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hrjThis is a novella in Bujold's "five gods" world (the one that started with the fabulous The Curse of Chalion), published as a stand-alone. I came somewhat late to Bujold (in part due to my aversion for books and authors that are being pushed on me with religious fervor) and made up for it by reading many of her books with the sort of heroin-like addiction that had me re-reading as soon as I'd finished the last page. Not all of her books have had that effect on me (the last two Vorkosigan books have felt like she's really squeezing the toothpaste from the very bottom of the tube). And I have to confess that I found "Penric's Demon" merely a pleasant read.
There has recently been coined the subgenre term "kindness punk" (in that sort of coinage where "punk" no longer means anything particularly transgressive, just like "gate" no longer means anything truly scandalous), referring to SFF with protagonists who are genuinely kind, honorable, well-meaning beings, and who achieve their ends in part by means of these virtues. (People tend to set it up in opposition to the "grim-dark" sub-genre.) The Goblin Emperor was the first book I recall hearing it in connection with. Well, "Penric's Demon" definitely falls in the category of kindness-punk. We have a naive, inexperienced, but courteous and very well-meaning young man who finds himself possessing--or possessed by--a demon, precisely due to that courtesy and kindness. Having a demon comes with a number of features that put him in significant danger. He works his way out of the dangers by being earnest, well-meaning, brave, and compassionate. All very good things to be, and a novella length doesn't allow for more than a few complications along the way.
But I didn't feel the story came with any surprises or the sort of sideways human insights that are Bujold at her best. It reminded me most of that tradition of folk tale where the protagonist spends the first half of the story being casually kind to creatures and people he meets along the way (turning his horse aside from trampling the ant hill, throwing the fish back in the river, etc.) and the second half of the story unexpectedly being repaid for that kindness to achieve his ends. The structure also felt like a traditionally feminine plot that had been given to a male character this time. The protagonist's adventure arrives in the nick of time to obviate an arranged marriage, his defining characteristics are in the "social skills" category, he is relatively passive in his own crisis and prevails largely due to the assistance of the allies gained by earlier kindnesses. I'm not saying this is a bad thing! Nor that this plot ought to be gender-specific. (And the world of the five gods is, in many ways, less gender-bound than the average pseudo-medieval fantasy world.) But in an odd way, a plot that I would find annoying with a female protagonist isn't entirely redeemed by being gender-swapped.
So...well-written and sufficiently interesting. Didn't entirely pass the test of "stopped paying attention to the treadmill timer while reading." I suppose the demon(s) count as prominent female characters for the purposes of the ticky-box. And it narrowly passes the test of "do we have positive evidence of queer people in this world" by virtue of an offhand and non-judgmental implication of the existence of homosexual prostitutes. (Not exactly the best way to pass, but a pass.) A more solid pass on "do we have positive evidence of a variety of cultures and ethnicities." And yet, still in the end, I found it merely good.
There has recently been coined the subgenre term "kindness punk" (in that sort of coinage where "punk" no longer means anything particularly transgressive, just like "gate" no longer means anything truly scandalous), referring to SFF with protagonists who are genuinely kind, honorable, well-meaning beings, and who achieve their ends in part by means of these virtues. (People tend to set it up in opposition to the "grim-dark" sub-genre.) The Goblin Emperor was the first book I recall hearing it in connection with. Well, "Penric's Demon" definitely falls in the category of kindness-punk. We have a naive, inexperienced, but courteous and very well-meaning young man who finds himself possessing--or possessed by--a demon, precisely due to that courtesy and kindness. Having a demon comes with a number of features that put him in significant danger. He works his way out of the dangers by being earnest, well-meaning, brave, and compassionate. All very good things to be, and a novella length doesn't allow for more than a few complications along the way.
But I didn't feel the story came with any surprises or the sort of sideways human insights that are Bujold at her best. It reminded me most of that tradition of folk tale where the protagonist spends the first half of the story being casually kind to creatures and people he meets along the way (turning his horse aside from trampling the ant hill, throwing the fish back in the river, etc.) and the second half of the story unexpectedly being repaid for that kindness to achieve his ends. The structure also felt like a traditionally feminine plot that had been given to a male character this time. The protagonist's adventure arrives in the nick of time to obviate an arranged marriage, his defining characteristics are in the "social skills" category, he is relatively passive in his own crisis and prevails largely due to the assistance of the allies gained by earlier kindnesses. I'm not saying this is a bad thing! Nor that this plot ought to be gender-specific. (And the world of the five gods is, in many ways, less gender-bound than the average pseudo-medieval fantasy world.) But in an odd way, a plot that I would find annoying with a female protagonist isn't entirely redeemed by being gender-swapped.
So...well-written and sufficiently interesting. Didn't entirely pass the test of "stopped paying attention to the treadmill timer while reading." I suppose the demon(s) count as prominent female characters for the purposes of the ticky-box. And it narrowly passes the test of "do we have positive evidence of queer people in this world" by virtue of an offhand and non-judgmental implication of the existence of homosexual prostitutes. (Not exactly the best way to pass, but a pass.) A more solid pass on "do we have positive evidence of a variety of cultures and ethnicities." And yet, still in the end, I found it merely good.
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Date: 2015-09-11 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-11 07:37 pm (UTC)NobleBright
Date: 2015-09-14 04:43 pm (UTC)Often, Noblebright catches some flack for being more in line with fairy tales and not having a whole lot of depth to the story, or sort of being guaranteed that nothing too nasty will happen. Though, I find the setting can have hidden depth, especially if it's the sort of Noblebright that favors having no villain. Everyone is a 'good guy' or at the least a lighter shade of gray, but their goals and ideologies simply do not match. Which I find worlds more interesting then "land besieged by generic evil forces and overlord #7494934" for the nth time.
Now the real fun comes in when people mix the terms. So far I've only seen conceptual ideas for such a setting, but it's fun to talk with peers on what a "Nobledark" or "Grimbright" setting might entail.