Masquerade in Lodi

Penric and Desdemona (Publication order) #9

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Bastard’s Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi -- but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and a very unexpected saint of the fifth god.
This novella falls between “Penric’s Fox” and “Penric’s Mission” in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales.
Read by Grover Gardner

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery, Magic, High Fantasy

5 pages, Audiobook

First published October 14, 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

[Ben Aaronovitch]

God I needed this. Once again my only complaint is the brevity - I could cheerfully walked around the city for at least two days.

[Phrynne]

I allowed myself another dip into this wonderful series - I am rationing them now because there are only four left.

In Masquerade in Lodi Penric the sorcerer and Desdemona, his demon, are visiting Lodi. It is Bastard's Eve and the residents are celebrating but Pen and Des spend most of the time in the company of a saint, trying to find a lost merchant who has been possessed by a dangerous demon.

A lot happens in this short book as they rush around the city trying to find their target. When they eventually do so there follows a lot of fighting and a visit from a god. I loved every bit of it as usual - the humour, the world building, the beautiful writing and the great story. I wonder how long I can hang out before I read the next one.

[Barb in Maryland]

4.5 stars

Squeeeee! I have lost all semblance of objectivity when it comes to these novellas. Bujold always delivers a wonderful mix of mystery, adventure, and theology; all balanced with a clear and compassionate view of the humans involved. I always come away feeling comforted.

ETA 3 Jan 2022: Just re-read, because my hardback copy finally arrived.


I loved it, again! A fine way to 'read in' the new year.

[Algernon]

[9/10]

Desdemona is once again bored as her host, Penric, is spending too much time in an office, translating diplomatic letters for his new sponsor.

Busy work, sniffed Des. Make-work. A waste of our talents.

Penric is grateful to have exchanged the pervasive cold of Martensbridge for the humid, warm air of Lodi – a wonderful city of canals , palaces, commerce and gondolas in a lagoon. [I’ll give you three guesses for the source of inspiration in this]. The young temple sorcerer would welcome some peaceful interlude, after his career as a demonic healer in Martensbridge ended abruptly with mental burnout and depression. ( “A serious mismatch between soul and calling. Serious mismatch. It broke something.” ) . Des thinks her master needs something else to occupy his mind and keep him from brooding on that almost fatal failure. The case of a young man found almost dead and with his mind wandering in the middle of the sea seems like a good opportunity for both of them to escape the confines of the letter office.

As a creature of pure spirit, a demon requires a body of matter to support it in the world of matter.

Penric and Des realize as soon as they visit the young man in hospital that he is tormented by a demon he picked up while drowning. The demon itself is in an even sorrier state than its host after a series of failed or brutally interrupted ‘imprintings’. The chances of recovering either the man or the deranged spirit are extremely thin, and Penric needs assistance from a trained exorcist for this. In his religious order, a part of the Five Gods system prevalent across most countries, this would be the Bastard’s Saint for Lodi and environs. To his embarrassed surprise, Penric finds out that his needed Saint is Chio - a teenage girl from the Order’s house for orphans - and that she will also welcome a chance to evade from the careful eye of her Guardian and spend a night of adventure in Lodi.

“They give us great gifts, if they can be educated, and treated with understanding and respect. Like any other complicated thing of power and danger, which can kill you if misused. A water mill, a sailing ship, a hunting dog, a forge, a foundry – a human being. A pity and a waste when they are ruined.”

Penric and Chio return together to Lodi to find out that the young man has escaped from hospital and is wandering around city, on the eve of Festival Night, driven by a mad demon. Their quest becomes urgent both from the danger of the demon gaining ascendancy over its host and from what appears to be third parties interested in the young man and his mysterious accident at sea.

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

I’ve read this episode out of order, but it doesn’t really matter. The Lodi interlude helps clarify the reasons Penric left Martensbridge and introduces the reader to the wandering from place to place period of the temple sorcerer. It is a great opportunity for the author to expand the world with new vistas and new cultural references and to explore variations on the previous three plot schemes that relied heavily on the murder investigation template.
While there is a criminal investigation of sorts still present here, the true focus is the relationship between hosts and demons and the role the Gods play as arbiters of this symbiotic cohabitation. Strong characterization and moral quandaries have always been a feature of Lois McMaster Bujold writing, well supported even in this shorter form by lively action, clear exposition and a wicked sense of humour.

Pen tried not to let his mind be diverted by the picture of a demonic chicken.

