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A review by yak_attak
The Assassins of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold
2.0
Assassins of Thasalon might be the first time I'm genuinely disappointed with a work by Bujold - for much of the Penric and Desdemona series, though I don't think they're particularly more interesting than an amusing trifle, I've been looking forward to this book, particularly for its length. Many of the Penric stories are fun little vignettes, but end far too quickly or tamely to be much of note. The hope was that the full length would let Bujold stretch out a bit, get wild, and get to something a little stranger, more like Chalion, or Paladin.
Unfortunately, Assassins of Thasalon is honestly just another Penric story, only long. It bears no further insight, or weight from the strength of its length, and though it serves as somewhat of a capstone to this particular story arc, there isn't more of a sense of theme or importance than before. Penric goes through his task blithely and in a described orderly manner, and much of the action is literally left to divine intervention. Much of the length of the novel is instead padded with the characters describing to each new person they meet, the events of the novel, up to that point. And then again with the next set. And again with the next. Add in Penric's incessant need to explain the magic system (which we've gotten in all 9 other novellas, and shorter) and it's just boring. The first Bujold book to be so. And Hopefully the last.
Unfortunately, Assassins of Thasalon is honestly just another Penric story, only long. It bears no further insight, or weight from the strength of its length, and though it serves as somewhat of a capstone to this particular story arc, there isn't more of a sense of theme or importance than before. Penric goes through his task blithely and in a described orderly manner, and much of the action is literally left to divine intervention. Much of the length of the novel is instead padded with the characters describing to each new person they meet, the events of the novel, up to that point. And then again with the next set. And again with the next. Add in Penric's incessant need to explain the magic system (which we've gotten in all 9 other novellas, and shorter) and it's just boring. The first Bujold book to be so. And Hopefully the last.