Penric’s Demon: A new Five Gods story!
It's been ten years since Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my favorite authors, published a story set in her FIVE GODS fantasy world. This is the award-wining series that consists of The Curse of Chalion (2001, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award), The Paladin of Souls (2003, Hugo, Nebula, Locus Award) and The Hallowed Hunt (2005). I read these when they were first released, and I loved them, so maybe you can imagine how happy I was to hear that Bujold has written a new novella set in the same world. I listened to the audio version of Penric’s Demon, read by Grover Gardner. He has become one of my favorite narrators since I listened to him read most of Bujold’s VORKOSIGAN series. As expected, he does a great job with the narration of this four-hour long novella, and I am pleased to recommend this version to you. You don’t need to be familiar with the FIVE GODS world at all since Penric’s Demon stands alone. In fact, it’s a really good introduction to the three novels in the series. The novels, by the way, can be read in any order. Penric is a young nobleman whose family has lost its fortune. Penric would love to go to the academy to get an education, but instead his poor family has arranged for him to marry the daughter of a rich cheese maker. As he is on the way to secure the betrothal, he comes upon the caravan of an elderly woman who has had a heart attack. When he stops to help her, she dies and Penric falls unconscious. A day later he wakes up to learn that the old woman was a temple sorceress for the god who is also called “The Bastard.” She was hosting a powerful demon who jumped ship at her death and now resides inside Penric. Humans who host a demon may be able to use its powers to do magic, but a host who isn’t strong enough is likely to be overpowered by the demon. Now everyone is worried that Penric’s body will be taken over by the demon and none of his family or friends wants to touch him. This is bad enough but, in addition, there are other people who have evil plans for Penric and hope to use his misfortune for their gain. Penric’s Demon is short, so it doesn’t succeed on as many levels as the previous FIVE GODS novels do. The plot is simple and straightforward and, due to time constraints, the characters aren’t explored quite as deeply as we’d expect from Bujold. Still, though, the story is recognizably Bujold’s, with her imaginative world, interesting characters, exciting plot, lovely but succinct prose, and wry sense of humor. I enjoyed the story and was thrilled to be back in Bujold’s fantasy world.