Wednesday, June 16, 2021

2021 book 132

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Spirit Ring

This is a standalone fantasy novel from Bujold, not one of her better known works, but still entertaining and moving. Set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Italy, it centers on the biracial teenage daughter of a master artisan-slash-mage, who longs to follow in his footsteps, but is beset by racism and sexism! And also the story of her love interest (the romance is not the main thing here, but I was here for it), who is supposed to be apprenticed to her father…. Except then his patron Duke is assassinated, an enemy is taking over the town, and her father is murdered. Oh yeah, and the bad guys are also evil sorcerers! (Really interesting magic/political stuff here, as the local Catholic Church is in charge of non-evil sorcerers.) So this wasn’t the best Bujold book, but definitely still worth a read. A-/B+.

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