To me, and probably to other hundreds of hardcore fantasy fans, this is a clear Easter Egg and a reference to an infamous scene from Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” series. Penric’s continuous troubles in controlling either Desdemona or the young women he meets during his adventures when it comes to feminist points of view is another source of amusement, something that will soon come to a head in the next three episodes in the series (which I have already finished).
For my conclusion of this excellent addition to a fascinating series, I will quote once again Desdemona, the multiple-personality demon, as she sighs with fond exasperation:

‘Have I mentioned I actually like your overactive imagination?’

[Mikhail]

Going to be honest, this feels like a bit of a dud compared to the previous novellas, especially the magnificent Orphans of Raspay. Still not *bad* (it's Bujold), but the central problem doesn't feel quite as pressing or the antagonists quite as dangerous.

[lucy]

i think i’m in love with Penric kin Jurald. i mean look at him on this cover—he’s so lovely. a nerd and a sweetheart. the only blond man to deserve human rights since Legolas Greenleaf.

it’s very funny when people do devious, evil things and only manage to amount to annoyances to him. both his traveling companions disappear at one point in an obviously nefarious turn of events, and Penric’s like ugh, i just bought us all kebabs tho. actually, i’m gonna eat all three now. as revenge. and he was sooo miffed when a guy stabbed him near the end, even though he can heal himself.

it’s also clear in this story that he’s been quietly but profoundly changed by grief, and yet he remains as unfailingly empathetic to others as ever. i’m a little sad we didn’t get to hear if anything came of his study abroad year with the shamans, and i’m VERY sad about what he went through in the intervening years since. medical trauma is so real; i am holding his hand in that.

[Lis Carey]

Penric, and his demon, Desdemona, are still relatively new in the canal city and seaport of Lodi, and his position as Archdivine Ogial's court sorcerer. When Penric is called to the Gift of the Sea charity hospice for sailors to see a "poor mad fellow" fished out of the sea by a fishing ship, whose problem might be of the supernatural kind, he finds, indeed, that the young man is demon-ridden.

While Penric is in the hospice physician's office discussing how how quickly they can get a Saint of the Bastard there to relieve the unidentified young man of his demon, the young man and the demon, alarmed by the visit from Penric and Desdemona, escape from the hospice. This makes a relatively simple, if unpleasant, task far more difficult. It's seemingly a good development when a woman and another young man show up--the demon-ridden young man's mother, and a friend, who was a shipmate on the ship the demon-ridden fell overboard from. More eyes, someone who can join the search knowing where in Lodi the young man, at least, might think to hide, etc. Penric also learns where to find the Bastard's Saint in Lodi. She's a young woman who grew up in the Bastard's orphanage on the Isle of Gulls, and still resides there.

The fact that all this has happened on Bastard's Eve, a night of revelry and partying in the streets, and a day and night Penric might reasonably have expected to have off, does not make things easier for him, or indeed for the Saint, Chio, whose birthday is officially Bastard's Day. Though truthfully, in addition to doing her job as the Saint, she's rather pleased to be able to get out on the town on Bastard's Eve, with less strict chaperonage than the orphanage would normally have allowed.

What follows has Penric and Chio learning new things about Lodi, the demon they're chasing, how Saints and sorcerers can work in relatively close proximity to each other (too close, and Desdemona would rather hide), and about that helpful young man who wants to help find and rescue his friend. And who may have an interest in the demon-ridden young man's sister.

It's a great little adventure, and a visit with Penric and Desdemona. Recommended.

I bought this book.

[Jukaschar]

I found this novella to be a bit less interesting than the previous ones. However, the author's writing is as good as usual, there's not anything to criticise stylistically.

The novella expands our previous knowledge of the festivities that are organised for the five gods and introduces a new location, the capital of Adria, Lodi, which is heavily inspired by Venice.
I really enjoyed the many female side characters that were part of the story. The relationship between Penric and Choi is also very interesting, with Penric providing friendly empowerment to Choi while at the same time underestimating her mental stability and life experience despite being much younger than Pen.

[Geoff]

Shows us a previously unknown time in Penric's life filling in some of the unknowns in both the world building and his journey. I love how Bujold has embraced self publishing e-novellas; there are nine in this series now and the journey as a whole is delightful.

[Maryel]

A Soggy Mess

As opposed to the generally fast paced, dramatic, and character-driven tales of Penric and Desdemona, this story is boring and plot-less. This should be a tale of recovery from Penric's near suicide. It should offer us a view of his growing friendship with his demon, not a short, meandering search in a boring town for a, frankly, boring demon. None of the characters were well drawn or deep. The demon ridden man was inconsequential. The saint, meh. If the author is simply cranking these stories out mechanically, I'm out.

