Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I wish I could live in Lois McMaster Bujold’s worlds all the time. I wish she would write War and Peace in one of her worlds! If In Search of Lost Time had been in Barrayar, I would be very excited about its length.
So, the main problem with Penric’s Demon is that it’s too short. I wish she had developed it into a full-length novel.
I love the five gods world. Too frequently, fantasy world gods are pretty mundane. They don’t seem much more powerful or ineffable than wizards. (To be fair, some of the Norse gods seem about that powerful too.) That isn’t a problem for this world. There’s a strong sense of foreignness with these gods. These are gods that control you; not gods you can control. They’re dangerous, and you’re not always going to like what they do.
I guess the main point of the plot is to establish what I suppose is going to be a big dynamic in Penric’s life story. That his demon is both a blessing and a curse; that other people want it, but also fear it.
Great book. Lots of fun. Bujold will never let you down.