| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low (Occasional mentions, but no scenes) Violence level: High (Well, what do you expect? She joins the army!) Back Cover: “Paksenarrion—Paks for short—is somebody special. She knows it, even if nobody else does yet. No way will she follow her father's orders to marry the pig farmer down the road. She's off to join the army, even if it means she can never see her family again. And so her adventure begins...the adventure that transforms her into a hero remembered in songs, chosen by the gods to restore a lost ruler to his throne. Here is her tale as she lived it.” |
The story arc here is about Paks' transformation from sheepfarmer's daughter to veteran warrior. There are lots of excellent adventures along the way, many of which will turn out to be important in later novels in the series, but for this book, the overall theme is the very popular one of growing up and becoming someone new.
But, heck, who am I kidding? You read it for the trouble with Korryn, or the journey to Rotengre, or Siniava's war. They're all exciting, well described, and satisfying. All that stuff about themes is just literary mumbo-jumbo, and I really should know better.