[Tracy]

Delightful

Takes place over a night in Lodi (Bastard’s Eve) in Midsummer, as Penric and Des and Blessed Chio search for a young man ridden by a demon. After much wandering around Pen and Chio find the young man just in time. Really fun.

[Chloe Frizzle]

One of the best of the series!

[Oleksandr Zholud]

This is the fifth (internal chronology) volume of the Penric & Desdemona series of cozy fantasy detectives. I read it as part of the multi-month challenge to read all novellas in the series and this one was for September 2026 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.

Ten years passed since then-19-years old Penric was possessed by Desdemona and a memory of ten previous women holders of the demon. He is already a learned wizard. This case takes place in Lodi (a version of Venice, canals and locals crazy about boat races). After the death of his previous Lady, Penric is in the service of Archdivine Ogial. He is sent to check a madman, talking in tongues, who was recently rescued from the sea. Turns out that the man is possessed, but his ascendant demon has been through an unusually brutal chain of hosts: from a couple of birds to a small servant boy, whom another servant murdered to get the demon's powers and who, in turn, was punished by drowning (so that the demon was too far away to jump to any other human host). So the demon jumped into a dolphin and later into the madman overboard. Turns out that for ascendant demons, such a drop in complexity (from human to an animal) is extremely traumatic; therefore, the current holder is unhinged.

While Pen discussed what to do with the castaway, the madman ran away to an island city that is preparing for a festival. Now Pen has to find him, but first he visits the Bastard's Order chapterhouse and orphanage on the Isle of Gulls, an outlying island in the Lodi lagoon reachable only by boat, because to exorcise the demon, Pen needs help from the Order's saint. Turns out that the saint in question is an eighteen-year-old orphan Chio.

Relations between Penric and Chio are no less important than the main plot. They are both similar and different; both have to live with a powerful external influence – a demon in Pen's case and a god (Bastard) in the Chio's. They are set apart by this influence from ordinary people. So they banter and tease each other, even flirt, if one can flirt, clearly aware that it cannot grow into a romance.

A nice installment in the series, a bit less a mystery and a bit more romance without romance, for how can anything go between a demon-possessed and a saint, whose job is to cast out demons.

[Lata]

On Bastard’s Eve at Lodi, Pen, Des and the Blessed Chio must locate a missing young man whom, it is discovered, is unexpectedly ridden by a demon. Pen and Chio talk of much while wandering around, and thankfully, manage to rescue the man in more than one way.

Again, Bujold delivers a compassionate, comforting, and entertaining tale.

[Trent]

Another great entry in the Penric and Desdemona series.

This one takes place quite a few years after Penric's Fox. Penric is now in his late 20's and in Lodi (a city akin to Venice) working as a translator. As he goes out to celebrate the Bastard's Holiday, he learns of a crazed man who has been rescued out of the water and is being treated at the hospital.

The doctors believe he could be possessed, so Pen and Des are brought in to check him out. Before they can, however, the man escapes. The rest of the novel involves the mystery of finding the man, figuring out who he is, and what happened to him.

It's another charming little mystery that grows not only the characters of Pen and Des, but also this world.

[Maia]

For the first time since he faced down a Saint to beg permission for Desdemona to remain in the mortal realm, Penric has to work closely with a Saint once again. On the eve of Bastard's Day in the canal city of Lodi a man with a manic, ascendant demon is on the loose. Penric must find him, before the chaos of demon magic spirals completely out of control. This is a short one even for this novella series but I enjoyed it a lot as a carnival romp.

[Kaia]

I figured out the mystery aspect fairly early on in the story, but that did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. I'm enjoying spending a little more time in this world with its bite-sized novellas after finishing a very long audiobook.

[Sha]

13 Nov 2020

Plot: Sorcerer-priest and ride along demon accompanies a teenaged-girl demon-eater to go and hunt down a possessed man in fantasy Venice-ish.

1. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed this book is set earlier in Penric's life, without his entire set of gloriously weird and hypercompetent in-laws getting in on the act. But it's still Pen and Des and Bujold, Chio was an absolute delight, and so were Iserne and Ree. Most Penric books leave me longing for more stories about the supporting characters, and this was not an exception.

