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| Passage (The Sharing Knife, Book 3) | 
 enlarge | Author: Lois Mcmaster Bujold
Publisher: Eos
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $11.99
You Save: $13.96 (54%)
New (38) Used (22) Collectible (2) from $7.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 21552
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061375330
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780061375330
ASIN: 0061375330
Publication Date: April 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 2008 Hardcover BC Edition EOS Publishing. Brand new, pages bright and crisp,covers shinny. Satisfaction guaranteed. Thank you for your interest. 30 days money back guaranteed unconditional return. We ship same day in bubble mailer. Please consider expedited shipping( when offered), standard shipping may take up to 14 days. hud
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Product Description
Acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer Lois McMaster Bujold—five-time winner of the Hugo Award—brings us the third installment in her New York Times bestselling romantic fantasy The Sharing Knife, Volume Three: Passage Young Fawn Bluefield and soldier-sorcerer Dag Redwing Hickory have survived magical dangers and found, in each other, love and loyalty. But even their strength and passion cannot overcome the bigotry of their own kin, and so, leaving behind all they have known, the couple sets off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples. But they will not journey alone. Along the way they acquire comrades, starting with Fawn's irrepressible brother Whit, whose future on the Bluefield family farm seems as hopeless as Fawn's once did. Planning to seek passage on a riverboat heading to the sea, Dag and Fawn find themselves allied with a young flatboat captain searching for her father and fiance, who mysteriously vanished on the river nearly a year earlier. They travel downstream, hoping to find word of the missing men, and inadvertently pick up more followers: a pair of novice Lakewalker patrollers running away from an honest mistake with catastrophic consequences; a shrewd backwoods hunter stranded in a wreck of boats and hopes; and a farmer boy Dag unintentionally beguiles, leaving Dag with more questions than answers about his growing magery. As the ill-assorted crew is tested and tempered on its journey to where great rivers join, Fawn and Dag will discover surprising new abilities both Lakewalker and farmer, a growing understanding of the bonds between themselves and their kinfolk, and a new world of hazards both human and uncanny.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Floating Down the River June 23, 2008
53 out of 54 found this review helpful
Passage (2008) is the third fantasy novel of The Sharing Knife series, following Legacy. In the previous volume, Dag and Fawn were called before the camp council on charges pressed by his brother Dar. The council split on the decision, but Dag and Fawn left Hickory Lake Camp anyway. After the Malice incident in Greenspring, Dag wanted to find another way for the Lakewalkers to relate with the Farmers. Besides, their marriage has caused enough trouble with both Lakewalkers and Farmers.
In this novel, Dag and Fawn go first to her family farm. The twins have moved off to stake their own claims and Whit has -- mostly -- quit his teasing of Fawn, so the visit goes well. At least until shortly before they leave, when Whit decides to go with them.
They leave Fawn's pregnant mare at the farm and take two draft horses that Whit has trained. Naturally, Dag continues to ride Copperhead to protect the Farmers; no telling what that horse will do! The three ride off toward the Grace River.
On the way, Dag and Fawn acquaint Whit with previously unshared knowledge about the Lakewalkers and Malices. Since Fawn knows Whit much better than Dag, she does more of the talking. Yet his confirmations make the discussion more real to Whit.
Reaching Glassforge, Whit learns that his sister and brother-in-law are very well known in the town. They stay at the inn where the wounded had been treated and everybody knows Fawn. They even know that she has killed a Malice. Whit is quite amazed at his sister's fame.
When it comes time to leave Glassforge, Whit changes his mind again. Instead to returning home, he decides to travel further with them. He does sell the horses, but gets a job with the firm that bought them. Now Whit and Fawn are riding the wagons to the river and Dag is still riding Copperhead.
In this story, Dag and Fawn meet many people on the trail and boating down the river. Dag also meets a few Lakewalkers in the river camps. He and Fawn, with some help from Whit, disseminate more information about the Lakewalkers and gain more knowledge of the people themselves. Dag gets to perform a few more medical makings on the Farmer folks and starts to gain a reputation among them as a good healer.
The Lakewalker authorities -- even the Patroller chiefs -- are very much against his activities. They order him to stop treating the wounded and sick Farmers and to cease his information campaign. But events on down the river turn out to require his healing and information.
