‘Penric and Desdemona: The Prisoner of Limnos’ by Lois McMaster Bujold

eBook Review

Finished on 12/8/2018

Goodreads

Where to preorder

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Romance, Penric, World of the 5 Gods

Penric gets a girlfriend

Spoiler-ific review

I got this book for free for the purpose of review.

I can strongly recommend this book to people who have read the prior five books in this series. While it does stand on it’s own, I think it is made stronger by being read chronologically.

The gods are active in Chalion, seeking to right wrongs even though they have almost no impact on the world. When our hero Penric, and his brain-parasite demon friend Desdemona, learn that one of the temples of the goddess Daughter is invaded and is being used as a prison, they take it upon themselves to right this wrong and free the prisoner. Also, the prisoner is his girlfriend’s mother so that’s extra motivation.

Penric and Desdemona are a wonderful character combo to read. Penric’s solid and respectable personality is a counterpoint to the more fun and experienced personality of Desdemona. Together they are a fascinating combo, as either one provides the necessary skills to get through their different challenges.

I had fun with the plot. The author did a good job upping the stakes and adding some fun twists and turns. The narrative style is as good as ever too.

The characters were even better. There are a number of good side-characters who are well fleshed out and have excellent dialog in addition to the returning characters of Pen, Des and Nikys.

Net total, this is a worthy addition to a compelling series. I’m looking forward to where Bujold takes Penric and Desdemona next, as well as the rest of the World of the Five Gods.