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The Curse of Chalion
Cazaril has had a bit of a hard life. He's a competent military captain - perhaps too competent - who has fought in every significant war of the past 20 years. And been on the losing side each time. In his most recent campaign, he held a fortress against besiegers for many months, till he and his men were reduced to eating rats and the besieging army was thoroughly annoyed with him. At the conclusion of that campaign, he was sold off as a galley slave - chained to his oar, being whipped for the slightest disobedience. The experience has left him a bit the worse for wear, but with a selection of good stories which he recounts throughout the book. When asked if he knows the local geography, he replies, "What I haven't ridden over, I've walked, what I haven't walked, I've been dragged across. Or through. I've had geography ground into my skin. And I've rowed round half the Archipelago at least." This could have been a really good book with a few more stories from Cazaril.
There's more than a bit of humor in the book. Miles' disability was such that it couldn't be laughed at, but Cazaril has the necessary self-humor about the hard times he's had.
At a loss as to where to go after his miraculous rescue from the galley, Cazaril returns to his boyhood haunts, where he is promptly employed as a tutor to a reckless young noblewoman. They are promptly thrust into a political mess, which turns out to be deeper and darker (of course) than either suspected. Cazaril has to safeguard his charge while unraveling the mess, saving the kingdom, battling evil, and all the usual troubles that a protagonist must contend with.
One highpoint of the book is a complex yet self-consistent religious system. Most western fantasy authors tend to use poorly camouflaged versions of christianity, or gloss over religion. The religious system in Chalion is nothing like any real religion that I know of, but well done - it's probably more consistent than most real religions.
If you enjoy the Vorkosigan books, you'll probably like this one. If not, probably not. Well, I guess there are some people who adore science fiction and hate fantasy or vice-versa, but aside from them... I had solved most of the plot by about half-way through, but one key detail eluded me until the very end. Although looking back, there were enough hints for me to have gotten it.
While I'm at it, I ought to mention another Bujold "book" recently released - Miles, Mystery and Mayhem. You might expect from the title that this would be a new Vorkosigan book. You would be wrong. This is one of those sneaky publishers' tricks, a book consisting entirely of several previously published works about Miles. One novel, one novella, and one short story, if I remember the word counts correctly. All of which I've read before. There was no indication of this on the online site where I purchased this book. There is no indication of it in the brief blurb from the publisher which most places use to describe the book. There is no indication of it on the cover of the book itself - ensuring that scans of the cover won't give away the ruse. I'm sorely tempted to return it, though I probably won't - I'll just read the next few Bujold books in paperback or from the library, until my irritation with this trick fades. Bujold and/or her publisher did all her readers a great disservice with this sleazy trick.
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Heh. Whoops. Someone ought to tell her publicist, too.