The Curse of Chalion (World of the Five Gods, #1)

This was an unexpected book for me! When I read the book description, I confess I was not so excited about it.

However, I was not disappointed! It is a very elegantly written tale, and the world building is amazing! I thought it had a slow start at the beginning. At 30% of the book I was feeling nothing was going to happen, the pace was slower than I would have enjoyed. The main character, Cazaril, is presented as a broken man, escaped from slavery, and returned to his Kingdom (Royacy) searching for shelter. At these introductory chapters, I wrongly suspected there would be no magic or fantastic events in the story.

The author slowly builds the characters and unravels the magical and religious background of the kindgdom of Chalion. After it is clear that there is a dark curse going on and that Cazaril is the “hero” who takes action to solve the mystery (and gets deeply involved with it), the pace of the book increases greatly. From this point forward, I could not let the book down. I ended up loving Cazaril’s integrity, objectivity and sarcastic observations, and could not help but keep my fingers crossed for him. I really enjoyed the writing style of the book. It is classy but not over the top. The dialogues are great too, and the characters feel real and authentic.

All I can say without being “spoilery” is that it was a very pleasant read and I loved the ending, even though it may sound foreseeable for some. It is a great fantasy novel, very well balanced and with the right amount of magic in it.

I enjoyed this fantasy novel, though it didn't knock me off my socks. If you dig stories mostly dealing with political intrigue with a smidge of fantasy religion, this might be right down your alley.

Our protagonist is Cazaril who returns to his homeland Chalion a broken man after being betrayed after battle to serve as a slave on the galleys of the Roknari. He returns to the castle where he served as a page in his youth where people are astonished to find out he's still alive. Elevated to the position of secretary for the young princess Iselle, they soon move to the capital of Chalion where they are swept up in the intrigues of the people who betrayed Cazaril. Furthermore, Cazaril finds out there is a dark curse over the royal line of Chalion, and it is up to him to find a means to break this curse.

I generally enjoy political intrigues in fantasy novels, and so this was quite interesting to read. But throughout this novel I kept wondering why it had to be Cazaril who saves the day. I would have enjoyed myself immensely more, if Iselle's other sidekick, her lady-in-waiting Betriz, had been the protagonist.

I might pick up the second novel as well, because it deals with Ista, Iselle's mother, who I found rather intriguing. Thumbs up for at least mentioning queer romance, though that one used the Bury Your Gays trope, sadly, alas.

3 to 3.5 stars.