Rating: 
Summary: By Gird, an entertaining story [no spoilers]
Review: "The Deed of Paksenarrion" is a trade edition of the trilogy incorporating "Sheepfarmer's Daughter", "Divided Allegiance", and "Oath of Gold".
"Sheepfarmer's Daughter" details the journey of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter from a young runaway to a successful mercenary in Duke Phelan's company. The story is rich and extremely detailed to a fault. Careful explanations of training and military formations command the storyline but when they are not fully utilized throughout the novel the details develop into moderate filler. Although I enjoy learning the rigors a character experiences from an unskilled novice to a respected veteran, a great number of secondary characters fill the story, enough to be overwhelming. I felt certain moments forced, especially one involving Paks discussing strategy with some leaders during a campaign.
"Divided Allegiance" continues the saga of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter as she grows in her understanding as a soldier and an individual. The even-tempered veteran soldier furthers her experiences outside of Duke Phelan's company, at times preoccupied with her fantasies and other times unrealistically naïve to the point of dimwitted. However, the events that develop her as a person are spellbinding, including some mysterious characters and extremely dangerous encounters. This chapter in her life was the slowest section to read.
"Oath of Gold" concludes the "The Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy with Paksenarrion's development into her childhood dream of becoming a great warrior. Powerful forces are at work to prevent such a thing from happening. The subtle layering of evil over the years is ingenious, the brutal behavior of the foes is gruesome, and the amazing revelations throughout and the ending is exciting. Paksenarrion's behavior can be reasonable and at times boastful; on the other hand my version of a hero may not be fair to the central character. Duke Phelan is my favorite secondary character and I would have enjoyed more information regarding his heritage.
I enjoyed the read. I believe a more detailed map is necessary and a glossary of locations and people would have been helpful. I would have liked more from the perspective of other characters. The divine powers and arcane magic involved are fairly distributed in the series, a world based on faith more than the arcane.
I recommend this series to any fan of the fantasy genre, especially the fans of divine powers.
Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad, Boring and Bloated
Review: A thousand pages of poor characterization, plodding plot development, and tedious, badly written battles--obviously the writer has never taken a single fencing lesson, and her ignorance shows. Worst of all is the inept world creation. Sadly, the author simply mimics the cliches she reads in other, equally bad fantasy novels and never really gets her own vision--if she has one--off the ground. A good fantasy world holds together because its creator understands how all its elements work; in contrast, Ms. Moon has simply thumbed through the Dungeonmaster's Guide and read half a dozen of those awful Dragonlance books. As a result, her world is patchy and threadbare, and the seams show where she's tried unsuccessfully to stitch it together. Plenty of bad books have redeeming qualities--good writing, a new idea, a splendid character or two. This has none of those, and wastes a tremendous amount of paper along the way.
Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing experience!
Review: As a veteran sci fi and fantasy reader, I was a amazed by the sense of realism and believability Elizabeth Moon instilled into the Deed of Paksenarrion. So many other fantasy stories just drop you in wherever, and expect you to take the magic, the powers and the different races for granted. In Paksenarrion, you see here growth for a frightened and rebellious youth, to a mighty Paladin of Gird. It was a new experience to see how a Paladin comes about, how normal people in fantasy worlds feel about magic powers and other races. I have never had another book move me to the same depths of emotion as the Deed of Paksenarrion. Like others, I stayed up all night, not being able to put the book down. I remember clearly it being about 4am that I burst into tears and sobbed for about 15 minutes. I was not the only time I cried in the book. I also laughed at times, and grew to love Paks and her friends. If you love fantasy books, then this is a must read. A hint though, don't read the second book of the trilogy until you have the third! It would be tragic to be at the end of the second book without being able to find out what happens. I don't know how many times I have read the books. I read the individual editions til the fell apart, and am now on to the joined edition. I pray for more books about Paks!
Rating:
Summary: The true Way of the Paladin is shown here.
