The Physicians of Vilnoc

Penric and Desdemona (Publication order) #8

by Lois McMaster Bujold

When a mysterious plague breaks out in the army fort guarding Vilnoc, the port capital of the duchy of Orbas, Temple sorcerer Penric and his demon Desdemona are called upon by General Arisaydia to resurrect Penric’s medical skills and solve its lethal riddle. In the grueling days that follow, Pen will find that even his magic is not enough to meet the challenges without help from dedicated new colleagues—and the god of mischance.

“The Physicians of Vilnoc” is the eighth Penric & Desdemona novella, following about a year after the events of “The Orphans of Raspay”.

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Audiobook, Fiction, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Demons

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2020

About the author

Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children.

Her fantasy from HarperCollins includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife tetralogy; her science fiction from Baen Books features the perennially bestselling Vorkosigan Saga. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages.

Questions regarding foreign rights, film/tv subrights, and other business matters should be directed to Spectrum Literary Agency, spectrumliteraryagency.com

A listing of her awards and nominations may be seen here:

http://www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bu...

A listing of her interviews is here:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

An older fan-run site devoted to her work, The Bujold Nexus, is here:

http://www.dendarii.com/

Reviews

[PamG · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold is the eighth book in the Penric and Desdemona series. Bujold brings great characters and world-building to this suspenseful fantasy. Penric (Pen) is a temple sorcerer and shares his body with a 200-year-old chaos demon he has named Desdemona (Des). In return, Des gifts him with powers as a Temple Sorcerer and the knowledge she has gained over her lifetime. A mysterious illness breaks out at the army fort guarding Vilnoc and General Arisaydia (Pen’s brother-in-law) asks him to use his medical skills to aid the sick. Is it a contagion or contamination? Can magic even help?

Pen and Des are a somewhat odd duo, but the interactions between them sets a great tone. Pen’s family dynamics are also evolving and it will be exciting to see how that grows in future books in the series. The characters are complex and definitely people you can root for and their goals and motivations are well-drawn.

The plot is suspenseful and generally fast-paced. The prose is well-written and entertaining. Bujold does a great job of world-building and this book is no exception to that. Some readers may have a problem reading about a potential plague with everything that has happened and still is happening with Covid-19. However, I was immediately drawn into the situation and was trying to help Pen solve the cause of the illness. Can it even be cured? What is its source? Will Pen succumb to the illness?

While this short novel (or long novella) doesn’t have as much in the way of action as most of the author’s books have, it is suspenseful and gives Pen a different type of challenge. It also shows how stressful the situation can be for medical personnel as well as those that are sick and their families. Additional themes include religious dynamics, family, collegial respect, superstitious fears, magic, fatigue, stress, and suspicion of those that are different from oneself.

Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable novel that reminded me once again why I enjoy reading books by Bujold, one of my favorite authors. I look forward to reading more of this series and recommend it to those that enjoy well-written fantasy. While the book worked for me as a standalone, it would likely be even better if the series is read in order. I recommend that readers start with book one of the series to get the most entertainment out of the novels.

Many thanks to Subterranean Press and Lois McMaster Bujold for a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently expected to be July 31, 2021. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

[Ben Aaronovitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last - like the sun brreaking through the storm clouds another small but perfectly formed Penric novella. Sigh.

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy my occasional forays into the wonderful world of Penric and Desdmona. This one was not a happy book although there were still many humorous conversations between the sorcerer and his demon.

A mysterious plague has broken out in General Arisaydia's army fort outside Vilnoc and Penric is called upon to use his magic to make the sick well again. It is a long, agonising struggle for him as more and more people get sick and he drives himself to exhaustion. At the same time he is trying to discover the cause of the disease and is missing his own family, unable to go home in case he infects his wife and baby.

Maybe this book is a bit less fun than the previous ones but it is still interesting and cleverly written and makes me want to go straight out and start the next one.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The case containing the tools of his third, no, fourth trade – after learned divine, sorcerer, and scholar – rested in a chest out of sight and preferably out of mind, but should he want them at all, they were of finer make than army-issue.

