The Assassins of Thasalon

After a series of novellas, this is the first novel-length Penric story, and no-one who's read this far in the series should need any persuading to buy it.However, I wouldn't say that this is significantly different in nature from the other Penric stories: it's just longer, as this story didn't happen to fit into a novella.As usual, the author finds something new to tell us about sorcery, and indeed about theology; and we meet characters old and new. It's good to meet again the Xarre family from [b:The Prisoner of Limnos 36440420 The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric and Desdemona, #6) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508638041l/36440420.SY75.jpg 58141963], which remains my favourite Penric story so far. The new characters include a fisherman saint, a novice sorceress, and a sorcerer-villain.Rather amusingly, Penric here invents and practises his own equivalent of the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, to render people temporarily unconscious.This novel is a good story with plenty of interesting details, and the extra length makes it even more rereadable than usual. It also seems to imply that the series isn't close to finishing, which is reassuring: it can run on indefinitely, as far as I'm concerned.As a slight criticism, it seems to me that Lord Regent Nao and his wife Princess Laris accept Penric a bit too quickly into discussions of affairs of state. From their point of view, he's some strange foreign sorcerer whom they've just met. However, their quick acceptance of him is at least convenient for the story.It's hard to imagine how it would feel to read this one as a standalone novel, without having read the preceding novellas in the series. I suppose it could be done, but you'd be missing a lot of background information. In particular, [b:Penric's Demon 25791216 Penric's Demon (Penric and Desdemona, #1) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436108514l/25791216.SX50.jpg 45642232] introduces us to Penric aged 19, his demon, and the World of the Five Gods in general; [b:Penric's Mission 32858701 Penric's Mission (Penric and Desdemona, #3) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478098172l/32858701.SX50.jpg 53462520] introduces us to Adelis, Nikys, and the country of Cedonia; [b:Mira's Last Dance 34348998 Mira's Last Dance (Penric and Desdemona, #4) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1487582553l/34348998.SY75.jpg 55425075] and [b:The Prisoner of Limnos 36440420 The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric and Desdemona, #6) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508638041l/36440420.SY75.jpg 58141963] explain how Penric comes to be based in Vilnoc (in the country of Orbas); and [b:The Prisoner of Limnos 36440420 The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric and Desdemona, #6) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508638041l/36440420.SY75.jpg 58141963] introduces us to the Xarre family. The other novellas are worth reading but less relevant to this novel.