Book Review

Oath of Gold, Elizabeth Moon
A heroic saga with a happy ending in which none of my favorite characters die? I'm not sure how to feel about this... 😂
Just kidding, I know exactly how to feel - respect. Oath of Gold is the third book in The Deed of Paksennarion Trilogy and this last one ties all three of the books into a neat package. It was written with intent to be a trilogy, which sounds strange, but I read a lot of serials and from experience can discern when the first books were either meant to stand alone without any serious thought given to sequels, or sufficiently alone in case the publishers weren't interested in picking up a series. Neither is the case here. This book again continues Paksennarion's life where it left off in the second book having become a broken shell of her former self, lost and afraid of her own shadow. There's a lot of good psychology going on here as she finds healing and restoration through an old tree shepherd friend and finally is able to confront dangers large and small again. Then we see how the books are finding a focal point as she's able to take the second option of the two journeys she had a choice of in the first book. Both were necessary to achieve the final result which is not only her holy call to be a paladin knight, but her great quest as such to restore a lost king to his kingdom. All of this was hinted at in the opening of the first book and it's always satisfying to see the story come full circle. As you read the third book you can see the evolution of the lost king as well and how his story has unfolded. But instead of the lost king being the primary focal point of the tale, the story has always been, as I said in my review of the first book, Paks-centered. In that way, Paks is exactly the kind of character that I'm naturally drawn to - mentor to the hero who almost always dies. But in this case that character doesn't die because she's also the main character and the hero. Very clever. Damn clever. An interesting switch up of POV, for sure. And with all the other characters in the book, I was never really drawn to any of them but Paks, so it makes sense now. I'm very impressed.
Almost every review of fantasy books or series tries to compare them to Tolkien but there is, in fact, a legitimate comparison to be drawn in this case. Not only that it was laid out as a measured trilogy but also the deliberate parallels to real life without it being a bad copy of Tolkien's works. Tolkien staged an epic fantasy that worked out the broad themes of World Wars I and II with faith being central to the drive of the heroes. It was reflective of his life experiences. The Paksennarion saga is a fantasy on a smaller scale that explores the pressures and struggles of military life in general (I think I've said it with every book, but I'll say it again - military people would really enjoy these books, I think) with faith and playing a big part in dealing with the physical and psychological impacts as well as the drive to preform their heroic duties. And that's really the main point of the series instead of another Arthurian type tale of a lost king. It's reflective of Moon's life experiences in the Marines.
The recapping of story line is artful and well done from one book to the next. Since I got these books so close together within a year, I opted not to reread one before moving on to the next in each case and was still able to keep up. However the world built is a very detailed one and I wasn't able to retain every bit of information. Not a bad thing... I like highly detailed worlds. So after I'm finished with the rest of my new books that I got over Christmas I'll have to reread the three Paksennarion novels consecutively to get the full effect. And it's definitely a good book/series if I want to reread it.