#148 in Fantasy
Paladin of Souls
- 456
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
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Our view
“Paladin of Souls” gives fantasy an unusual heroine: Ista, a widow of forty who slips her minders on a pretended pilgrimage. Bujold writes this former madwoman with elegance and wit, and Ista’s irreverence toward the gods is a large part of the book’s charm. Some readers who loved “The Curse of Chalion” find this sequel less profound, and note that it has more magic in it than the first novel.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Paladin of Souls is a 2003 fantasy novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It won the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards. It is a sequel to The Curse of Chalion, and takes place approximately three years later. The series that it is part of, World of the Five Gods, won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018.
Reading order · World of the Five Gods
Full order & progress →- The Curse of ChalionStart here
8.38.3 / 10 - Paladin of SoulsThis book
8.48.4 / 10 - The Hallowed Hunt
8.08.0 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.4 across 182 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 55% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 8.4 comes out. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 21 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 161 | 89% |
Frequently asked
How long is Paladin of Souls?
It has 456 pages — shorter than 63% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 8.4, the closest to this book.