A Renaissance world, even an imaginary one like the Land of the Five Gods, is in need of a Renaissance man. Someone intelligent and dedicated to be the best he can be in the various fields that have captured his interest. Such a man is Penric who at a still very young age has mastered working with the multiple–personalities demon he named Desdemona, has caught the eye of the Bastard [patron of orphans and wanderers and wildcards], learned several languages and improved the process of printing his translations of manuscripts on medicine and sorcery. In his early training Penric was destined to become a doctor, but the demands this made on his body and on his mind led him to the point of attempted suicide.
Now, even as Penric is settled down with his family in the duchy of Orbas and marvelling at the perfection of his newly born daughter, he is summoned to pick up his medicine tools once again and to help his brother-in-law, General Adelis, deal with the outbreak of a mysterious illness at his camp outside the capital city of Vilnoc.
The man who has dedicated his life to helping those in need cannot refuse the call for help.

>>><<<>>><<<

I’ve said it before: speculative fiction, no matter whether it is fantasy or science-fiction, is a vehicle for looking at our social and personal problems from a fresh perspective. In this beautiful homage to the doctors, nurses and emergency workers who have sacrificed themselves in an effort to help us overcome a killing virus Lois McMaster Bujold sends Penric and Desdemona to fight an invisible enemy that is spreading in the army camp, an illness that progresses rapidly and leads to death in a large number of those infected. Penric uses Desdemona to try to reinforce the healing powers of the bodies of those infected. He is assisted in this by the young apprentice of the camp’s doctor, an elderly man who died himself from exposure to the infection.
While Penric sees some improvement in those he infuses with his ‘uphill magic’ , he cannot control the increasing number of those infected, who soon spread to the neighbouring villace and to the town of Vilnoc itself, where his own family might be exposed. Even with his usual balancing act of discharging the chaos accumulated by Desdemona by slaughtering vermin and even animals destined for the army kitchen, Penric is soon exhausted, overwhelmed by the odds. This is a painful reminder of why he gave up medicine the first time around.

“This is why medicine can’t be my calling,” said Pen dimly. “The demand is endless, and I’ve learned I am not. Only the gods can deal with all the world’s pain, all at once, all the time. It’s a wonder they’re not driven mad. Unless they have been, which would explain some things. Theologically speaking. Even a sorcerer can’t be a god, not all by himself. Although desperate people will try to make him so.”
“Nor can a physician,” sighed Rede.
“Aye.”

Some readers might consider this episode to be less exciting that previous ones, and understandably less prone to jokes and friendly banter between Penric and Des. For me though, this was as gripping and tensioned as the best of them, with its two-pronged effort to control the spread of the disease and to discover its root cause and the agent of dissemination. The willingness to do everything in their power to achieve this, no matter the personal cost they might have to pay, makes Penric and young Rede true heroes and role models we can all aspire to emulate.

The gods have no hands in this world but ours. If we fail Them, where then can They turn?”

Louis McMaster Bujold prose is as usual stellar in its unobtrusive elegance and in its emotional intensity. She has truly became a master of the novella form.

[Olga Godim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The endless parallels between the real world COVID pandemic and the epidemic in this fantasy novella, published in May 2020, is disturbing. Maybe that’s why I waited for so long before finally reading the story.
In the beginning, Penric is happy. His beloved wife loves him. His newborn daughter is flourishing. His studies and translations afford him the deepest scholarly satisfaction. His demon Desdemona has settled into a happy routine alongside with him, when this domestic idyll is rudely interrupted. Penric’s brother-in-law, General Arisaydia, needs his help in his capacity as a physician. There is an outbreak of deadly fever in the military fort Arisaydia commands. He asks Penric to ride to the fort with him and try to figure out the causes and the cures of the fever.
Penric’s struggles, magical and mundane, to contain the disease, heal his rapidly multiplying number of patients, and find the source of the killer malady fills most of this book. After watching the scary news about the pandemic, reading this fantasy is unsettling. It echoes everything in the news so precisely, you would think the author was prescient. I heard she wrote the story before the pandemic unfolded to its current global level. What did she know, I wonder, to be able to hit all the key horrors of the today’s grim reality in her short fantasy tale about demons and magic? Or maybe, she just proved, once again, that she is a very gifted writer.
A powerful and profoundly emotional story.

[Di Maitland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable enough but no where near as dramatic as I was expecting.

"Don't let him get in over his head, Des." "I'll do my best, love."

The most exciting thing to happen in this book happens on the first page. I therefore don't feel I'm spoiling things to say PENRIC HAS A DAUGHTER! This makes me SO happy. As does the fact that Des, or 2/12ths of Des, dotes on her as much as Penric does.

