The Joy of Erudition > Recent Status Updates

"He's trapped in Lodi tonight unless he goes by boat."

Don't you mean "stuck in Lodi"? 🎵

I was already settled in for the ride, but things brightened up when Chio was introduced.

Bujold thoughtfully provided a summary of how demons work in this world, and Desdemona's relationship to Penric in particular, for someone like me, jumping into this series at the 9th entry.

I'm sure this joke has been made before, but:
"Oh lord, stuck in Lodi again..."

I started this book without realising it was the 9th in a series with these characters, but it seems to be sketching them out well enough that I don't think I'm missing much. But I'm going to want to go back to an earlier one after this, where I assume this demoness living in Penric's head was more focused on.

Wow! Too long to fit here:
He watched him; and the very impossibility of forming an idea of the character of a man entirely absorbed in himself, who gave few other signs of his observation of external objects, than the tacit assent to their existence, implied by the avoidance of their contact: allowing his imagination to picture every thing that flattered its propensity to extravagant ideas, he soon
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"But why make so many changes?" says Harrow. "Why is this narrative so different?"

Well I'm glad you're asking yourself that, too!

Well, it's closer to 3/4 through the book than the 2/3 I was promised, but it looks like some of the confusion is starting to be explained. I just really wish this weren't so experimental and different from the first book.

Finally there was a single instance of a first person within the second person.

I would love to have seen Harrow's face at this point in the dinner party.

Stuff's happening too fast. People are introduced and die a few pages later. I can't tell who the protagonist is supposed to be. And one character is named "Dark".

"Who?"

"Is this how it happens?"

And the note from Gideon, I think.

Still confusing, but at least there's some kind of narrative to follow, and I'm sure there will be pleasure to come eventually when it all comes together. I do miss how the previous book was just a joy and a pleasure the whole time, though. I could be spending all this time happy instead of confused.

There had been another girl who grew up alongside Harrow, but she had died before Harrow was born.

Mm-hmm... And Abraham Lincoln was born in the log cabin that he helped his father build.

"You have cast your fortunes with mine in this matter, Sylvo. If things go well I will make you a prince."

The book as written is extremely confusing and unlike the previous one. I have no idea what's going on. Nothing is explained, and it contradicts what came before. I have been assured that this is intentional, and that it will make sense 2/3 in, but this is a very long book, and I don't enjoy being confused for that long.

There have been some nice and witty turns of phrase, though.