The end of the four-volume Sharing Knife series, in which the romance / action plot, of mutual suspicions between two human cultures, equally threatened by an ‘orrible supernatural menace, resolves in entirely satisfactory manner, with much character-building wisdom being imparted to the foolish younger relatives. But I found myself a bit dissatisfied with Bujold’s use of the very rich background she has developed, for three reasons: first, the story got way further into the technical details of her world’s magical system than I was interested in; second, my niggling concern about the uniqueness of Dag and Fawn’s mixed marriage was actually exacerbated when it becomes clear in this book that it isn’t unique at all (which disintegrates some of the framing description in the earlier volumes); and third, I got the lingering feeling that the entire story is to an extent an attempt to positively reframe the history of interaction between white settlers and Native Americans (note that the Lakewalkers are magical and basically a warrior culture) – I am not saying that this is a necessary reading of the series, but I would have been more comfortable if some way of deprecating that interpretation had made it into the text.

Anyway, even problematic Bujold is entertaining enough, but I’m not sure how strongly I recommend the series as a whole.