Fantasy Novella Review: The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold

 


Disclaimer: This Review is based upon an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a review.  I give my word this did not affect the tone of this review.

The Physicians of Vilnoc is the 8th novella (by publication order, not chronologically) in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Penric & Desdemona" fantasy series, which is set in her "World of the Five Gods" (which first showed up with The Curse of Chalion).  I have enjoyed this series, but have kind of found myself souring on it over time - not because in any way it's gotten bad, but because the installments just felt like they were becoming more of the same.  Nowhere was that more apparent than with the seventh story, The Orphans of Raspay, which didn't really add anything - no character developments of note, no fun moments, nothing we hadn't seen before.  It was....fine, just completely inessential, without the fun touches I'm used to in Bujold's works.  

But to my pleasant surprise, The Physicians of Vilnoc is a return to form for Bujold in this series, featuring really well done character development and a plot that sets our protagonists - Learned Penric of the Bastard's order and his demon Desdemona - against a newish foe, a plague in both their city and Penric's brother in law's army camp.  It's not a story featuring much of the witty fun dialogue of past Bujold works, but the character development of Penric shown here, and how far things have come, is really heartwarming even in a novella focused upon plague, and really enjoyable.  If you've read the past seven novellas in this series (or if you've skipped around and read a few), you'll enjoy this.  

Quick Plot Summary:  When Pernic's brother-in-law General Arisaydia brings news of an unknown contagion that has come down upon his Army Camp and is killing the soldiers, Penric reluctantly leaves his wife and newborn child to see if he can help.  Years ago, Penric's first stint in the medical profession almost drove him to suicide, for he could not handle the burden of being unable to save everyone...and this plague is both unknown in origins and as bad as anything he saw then.  But this time Penric, while still overly driven, has people to live for, and finds allies at the Camp who can help him take on the contagion, find its source, and save as many people as possible....

Thoughts:  The Penric & Desdemona novellas, at their best have been about Penric using various new aspects of his demon, especially regarding her past lives, in really interesting ways (and getting fun reactions thereof), along with some typically fun internal banter between Penric and Des.  The 7th novella however, had seemed to exhaust that well, as Des's past "lives" didn't have really anything new to bring to the story, and just seeing competent Penric use his skills wasn't particularly special.  There was no character development seemingly left in that direction (and there were no other characters of interest in that story).  

But here, we do have character development in an interesting direction, that of Penric himself, being thrown back into a full medical situation years after the first one almost ended in disaster.  We get to see him knowing that he can't be trusted not to push too far, and that he has to manipulate things and other people to enable him to do what he can with his downhill and uphill magic.  

More gratifyingly, we get to see Penric in the mold of the experienced and veteran sorcerer, which is really cool to see!  He's been active for years now, written/translated treatises of knowledge, and isn't some young kid grasping for what to do anymore out of emotion!  And so, with Penric playing off two others - a young doctor who needs Pen's help and later a second sorcerer of much older age but much less experience wielding a demon, we get to see how that experience has changed him, made him capable, and made him respected by those who know what to look for.  It's a very fun development of a character who we've come to know from his origins as a naive and inexperienced young man thrown into the mess of chaos magic, and it makes this one a very welcome addition to the series.