Given Penric's tough history with medicine, I had expected this book to be a heartbreaker, with Penric spiralling into depression and misery and drastic action required to pull him back out of it. I was rather looking forward to the drama. Sadly, Bujold did not supply. Aside from a very little strain towards the end, it all felt pretty tame. At least we met some new sorcerers and spent a little more time with Adelis. Silver linings.

I know its sacrilege to say, but I'm starting to feel I need a little more from these books. Gentle and sedate is lovely, for a while, but I need the action to pick up just a little more, or the interpersonal relationships to warm a degree or two. I'm definitely not going to stop reading, and I'll always love Penric and Desdemona, but I think the sparkling shine has worn off.

[Lorelei · Rating 5 out of 5]

From almost anyone else, I don't think I could read a story about a plague right now. Especially not a story about medical personnel pushing themselves way past a reasonable effort and like, being surrounded by death, etc. But I will take all the Penric and Desdemona I can get. I will also take all stories I can get about competent people who actually give a damn about doing the right thing being in charge.

This is the sort of story that you know will have a happy ending going in (I couldn't handle a plague story without a happy ending right now, even from Bujold), but everyone works hard for it, and it feels totally earned. The important question isn't "will Penric stop the disease?", it's "how is it spreading, and how will Penric stop the disease?"

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first-rate new (2020) Penric & Desdemona adventure, this one a medical mystery: a detective story about working out the source and cure for a mysterious new disease. All served up with Bujold's usual style & flair. Strong 4 stars for me. If you would like a review with more detail, I'll refer you to Lata's: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But really, Bujold's name on the cover is likely enough to sell you on reading the book, a long novella. I happened to read the Subterranean Press hardcover edition, which as always was a pleasure to read, hold and enjoy. A class act from start to finish. Bravo!

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Reading Reality

I have been haunting Amazon waiting for this book to finally be available for preorder. I didn’t expect it to just become available, period, but it did. And I couldn’t resist diving into it immediately!

Also, the book I was reading – which is awesome and will be up later this week – I already know that it does not exactly have a happy ending. And while this one is about the progress of a contagious disease and has lots of not exactly happy bits in it – nor should it considering the topic – it’s part of an ongoing series and I could be pretty certain that the characters I’ve been following for 8 books now were going to live to get into yet more adventures another day.

The Physicians of Vilnoc is a story that feels like it is speaking directly to the current real-world crisis while still reading like it grew organically out of its setting and its characters. That’s a feat that speculative fiction, both Fantasy like this series as well as SF, are able to do when they are at their best.

This is a story from a Grand Master of the field, in a Hugo-award winning series. As expected, it does an excellent job of both telling its own particular story AND providing insight into the world its readers are living through. Even if you don’t want to see the real-world applications, it’s a damn good story.

And if you do, it’s even better.

Vilnoc is the place where Penric, his demon Desdemona, his wife Niklys and her brother General Arisaydia have come to rest and settled in after their journeys so far in this novella series. (Start with Penric’s Demon and settle in for a wonderful but not overly long ride.)

As the story opens, Penric is explicitly NOT one of the physicians of Vilnoc or anywhere else. He’s capable of being one, he’s even done it before. And that’s precisely why he doesn’t do it now. He literally does not know when to quit. The last time he tried practicing medicine, it was in the midst of a deadly epidemic and he used himself up to the point where he felt like the only way to escape all of the death that surrounded him and that he couldn’t seem to stop was to kill himself.

So he’s beyond reluctant when Arisaydia, now the local garrison commander, shows up at his door asking him to come back to the garrison and pick up his medical practice. In yet another life-threatening crisis.

A disease is going around the barracks, and it’s not any of the many, many usual things that go around. The garrison’s chief medic is overwhelmed and dying himself of this unidentified disease that absolutely no one wants to label as a plague. Even though it is.

And Penric, who never knows when to quit and can’t refuse his brother-in-law any aid that he has within his power to grant, rides off into hell.

He can’t come home until he’s certain that he has figured out what the disease is and eradicates it. He can’t bring an unknown contagion back to his wife and his infant daughter.

He doesn’t recognize the disease, and neither does Desdemona. He has little help and no time to spare. He’s fighting a losing battle with no idea of who, or what, makes up the opposition forces.

But he has to try. And he has to succeed before it overwhelms that little town that holds his family.

