Soldier Stories & Songs

As I read through the first few chapters of 'The Curse of Chalion', by Lois McMaster Bujold, I was reminded of another epic I had endeavoured to read some years back called 'The Deed of Paksenarrion' by Elizabeth Moon.

Both stories relate the lives of soldiers who have won and lost and starved and sacrificed for their superiors. Both are incredibly touching stories containing broken souls struggling to make their ways in a world that has forgotten their existence.

In the first few pages of 'The Curse of Chalion' you follow the weary footsteps of Cazaril, a broken former soldier who was sold into slavery by his commanding officer to cover up a crime. All Cazaril wants in the world is to find a place, any place, that will remember who he is. A place with food and a bed.

Likewise, Paksenarrion is the story of a girl who runs away from home to become a soldier. During parts of this series I found myself consumed by wracking sorrow for her trials. As equally as Cazaril, Paksenarrion finds herself alone, without a person in the world who recognizes her. At a crucial point in her existence she is standing before the altar of a god and placing all that she has left in the world upon it. Planning to go into the forest and die.

Both books show the powerful will of the human spirit. The ability to sink to the lowliest of states and still rise from them.

"Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice - if not when, then how, they may endure."
— Lois McMaster Bujold (The Curse of Chalion)

"Even if a tamed wolf makes a good sheepdog, he will never understand how the sheep feel....You are most fortunate. For having been, as you thought, a coward, and helpless to fight - you know what that is like. You know what bitterness that feeling breeds - you know in your own heart what kind of evil it brings. And so you are most fit to fight it where it occurs."
— Elizabeth Moon (The Deed of Paksenarrion)

I couldn't come up with just one song for these two books. Instead I was reminded of a soundtrack that once I loved and now I can barely bear to hear. The We Were Soldiers soundtrack is filled with songs about the sacrifices made by soldiers and their loved ones.

Most striking is the powerful US Military Academy rendition of 'The Mansions of the Lord':

To fallen soldiers let us sing
where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
to the mansions of the Lord

No more bleeding no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
just divine embrace, eternal light
in the mansions of the Lord

I don't know why I always end up reading stories about soldiers. They always rip my heart out and dash it to the ground. Yet I return time and time again to the beautiful humility that each of these stories shows the world. I love the portrayal they show of the power of moving forward.

"This wasn't prayer anyway, it was just argument with the gods.
Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same."
— Lois McMaster Bujold (The Curse of Chalion)

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In This Post:
Books: The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon (series), The Curse of the Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Music: We Were Soldiers Soundtrack

Friday Wishlist: How About Some More Time

Today I want to tell you about how much I wish for more reading time. Over the holidays I consumed books at an alarming rate and enjoyed every moment of it, but then the kids head back to school and life gets back to normal. Leaving me to cope with the withdrawals of my drug.

More time--that's what I need. More time to read that pile that's forever amassing on my dresser. More time to consume that list of books I have inside of my head.

I once read a book where one of the characters had hidden himself away in a home in the middle of nowhere (hermit style) and just read the books that covered everyone of his walls. Wouldn't that be nice?

My mom told me recently that she couldn't imagine being confined to a bed for a long period of time because she would get bored. Not me, I'd just read until my eyes bled and my head throbbed.

So my wishlist for today is time to read the books I already have:

Arabian Nights
Soulless
Horizon
The Curse of the Chalion
The Towers of Midnight

I don't dare add to my list today... because my list is much to long as it stands.




What do you want to read? Link up with us and share those books!


Books in this post:
Arabian Nights by (who did write Arabian Nights?)
Soulless by Gail Carriger
The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan

At the Beginning with Dag & Fawn

One of the nice things about taking a blogging vacation is all the books I can read.

The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold was one of these books. I've been seeing this one floating around the Fantasy world forever but had never picked it up (on account of my distaste of the cover). Finally, in need of a book fix, I grabbed it from the library shelf.

It was not what I expected. It was more a love story than a fantasy novel. All creatures of paranormal form appear only at the beginning and the rest is the story is essentially a romance.

I was surprisingly okay with this (although at one point I did consider calling it a bodice ripper).

 Dag is a widower who buries himself in his work. Fawn is barely a woman that has run away from home so as to avoid the shame of an ill-fated pregnancy. Neither expects the other to fall so unexpectedly, and dramatically, into their life.

I like the characters devotion to one another despite monumental adversities in front of them. Race, age, education, and lifestyle stand between their blossoming relationship and yet they endure (at least through book one).

My favorite line is when Fawn's brothers ask Dag to give them three good reasons why on earth he would want her. Dag's response (just three?) is the stuff of any woman's daydream:

"For the courage of her heart, which I saw face down the greatest horror I know without breaking.
For the high and hungry intelligence of her mind which never stops asking questions or thinking about the answers.
For the spark of her spirit which could teach bonfires how to burn."

I found myself enthralled with their love (I do love a good love) and was reminded of the song "At the Beginning" by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis.

We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you


No one told me I was going to find you
Unexpected what you did to my heart
When I lost hope you were there to remind me
This is the start

"Beguilement" is the first book in the series, spanning only about a month of time at the beginning of Fawn and Dag's journey back to his homeland. It truly is at the beginning and now I'm itching to get my fingers on the second leg of this adventure.

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Books:
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold

Music:
At the Beginning by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis