The Physicians of Vilnoc

Penric is happily settled in Vilnoc, and enjoying being a new father, when his brother-in-law, General Arisaydia, shows up at his door--but will not come in--to ask him to come to the army fort. A strange and deadly new disease has broken out, and Arisaydia wants Penric to use his sorcerous powers, and his own and two of Desdemona's previous riders, Helvia and Amberein's, medical training to solve the mystery of it and stop the epidemic.

Penric has worked very hard to avoid taking oath to the Mother and becoming the Sorcerer-Physician he was expected to become when he inherited the demon Desdemona from Learned Ruchia. When acting as a physician, he finds it impossible to accept that some patients are just going to die anyway. But the show more only physician at the fort, Rede Licata, is very capable but not a sorcerer, and the Mother's Order chapter is too busy with the same sickness in town to spare time for the fort. Penric can't say no.

Rede and Penric are soon struggling to keep up with the increasing number of patients, while trying to identify the cause, and the seemingly random pattern of its spread. It's clearly not spreading person to person. Rede thinks it might be spread by rat fleas, and conducts a dangerous experiment, but that's not it either. As they work to save people, they're both exhausted, Penric is burning out, and some start to fear that the disease is sorcery, and to resist the "uphill magic" treatment Pen can give them. He also, of course, starts to need more than fleas and vermin to dump the accumulated chaos into. When he starts using that accumulated chaos to do the slaughtering for the General's table, it doesn't help his reputation.

Yet unexpected clues start to turn up, along with what is by now unexpected help. Penric has been writing for help from sorcerer-physicians, or just any sorcerers. When the first appears, he's given up expecting anyone--and the first sorcerer to arrive is more unexpected than most.

This is a tale of persistence in adversity, teamwork, cooperation, ingenuity. Penric, Master Rede, and Learned Dubro, are all people I'm glad to have spent time getting to know (or in Penric's case, know better.)

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. show less

Well, I made the right call not reading this back when it came out in 2020. But I didn't make the right call reading this now. The ideal time to read this book, for me, would have been never.

Functionally, this book is a symptom of the growing problem with the Penric books. Bujold made Penric her Specialest Boy. And that's great! Everyone should spend some time writing about their Specialest Whatever! But when you give someone the most powers and the most knowledge and the most ability and the most caring in all the lands, finding something that will actually challenge that someone gets harder and harder. This book does feature a problem that Penric can't solve. And yes, there's a plague, but it's not the plague that's the problem. It's show more his inability to set reasonable limits, maintain boundaries, or say no. (Why do so many authors think this trait is charming? It isn't charming!) But that means that majority of this book is Penric running in circles until he collapses in exhaustion. It's not exactly fun to read about.

Oh, and there's a FUCKTON of animal death. Just. So much animal death, and not just the usual animals Penric kills, either.

Yeah, no, this is a definite low point in the series for me. Also, and this is very much a side note, but she named a character Dubro, and I absolutely cannot read that as anything other than Dudebro. Added a little levity to what was otherwise a crappy reading experience. show less

Oh, lovely. Penric is forced into a physician's role again - well, sorcerer-physician. A mysterious disease is spreading, far too close to home, and Penric's best efforts are only slowing it. He gets help from another sorcerer, with a very young demon, and...ok, not saying (spoilers), but they eventually come out on top of the problem. Penric gets to go back to his peaceful scholar's life (and his new child). But he's no longer the boy he was when this series started - he's now an authority (little as he believes it), and he begins to make real changes for those around him. This is yet another major step on his path - and also a fascinating story. Fun!

Penric and Desdemona are summoned to deal with an outbreak of a mysterious disease.

This could easily be an intense story and, oddly enough, it isn’t. It’s an intense experience for Pen, who is stressed, overworked and cares about all of his patients -- but because he doesn’t have personal relationships with any of them and the reader doesn’t really get to know them, I didn’t feel particularly invested in their fate. (Contrast with Penric’s Mission, when Pen has only one patient and half the story is from said patient’s sister’s POV.) I was also confident that Pen’s worst fears -- that the outbreak cannot be controlled and spreads to his family -- wouldn’t come to pass.

Given the current state of the world, I’m glad show more Bujold didn’t go with the dark and harrowing possibilities and instead wrote a mystery in which Pen investigates how the disease is transmitted while treating as many patients as he can.

I liked the other physicians; I’d have liked to see more of them. And it was satisfying to get a better understanding -- and to see Pen gain further clarity -- regarding the best way for Pen to use his and Des’s collective knowledge, skills and experiences.

“This is why medicine can’t be my calling,” said Pen dimly. “The demand is endless, and I’ve learned I am not. Only the gods could deal with all the world’s pain, all at once, all the time. It’s a wonder they’re not driven mad. Unless they have been, which would explain some things. Theologically speaking. Even a sorcerer can’t be a god, not all by himself. Although some desperate people will try to make him so.” show less

Whenever a need a quick palate cleanser from books that didn't live up to their hype, I revisit Pen and Des. I love the duo, and this time they are called in to help treat victims of a plague. It was a short, well paced story.

Penric is enlisted to help with an illness at the fort, that spreads to the nearby village and then the town of Vilnoc. With the head army physician taken by the contagion, Penric, Desdemona, and the second highest medical officer do all they can to stem the tide before it overtakes them all.
I felt this illustration of why medicine is not Penric's calling quite enlightening.

Not sure how I would've felt reading this in 2021, but I liked the similarities to lived experience and how Pen and Des would handle a mysterious epidemic in a magical setting without modern science.