Penric's Demon

[branchandroot]

Oh wow, the new Chalion ebook novella is adorable. I mean, after the Ivan book I was dubious, but this story is unconnected (directly) to any other Chalion story and that seems to be enough to bring life back to Bujold's writing.

Who knows how the coming Vorkosiverse book will pan out, but this one at least is definitely worth paying some money for.

I suspect that Bujold may just be burned out on long-form writing lately, and honestly that's not surprising. A lot of authors seem to hit Novel #20 or so at a slog, and you can just feel how fritzed out they are, wandering off down plotless paths of "well, this is an interesting idea" that utterly fail to go anywhere. But short-form doesn't demand as much in terms of plot-depth, and lets the author wallow around happily in a small bit of world-building and one or two engaging characters. That's where Penric's Demon falls.

(Incidentally, it's where A Net of Dawn and Bones could also have fallen if Vathara hadn't, unwisely in my opinion, tried to make a larger work of it.)

tl;dr: yeah, buy it, it's way cool.

Comments

[malkingrey]

There's also the ever-present tension, in the writing life, between the author's desire to move on to something new and perhaps risky, and the publisher's desire to have yet another piece of the stuff they know will sell. All too often the latter combines forces with the author's need to buy groceries and pay the bills, with yet another novel in a long-established universe being the result.

[branchandroot]

Alas, yes. I'm really hoping the market for e-novellas opens up more options, especially for established universes that authors /are/ burned out on. Hambly's various Further Adventures, frex, have a pretty dedicated following from people who want more Antryg and Joanna, or John and Jenny, and know there's no more long-form coming for those worlds. And I'd totally buy novellas about Cavillo, or about Duv's off-screen career adventures. Pricing and marketing strategies for those is still in such massive flux, though.

[tucuxi]

Ooooh, good to know. I'll have to keep an eye out for that. :D

[branchandroot]

Seriously adorable.

[jjhunter]

I think Lois McMaster Bujold would appreciate hearing from you, even if you're not quite a first time Chalion reader... Penric stand-alone poll

I am curious if any readers out there have read the novella "Penric's Demon" as a first-Bujold or a first-Chalion tale, and how it worked for them as a stand-alone.

I realize this is not the best audience to survey for this question, but it's the one to which I have access.

Anyway, let's see.

Ta, L.

[branchandroot]

Hm. That sounds like she wants to know if she included enough background for a first-time encounter with that 'verse. *thinks* That's actually a really good question.

[kenllama]

cool! I didn't know that was in the works. I just downloaded it.

[branchandroot]

I stumbled over it while looking at Hambly's novellas, myself.