Sheepfarmer's Daughter (The Deed of Paksenarrion Trilogy, Book 1) (Deed of Paksenarrion, 1)

I'd seen this book highly recommended several places and finally got around to picking it up. I loved it! There were several places throughout the book where I just couldn't put it down. I just had to see what happened next. Rather than have this high tension environment throughout the book, Ms. Moon has interspersed scenes that are more relaxed and contemplative, which makes for a very well rounded read.I absolutely loved the prolog. Those first two pages set the tone for the entire book. I'm halfway through the second book, DIVIDED ALLEGIANCE, as I write this and I can say that it continues in this tone of storytelling. The best thing about this book is Paks, the main character. In the first page of the first chapter, I was immediately sympathizing with her. She wants action and adventure, not to marry some pig farmer's son. She wants it so bad that she will defy her father's wishes and run away from her family and everything she's ever known. I was hooked right away. Throughout the book, we experience with her all the joys of military life: recruitment, training, marching, her first battle. These are all done vividly and realistically, making the reader feel as if they are actually there. Paks' feelings and thoughts become ours.Not only is Ms. Moon's characterization brilliant, but her story is engaging, too. I get the impression that most of this book was just set up material for the rest of the series. There were numerous small things that were hinted at in this book that I'm sure will turn out to have great impact later on. On its own, this book is a brilliant military fantasy. The villain they end up chasing around the country, though not actually shown until the very end, is expertly developed. The things he does to prisoners, his tactics, and the way he treats his subjects all combine to make for a nasty villain.I really enjoyed this book. If you like fantasy, but are looking for something different than the usual fare, this will definitely satisfy you. Brilliantly developed and engaging characters, great narration, and an exciting story all add up to take the reader on a thorougly rousing ride.

It was my older brother, oddly enough, who told me about the Paksennarion books, and he said: "Female heroes have more layers/more depth than most of the males." He was right about this one, and after years of reading SF and fantasy, I find this trilogy one of a few to which I return again and again, enjoying plot, details, setting and hero as much on each rereading as I did the first time, but with less urgency, and therefore with different eyes, learning more each time. Elizabeth Moon has done what I most love: she has taken me out of my world, plunked me down in another, and invited me to learn about the place I'm in and the people who live there. She has given me a true hero: an ordinary person with ordinary flaws doing extraordinary things. This trilogy is, in my opinion, Moon's best work by far, and when my copy gets too tattered (again), or I give it away (once more), I will replace it, as I always do, as quickly as possible.

If you like tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things (as I do) then you'll probably enjoy this trilogy. Paks is a refreshingly genuine female character who works hard to be who she wants and it's this struggle that elevates her from the dullness "nice" characters often suffer from. Unfortunately when I read the first two books the third wasn't published here (UK - it is now) and I have never been so eager to read a sequel in my life! I was itching to get it and had it imported.On the down side it is a little formulaic and I find the constant parallels in modern fantasy with Tolkien increasingly tiresome. The level of realism is sound in so far as it is detailed without becoming like an essay on the problems of keeping chainmail clean or what have you. This is not an "important" book (whatever they are), but it is a damn good read.

I don't care for many of Moon's later works, but it is obvious she poured her heart and soul into her first fantasy trilogy known as The Deed of Paksenarrion. This book (along with the two that follow in the trilogy) were so good that I had a hard time reading any other books for a while afterwards. I had a hard time finding another book that lived up to the high standard this one set. Moon has been compared to Tolkien (what decent fantasy writer hasn't been?), but she builds her world on the small details instead of the broad strokes of Tolkien. It is those small details that bring Moon's characters and world alive like no other fantasy world I've read about. Moon is also a master manipulator of emotions. She will have you laughing throughout one chapter and crying throughout the next. Moon has no aversion to dealing with the death of characters you grow to love which makes it all the more real. That it features a strong and intelligent female lead that doesn't get all goofy over some cliched heroic male is also refreshing. I just wish Moon would get back to her roots and write more books about this great heroine.