Fantasy Novella Review: The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox is the 14th novella in Lois McMcmaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona series (itself a spinoff of her World of the Five Gods series/universe).  I've read all of the series up to this one in audio, as audio reader Grover Gardner is typically excellent, and the audio narration is no less excellent here.  If you haven't heard of the series before it follows Penric ("Pen"), a low noble of studious persuasion, as he accidentally contracted a demon Desdemona ("Des") and as a result became a temple sorcerer.  Over the course of the series, we've followed Pen's life from a young man trying to figure out life (and his abilities with his demon) up through this novella, where he's a middle aged well established man respected for his skills and with three kids and several charges under his responsibility.   It's been a very enjoyable series, especially when Pen and Des get into new situations and experiences that require him to figure things out or do something new.

This Pen & Des novella is almost more focused upon two of Pen's children: Rina, his 12 year old going on 13 year old daughter who wishes she could have a demon or magical path to pursue as she reaches adulthood, and Otta, his 11 year old adopted daughter who does have a demon (see Demon Daughter) and is unsure how she wants to use it.  The result works really well as we see Penric deal with the next generation and how the next generation deals with Pen, although I'm going to be honest I kinda wish all the ages of the kids were a bit older.  

More after the jump (Again I read this in audio, so apologies for misspellings of names):  


Plot Summary:  

Life is a little tricky in Penric's household right now - while he is still well settled as scholar and court sorcerer, his family is growing and changing: Nikys is pregnant with his third child and due to her advanced age, he's had his adopted 11 year old daughter (and sorcerer) Otta move out to ensure the chaos magic wouldn't affect her.  Meanwhile his 12 year old daughter Rina and 9 year old son Wyn are each in times of transitions, with Wyn helping with Penric's brother-in-law and a bridge-building site and Rina near finishing ladies' school and needing to take a path for her adulthood...although Rina secretly wishes the career path available to her included something with magic, like becoming a sorcerer like her father.

When Wyn brings word of a demon-possessed Ox near the bridge-building site, Pen brings Rina and Otta along to take a look and to possibly teach Otta some new lessons about how to use her demon.  But when things go wrong, Pen, Rina, and Otta will learn new things about themselves and how their life may proceed in the future......

 Thoughts:  This Penric novella is split into segments told by three different PoV characteres: Pen (as always) but also Rina and Otta, whose points of view really are the larger and more interesting points in the book.  Obviously stuff happens with the adventure with the Ox that Pen has to try to deal with - I'm deliberately being vague here - but Pen serves here largely to use his own narration to setup the context for the other characters' own growth and development instead of being the main central character of this story.  And Rina and Otta's struggles and development is really interesting in a way: both kids are struggling to figure out what are the next steps in their lives.  Otta struggles to know how she wants to be a sorcerer and with her growing suspicion she'd like to use her magic medically, which is not something Pen is fond of for long-established reasons.  Meanwhile Rina is a little jealous of Otta and wishes she too could have a demon and could follow in her father's footsteps, as she is not at all interested in many of the traditional paths for ladies in this time and place (modeled on medieval Europe to some extent).  How these wishes resolve, and how the two girls work with each other to figure out their own possible next moves, is done really nicely and is an excellent read.  

I guess my only issue here is the age of the characters.  Based I guess upon the historical period the series is based in (1300s-1400s Europe), children begin working here really early, with 9 year old Wyn working as a builder and going on 3 day long solo rides for Pen being part of it, but the 12 and 11 year old Rina and Otta having to decide their whole career paths as well.  And I get that this may ring true to those histories, but it's hard to be a modern reader and not see a 12 year old pining over a magical path as a girl not seeking a serious path....but just being, well, 12!  If all three kids were 3-4 years older, so Otta was 15, Rina 16, and Wyn 13, well all of this would make a lot more sense to modern sensibilities, instead it feels like in the end Pen is told to let the girls take chances on their lives that as a modern parent seem utterly insane.  

Still worth a read though and one of the better recent Penric installments (I know I'm two installments behind).  But just a thought.