksenarrion truly resides within them, and that we all have some of that incredible godlike potential.