Penric's Demon

Bujold wrote a new novella in the Challion-verse! I was disappointed to see it wasn't about the Mother or the Father, but more about demons, but reading about demons is always interesting. I definitely enjoyed it, it had several of the lip-quirking deadpan-humour moments that I love finding in Bujold, and interesting and sympathetic characters. At first I thought it didn't really add much to the world or plot, but I find it more interesting as I think about it.

It also clarified the chronology slightly, the afterword says it was set one-two hundred years after Hallowed Hunt, somewhere in the same area (nobles are referred to as "kin someone" although it seems to have become more formalised, rivers are named after birds, there's a hallowed king somewhere although we don't know if he has any powers, some of the ecclesiastical power structures are the same), but that doesn't overlap with any of the places we were familiar with. And that's one-two hundred years before Curse of Challion.

( Minor spoilers )

Inside Out

Wow. I loved the way the emotions were characterised and worked together in running Riley. I wasn't as engaged by the plot as some people were or as I was in some other Pixar films, I was really interested, but I expected things to happen basically as they did.

There were lots of funny moments. There were a few things that really annoyed me, but not as many as I feared from the trailer.

I thought the basic message about how different feelings contribute to the whole person was really well done, more detail and caveats below.

And wow, it had a lot about feelings and depression and sad moments, which left me really thoughtful, but I suspect will not matter to some people and maybe hit other people like a hammer blow.

( Spoilers )