Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
In “The Assassins of Thesalon” Methani was unwillingly sundered and Penric thinks Tronio is likely to be as well since Tronio hasn’t accepted he did anything wrong. That implies if Tronio realizes & accepts he’s displeased the gods he might escape sundering? Or is he too “spoiled” to be accepted by a god in the short time before he’s executed? How does one become “unspoiled”, a lifetime of good works or another way?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is a question that only a god can answer, through inner knowledge unavailable to human perceptions, a very private transaction between each human and their chosen or choosing (or rejected or rejecting) deity. There is no list of rules that one may mechanically check off to ensure a particular outcome.
Sincere repentance likely does count for something. (Not everyone, after all, is going to get an extended lifetime to make amends.) And the god would know whether or not the person was faking contrition in a mere self-centered attempt to avoid reprisal.
Ta, L.
This is a question that only a god can answer, through inner knowledge unavailable to human perceptions, a very private transaction between each human and their chosen or choosing (or rejected or rejecting) deity. There is no list of rules that one may mechanically check off to ensure a particular outcome.
Sincere repentance likely does count for something. (Not everyone, after all, is going to get an extended lifetime to make amends.) And the god would know whether or not the person was faking contrition in a mere self-centered attempt to avoid reprisal.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
alison
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hello! A couple of questions ago you mentioned A Warrior's Apprentice as one of your evergreens, having never won awards (among some other criteria), which I'm so shocked by! I read it in high school and one of its lines is now memorialized as my senior year quote (too embarrassed to say which one). I've now graduated from college and still go back to it every year. Thanks for writing it all those years ago <3 [?]
Connie
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Do you incorporate current social or political issues into your stories?
Carol
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Is there a listing somewhere that gives the Vokosigan Saga in the order it was published? I started reading the series on the recommendation of a co-worker, and the library provided Mirror Dance and Memory. Going forward from there I read them in publication order, but that's not very different from the internal chronology. I collected the earlier books over time, and read them as flashbacks.
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