Recent reading: penric

So, yes, I’m still in the middle of one of the more recent Benjamin January mysteries, but I interrupted that to read Knot of Shadows, which is the most recent Penric / Desdemona novella.

PeteMack mentioned this here recently, which was helpful because I didn’t know it was out — came out last week, I see, now that I check. He gave it thumbs fairly emphatically down. (“It is essentially a ghost story, and doesn’t have much (any) dynamic tension. I rank it right at the bottom.”)

It is indeed a ghost story, more or less; or anyway, it’s a murder mystery with ghosts. However, I have to say, I liked it and don’t rank it right at the bottom. I think it’s pretty minor compared to a lot of the other Penric novellas, though.

Some spoilers below.

Things I liked:

It was pretty low-stress in a lot of ways. It’s nice to see everyone has their lives pretty much in order.

It had some decent Penric / Desdemona interaction.

It was a pleasant snapshot of what must be, pretty much, daily life in this world.

Things I didn’t like:

Well, yes, it’s true there wasn’t too much tension. Except the question, briefly, of whether the lost child was dead. I’d have been fine without that. Although I did like the discussion about what happens with the souls of very young children. That was an interesting question given the metaphysics of this world. Still, that was sad.

I felt bad for the brother. I mean, I agree with Penric handling that situation in the most practical way possible, but ouch, what an ending to the story from the brother’s point of view. I felt worse about this than about the dead child, and I wasn’t really keen on that.

In an unrelated note, I get that Penric was bending over backward not to conclude that the bad guy was the bad guy, but come on. I think we all pretty much knew he was the bad guy well in advance of having proof turn up.

Where I’d rank this one:

Here’s my updated list from top to bottom.

“Penric’s Demon” — it’s hard to beat the very first one.

“Penric’s Mission” — Nikys is such a great character. Penric has a chance to shine. So does Desdemona. This is just a wonderful novella.

“The Prisoner of Limnos” — Nikys continues to be a great character. Lots to like about this novella; plenty of plot twists and great supporting characters.

“Assassins of Thasalon” — I love all the continuing characters who played important supporting roles in this novella. There was a lot more going on here than in the other more recent novellas, too. It’s probably not coincidence that this novella is just about twice as long as “Knot of Shadows.”

“Penric and the Shaman” — I didn’t care as much for this story the first time I read it, but it grew on me later. However, I love Nikys and her mother and everything to do with her and her family, so nearly every novella that emphasizes them moves up and that means this one lands down here.

“The Orphans of Raspay” — good pacing, fun story, plenty of nice details, great ending. I liked it a lot.

“Mira’s Last Dance” — this story bugs me because it seems to re-cast the various memories contained within Desdemona as more like actual personalities than generally seems consistent with the metaphysics of the world. I like lots of things about the story, though.

“Penric’s Fox” — I like this story, but it’s always seemed forgettable to me.

“Knot of Shadows” — I expect it’s going to seem fairly forgettable too.

“Masquerade in Lodi” — for me, the astoundingly obvious “plot twist” knocked this story down a lot. It’s not great to go through a lot of the story shaking my head at how amazingly obtuse Penric is being. Not to mention Desdemona! She should never be so obtuse about people!

“The Physicians of Vilnoc” — as close to boring as a Penric story can get; not nearly enough of Desdemona. The gray, grinding, depressing aura that clings to this story also doesn’t help it one bit.

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