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.

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Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The best thing about the Five Gods world is the gods. There’s a way Bujold has of making them a very present concern for her characters that reminds of me of animism, or the religions of the ancient world, the mystery cults and whatnot. And yet you can’t imagine that this world could possibly have folk stories where the gods get tricked, or fall in love with mortals; they’re far too powerful, serious and alien for that. They use human beings as tools, and they care about the disposition of human souls, but they really, really do not have to.

The shamanic magic is pretty cool, too.

I like Bujold better when she has room to stretch her wings in full novel form. I want to live in this world for a while, but a novella just doesn’t give enough space for that.



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Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I am disappointed by this book.

Of course, take my opinion with a grain of salt: I want Lois McMaster Bujold to pull a Clive Cussler and write the same novel over and over and over again. She can pick The Warrior’s Apprentice or A Civil Campaign; either one would satisfy me for the Cussler treatment. Or if not that at least give us a good solid Discworld process, with the same cast of characters exploring some new facet of politics or society each novel.

This novel, alas, represents neither of those things. As far as I can tell there is no central problem. No character is in any danger at any point. Mostly they spend the book talking about stuff that happened in previous books.

It’s still entertaining, if you like the characters, which I do, and some of the ways she makes characters’ histories come full circle are kind of satisfying. I don’t know. I love the rest of this series so much.



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