Question The Deed of Paksenarrion

Has anyone else read this series? I was lucky to find a combined edition in a second-hand bookshop, and it sucked me in for two days.

To cut a long story short, I'm not a fan of Game of Thrones (I could only bear reading up to page 50 of book 1), but one of the things that that series had done that made it popular was subvert expectations. This series was published 8 years before that, and does that as well, and in better ways, in my opinion. It's heroic fantasy, with a large focus on military issues, but somewhat slow moving in many respects, and religious issues are actively intertwined with the narrative in a great way. Most other fantasy I have read either tries too much or too little familiarity with "the gods", and this has a very nice balance.

I've finished the original trilogy, and I'm busy reading "The Legacy of Gird" (a prequel/sequel), and it's just as unputdownable. The world-building this lady did is amaazing, but it was only possible for me to realise that as I was getting into this book.

One of my favorite books of all time. The final book of the series is a bit of let down, as she tried to close out every storyline.

She is also a prolific SciFi author.

I didn't know about the sci-fi part, thank you Once I am done with her fantasy work I will start there.

I do agree that she tried to do a bit too much in the last book.

This is, in my opinion, one of the best fantasy trilogies ever written.
From the first book about a young woman who wants more out of life than marrying a sheepherder and is thrown into a bigger conflict than would be expected of a company of mercenary legionaires (short sword and shield) to tackle.
To the final book in the trilogy that does not shy away from confronting protagonist and readers with some very difficult emotional and ethical dilemmas.

The characters are well written, likeable and flawed (but not obviously so, they just have the normal human failings). The world building starts out mundane enouch but over the course of the trilogy mixes in more and more of the fantastical and mythological to keep the universe fresh and surprising throughout. And the story arc of the protagonist is one of the, if not the, best ever written.

I wish somebody could convince Peter Jackson to direct another trilogy, because he could do such amazing things with this story.

A word of warning though. The prequel series (the Gird duology (?) is a classical tragedy, and the sequels are considerably less engaging. Not exactly bad (I do not think Ms Moon can write a bad book) but certainly not up to the extremely high standard of the original Paks trilogy.
Oh, and another word of warning. Do try to read all three books after another. You definitely do not want to have to wait a couple of years between book 2 and 3, trust me on that.

Valentine wrote: One of my favorite books of all time. The final book of the series is a bit of let down, as she tried to close out every storyline.

She is also a prolific SciFi author.

Yep.
Start with Hunting Party (the Serrano Legacy) and it gets still better from thereon. Chances are extremely high that you will adore Esmay Suiza
And you can pick up the Vatta's War series if you like military hard sci-fi.