Limyaael

Um, that might be a theme in the first part of book 1, but the rest of the trilogy goes far beyond that. The bulk of it (especially by the 3rd book) deals with the nature of courage and faith. Basically it is the author's attempt to write an actually convincing paladin (i.e. a story that involves a sophisticated treatment of faith and what it would mean to be a warrior-priest in a world where gods actually exist and intervene regularly and obviously). As an atheist I found some of the faith stuff to be a little nauseating, but at least it was interesting and a change from most fantasy.

If you can look past the D&Desque cliches that pepper the book, and the style of writing, it's a good trilogy that is worth reading all the way through.

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See, I would like to read a philosophy of faith, but I still object to stories where the gods come in to rescue the heroine. Sometimes it's done literally; other times, the heroine gets given a quest or special knowledge by the gods earlier in the story. I find it distressing unless there's a similar level of knowledge going on absolutely everywhere. And even then, I have a special distaste for dark situations that are only ameliorated by the gods rescuing someone.

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This is a setting where the Good deities hold free will in _extremely_ high esteem, though, so they generally don't ride to the rescue, and prefer to work through champions.

The only way Paks is special (well, aside from her being among the ~5% of women big enough to develop the kind of muscle mass you need to survive in melee) is that she is a "natural" paladin. But even that is just a matter of potential, and whether and how she develops it(including the help she accepts) is largely up to her. And boy(or should that be girl?) does she stumble on her way.

-Albert

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