Penric's Demon
Jul. 30th, 2015 01:04 pmBujold 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 )
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 )