This tale shows that the Farmers can accept the Lakewalker activities as beneficial and understand the dangers of the Malices. Yet the efforts of Dag and Fawn are only a drop in the bucket. They also need to change the Lakewalkers themselves to gain full acceptance from the Farmers.
The story is far from finished. Dag and Fawn will be back in Horizon, the fourth volume in this series. Enjoy!
Highly recommended for Bujold fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic societies, unusual magics, and marital romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
 Another winner from LMB April 23, 2008
31 out of 31 found this review helpful
If you liked the first two books in the series, then you will like this one. However, for those new to the series, don't start here! Although there is enough backstory to make this book stand alone, it reads much better if you have the full history of Fawn and Dag. (And there are many spoilers for the first two books in this one).
This book is essentially Dag's story - his search for his new identity, atonement for his past, his ambivalence in dealing with his new abilities. The romance/relationship issues that drove the first two novels are not central to this book. Fawn's viewpoint is here, but mainly acts as another lens for Dag's story. The secondary characters and subplots are well-rounded and interesting, and the setting is rich.
This series is very different from LMB's Vorkosigan or Chalion series, and personally I prefer her other books as more fast-paced and (at least on the surface) more complex. However, I am glad that the author continues to stretch herself, and try new things, because I wouldn't want her to start writing the same book over and over again (a trap too many authors fall in).
I gave this book four stars instead of five both because of that personal preference, and because of a minor flaw - Dag's motivation for starting some very strange experiments and pushing the limits with his new abilities didn't seem clear to me, although it is important to the plot. This book is an improvement over the first two, though, because it stands alone much better.
All in all, highly recommended for LMB fans, but not the starting place for those new to her work.
Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination April 23, 2008
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
Dag and Fawn begin a long journey to the sea, which even well-travelled Dag has seen only once. Dag struggles to explain Lakewalker secrets to Farmers, though even his farmer bride doesn't reassure some stubborn, superstitious Farmers. Along their journey, Dag and Fawn collect company -- Fawn's pesky brother Whit, a dimwitted farmer boy, a couple of young Lakewalker patrollers, and a flatboat captain searching for her missing father. As Dag slowly heals from malice-inflicted injuries, he begins experimenting with new forms of groundwork, even though the Farmers fear his "magic" and the Lakewalkers disapprove of his revealing their secrets to Farmers. Dag and Fawn also hear rumors of disappearances along the river, leading their party into a dangerous adventure. Dag and Fawn make several passages -- a passage to the sea, a passage between cultures, a passage from patroller to maker -- as they try to open communication between Lakewalkers and Farmers.
As usual in a Bujold book, even the minor charactes are well-drawn. The scene where Fawn explains sharing knives to White is not to be missed; I loved Whit's comparison of sharing knives to a Farmer practice. The story was satisfying, but it also left me eager to see what's on the horizon for Dag, Fawn, and their travelling companions.
Another great book from LMB! April 23, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is not your normal fantasy adventure. All three books in Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife series remind me of Ursula LeGuin's later Earthsea books in that the stories are about normal people experiencing normal (although trying) times, and getting through them with love and companionship.
The great river of the Wide Green World universe is the backdrop and pace setter of this novel. As we make our unhurried way downstream, we pick up cargo, unfold stories and go where the current takes us. There is a bad guy -- but this is more a story of building community, and deciding how one can start over. The humor is warm and sly. The relationships between characters are real and engaging. Fantasy lovers will be very happy to see a more explicit explanation of the malices (the recurrent evil of this world) and how they work. And groundwork gets a pretty good explanation, as well as demonstration.
I felt there was a lot of backstory included, and I suspect this book will stand alone for first-time readers. But Book One (Beguilement)Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, Book 1) and Book Two (Legacy)Legacy (The Sharing Knife, Book 2) are well worth picking up, also. Enjoy!
Unexpected and wonderful addition to the series April 24, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
The way the second book in the series ended I thought that the story was complete. Dag and Fawn's romance, that drove much of the story, seemed to reach a point of resolution. Fortunately, I was wrong. Bujold has sent the story curve into another direction entirely. It's more introspective and fills in some of the backstory that makes the Sharing Knife series so compelling; but the plot is still crafted by a master and moves along nicely.
With the new plot direction with its resulting conflicts and characters I look forward to enjoying more installments as much as I did this one.
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