Knot of Shadows

This is a short, slightly darker tale than the others in the series; though Penric does eventually solve all, the ending isn't, and can't be, all that happy, unless you buy Penric's theories about the gods. It's interesting to see some distant echoes of what will come in The Curse of Chalion. And it's nice to get a look at what the religion of this world looks like in a more normal setting -- Pen being, of course, almost as far from normal as he can be.

But man, Bujold seems incapable of writing one of these books without animal death, and in this she one-ups herself by having child death, too. It's weird that she's writing what amounts to cozy fantasy in this series and she's still killing animals and kids with relative abandon.

Penric, Learned Divine and Temple Sorcerer, is having a quiet morning with his family when a knock at the door brings a summons from Master Tolga, head of the hospice in Vilnoc. A body was fished out of the water in the port, and the body proved to be less dead, or at least more active, than a clearly dead body pulled out of the harbor ought to be. When Penric and his demon, Desdemona, arrive, they find that the body is indeed dead, but a sundered ghost, unable to move on to the afterlife and its god, has taken up residence in the corpse. The ghost will be one of the patients who has recently died in the hospice. More critical is the identity of the corpse. They need to notify his family, or friends, or someone, but the body was dressed show more only in a cheap worn nightshirt, with no indication of who he was.

While that question is answered when a clerk from the Customs Office in response to the story circulating of a man who fits the description of the head of the office, Master Therneas, who hasn't showed up for work for two days. Yet rather than an answer, this proves to be the start of a confusing and disturbing mystery.

Therneas has died as a result of a death magic, a ceremony that is performed rarely and only in extreme circumstances, a last ditch effort to get justice directly from the gods when no other path is possible. Yet it's not clear whether Therneas was the seeker of justice. The reason this magic is a desperate last chance is because if it works, the seeker of justice is offering up their life as a sacrifice, and both seeker and target are taken by the gods. Therneas doesn't seem to have suffered any outrage against him that would make him so desperate. And while he isn't much liked at the customs office, or the taverns he frequents, or to have any family or friends, he doesn't seem to have committed any great offence, either--at least at first.

This isn't really a murder mystery; Penric, and Alixtra, his sorceress-in-training, know from nearly the beginning that the killer, if they can be called that, is dead. Yet they need to find out who was the justice seeker and who the target, and whether the other party's body has been occupied by a ghost (all too likely, for an unattended death in such a busy city as Vilnoc), and what the crime for which there was no other justice possible was. The story is more a meditation on death, justice, and fairness--and a rather sadder story than most Penric stories are. Very thoughtful, very satisfying in the end, but not an adventure where Penric does, or can, achieve an heroic victory.

Recommended.

I bought this novella. show less

This isn't one of the better chapters in the Penric and Desdemona saga. It involves a complicated triple tangle of wandering souls that I couldn't figure out. One interesting idea, though, is that a soul could be so rancid that none of the Five Gods is willing to claim it. Philosophically that's interesting to think about but in a practical sense it's a bit odd. In this story the fellow with the rancid soul did bad things, but not as bad as some of the stuff we hear about every day. Penric meditates on this rancid soul but how is it that
this isn't common? There are many horrid criminals who have done worse than this greedy guy. One would expect spurned souls to be all over the place.

I received a review copy of "Knot of Shadows" from show more Subterranean Press through NetGalley.com. show less

Demon ridden Sorcerer!

Elegant writing as ever. Penric is called to an unexpected happening. A dead body with a sundered soul trapped inside it. Penric’s investigation follows a series of events, some sad, some, like his confrontation with a downy pair of old sailors, hilarious.
But finding the body of the sundered spirit and then finding who’d been dealing in this sort of magic produces some startling insights.
My favorite demon ridden sorcerer never fails to interest.
A stunning cover accompanies this special edition hardback.

A Subterranean Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.

This chapter in the life and times of Pen & Des was a pleasant interlude, though the circumstances of death magic and how that works were not particularly explained clearly. While the story was a bit thin on plot, Bujold uses the Penric character to explore several interesting philosophical questions about death, souls and justice. Unusual in the author's oeuvre, I found the characterisations rather shallow.

Penric is an interesting character, both a sorcerer and a Learned servant of the Bastard, the fifth god. He seems to resent intrusions on his time, but he honors a request from a medical Master to consult about a strange-looking case. What he finds is something he has never seen: a ghost has occupied a dead body and reanimated it slightly.

Penric and others are concerned about the proper disposition of souls after death; cases such as this one suggest the possibility of chaos entering the process. Penric investigates what's been happening with the help of his indwelling demon, Desdemona, and manages to find and use the right tools to help things sort themselves appropriately.

The story provides the opportunity for Pen and others to show more speculate about various aspects of death and what happens after it. It seems almost as if Bujold simply wanted a chance to throw some ideas around, and she created a story in which it could happen. Penric responds cleverly, and manages some sleuthing that helps make the pieces come together. show less

While I love the entire series, my favorite stories are the ones that allow Pen and Des to spend a lot of time working together. Their relationship is sweet and wry. The story was interesting if somewhat sad and it just made me like Penric even more. He's such a decent family man.