''The Deed of Paksenarrion'', ''The Legend of Paksenarrion'' or the Paksworld series is an epic

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

saga by American author

Elizabeth Moon Elizabeth Moon (born March 7, 1945) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel ''The Speed of Dark'' won the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award. Pri ...

. ''The Deed of Paksenarrion'' was originally published in three volumes in 1988 and 1989 and as a single trade edition of that name in 1992 by

Baen Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...

. The three books included are ''Sheepfarmer's Daughter'', ''Divided Allegiance'', and ''Oath of Gold''. ''Sheepfarmer's Daughter'' was awarded the

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to the year's best English language debut novel in the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres, as voted by its members. BSFS confers the award at their annua ...

by the

Baltimore Science Fiction Society The Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) is a literary organization focusing on science fiction, fantasy and related genres. A 501c3 literary society based in Baltimore, Maryland, the BSFS sponsors Balticon, the Maryland Regional Science F ...

for the author's first fantasy novel. A single-volume prequel about the life of Paksenarrion's guiding saint was published in 1990, followed by a sequel tying characters from both works together. A new series is set immediately after ''The Deed of Paksenarrion''; it includes five volumes, released in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively.

Publications

The original trilogy and the two Gird-related books were first published as

mass-market paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboar ...

s, before being collected as trade-paperback omnibus editions. The new series is being published in

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

''The Deed of Paksenarrion''

* ''The Deed of Paksenarrion'' omnibus (February 1992), hardcover (October 2003) # ''Sheepfarmer's Daughter'' (, June 1988) # ''Divided Allegiance'' (, October 1988) # ''Oath of Gold'' (, January 1989) :* "

Those Who Walk in Darkness ''Those Who Walk in Darkness'' is a novel by John Ridley, published in May 2003. It details the life of a member of an elite police task force in Los Angeles that hunts down superhumans known as mutant (fictional), metanormals. It was followed ...

" (March 1990) – short story set during ''Oath of Gold'', included in ''Deeds of Honor: Paksenarrion World Chronicles'', as well as in the collections '' Lunar Activity'' and ''

Phases Phase or phases may refer to: Science *State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist *Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform *Phase space, a mathematica ...

''The Legacy of Gird''

* ''The Legacy of Gird'' (published as ''A Legacy of Honour'' in the UK) omnibus (, September 1996) # ''Surrender None'' (, June 1990) – prequel to ''The Deed of Paksenarrion'' # ''Liar's Oath'' (, May 1992) – sequel to both ''Surrender None'' and ''The Deed of Paksenarrion''

''Paladin's Legacy''

# ''Oath of Fealty'' (, March 2010) # ''Kings of the North'' (, March 2011) # ''Echoes of Betrayal'' (, March 2012) # ''Limits of Power'' (, June 2013) # ''Crown of Renewal'' (, May 2014)

''Paksenarrion World Chronicles''

# ''Deeds of Honor: Paksenarrion World Chronicles'' – eight stories set in the world of Paksenarrion ("Point of Honor"; "Falk's Oath"; "Cross Purposes"; "Torre's Ride"; "A Parrion of Cooking"; "Vardan's Tale"; "Those Who Walk in Darkness"; and "The Last Lesson") (, June 2015) # ''Deeds of Youth: Paksenarrion World Chronicles II'' – seven stories set in the world of Paksenarrion ("A Bad Day at Duke's East"; "The Dun Mare's Grandchild"; "Dream’s Quarry"; "Gifts"; "First Blood"; "Mercenary's Honor"; and "Consequences") (, July 2023)

Synopsis

The ''Deed of Paksenarrion'' was written as one long story, but published as three separate books. ''The Deed of Paksenarrion'' revolves around the adult life of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, known as Paks, of Three Firs. It takes place in a fictional

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

world of kingdoms of humans, dwarves, gnomes, and

elves An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''. In medieval Germanic-speakin ...

. The story begins by introducing Paks as a headstrong girl of 18, who leaves her home in Three Firs (fleeing a marriage arranged by her father) to join a mercenary company. Through her journeys and hardships, she comes to realize that she has been gifted as a

paladin The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers (), are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of France, wh ...

, if in a rather non-traditional way. Paksenarrion works, fights, and sacrifices herself until she can see the rightful king of Lyonya established over the opposition of evil forces, or gods, and evil humans.

Film adaptation

As of December 2019

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

owned the film rights to the books and planned on production of a live-action feature film.

Reception and analysis

Suanna Davis discussed the series as one of the examples in her article on ''Representations of Rape in Speculative Fiction'', in the context of Paksenarrion's backstory as survivor of an attempted rape from a superior officer as a new recruit, an event that happened in the first book of the series. Davis argues that when the event is mentioned later in the book, Paksenarrion's (and the author's) reference to the event as "it" rather than directly as "rape" represents an example of "silence from sexual assault survivors" on this topic, "possibly due to the cultural codes attached to the word". Jennifer O'Sullivan discussed the series through the lenses of the

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...

, concluding that "her work is still largely restricted by normative notions of gender and heteronormative contexts and ideals".

References

External links

''The Legend of Paksenarrion'' at Elizabethmoon.com

''The Paksenarrion World Chronicles''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deed Of Paksenarrion, The American novel series Fantasy novel series High fantasy novels Novels by Elizabeth Moon