Fiction:
I re-read Lois McMaster Bujold’s initial three books set in the “world of the Five Gods,” The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt. I’d loved them when they first came out, but it’s been well over a decade since I revisited them. Reading one after the other, instead of as they came out, meant I could see themes and ideas developing much more easily, and was also able to think about them in conjunction with the newer Penric and Desdemona stories, which are set in the same world but a different time period. I’m pretty sure I never re-read The Hallowed Hunt, or at least not more than once, as I remembered almost nothing about its plot, which involves some deepened worldbuilding that veers off slightly from the first two books.
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold is latest in the Penric and Desdemona series, shorter pieces set in the world of the Five Gods. Penric is now in his mid-forties and his children are old enough to be thinking of apprenticeships and future careers. I liked this more than the previous installment, but it still felt flatter to me than the earlier works in the series, that had more exploration of the magical systems.
Fanfiction:
This month was also for re-reading some classic fanfiction I hadn’t visited in years, for various fandoms, as well as some shorter pieces I didn’t log.
