Penric and the Shaman

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Pub Date 28 Feb 2017 | Archive Date 01 Mar 2017

Description

Young Lord Penric now wears the white robes of the Bastard’s Order, complete with shoulder braids marking him as a divine and sorcerer, while he pursues scholarly studies in the court of the Princess-Archdivine. His demon of disorder, Desdemona, is, of course, present, accounted for, and offering clever commentary, particularly when she grows bored. And so when a Locator of the Father’s Order shows up on the Archdivine’s threshold in need of a sorcerer for a journey and she volunteers Penric, at least Des is thrilled with the prospect of an adventure. As they travel into the mountains to locate Inglis, a shaman accused of murdering his best friend, the sitation grows into a test for all of Penric’s developing talents.

Multiple-award-winner and bestselling author Lois McMaster Bujold returns to her World of the Five Gods, the setting of her acclaimed novels The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt. Set four years after the events detailed in the Hugo and Locus Award finalist for Best Novella, “Penric’s Demon,” Bujold’s newest installment of Penric and Desdemona’s tale is a breaktaking must-read novella for her legion of fans.

Young Lord Penric now wears the white robes of the Bastard’s Order, complete with shoulder braids marking him as a divine and sorcerer, while he pursues scholarly studies in the court of the...


Advance Praise

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Bujold follows Penric’s Demon with another brief tale set in her World of the Five Gods, this time combining supernatural sleuthing with finely drawn characters and a panoply of emotions… This is a wonderful expansion of her World of the Five Gods.”

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Bujold follows Penric’s Demon with another brief tale set in her World of the Five Gods, this time combining supernatural sleuthing with finely drawn characters...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781596068155
PRICE $25.00 (USD)

Average rating from 27 members


Featured Reviews

Penric and the Shaman (World of the Five Gods (Publication) #3.6) by Lois McMaster Bujold is in a series but I have not read the earlier books and feel I might have missed something. Although the author tried to catch the reader up I still felt I was behind. I may not have read this series but have read many books from this author so I knew I would enjoy it. I was not disappointed. Full of great fantasy, the supernatural, mystery, and adventure. Because the dialogue was made for another time/world it was at times difficult to read and I had to reread a couple of times. Even the story line itself as it was keeping with the ancient dialect. Enjoyable read overall. Thanks NetGalley for providing me this wonderful read.

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This is the second Penric novella in Bujold's World of Five Gods, and it builds nicely on the first and on the separate novels she's previously written in that universe. Bujold has fully embraced that the Bastard is her favorite of the five gods, with His penchant for chaos and fondness for misfits. As a longtime fan of Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, it's also great to follow the development of another young character, and Penric's merging with an ancient and cynical demon means that Bujold can flavor his point of view with occasional insights that might otherwise seem out of character for a kid.

Here, Penric and Desdemona are starting to work together well as he figures out not only how to turn her destructive chaos to inventively constructive ends, but also how to better sidestep her penchant for pranks and untimely outbursts. This story is a road trip of their partnership, a chance to glimpse what it all looks like through the eyes of outside characters, and an opportunity for Penric to consider all of the responsibilities he's taken on: he's not just a sorcerer, he's a religious professional with all the responsibilities for ritual and counseling that entails.

Ultimately, it felt like this was a very idea-driven story, with characters discussing and extrapolating the possibilities for this world's magic and theology, but very little at stake for Penric on a personal level. I'm left feeling curious about whether it's just meant to be enjoyed for what it is or whether it's laying the groundwork for something big in a later story.

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The second novella in this setting is set several years after the previous one. Penric is working with someone of the Father’s order to track down a possible murder suspect that seems to be a shaman. He is comfortable in his role as a divine and has a good working relationship with his demon. This book you learn about shaman that don’t correspond to the Five Gods religion but seems to also be just fine with them.
The actual murder isn’t a mystery but the real mystery is what happens when they catch up with the missing shaman. Overall a great story and it can be read without having read the previous story since the reader is easily caught up with what has happened before.

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Book Review: Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric, a demon-possessed sorcerer and a divine of the Bastard’s Order, is content doing scholarly things in the court of the Princess-Archdivine. But when an investigator needs the services of a sorcerer to track a runaway shaman accused of murder, the Princess-Archdivine assigns Penric to accompany Senior Locator Oswyl on his mission into the snowblown winter mountains to capture the shaman and bring him to justice.

Bujold has yet to disappoint. With a few deft strokes, she paints a cast of intriguing characters with rich internal lives and motivations. Brilliant pacing, an engaging plot, and all delivered with that deft touch I’ve long come to associate with this series. This is also one of the few – if not the only – series (and I count all the Five Gods books in this) that I can think of that handles religion and fantasy beautifully, with a mixture of grace, humanity and irreverent humor.

Set in the same World of the Five Gods universe, this is the second in the three-novella series about Penric and his demon, Desdemona. Chronologically speaking, this story happens sometime after The Hallowed Hunt, but before Curse of Chalion. And it is such a treat.

While you absolutely don’t need to have read any of the other stories in the series to enjoy this (each novel in this world is a standalone anyway), fans do get a few Easter eggs here and there. There are a few mentions of different countries within this world and events. And is the renegade Shaman Inglis kin Wolfcliff a descendant of The Hallowed Hunt’s Lord Ingrey kin Wolfcliff?

Highly recommend this one. And pretty much any of the other books in the series.

Canary Verdict: Four Canaries

Novella provided for review by publisher.

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Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novella continues the exploration of the Chalion realm, but rather than focusing on what it means to be a Divine or a Sorcerer, we're given insight in what it means to be a Shaman.

