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Elizabeth Moon’s Legacy of Gird is a pair of prequel novels to her Deed of Paksenarrion series. They’re something of an odd pair: the two books have some significant overlap in time, and while the first one is easy to read independently, the second one has framing that happens after Paksenarrion, and makes it partly dependent on that series. I enjoyed both, but they don’t have a lot of the appeal of the original books.

Surrender None is the story of Gird, told from his point of view. It is the story of the peasant rebellion that would establish the grange system and society seen in the later Paks books. Gird is some sort of ill-defined saint/demigod centuries later, but now he is a simple peasant, until the slow squeeze of the lords forces him (and many before him) into outlawry/rebellion.

As such, it is well told, using a very episodic structure. Various subjects and challenges are brought up, and confronted; while the fighting itself is important, it never crowds out the eventual challenge of building a system to replace the one being torn down.

Liar’s Oath overlaps the last section of Surrender None, from the viewpoint of Luap. For the most part. Scattered throughout the book are a few chapters from the viewpoint of two proto-paladins, which also provide most of the action/adventure of novel, with the rest being politics and personal relations. In general, I liked the bulk of the book, but it ends instead of resolving. The framing with post-Oath of Gold Paks (or really, Phelan) becomes a space-time wedgie that cuts off the ending of the book.

This makes it obvious that the point of the book is to explain what was found in the abandoned fortress of Divided Allegiance, which it does, but that also undermines the structure of the book. Liar’s Oath has enough burdens without this, as Luap never comes across well enough to make a good main character, but it is obvious that this is a foundation for the Paladin’s Legacy series (which I will need to get to).

This is part two of two of Hogarth’s Godkindred Saga, and I wish I’d leafed through the first book again before reading it like I had planned. This is so tied to the first book that after a short prologue it picks up with chapter 27. So, yes, do not pick this up without getting the first book (and conversely, don’t pick it up without this! it is one story in two covers).

That said, it’s an excellent book. There is a bit of change in direction at the very beginning, avoiding the action that was promised at the end of the first part. Past that, it follows on very naturally, and continues to explore a number of themes, including colonialism, loyalty and religion.

I really like the world she’s set up here, and while it would be possible to see other stories set here, I get a feeling that this will be it. It is set up to explore certain ideas, which this story then does. The long denouement not only shows the break up of the group that had assembled as they go their separate ways to rebuild the political world, but explains those few things that were inexplicable. With ‘reality’ as well defined as it is at the end, it seems this setting has done all that Hogarth has intended.

But while the world is bounded by the story and vice versa, it is about people. The characters are all well-realized, especially the viewpoint character of Angharad.

The one problem I do have is that the physical descriptions are a bit lacking. There’s a great variety of species, with a large number of cross-breeds, and it can be hard to put together a comprehensive picture of what some people look like easily (the author’s art is a big help here).

So, don’t get either book without the other, but do get them!