About this title: Paksenarrion, a simple sheep farmer's daughter, yearns for a life of adventure and glory. At 17 she runs away from home to begin her epic life. This omnibus edition contains "Sheepfarmer's Daughter", "Divided Allegiance", and "Oath of Gold" which follows the exploits of Paksennarion.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Baen Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. softcover book in fair condition, cover wear, pages yellow. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 1040 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Baen Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Book is clean, tight with no markings. Cover has minor wear to corner but no tears. Extra shipping may apply. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Baen Books
Date Published: 1992-02-01
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780671721046. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Baen
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Baen
Date Published: 1992-02-01
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: Good. This is a used book in good condition with normal wear and tear and may contain some writing, minor shelf wear and creases. Items are uploaded via ISBN and stock photo may be different from actual book cover. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Baen Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780671721046ISBN:0671721046
Description: Very Good- Cover has edge wear, creases, scratches, small bent/rubbed cover/page corners, rubbed spine. A few creased pages. No writing. read more
Description: Good. Used copy-Because of our high volume, we can not accurately describe each book, so we list the MINIMUM condition you can expect; most are better than the condition listed. read more
"Elizabeth Moon writes some kickass female characters. And this is the first woman character I ever encountered who was a no-nonsense, practical soldier who operated in a military story without any weird little feminine flairs. Too often writers feel the need to feminize their soldiers, or introduce some sort of stereotypical "women's issue"-driven plot. With Moon, that doesn't happen. She just tells a kickass story where the lead is a woman, and deals with things as they come.
Moon herself was part of the Marine corps, and that clearly lends the book authenticity. All I can say is that for a teenage girl, this book was a beacon that signaled that the way I thought and felt and got irked at other books was okay -- and that books could be written where instead of questioning the authenticity of a female character, I could identify and cheer her on.
So that's it, really. If you've been reading books about female warriors and they've sent your eyebrows into your hairline, give Paksenarrion a try."
"I put down too many fantasy novels because the writing is so egregious. This was readable, had an entertaining plot, and lacked helpless princesses; all important points in its favor, and gender was handled nicely throughout (as a personal characteristic but not a defining one). But it didn't give me much to take away. In the first book, I kept wondering what the main character's motivations were; she was very excited to be fighting in a mercenary army but I couldn't quite figure out why. (I suspect because the author wanted to write about fighting.) Later, when she almost starts to develop a mind of her own, religion takes over and she is directed by gods which are presented as good, but to my eyes seem as capricious as the Greek pantheon. So engaging overall but thematically annoying to me."
"This is a trilogy of three books, combined into an omnibus edition.
Overall: The main character has some depth to her. She wants to be good, struggles, actually gets hurt in battles, and seems to grow. Though not necessarily an intense page-turner, I did keep coming back to it because I wanted to find out what happened next to the character. Other characters are somewhat flat by comparison and mostly window dressing for Paks. Still, it is an exciting story and one I am glad to have added to my bookshelf.
Recommended for any epic fantasy fans who want to read a series in only a few books instead of 10+ books you get from other authors.
Story by Story review
Book 1: A good tale, but not anything groundbreaking. There were some early plot twists that seemed to get ignored so that there was no real resolution. Some scenes feel like a generic training montage from underdog-taking-on-the-champ movie. It is nice to see a hero who isn't invincible and can get hurt every now and then.
Book 2: Wow, very dark. Some of the story climactic battles seem to come out of nowhere so don't really get the focus that they should. Once again, plot points that seem important get dropped and never discussed (with one exception though still not addressed to my satisfaction).
Book 3: This book finally redeems the series. After Book 2 ended on a real downer note, I'm glad to see we didn't dwell on it for too long in Book 3. The author finally addresses the missing plot threads which annoyed me from the previous books. Good can finally triumph or evil as Paks rides off into the sunset."
"These books are one of the things she is most famous for, and I like her other stuff, but I avoided these for ages because the jacket blurbs make them sound like such unadulterated schmaltz. As is often the case, said jacket blurbs were probably written by someone who had done no more than look at the (terrible) cover art; the books themselves were quite good. Here Moon turns her talent for making the fantastic feel "normal" and everyday - which I much enjoyed in her sci-fi stuff - on a world of fantasy and magic. The first book follows a new recruit into a mercenary company on a fantasy world, and the day-to-day barracks life, as well as the battles, has the feel of realism to it. All is not the slaying of dragons and heroic rescuing of maidens; mostly its drill, polishing, and slogging through the mud.
In the later two books, once she has you believing in this world, more elements of fantasy creep their way in. And here we get an interesting twist. In some fantasy - usually, but not universally bad - you can practically hear the dice rolling in the background it sounds so much like a transcript of a role-playing game. They end up strings of unrelated events sounding like one of those "And then I rolled a 20!" geek stories that you desperately tried to save yourself from by faking your own death. Moon does the opposite; she paints us a picture of paladins that is so the cardboard stereotype that I swear she must have been working from a DND manual, and then fleshes it out to put real characters in it and tell an interesting story about them. All the wacky pointless details are there - from preternaturally shining armour, magic warhorses, and high charisma, to the old classic of "laying on hands" - but all given reasons and woven into a background to make sense. And then she messes about with some of the real issues like belief in god vs. belief in a church, but does it as an undercurrent in what is otherwise an action tale, so you can be intrigued by it without getting bored.
On the whole, I rarely (except for Speed of Dark) find that Moon's writing draws me in so completely and compellingly as some of my other favorites, but she has a talent for selling the fantastic as gritty and real which I always enjoy. Couple that with her poking here at genre stereotypes - and poking by simply doing the stereotypes right, for once - and these books are well worth the read."
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