Penric's Progress (Penric's Demon / Penric and the Shaman / Penric's Fox)

Bujold is the mistress of the well-told tale, the wry voice, the empathic characters who solve problems and avoid conflict, and collects companions, and is as curious as we are about their world. Three lovely novellas to relax the brain.

An engaging and sometimes humorous set of tales, episodes in the life of the Learned Divine Penric and his demon Desdemona (making him a Sorcerer through use of its powers).
I like the easygoing style, and the gentle lessons in ethics, morals, and manners worked into the narratives. Penric is, basically, a nice guy; Desdemona learns from his example to become a nice demon.
Everyone has fun and excitement along the way.
One major facet of Bujold's works in all her different worlds is the inclusion in nearly every story of some sort of puzzle that the protagonist must solve.
Sometimes it's incidental to the main plot, and sometimes it IS the plot.
That feature appeals to me a lot, as it gives the reader something to do other than just turn show more pages.

SUMMARY of the series rationale:
Penric was NOT the intended recipient of the demon released by the death of its prior "rider" -- at least, not intended by the sorcerer, but perhaps by the God whose creature it is.
Penric, being untrained and unready, breaks all manner of conventions and "rules" including the naming of his demon, whose previous 12 riders were all female.

NOTES on the SERIES
which I recommend reading in chronological order for the best experience, starting with The Hallowed Hunt.

From the author's notes: In the internal world chronology, "The Hallowed Hunt" (#01) comes first; the Penric novellas perhaps a hundred and fifty years later; "The Curse of Chalion" (#11) and it's sequel "Paladin of Souls" (#12) a century of so afterwards.

NOTE: My numbering here and in the Comments field is the full World of Five Gods chronological order, including the novels and novellas.

The chronological order of Penric's tales (as of 2021, ebooks only unless noted) are:
Penric's Demon (#02), Penric and the Shaman (#03), Penric's Fox (#04)(collected as "Penric's Progress";
Masquerade in Lodi (#05);
Penric's Mission (#06), Mira's Last Dance #07), The Prisoner of Limnos (#08)(collected as "Penric's Travels";
The Orphans of Raspay (#09); The Physicians of Vilnoc (#10). show less

This was a combined book of 3 novellas: Penric's Demon (in which we meet the naive and untried main character), Penric and the Shaman, (we meet Inglis, master of a different arcane practice), and Penric's Fox (an intriguing murder mystery and dénouement in Penric's initial training as a Sorcerer).

Intriguing, magical adventure where Bujold uses the magical action with great finesse. Captivating characters especially Penric. While Pen has other aspirations, he believes his life's journey lies in marriage and living in the shadow of an elder brother's holding. The Gods and fate have other plans in the form of an elemental chaos demon of great antiquity.

The novels are sequels that form the start to a delightful tale of adventure and show more mystery. If you enjoyed the Curse of Chalion, you will likely find these stories every bit as well-written and thoughtfully-plotted. show less

Wonderful as always. Penric is fun. As these stories are novellas there isn't as much in depth characterization as say for Miles in the Vorkosigan books but you still know him. The magical dilemmas are what drive these stories and they are fun.

Glad to see these in a collection, as I'd avoided them in the past since they're novellas.
Enjoyed the first two and skipped Penric and the Fox due to quite a lot of casual animal harm.

Although I'd prefer a full length novel by LMB, the Penric stories are entertaining.I'd read the first 2 as ebooks but had not continued on as I preferred to read the print version. The first set of three have been on my shelf for several years but I'd never gotten around to picking them up. Finally I did.

"Yes, don't be shy. I've seen a thousand of them."
"Speak for yourself!"
"Well, I've certainly diapered them a thousand times."
Pen had no idea what the next comment was, and it might just have been the language, but it certainly sounded obscene.