It's very interesting in conjunction with everything we learn in the The Hallowed Hunt.

Wolf man, indeed!

Actually, even though I was hoping for more of Desdemona, the 12 personality demon lodged within Penric's head, I wasn't too disappointed just to have her causing him a bit of trouble instead of nearly taking over the tale (and my interest) as had happened in Penric's Demon.

Instead, we've got a Penric who has gotten comfortable and educated and not desiring any sort of adventure, so yeah, of course we've got to have him sent on a mission to find a murderer and a soul-stealer. We've got to break him out of his rut! :)

The adventure is both fun and rather desperate at the same time because we get three PoV's. Penric of course, the Shaman, and the hunter. It makes for a very rounded tale and an very interesting look into what might be one of the most fascinating features of this series: the magic.

The gods are always interesting, too, but this novella really focuses on the magic of both sides of the coin, and I really enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to more!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

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The second Penric novella, picking up Penric's story after he's been trained and installed as a Divine of the Bastard's Order, and a Sorceror, in the religious house of the princess archdivine in Martensbridge. Penric rides (or is ridden by) a demon, Desdemona who has already inhabited many other divines in her long relationship with humans, so Pen not only had the demon personality breaking through his own, but also the other divines Des had inhabited. It gives him skills and powers he can call on when he needs to, but the other personalities also pop up when he doesn't always want them.

Called away from his task of making woodcuts of the Temple's books (magically) Pen is sent on a mission to retrieve Inglis, a rogue shaman wanted for murder. His companion (apart from the ever present Desdemona) is Senior Locator Oswyl, a man who takes his duties very seriously. Pen and Oswyl don't really see eye to eye. Oswyl follows his head and Pen follows his heart. When the shaman is found their troubles are only just beginning. Set in the world of the Five Gods (like The Curse of Chalion) theology is a practical discipline, not just a theoretical one.

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“Penric and the Shaman” is a fantasy novella by Lois McMaster Bujold. As longer term readers know, I enjoy Bujold’s sci-fi “Vorkosigan Saga” series immensely, so came to this novella as a means of experimenting with her sojourn into fantasy; not many writers seem to work in both genres, and fewer do so successfully.

Penric and the Shaman, fortunately, is rather good.

The world of the novella is an interesting one; there’s hints of a monarchical style system of rule, and suggestions scattered through which suggest a feudal fealty style arrangement between lords and labourers. But whilst there’s a little time spent in urban environments, the majority is out in the countryside – well, mostly, the mountainside. The focal point is a village almost buried in a mountain range, where it seems the chief industries are hunting, fishing, and getting up to inconveniently unorthodox magic. But the crisp air of the peaks pours off the page, and the sense of a close community, tied by isolation, has a warmth all of its own which shines through here.

On the point of magic – there’s a fair bit of this floating around. For those of you with a penchant for magic systems – well, it seems that this is a world where individuals are still trying to find own exactly how otherworldly effects can be generated. So there’s some systematising, but mostly, the reader is at least as much in the dark as the characters. There’s the Shaman of the title – heir to a tradition which seems to involve bonding with animals, ritual focus and astral projection – amongst other things. Then there’s the demons – which seem to be creatures with a nature of destruction, which pass from host to host, occasionally set things on fire, and also have something of a talent for sarcasm. There’s a melange of styles here, but they’ve been wrapped in cultural signifiers, and they’re separated enough to keep them clear to the reader – and the descriptions of the Shamanic magic are particularly well done, drawing the reader out into the astral alongside the practicioner.

The characters – well, I suppose the protagonist is the Penric of the title, though he shares equal time with a church investigator and a shaman. Penric is smooth, with an ineffable charm. He’s got a layer of class around him, a sense of style which the narrative slides over, letting it shine through at odd moments. He’s clever, evidenced by his investigative skills, and seems to do well at interpersonal interaction. One of the small joys is listening to the conversations he has with his demon, Desdemona – an inner dialogue which is equal parts smart-arse, intellectual debate, and mentoring. Though who exactly is teaching whom seems to vary. In any event, Penric is a vital, funny, fascinating figure – and one whom I’d like to see more of.

He’s followed by the investigator for the church – a dogged man, in search of a murder suspect. This is an individual with a nose for the truth, which also isn’t especially clogged with dogmatism. As a mid-level functionary, with some arms training and an inquiring mind, I found he worked well as a conduit for my interests – spending much of the book either trying to wok out what exactly was going on, or why he was following Penric around at all. Between moments of brusque competence, however, there are a few searing lines of discussion between them, revealing a man of dedication, unwilling to let the innocent suffer the consequences of crime, and aware fo the extremes to which terrified people may go.

The Shaman, the last of the triad, is something else entirely. I won’t get into his role now, for fear of spoilers. But this is an individual living in his own torments. There’s a personal, moral conflict here, and the depths of the soul are excavated in the narrative – to great effect, I might add.
The plot – well, it’s a murder mystery, and a chase, and a personal journey, all in one. The dialogue absolutely crackles with energy, and if there’s not much in the way of fast-paced swordfights, there’s a lot of sparring with words – and a fair bit of spectacular thaumaturgy. Watching Penric and his investigator dig into the circumstances of a murder, trying to piece together what happened and why, and then chase down the putative culprit, is compelling and tense reading – as are the revelations in what follows.

Is it worth reading? Well, I certainly enjoyed it. It’s a story about people in the main, about what drives them, what keeps them together, about what they’ll sacrifice, and about what drives people to commit small atrocities or acts of heroism. This isn’t a narrative about the grand sweep of armies – but it’s charming, and has a penetrative insight which makes it a great read, in a certain frame of mind.

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