The Curse of Chalion – Lois McMaster Bujold
On a rather different tangent to the Vorkosigan saga, Lois has written a trilogy of true fantasy novels, without a nerve disruptor or space craft in sight :>
The book opens with a man, travelling on foot on an important journey. It took me a while to really get into the book, but it is worth the initial investment.
The man is not as simple, or lowly as he appears, and his life has been full of betrayal, hard graft and omens of things to come.