Best Quotes of LMB

My last post about The Sharing Knife books, has set my brain to whirring about the works of Lois McMaster Bujold. It is only with great discipline that I am stopping myself from pulling down my bookshelf of Miles and starting a massive re-reading of every novel. To satisfy my craving, I have pulled down Palladin of Souls so that I can share what I considered to be the finest of Bujold's writing. Hmm, how to set this up. In the story, a character has died and his soul has been prevented from traveling to the after-life as it should. This has caused grief to the god who wants to receive him.

The Father of Winter says tells Ista,
"...For my great-souled child is very late, and lost upon his road. My calling voice cannot reach him. He cannot see the light in my window, for he is sundered from me, blind and deaf and stumbling, with none to take his hand and guide him. Yet you may touch him, in his darkness. And I may touch you, in yours. Then take you this thread to draw him through the maze, where I cannot go."

Later, Ista delivers the message,

"Your Father calls you to His Court. You need not pack; you go garbed in glory as you stand. He waits eagerly by His palace doors to welcome you, and has prepared a place at His high table by His side, in the company of the great-souled, honored, and best-beloved. In this I speak true. Bend your head."

I cannot read those lines without a lump in my throat. So perfectly written, they choke me up every single time. Whew. If you haven't read Lois McMaster Bujold, you just don't know what you are missing.