Discussion: Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon (spoilers)
 

Wow... time flies. Time to discuss Book 1 of The Deed of Paksenarrion titled Sheepfarmer's Daughter.

I am still working on reading this... so I will check in as soon as I have finished. But, I have enjoyed it thus far and expect to read the full trilogy.

BOb

I enjoyed it very much, although as some has stated the first book is a bit slow. Book 2 and 3 gets better.

I recently read these as well, and they unfolded nicely, and often in directions I didn't expect.

I loved it. I read the full trilogy.

I would definitely buy book 4 if she was ever to come out with one.

I went to Elisabeth Moons space online. The Paksenarrion series originally was written as one long story, it was broken into three for practical reasons when first published. This makes a lot of sense. Just reading book 1 feels a bit slow and incomplete obviously the series wasn't ment to be read as 3 separate books.

There's apparently two books covering the story of Gird:
The two books are:
Surrender none and Liar's Oath available from Baen.

Apparently the two books above have been merged into one: The Legacy of Gird:

Read it and enjoyed it. I'll put the remaining books on my TBR list, but won'y get to them for quite a while.

The change of perspective (or person, or whatever you call it) seemed a little strange to me. The majority of the book is written from Paks view, and then there is one chapter from the tortured captain's point of view. A little strange, but maybe it makes more sense in latter books.

I've not yet finished book 1. But, I do plan to finish it. It's not all that bad. Just slow in places.

Which is why the whole thing is what was nominated. It's been sold as one book for over a decade and I figured it was similar to Lord of the Rings which folks agreed was one book, but others decided that Deed was three and that Sheepfarmer's Daughter was what would be voted on.

I do think given how slow book 1 or the first part is, we may have had a lot more people not finishing it ever.

I find the world in this book to be full and well developed built slowly with small details. Paks as a character is great, engaging and well developed with many layers and depths.

Maybe, I don't know. The first time I read the whole thing it took 4 or 5 days, but I know I read faster than some folks.

Compared to the Mysterious Island (June month book club read) I found it went by in turbo speed :D, so I guess it's all relative.

I agree. The tale of Gird is a 2 part sequel which explains a few things that occur in the later time frame.
The "story" continues with a new book .... "Oath of Fealty" which is the story of Kieri Phelan as king....

Why are we all in such a hurry? Internet time that most people are on these days drives me crazy. If i don't respond to an email at work within a few minutes I am getting an IM about it. We are so used to the 1 hour TV show which is really 42 minutes of content and every problem gets wrapped up nice an neat when expected.

I think people that read for pleasure probably have more patience than most though.

So, take your time, enjoy the book and don't be in such a hurry for it to move or end. I have never been board reading this book so far.

BOb

:blink: Never said I was in a hurry. If I'd been in a hurry I'd have blown through it in a couple of days.

I don't mean "in a hurry" as in reading fast or slow. I meant... in a hurry and not willing to wait for a story or character to develop in a book. I'm not saying that this applies to you or anyone in particular.

I think this is why many readers here dislike most of the "best sellers" because they are written (many times) without multiple threads or story development. They also seem to be written so it is easy to make a movie out of them.

Things come at us so fast these days that we expect it, even in our literature. I thought Mysterious Island was very good... I enjoyed reading about all the ways they made stuff and the though processes of naming places on the island too. I didn't think it was slow or boring at all.

BOb

I love this forum, especially since books can be discussed endlessly. I see what you're getting at pilotbob about today's society being in a hurry. It's a stressful information society we live in, and a lot of people feel to restless to even pick up a book with all other distractions available.

As for Mysterious Island I found it boring, personal preference, but not because I was in a hurry. I just thought it was to much with endless explanations. As for the Paks series I read it in turbo speed because I couldn't put it down once I got started :D

After having finished "Sheepfarmer's Daughter" I went and bought "Deed of Paksenarrion", and I enjoyed reading it (normally not a fantasy reader).

I liked the somewhat slow pace, it felt like actual living speed and made it easy for me to slip into that world of Paksenarrion and Gird and the Duke.
Speaking about the Duke - he and also the sergeants or captains or other people in charge displayed leadership qualities that I wish real-life people in similar positions had too. I really envied Paksenarrion for her bosses :)

For me this was a very good read , and one I would not have picked up without the Book Club :thumbsup:.

Really? I felt the world was terribly underdeveloped and generic. For all the build up, I never felt like I knew this place I was visiting. *shrug*

Well, I was one of the people who didn't care for the book. I felt it was too slow, didn't go anywhere, and regardless of the reason why it was chopped, the book should have been edited to make it more of a whole thing within itself.

I thought Paks was forced via author into situations and that overall, it felt more like she was in a video game than anything else.

I can read slow books, I love old authors. So it wasn't that for me. I just felt this one had no payoff or reason to keep reading.

More of my thoughts here, if anyone wants to look at a longer version: Sheepfarmer's Daughter Review

To each their own, though--I can see why others liked it, I just didn't. :(

I thought the book was boring. It was slow to to develop, and the characters were somewhat flat and one-dimensional - yes, even "Paks". I gave up reading the last 15% after having pushed myself through after the first half.

I really missed character development as well as action. But it is especially the prose that is lacking IMO. It is serviceable, but nothing but. Good, interesting prose I can forgive a lot, but not this.

I liked the way Paks was started ... but I got side-tracked by another book and this book didn't have enough pull to bring me back to it. And I don't think I was very far along -- Paks and the armies had just left the Duke's home place and were marching (through mud) to find excitement elsewhere. I guess Paks didn't interest me enough to come back to the book.

Just to be warned, Oath of Fealty is only the first part of a planned trilogy. I didn't realize that when I recently purchased/read it and was seriously disappointed by the (lack of an) ending.

