Dave asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hello Lois, I hope you are doing well. I am a big fan of the Vorkosigan series. I started Curse of Chalion, but did not finish it (this was many years ago). However, loved the 2 Penric novellas. So, which one of earlier books is most like Penric, so I can try again? Also, I think it is great idea to do novellas--it really is a short novel. Any more Penric novellas coming? Will you collect them in a real paper edition?

Lois McMaster Bujold Probably the best book to try is The Hallowed Hunt. It's set in somewhat the same geographic region as the two Penric tales (well, just south -- the Weald) maybe 150 years earlier. Note that its hero and point-of-view character, Ingrey, is something of a passive-aggressive (as well as actually aggressive) bully-boy to start out, so riding in his head will demand a drier sense of humor than sunny Penric.

I hope to do more with Penric, yes. Can't say when.

The first two novellas had/will have limited hardcover paper editions from Subterranean Press, but the print run was/will be quite small, so they aren't easy to find. Future paper assemblages or collections must wait on a larger accumulation of stories, which will take a while. Many ideas, only one brain to process them. There's a queue.

I really like novellas, too. Note that they can range, officially, from 17,500 words, more short-story-like, to 40,000 words at the cap, which can feel a little more novel-like. I enjoy the tight focus, the limited, intimate scope, and the fact that they don't take a year, or four, to write. And I am very interested in the indie e-pub experiment.

Ta, L.

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