The Spirit Ring

I feel this book a bit underated. May not be the kind of book I'd like to reread, but it's imaginative and well done. I think it suffers from comparisons with Bujold's other books. I don't agree with those who say this is her worst book, although it comes early among her works and I think Bujold's

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one of those authors that got stronger over the years. Nevertheless, I like this more than say Ethan of Athos or Falling Free in her Vorkosigan series or The Hallowed Hunt in her Chalion series. But it's true that I don't find the characters in this book as vivid and complex as Miles in the Vorkosigan series or Ista of Paladin of Souls or Dag of Sharing Knife. It's also the one novel of Bujold's to date that's a standalone.

And it's the rare historical fantasy--which is a lot of what I like about, but is a departure from the Space Opera of the Vorkosigan series or High Fantasy of Chalion--or Sharing Knife with it's feel of the American frontier of perhaps the far future. The Spirit Ring is recognizably set in late 15th century Renaissance Italy. The time of Lorenzo Medici, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. It's not set in Florence or Rome though but the made-up small dukedom of Montefoglia in a world where white magic is sanctioned and overseen by the Church--and black magic is a real danger. A world of mage-artisans who can make magical rings. And the heroine, 15-year-old Fiametta Beneforte, is the daughter and unofficial apprentice of such a master mage. Then the duchy is imperiled by black magic and that's where Fiametta--and the young miner Thur Ochs--must take risks to free it and those they love who are are at risk of their very souls.

It's a well-written and obviously well-researched work and I very much enjoyed the read.

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Fantasy set in Renaissance Italy. When Fiametta attends a banquet with her father, a master mage and goldsmith, she witnesses a violent coup. She flees -- and meets Thur, a guardsmen’s younger brother, who is coming to Montefolgia for an apprenticeship.

This was published in 1992, when Bujold had

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already published half a dozen Vorkosigan books and won a few Hugos -- and I love her first, unarguably less-polished, novel -- so I wasn’t expecting this to feel so, well, rough by comparison. That said, bits of it still shine! The plot makes every detail count, the final confrontation is memorable and I liked the characters. And it was interesting to consider this as a precursor to Bujold’s World of the Five Gods.

(A thought: Bujold’s strength lies in writing women who have experience, rather than fiery-but-sheltered teenage girls.)

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A great story. A wonderful character in Fiametta who is a strong-willed daughter of a magician-goldsmith whose father doesn't want her to be an apprentice, more because of her gender than any ability. So Thur Ochs is recruited as his apprentice, however evil magic gets in the way and they have to

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work together to defeat the evil and free her father's soul.

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This is a solid and workmanlike piece of fantasy, which suffers mainly in comparison to Bujold's other works. Bujold usually builds clever and original worlds: this story is set in a medieval Italy where the Catholic Church regulates all magic. I think I've read that one before. Bujold excels at

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bitter, wounded, world weary protagonists (Miles, Cordelia, Ekatrin, Ista, etc.). These two are mere innocents, and the books consequently lacks the quirky charm which is her trademark. It also suffers from the inevitable romance problem. "Hmm, it seems we're the only two people the author is really paying attention to. Do you think we ought to fall in love?" This is particularly disappointing since Bujold has never done this to me before. I rate it sturdy and serviceable, but not exceptional. Worth rereading once.

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A well realised magic system that draws on traditional and contempory thinking combines with the authors ability to write engaging characters and plots that move at a fast pace.
It lacks the inconistancies that occasionally marr her SF. I suspect the extra effort she made to keep the magic

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consistent showed benefits throughout the plot.

one of my favourite books by her.

