Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold
So far I think this is the least solid novel in this series. While Bujold does a great job of integrating back story and world-building into the story, this is a bad novel to start with in the series because if you haven’t become invested in the characters by following their adventures with the first two novels, I doubt you’ll be swept up in the story enough to want to finish this one.
That said, I don’t think this is a bad novel, because I was invested in the characters and did want to finish their story, even if the story lacked tension. It starts out with Dag and Fawn deciding to take a boat down the river to the sea. Along the way, they pick up more characters, and there are conflicts, but nothing that Dag can’t solve easily. I didn’t really like how competent he is at everything. When someone invents something that’s never been done before, or is really good at a skill, it’s a good character trait. When a character is at the high end of skills in everything, and invents many things that have never been invented before, it strains my credibility.
I really enjoyed the setting. The characters, uncharacteristically for a fantasy novel, seem from the nineteenth century rather than the sixteenth. I also appreciated that the ending wasn’t implausibly happy. The main conflict occurs near the end of the book, and while it’s over fairly quickly, it sets up complications which will presumably be handled in the fourth novel.
