Read Penric and the Shaman (Penric & Desdemona Book 2) Online

Authors: Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric and the Shaman (Penric & Desdemona Book 2) (17 page)

Penric’s fingers itched to dive for the new volume, but he opened the thinner letter instead. As he’d hoped, it was from Oswyl.

You may be pleased to learn that your affidavit was accepted by the court, though immediately afterward seized upon by some theologians and carried off. From the legal side of things, there is no sign that anyone wants you brought here in person after all. The other I cannot speak to. Inglis got off lightly, but I do not feel there was injustice done.

My former sorcerer and his party arrived back at Easthome about two weeks after we did, frostbitten, footsore, and empty-handed. Happily, their official complaints of me were stopped by word of my success. Their private ones, I feel no need to attend to.

I set an offering on your god’s altar the other day, in Temple.

His signature was neat and square,
Oswyl, Senior Locator, the Father’s Order at Easthome
.

He, too, added a cramped last word:
I am not sure how demons feel about blessings, so please just give my best wishes to Desdemona.

Des was so astonished, she was momentarily silent.

Penric smiled and reached for his new book.

Author’s Note
:

A Bujold Reading-Order Guide

The Fantasy Novels

My fantasy novels are not hard to order. Easiest of all is
The Spirit Ring
, which is a stand-alone, or aquel, as some wag once dubbed books that for some obscure reason failed to spawn a subsequent series. Next easiest are the four volumes of
The Sharing Knife—
in order,
Beguilement
,
Legacy
,
Passage
, and
Horizon—
which I broke down and actually numbered, as this was one continuous tale divided into non-wrist-breaking chunks.

What were called the Chalion books after the setting of its first two volumes, but which now that the geographic scope has widened I’m dubbing the World of the Five Gods, were written to be stand-alones as part of a larger whole, and can in theory be read in any order. Some readers think the world-building is easier to assimilate when the books are read in publication order, and the second volume certainly contains spoilers for the first (but not the third.) In any case, the publication order is:

The Curse of Chalion

Paladin of Souls

The Hallowed Hunt

“Penric’s Demon”

In terms of internal world chronology,
The Hallowed Hunt
would fall first, the Penric novella perhaps a hundred and fifty years later, and
The Curse of Chalion
and
Paladin of Souls
would follow a century or so after that.

Other Original E-books

The short story collection
Proto Zoa
contains five very early tales—three (1980s) contemporary fantasy, two science fiction—all previously published but not in this handy format. The novelette “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” may be of interest to Vorkosigan completists, as it is the first story in which that proto-universe began, mentioning Beta Colony but before Barrayar was even thought of.

Sidelines: Talks and Essays
is just what it says on the tin—a collection of three decades of my nonfiction writings, including convention speeches, essays, travelogues, introductions, and some less formal pieces. I hope it will prove an interesting companion piece to my fiction.

The Vorkosigan Stories

Many pixels have been expended debating the ‘best’ order in which to read what have come to be known as the Vorkosigan Books (or Saga), the Vorkosiverse, the Miles books, and other names. The debate mainly revolves around publication order versus internal-chronological order. I favor internal chronological, with a few adjustments.

It was always my intention to write each book as a stand-alone, so that the reader could theoretically jump in anywhere. While still somewhat true, as the series developed it acquired a number of sub-arcs, closely related tales that were richer for each other. I will list the sub-arcs, and then the books, and then the duplication warnings. (My publishing history has been complex.) And then the publication order, for those who want it.

Shards of Honor
and
Barrayar.
The first two books in the series proper, they detail the adventures of Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar.
Shards
was my very first novel ever;
Barrayar
was actually my eighth, but continues the tale the next day after the end of
Shards
. For readers who want to be sure of beginning at the beginning, or who are very spoiler-sensitive, start with these two.

The Warrior’s Apprentice
and
The Vor Game
(with, perhaps, the novella “The Mountains of Mourning” tucked in between.)
The Warrior’s Apprentice
introduces the character who became the series’ linchpin, Miles Vorkosigan; the first book tells how he created a space mercenary fleet by accident; the second how he fixed his mistakes from the first round. Space opera and military-esque adventure (and a number of other things one can best discover for oneself),
The Warrior’s Apprentice
makes another good place to jump into the series for readers who prefer a young male protagonist.

After that:
Brothers in Arms
should be read before
Mirror Dance
, and both, ideally, before
Memory.

Komarr
makes another alternate entry point for the series, picking up Miles’s second career at its start. It should be read before
A Civil Campaign
.

Borders of Infinity
, a collection of three of the five currently extant novellas, makes a good Miles Vorkosigan early-adventure sampler platter, I always thought, for readers who don’t want to commit themselves to length. (But it may make more sense if read after
The Warrior’s Apprentice
.) Take care not to confuse the collection-as-a-whole with its title story, “The Borders of Infinity”.

Falling Free
takes place 200 years earlier in the timeline and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series. Most readers recommend picking up this story later. It should likely be read before
Diplomatic Immunity
, however, which revisits the “quaddies”, a bioengineered race of free-fall dwellers, in Miles’s time.

The novels in the internal-chronological list below appear in italics; the novellas (officially defined as a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 words) in quote marks.

Falling Free

Shards of Honor

Barrayar

The Warrior’s Apprentice

“The Mountains of Mourning”

“Weatherman”

The Vor Game

Cetaganda

Ethan of Athos

Borders of Infinity

“Labyrinth”

“The Borders of Infinity”

Brothers in Arms

Mirror Dance

Memory

Komarr

A Civil Campaign

“Winterfair Gifts”

Diplomatic Immunity

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

CryoBurn

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

Caveats:

The novella “Weatherman” is an out-take from the beginning of the novel
The Vor Game
. If you already have
The Vor Game
, you likely don’t need this.

The original ‘novel’
Borders of Infinity
was a fix-up collection containing the three novellas “The Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “The Borders of Infinity”, together with a frame to tie the pieces together. Again, beware duplication. The frame story does not stand alone.

Publication order:

This is also the order in which the works were written, apart from a couple of the novellas, but is not identical to the internal-chronological. It goes:

Shards of Honor
(June 1986)

The Warrior’s Apprentice
(August 1986)

Ethan of Athos
(December 1986)

Falling Free
(April 1988)

Brothers in Arms
(January 1989)

Borders of Infinity
(October 1989)

The Vor Game
(September 1990)

Barrayar
(October 1991)

Mirror Dance
(March 1994)

Cetaganda
(January 1996)

Memory
(October 1996)

Komarr
(June 1998)

A Civil Campaign
(September 1999).

Diplomatic Immunity
(May 2002)

“Winterfair Gifts” (February 2004)

CryoBurn
(November 2010)

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
(November 2012)

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
(February 2016)

. . . Thirty years fitted on a page. Huh.

Happy reading!

— Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold

Photo by Carol Collins

www.goodreads.com

www.spectrumliteraryagency.com/bujold.htm

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Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children. She began writing with the aim of professional publication in 1982. She wrote three novels in three years; in October of 1985, all three sold to Baen Books, launching her career. Bujold went on to write many other books for Baen, mostly featuring her popular character Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, his family, friends, and enemies. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her fantasy from Eos includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife series.

Books by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Vorkosigan Series

Falling Free

Shards of Honor

Barrayar

The Warrior's Apprentice

The Vor Game

Cetaganda

Ethan of Athos

Borders of Infinity

Brothers in Arms

Mirror Dance