Review: Capsule Description: A young woman who dreams of great adventures finds them -- discovering they are both less, and far more, than she had dreamed. Review: In one of my other reviews (Lord Valentine's Castle) I mentioned that even a dyed-in-the-wool adventure addict like myself can find that there are too many heroes out there. However, there are a few books which go beyond mere heroes to HEROES -- books with characters who define the very meaning of the word, who become themselves incarnations of the concept. Such is Paksenarrion, sheepfarmer's daughter who ran away to join the army and ends as a holy warrior, a Paladin. Much, perhaps most, of the fiction inspired by roleplaying games is at best uninspired and at worst utter drek. I actually avoided reading this series initially because it was recommended in roleplaying groups, and in roleplaying terms, so I thought it was just another of the many (uninspiring) fantasy series being published by TSR at the time. I could not have been more wrong. The Deed of Paksenarrion does, in fact, have its roots in roleplaying, but not in the usual sense. Rather than being written either as a sort of record of someone's favorite character in a game, or as a publicity/demonstration piece for some gaming system or mechanic, Paksenarrion was born (according to an email exchange I had with the author) from bad roleplaying: Elizabeth Moon, not gaming herself, heard some people playing "Paladins" (Holy warriors in the service of a god) and doing so very poorly. Her reaction was of course that "such a person wouldn't ACT like that"... and in thinking about what they WOULD act like, Paksenarrion was born. The Deed of Paksenarrion is a character study as much as it is an adventure, taking place in a world which seems almost mundane at first and only slowly reveals the magic and mystery behind it. "Paks" learns the art of war before she learns anything of the greater forces moving the plots behind the scenes, and it's a very long time before she understands the part she is to play. We learn to feel for her so that even as she becomes embroiled in ever-more fantastic -- and sometimes horrific -- adventures, we remember her as the earnest young girl who walked an entire day just to enlist in a mercenary company. And sometimes, she remembers that as well.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: Elizabeth Moon does a wonderfull job! I could not put this book down, I highly recomend this to any and all fantasy readers!!
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely wonderful read. Couldn't put it down!
Review: Having now read this book at least 3-4 times, I can clearly say that I enjoy it more each successive time I read it.Ms. Moon has created in Paksenarrion, a charactor who is completely believable, full of wonder and fears we can allcertainly relate to. She develops both persona, relationships and environs to a degree few authors ever truly master, engaging the reader fully in the story. She has a gift for mixing rational reality with myth and fantasy which I found most entertaining, while rarely having to suspend my ability to disbelieve. I definitely recommend the 3 volume book. It travels better, is in a large bound format, and you don't have to worry about juggling three books, or about having forgotten the next one when you finish the last volume. You certainly won't want to stop reading.
Rating:
Summary: Redundant and Generally Boring
Review: I found "The Deed of Paksenarrion" to be encredibly redundant in the story line. The auther kept putting the main character in basically the same situations over and over, and having her escape agian and again. I found I had to force myself to continue reading for fear of falling asleep. I think all three books could have been compacted into one 400 (at most) page book. I would not recomend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid but incomplete
Review: I found the Deed of Paksenarrion to be solid fantasy with a disappointing ending. To its credit, the details of military life seem quite realistic, as do the battle scenes. It has engaging plot elements, and interesting twists and turns. Unfortunately, it leaves several key plot points unfinished. Perhaps these were meant to be resolved in some future, unannounced sequel. A dozen more pages could have wrapped up those elements to make the book far more satisfying. Also, I found unnecessary repetition of elements a little tedious, with stories retold several times, though from different characters' viewpoints. Finally, I feel that the testimonial on the inside cover page, comparing Moon to Tolkein is an absolute sham; There is nowhere near the backstory, depth of character, or plot of the master. Still, it's not a bad read.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting Character, Good Adventure
Review: I greatly enjoyed the first two and a half of the three novels collected here. I don't usually like adventure fantasy, but here the mysticism, magic, elves (very tall guys), and such have minimal relevance (until the third book).
Paks is cut from the same moral cloth as Moon's space women, but is a country peasant in a "Middle Ages" like world; albeit one that welcomes women in the military. She is tall, strong for a woman, and totally uninterested in romance. Moon tells a good adventure story, and Paks develops into an interesting hero...er, heroine...in the first two books.
The magic gets too heavy half way into the third, for my taste, and Paks turns altruistic. She gains power and strength, much like characters in the old Dungeons & Dragons game; of which, there are other similarities, I understand. She even sacrifices herself to torture for the sake of others, Jesus like, though she doesn't die. But then, Jesus didn't effectively die either. I almost didn't bother to finish it. But the first two books are worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: World's best trilogy!!!!!
Review: I have read literally thousands of books[yes really] I love Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, Katherine Kurtz, Christopher Stasheff, Piers Anthony and many others but I have never enjoyed a trilogy as much as this one. I read them straight thru and then as I closed the last one I began reading them again 30 seconds later. These books are fast moving, adventurous, and moving. You come to truly care about the heroine and believe in her. I recommend this book to everyone. Even my teens love it!! Whether you read the stories individually or buy the 3 in 1 volumn expect to stay glued to your chair until they are over, and maybe over again.
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