Escape Rating A: I love this series, and have from the very first book, Penric’s Demon, in 2015. It was a beautiful and completely unexpected revisit to the world of the author’s Chalion series, which I also loved. But Penric’s adventures are terrific as well as set on a much smaller scale than the usual doorstop size of an epic fantasy. Each is a gem, but they are better read in order. Luckily it is not necessary to go back to the original series, not that it isn’t lovely in its own right. But Penric’s story feels like it introduces the world enough to get new readers going, and it builds marvelously as it goes along.

Desdemona is the demon who lives within, or rides, Penric. She’s not a demon in the theological sense, she’s more akin to a Trill symbiont from Star Trek. Only not quite as old, I think, as Dax.

But two of Desdemona’s previous riders were physicians, as was Penric himself before he burned out. Which doesn’t stop him from answering the call yet again. And it’s his work as a physician in this story that provides its heart as well as its resonance for 21st century readers.

Because the contagion that Penric has been called in to identify and treat – although not necessarily in that order – is a medical mystery. As Penric begins walking, then wading and eventually nearly sleepwalking through endless rounds of healing an ever-increasing and ever-spreading number of patients, he knows neither what the disease it nor how it is spread. It is all that he can do to keep treating the sick.

He’s isolated and alone. Scared that what he is doing will not be enough. Desperate to find a cure – or even just to figure out how it is transmitted so that some prevention can be undertaken. And it’s difficult not to see parallels between the current situation in hospitals and the self-quarantining of first responders and Penric’s desperate situation.

On the one hand, once Penric does figure out where the disease is coming from the solution is easy albeit not painless. Whereas we are in the situation where we now how the disease is transmitted and we can enact containment strategies – we just don’t know how to stop it in its tracks.

But in Penric’s search for answers, it’s easy to see just how difficult the task is, both for him and for us. Penric does get his “eureka” moment, he does figure out both the questions and the answers. There is a happy ending for him and the other characters we’ve come to follow and care for – but there was a cost and it was not a small one. Lives matter.

So, for readers that want to see our present in this fantasy world, that interpretation can make this story richer and more meaningful. But if you’re just in it for a cracking good story and a fascinating medical mystery, that’s there as well.

I’m always happy to ride along on Penric’s latest adventure.

Before I finish this review, I have one final bit of wisdom from a 200 year old demon to share with you. It’s something that is just as valid in our current crisis, or even just in everyday life, as it is during the crisis that Penric is contending with, “Don’t borrow trouble. The interest rate is much too high.”

[Sha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot: Sorcerer-Priest and ride-along demon deal with a plague.

1. My favourite plague ft. magical cures book is The Healing in the Vine (aka Briar's Book), which goes really into the nitty-gritties of quarantining measures and vaccine research. The Physicians of Vilnoc doesn't go quite as deep, and most of the story is focused on finding the cause of the plague more than the logistics of the containment measures, but it's still a lot of fun.

2. I did surprise myself a little by getting upset at a few of the scenes, not because of the scenes themselves but because of the IRL analogues. Turns out I'm not as blase about Covid-19 as I pretend to be who knew. (Keep your masks on, folks.)

3. I love it when a fantasy book goes "yes we have magic, and yes it is helpful in this situation but it's not as helpful as you think it's going to be and HERE'S WHY" because that, my friends, is stellar worldbuilding. It's integration of the overall magical structure into practical economics. It's building a society and social consequences from the ground up and not focusing solely on the royalty and the aristocracy. And again, this book doesn't go into it quite as much as I'd like, but it was definitely a significant part of the story.

4. This reads more like a mystery than anything else. Pen (and Des) collect information, collate it with the help of their colleagues, rule out methods of transmission and just generally keep plugging at things till they get answers. It's all very practical and down to earth and I love it.

5. Pen is as delightful as he always is, but I'm saddened we didn't get to objectify him quite as much as we usually do. (I am a simple woman with simple needs and people sighing over Pen being pretty is one of those needs.) Des has never ceased to be a delight ever. I didn't get to see as much of the extended Arysaydia family as I wanted to, but we did get a couple of really lovely new characters I immediately adopted because (a) Rede is a harried researcher who used himself as a test subject how can I NOT love him and (b) Dubro named the demon he got from his dog after his dog and I think everything about that is just adorable in like ten different ways.

6. ANYWAY like all Penric books this one was far too short (which is to say, it was a complete story but I could easily have devoured a couple of hundred more pages of this) but it managed to make the world seem like a brighter, lovelier place while I was reading it. And that is an absolute boon in these interesting times.

[lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was hesitant to read this for a long time because i vehemently hate medical stuff, but once i started it, the power of comfort instilled in this series subdued that aversion handily. the details of the plague were sparse and not particularly grisly, and Pen reminds me not at all of the american healthcare complex. it was yet again lovely to read about him and Des doing their best.

[Kaia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really need to slow down reading this series because I'm going to run out soon, but I just can't stop. There is something about the stories and the audio narration that are so comforting, even this one, which was a bit more stressful due to the peril of an unknown disease.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet surprise. Another delightful Penric story. In this he and Desdemona investigate the origins of and discover a treatment for a mysterious plague. They do contact tracing, and try to isolate the infected from the uninflected. Of course they catch a break when it turns out that the vectors for this plague are horses and a small blue fly, not other humans. Still enjoyable if a little disconcerting at times.

[Laura (Kyahgirl) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5; 5 stars.

I just love this series. LMB is such a talented writer of fantasy. I think it comes down to the amazing characters she creates. Its not necessary to have read any of the other books in the World of the Five Gods but it definitely helps with understanding the context of demons and the people they ride.
This one was particularly good with unknown plague and sense of racing against the clock.

Grover Gardner is excellent as always.

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Squeeeee!

More coherent review to follow, eventually.

ETA 7/18/2021: Just received the hardback edition
( );
of course I needed to re-read it.
There's a mysterious disease running amok at the military base outside Vilnoc and Penric's brother-in-law, General Arisaydia, drags Pen from his cozy home to help the fort's doctors. What follows is a thoughtful (and very timely) tale of the toll a seemingly hopeless medical fight can take on the physicians involved.
I have lost all ability to be impartial re: Bujold's Penric stories. I have become invested in the characters, and their world; I treasure every visit that Bujold's imagination grants me.

[Chloe Frizzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first "written during the pandemic about a pandemic" books I've found that was hopeful (instead of depressing).

[Maia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately this is the weakest of the series so far, but the next one is a full length novel instead of a novella so I'm excited to see what happens next!

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pen and Des are urgently required by their brother-in-law to treat a mysterious illness amongst his soldiers. Pen is marvelling at his daughter prior to the summons, amazed by all that Nykis and he have together.
Pen works with the army’s young doctor frantically using Des’ skills and abilities, while more soldiers keep contacting the illness, and reports come in of people in the surrounding area also falling sick.

We get a sense, over the course of this story, of why Pen had to stop working as a doctor years earlier: he drives himself too hard, and because of his successes, only sees the most sick and dying patients, wearing himself, and Des, down.

Pen’s search for the cause of the illness is interesting, considering there’s no such thing as epidemiology or bacteriology in this world.

I liked the other Temple Divine we meet, elderly Dubro, whose demon was in a weasel, then most Dubro's dog Mosca, and how Pen is planning for Dubro's demon's future, and for Adelis' army doctor's future.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've liked all of the novellas in the series and this one is no exception. In the previous stories Penric's successful/disastrous brief career as a physician is something that's been a significant part of his background but it's more of a focus here than in the other stories. It's also a bit more introspective than many of the other stories as Penric wrestles with the fact that he's very good at something that's terrible for his mental health, which I think gives an extra depth to his character. Bujold's stories usually feature memorable supporting characters and there a couple of good examples here. Bujold has always been fond of a mystery plotline, but this one is a bit different as Penric and his fellow physician try to uncover the reason behind a mysterious plague in an army camp.

There are definitely moments where the story is unintentionally topical, it's hard not to feel something when the characters are trying to figure out how the disease spreads and are relieved that it can't be by coughing or it would have spread much faster. I don't know if this will be to everyone's taste right now but I think this could be the perfect time for a story about people managing to overcoming a deadly outbreak by ingenuity and determination.

[Chip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not enjoying the Penric novellas anywhere near as much as the Five Gods novels - I think largely because, certainly by this point, they lack suspense of any kind. Everything will work out fine, and quickly so. So, the novellas are ok, but only that - nowhere near Bujold at her best.

[Ay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a perfectly fine book to read, even though the pandemic is messing with my head.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely story of a contagion that is hard to unravel with a look at the issues facing physicians

[Adina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really can't understand why I postponed these for so long, they are wonderful.

[The Captain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

The Penric and Desdemona novellas take place in the World of the Five Gods from the trilogy of that name.  Book one of the trilogy, curse of the chalion, is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read and I really enjoyed the remaining two.  Penric, a sorcerer, and Desdemona, his chaos demon, are a fantastic duo that I ADORE.