The Deed of Paksenarrion is one of my favorite books. I was thrilled to get it as an ebook, because my old, huge, trade paperback copy is falling to bits.

I loved the character of Paks and how things didn't easily come to her. She had to work and had some bad luck. She also had some extraordinarily good luck, although the reasons for both are thoroughly explained by the end of the third book.

The fighting descriptions were quite vivid to me, although I am no means an expert.

I also appreciated that people died. In a mercenary company with active fighting you have to expect this, yet in many similar books, none of the core characters ever dies. Having deaths made the book more realistic and brought home the gritty reality of life in a mercenary company.

And I can only really talk about this book in hindsight, because I read the whole Deed many years ago, but I love how all the little threads and things you don't realize are important are all tied up in the end of the third book.

Addendum: One of the things that always struck me as very realistic in this book that I have hardly even seen in other books is the reusing of "common" names. Everyone knows a Michael or three and in Deed there were a couple of names that popped up more than once for unrelated characters. The ones I remember are Arñe and Rahel but there were others. Saben popped up twice too, but that was a planned plot point.

-Marcy

Paks is worth getting back to, but I found the meatiest volume to be the third. It had the best action and explained everything that came before. So you'll have to invest quite a bit in the story to get to the best stuff. Definitely worth the journey however.

-Marcy

I thought of getting this one but I think I'll wait until all books is out. I don't like to begin reading a series and then have to wait for the next book to come out, thanks for the heads up.

First let me say that i enjoyed Sheepfarmer's Daughter, enough that I purchased the omnibus from Baen.

But... There were times when the story had the definite feel of a D&D game. Things that just seemed to depend on the roll of the dice. Haven't started any of the following books yet.

Well, according to either Wikipedia or the author's own site (I forget which), apparently Deed was written as a kind of reaction to bad D&D gaming clichés, and was an attempt to show how all those elements could be done right.

I liked the first book when I read it as a freebie shortly after getting my Kindle. I felt it actually didn't start off slow at the beginning, but the middle part kind of lagged for a bit, and didn't really pick up again until the end.

I am curious to see where it goes, and do intend to buy and read the rest of it when I can finally find the time.

Incidentally, Random House's Suduvu Free Library, which they've just reorganized to be significantly less easy to find and use, has a promotional Paksenarrion-world short story that's supposed to tie into Oath of Fealty (they used to have two, but it looks like they've gotten rid of the other one, along with other useful stuff on their site).

WARNING: It seems to contain spoilers for stuff that's apparently revealed in Deed, so don't even read the descriptions until you've finished DoP if you don't want to know beforehand.

I was reading this book independently with no idea that it was the pick of the month - I know, I should try to keep up ;p

I like it a lot. I think that the episodic nature of the story is what's putting some people off. We're seeing the events that form the character, we're watching her growth from a youth to an adult warrior. It's a rare 18 year old whose character is fully defined and deep. I'm within 80 pages of the end now, and I feel like I've watched her grow physically, and she's starting to become more aware of the outside forces that are driving her story. It feels like an organic, slow build. The kind that, when it's done, might not have so many holes in it.

i like the part where paks relation/feeling to her old friends change as she herself change and matures . Then she realize how oblivious she is to everyone around her ( the reader as well, since we follow her point of view).

the capt stefen incident in book 1 ending or 2 starting ? .. i sorta know who's the culprit is before the revelation in later books :D stuff like that shows the authors attention to details and every detail counts ! :)

Warning—Spoilers for 3rd Book
 

You have it exactly. The third book is where you really see the payoff of this development. In the early part of the book especially, during her time with the Kuakgan, Paks gains a lot of insight into her past as well as her future.

-Marcy

I finished the book yesterday and while I thought it was not bad, I rated in 3.5 on Library Thing... I have decided not to read more. I expected the first book to end with some type of realization of something and show some the beginnings of "something" that would make me want to read more.

While there was "some" small bit of information about the stuff that has happened to her wrt the medallion the book ended with everything staying the same. Yes, I know many fantasy novels the main character at first denies their power/birthright/whatever and this is what Paks did.. that stuff usually happens much sooner than the last chapter of the 1st book.

BOb

I think the problem is that the book was not written as a trilogy, but as a single book. The book breaks were artificially inserted to break it up. The second book doesn't have much of an ending either. I can understand this because the author wasn't thinking in terms of 2 mini-endings for a book that would be broken in 3.

I was more diappointed in the pathetic ending of Oath of Fealty. Elizabeth Moon clearly knew this was going to be marketed as a stand-alone book and as such it deserved more of an ending and less obviously unresolved threads.

-Marcy

Agree with the many people that have said this. The first book is very much an introduction. I enjoyed it, but can't disagree with the people that it lags in the middle. However, the second and third books are fantastic!

If you're in limbo about continuing on, do yourself a favor and give the rest of the "trilogy" a shot.

I remember that book! Read it quite a few years ago, but I remember adding Elizabeth Moon to my list of favorite authors because of those stories.

I read this series several years ago, and re-read it occasionally. The first book was a bit slow, but works very well as an ignorant-peasant-going-out-and-learning-about-the-world book. It opens the character up and makes her more real, as she starts out as a serious stereotype.

There is, in fact, another book in this series - Oath of Fealty - which came out in March. I have not yet read it, as I am cheap, and it is expensive for me just yet.

i liked this book by itself and the "trilogy" as a whole. the world was interesting to me since it had so many modern features, like integrated military units, rule of law and evidence, and effective medical treatment. not just magic based, the sanitation standards seem hundreds of years ahead (i think we had six shooters before we had "wash your hands before cutting a guy's leg off").

i like paks for her desire to fight but also for her growth into a veteran while retaining her goodness.

I've only read the first one but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I certainly plan to read the rest of the trilogy.