lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2020-08-23 10:00 am
lightreads) wrote2020-08-23 10:00 am
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The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Physicians of Vilnoc
3/5. Another novella about Pen and his demon. This one legitimately is a novella – there's not enough here for a novel – so at least there's that. Though I should point out that this book is about being a doctor overrun with cases of a mysterious and deadly infection sweeping through a population. In short, Pen does a lot that feels and reads like running in pointless circles over and over again until he collapses, and we understand why he did not become a physician after his previous study of medicine. That is, having the ability is really not the same thing as having the calling.
But, after eight books, it has finally occurred to me that my problem with this series is that it's about Pen and not about his demon. I'd frankly rather be reading these stories from her perspective, layered more directly with her dozen prior companions. Pen has grown up nice, don't get me wrong, but these stories are far more conventional from his point of view. Also, I think she mis-stepped on a few key points early on, for example by inserting that it is unusual for Pen to have named his demon. Which always struck me as laughable, since humans are humans. We name our vacuum cleaners, of course we name the sentient presence in our heads for decades, come the fuck on. I suspect she was setting up some stuff about how Pen's approach – not trained by the temple – is salutary, and there is a bit of that, but she (thankfully) never really ran with it. But anyway, my point is, I think this series was set up to be a little bit about how special Pen is, and if I'm not convinced of that after eight novellas and am increasingly convinced with each one that Des is far more interesting, well, something isn't going right.
3/5. Another novella about Pen and his demon. This one legitimately is a novella – there's not enough here for a novel – so at least there's that. Though I should point out that this book is about being a doctor overrun with cases of a mysterious and deadly infection sweeping through a population. In short, Pen does a lot that feels and reads like running in pointless circles over and over again until he collapses, and we understand why he did not become a physician after his previous study of medicine. That is, having the ability is really not the same thing as having the calling.
But, after eight books, it has finally occurred to me that my problem with this series is that it's about Pen and not about his demon. I'd frankly rather be reading these stories from her perspective, layered more directly with her dozen prior companions. Pen has grown up nice, don't get me wrong, but these stories are far more conventional from his point of view. Also, I think she mis-stepped on a few key points early on, for example by inserting that it is unusual for Pen to have named his demon. Which always struck me as laughable, since humans are humans. We name our vacuum cleaners, of course we name the sentient presence in our heads for decades, come the fuck on. I suspect she was setting up some stuff about how Pen's approach – not trained by the temple – is salutary, and there is a bit of that, but she (thankfully) never really ran with it. But anyway, my point is, I think this series was set up to be a little bit about how special Pen is, and if I'm not convinced of that after eight novellas and am increasingly convinced with each one that Des is far more interesting, well, something isn't going right.
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Lol, yes, his hair. You can tell she watches a lot of anime these days.
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