2. I LOVE the entire universe of the World of the Five gods so much? The theological system is so simple, and you still get so much mileage out of it. Every bit of expanded lore is just makes it feel richer and more lifelike. I now badly need to know what happens in Lodi to make it home to so many saints. Do they like, import them? Is it because this is set a century and a half (more?) before Curse of Chalion and saints have become less common over the decades? Is it early installment weirdness or Chalion maybe just doesn't have saints because of the Curse? I WANT TO KNOW.

3. The story is a pretty standard combination exploration of new setting, minor not-quite-murder mystery, and world-building expansion. It's still a fun read, mostly because Bujold is physically incapable of sketching out characters without imbuing every individual one with enough personality to drive an entire novella forward. I usually go into paroxyms of joy because her writing has zero purple prose and all the emotional weight of a meteor slamming into your head. Just-ugh.

4. Bonus points for a random guy mentioning what a pretty, pretty boy Penric is. Because I am the most basic of bitches and this is something that I hope for every time I hear a new Pen & Des book is out.

[Zan]

The first half of Masquerade in Lodi trends towards one of the better Penric novellas, with a great mystery setup in a Venice-alike during the heart of a celebration... unfortunately it's all over too soon. The twist isn't well set up enough to be poignant, and when it comes, it basically leaves a full third of the story to wrapping things up. It's nice to get a good denouement, even in a short story, but in this case it comes off as wrapping things up too neatly and ensuring we got all the details. Penric in particular is made more daft than usual in order to have characters explain things to him and.... eh? It's fine.

[Lorena]

5 stars just for the joy of getting to spend a little more time with Penric and Des, this time in the Venice-inspired city of Lodi. We meet a young saint, brave danger, and solve a mystery. It's a lovely world to visit, and a perfect escape!

[Denise]

This one was perfect!

[Fadi Antwan]

I love this series so damn much.

[Adina]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

[Charlotte]

I always look forward to my Christmas/birthday gift of the new Penric book, and this one did not disappoint!

[Bookly_Day]

4.5

[Kemery Myers]

3.5 Stars a definitely solid tale in the ongoing saga of Penric and Desdemona

I really enjoyed this one after the last two entries left me a little unsatisfied. Penric and Desdemona's back and forth and enjoyable banter are what make this series so enjoyable and this fun mystery murder was a delight. While I am hoping that some of these entries can get a little more depth with character, the structure is endlessly readable and pleasant to follow. On to Penric's Mission!

[Roslyn]

3.5? Rounded up to 4

I've loved all the Penric novellas so I was surprised when I realised that it wasn't quite grabbing me and it was taking me me quite a while to finish. Not sure why exactly - maybe it's a timing issue, or maybe it's just me. But it did come together nicely two-thirds of the way through, and of course it is Penric and Des, so it still gets the thumbs up from me, but this is my least favourite Penric so far.

[Heather]

I liked this a lot. It was a fun little adventure with a happy ending. I liked the new characters we met and would not mind seeing them again. We get to see a 29 year old Penric at his new position in Lodi after leaving Martinsbridge. Lodi is a new city we’ve not seen yet and was an interesting setting.

[Howard Brazee]

This latest story in the Penric & Desdemona series fits in as book #4, even though there are other stories that have already been written that are chronologically set later. I love this series.

While the story can be read on its own, I strongly recommend starting at the start.

Nothing more to add at this re-read.

[Cathy]

A confused, mad young man is rescued from the ocean and brought to a hospice. Penric is sent to evalute him and finds him possessed by crazed demon. To make matters worse, the man flees from the hospice and Pen now has to chase allover a town getting ready for a festival, aided by a saint of his god. A fun romp.

I am guessing that the setting is inspired by the carnival in Venice? It also looks as if I skipped a novella in my chronological reading of this series; I will read that one next!

Expertly narrated by Grover Gardner. Bujold and Gardner have been doing this for a very long time.

1. Penric's Demon (2015) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Penric and the Shaman (2016) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. Penric's Fox (2017) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. Testimony of Mute Things (2025) — up next, missed to later publication date.
5. Masquerade in Lodi (2020) 🎭🎭🎭🎭🎭
6. Penric's Mission (2016)
7. Mira's Last Dance (2017)
8. The Prisoner of Limnos (2017)
9. The Orphans of Raspay (2019)
10. The Physicians of Vilnoc (2020)
11. The Assassins of Thasalon (2021)
12. Knot of Shadows (2021)
13. Demon Daughter (2024)
14. Penric and the Bandit (2024)
15. The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (2025)
16. Darksight Dare (2026)

https://www.goodreads.com/series/2118...