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Fun, Fast Read!: Fiametta Beneforte wants nothing more than to be a great mage like her father. Well, she would also like to be more beautiful and have the handsome Captain of the Guard Uri Ochs fall in love with her, but she really wants to be a master goldsmith/mage. Unfortunately, girls simply

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don't practice trades like men do and her father has never made her an official apprentice, though she does know quite a bit of metalworking. Her father just completed a beautiful engagement gift for the Duke of Montefoglia and Fiametta is thrilled to learn that she will be able to accompany her father to the feast where it will be presented. However, when Fiametta sees the Duke murdered by his soon to be son-in-law, Ferrante, her life suddenly changes. Prospero Beneforte, Fiametta's father, is able to get her out of the castillo and escape, but they are followed by some of Ferrante's soldiers and Prospero dies. Fiametta keeps heading to the border with her father's body, but she has no idea what she will do. Then she meets Thur Ochs, Uri's younger brother, and they contrive to return to Montefoglia and ask for Abbot Monreale's help. For, Ferrante is no ordinary soldier, he wears a spirit ring fashioned by the dark magic of Vitelli, where the spirit of his dead daughter resides and gives him power. Ferrante pursues Fiametta and steals Prospero's body to make a new, more powerful spirit ring. Fiametta is frantic to recover her father's body and have him buried in holy ground, but her face is well known in Montefoglia. So Thur goes in to the castillo as a spy to try and find out all the information that he can. There he finds much evil for, not only does the dark sorcerer Vitelli plan on making a spirit ring for Ferrante, but he plans on using Uri's spirit to make a ring for himself...The Spirit Ring is based in a quasi-medieval Italy with an interesting tangle of political and religious maneuvering among the duchies. I didn't like Fiametta at first because she is a spoiled brat, but she grew on me. I really enjoyed most of the secondary characters and Bujold's descriptions are, as always, superb. Bujold has a nice, smooth writing style and the plot was evenly paced, if a little predictable. This is a great book to give to young adults or first time readers of fantasy because there is little magic contained therein. A light, frothy, fun read!

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This is Miss Bujold so I enjoyed it a lot. It's not her best book by a long way but a swift, light read. If you just want a bit of escapist enjoyment, then it will not disappoint.

I like this neat Renaissance fantasy all the more for being self contained -- I grow weary of everlasting series. The heroine is a young biracial woman, which the author has said was the reason for the book's low sales.

A fun read after loving the Vorkosigan series. Exciting and intriguing, but ultimately not too much that's memorable.

Probably more like 2.5 stars. I've enjoyed some of Bujold's other fantasy and sci-fi novels but this one seemed a bit dated for me. Maybe it just reminds me of books I read when I was younger. Also having a young female protagonist made it feel more like it was for teen girls than 43 year-old men.I

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also tend to like fantasy better if it's NOT set in the "real world" it makes the magic and other fantastic elements more believable for some reason.

I like the ending climactic battle, but got bored a lot before that. I would recommend "The Curse of Chalion|61886" instead if you want to read something in the fantasy genre from Bujold.

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This tale could be cast in the mold of "plucky girl hero saves the world" but with our young heroine's rage and willingness to bend the rules to get what she needs, it's a strangely strong story that quietly breaks many of the rules we quietly have about stories told about young heroes and women.

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Here is a heroine who doesn't feel guilt or uncertainty about her power and intelligence and rages against having to hide it, who gets angry, who doesn't follow the rules and this doesn't lead to downfall and repentance but rather to success. This is a quietly subversive story wrapped in a traditional fantasy mold. Sure, it's maybe not the epics and maybe isn't as full-package clever as her later works, but it's a surprising gem for its genre.

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Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been hoarding her remaining books because I don’t really want to get to a point where I have no more new Bujold books to read. I succumbed to THE SPIRIT RING this week, though.

THE SPIRIT RING is a pretty straightfoward fantasy story

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set in Renaissance Italy. Fiametta’s life shatters when she and her mage/artisan father are caught up in the squabbles between two dukedoms, and now she has to find a way to free her town from the invading duke before he is able to use black magic (using her father) to cement his hold on it.

As always with Bujold, the characters have complex emotions and pretty much leap off the page. Fiametta is sad and very scared, but she’s also somewhat relieved by having to fend for herself, having constantly been judged as less capable because of her gender. She’s determined and stubborn, but realistic – she knows exactly how powerless she is as a multiracial woman without a protector. I liked that her story was told in a way that seemed historically accurate to the options that she would have in that time, but it did so without making Fiametta seem any less capable.