In 2020, these novellas were republished in a two-book omnibus set.  The first omnibus contained novellas 1 - 3 in the internal chronological order not publishing order.  The second set had the novellas 4 - 6.  I normally read in publishing order but have to admit that I strongly feel this series should be an exception if ye be new to it.

This novella is number 8 and it contains slight spoilers for other books though it can be read as a standalone.  This story follows Penric and Desdemona as a local garrison falls ill with a mysterious illness.  Aye, it be a plague novel.  But don't let that get ye down.  As always, it is a joy to read about Penric.  Though this book has sad parts, ultimately it is a comforting type of fantasy.  Bad things happen, even magic can't solve everything, and yet working towards the greater good is always worthwhile. 

This book does not have an action filled plot like some of the others but was satisfying.  I loved the two newer characters and I loved the ending.  I am biased because I will read every book put out in this series.  But try some of them.  Ye might join me.  Arrrrr!

[eyes.2c · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deadly mystery!

Newly minted father Penric is not happy to be taken away from the wonder of his delightful baby daughter, Florina. When something unusual happens he’s resigned to the demand. A mystery illness spreading amongst the personnel at the army fort in Vilnoc has Temple sorcerer Penric with his demon Desdemona called to investigate at the request of his brother-in-law, General Arisaydia. Penric finds himself in the midst of a plague, working alongside the army doctor, needing all his medical skills to combat the deadly foe. His calls for help from the Temple for extra sorcerer physicians leads to an interesting result. The cause of the plague is hidden in mystery, although when revealed it’s no surprise. (The whole quickly transmitted disease, a story down through the ages, runs a bit close to the bone given the current situation !) Penric moves forward from the formidable and solid foundation that grounds him to face a different challenge. Another great addition to the Penric canon.

A Subterranean Press ARC via NetGalley

[Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not my favorite of these novellas, I cannot argue against how good it is.

In this episode, we see Pen and Desdemona putting on their 'scrubs' and going back to their medical roots when a horrific plague begins spreading around the city where they live (and where Pen's wife and infant live as well).

Again, this is a very good mystery story, along with Bujold's always great characterization and prose.

I just, personally, don't love stories about plagues or epidemics (PTSD from Covid, I am sure).

Still - World of the Five Gods remains an incredible series that I highly recommend!

[S.J. Higbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes… it’s all about a mysterious plague! Apparently Bujold was working on this late last year and into the early part of the new year. I was a bit concerned that it would be too close to home – but I decided to make a start on it and if I found the storyline was all about social distancing and quarantining, I could always DNF it and wait until this crisis passed. In the event, I was immediately pulled into the story by dear old Penric, whom I LOVE and didn’t stop reading until I was finished.

I would suggest that if for some reason, you have encountered this offering without having read any of the other books, do at least take the time to get hold of Penric’s Demon. The original adventure sets up the lovely premise running through this series, and while I’d suggest you then work your way through the rest of the novellas on the grounds that it seems a real shame not to read such a cracking series in the right order, you certainly won’t flounder too much. Bujold is far too accomplished a writer for that to happen – and the manner in which she has nailed the novella form proves it. The pages simply turned themselves…

I had been initially concerned that the final scenes of this book would prove unsatisfactory, as like everyone else these days, I know far too much about what a tricky business it is to come out of an epidemic. But I hadn’t taken into account that Bujold knows her way around medical matters sufficiently well to bring the whole crisis to a satisfactory conclusion, including a couple of really nice touches along the way. As ever, a cracking read from one of our most talented SFF authors alive today. Highly recommended for anyone with a pulse, who enjoys an engrossing story that won’t take up a huge slice of life to get through it.
10/10

[Stephen Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella written about a pandemic. Penric and of course Des, are enlisted by his Brother in Law to help with a sickness that is spreading amongst the nearby Fort's inhabitants. As the population of the sick increases Penric seek help from others. Another solid Penric and Desdemona tale

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was going to turn dark, considering that it’s about an EPIDEMIC...but no, the author turned it in a benign direction. She also trots in one, possibly two likeable new characters. It’s all to the good. It may be time, though, to give Pen a SERIOUS challenge as the last couple three haven’t really tested him all that much. What say?

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little too on point to read about a pandemic during a pandemic but a new Bujold is always cause for celebration, especially when it continues the story of Penric.