The Paladin

Looking for a night in shining armor, a paragon of virtue and flawless character? An untarnished hero who is a beacon of light standing against the darkness? Look somewhere else. In a nutshell we have the main character, and exiled sword master from a china-like fantasy kingdom. A peasant girl whose......more

Moment of shame as I admit I have never read anything by C.J. Cherryh! I picked up a whole stack of her paperbacks from the used bookstore; I decided to start with The Paladin because the internet told me that it was a good standalone work. No lies! Now, it took me over a week to read this little st......more

Master Shoka (aka Lord Saukendar) fled the intrigues and betrayals of the Imperial Court nine years ago to live a hermit's life beyond its borders & (he thought) beyond its coils. Then Taizu, a peasant girl whose village and family have been slaughtered by vassals of the Imperial Regent, shows up at......more

I forced myself to finish this one because it counts for my WWE Women of Genre Fiction challenge, but I wasn't very happy about it. This isn't a great introduction to C.J. Cherryh's work, I think: it's a standalone fantasy-ish alternate history-ish story, which would normally be right up my alley. I......more

An intense but fun novel about a young woman in a Japan-ish fantasyland and her relationship with the retired swordsman who reluctantly trains her. Nowhere near as cliched as you might imagine, and full of marvelous training sequences. Not a fantasy except in the sense of taking place in a country t......more