Fiametta’s father is another great character; he’s a true Renaissance man – master craftsman and amateur scientist (but with magic), flamboyant and selfish, definitely not the best father, but still very proud of his daughter. Every character in this book is just a person (another thing I love about all of Bujold’s work!), even the occupying “evil” duke and his black-magic using assistant are just people with their own hopes and dreams (albeit ones that are not good for the rest of society), and like most people, they’re usually pretty amiable when their life isn’t being affected directly.

Bujold is great at subtle romances – usually her characters just recognize a similar kind of competence in each other, and at some point realize that they should just join forces. THE SPIRIT RING does this, but with a healthy addition of Fiametta and Thur’s teenage hormones. Thur is fantastic, and his down to earth practicality matches Fiametta’s temperament very well. I’d love to read a book set a couple of decades later to see how they’ve grown together.

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Summary: Young Fiametta is the daughter to Prospero, the most famous magician/goldsmith in Montefoglia. Thur is a miner in Bruinwald, who, after a cave-in in the mines, is sent by his mother to seek apprentice as a metalsmith in the city. But before he gets there, the city is overthrown by

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Ferrante, who was originally betrothed to the Duke’s daughter. But the Duke is killed, and Ferrante now rules the city with the aid of the powerful magic – a soul entrapped in a ring and thus enslaved to him. Prospero, who dies in the aftermath of the coup, is now in danger of the same fate – Ferrante wants to claim his body, and thus his unshriven soul, for a spirit ring made of such a powerful magician would give him unprecedented power – and it’s up to a young girl and a untried metalsmith to stop him… somehow.

Review: I love Lois McMaster Bujold – she’s one of my favorite authors – but this book (one of her earlier efforts, I believe) didn’t entirely work for me. There are individual scenes that are quite good, and quite vivid – the cave-in in the mine early on, and the big confrontation at the end, in particular – and Bujold’s sense of humor is present throughout, although maybe not as pronounced as it is in many of her other books. However, I felt like there were a lot of elements to this story, and that they didn’t really all fit together satisfactorily. For example, the magical tricks of the priest, the bits with the Duke’s wife and daughter, Thur’s ability to find things, all of them played their role in the story, but weren’t as well developed or as organically integrated as they could have been. The love story between Fiametta and Thur, in particular, felt somewhat forced — I get that it has a magical element, but it went from “oh hey you’re the daughter of the guy that was supposed to give me work” to “you are my everything and I will gladly repeatedly risk my life for you” without Fiametta really having done much to deserve it (she’s on the youngish side, and kind of bratty to go with it.) Part of this might have been the narrator – she sounded really young, and I wasn’t overly impressed with her reading – she did an okay job distinguishing the characters, but her voice acting wasn’t great, and she mispronounced several words (things that someone should have caught, like “awl” or “draught”) that really broke the flow for me. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I read it because I’m a completist, and if (like me) you’re a LMB fan and you’ve run out of other books to read, this isn’t great, but has its good moments and kept me interested throughout. But if you’re new to Bujold, this is far from the best that she has to offer – try The Curse of Chalion or Beguilement for fantasy or Shards of Honor or The Warrior’s Apprentice for sci-fi instead.

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Lovely. I haven't read it in years (apparently, not since well before I was on LT - more than 10 years, at least), but it was quite familiar to me. Not details, but the general plot. Interesting setting - pre-unified Italy, broken up between dozens of competing and warring city-states - plus magic.

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Fiametta, the goldsmith/master mage's daughter, hasn't gotten a great deal of magic training but more than some people are comfortable with. When war comes and disrupts...well, everything...she and assorted allies come up with some creative fixes to deal with the invader and the mage who serves and drives him. As Fiametta points out near the end, it really takes the whole team to deal with all aspects of the problem, magical and physical. The romance is unusually sensible - it's a consideration, but unlike many such stories the action doesn't stop so the participants can wallow in the romance. A very rich, and clearly very memorable, story.

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Good story with interesting historical antecedents from an excellent author.