11/14/2025
Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold
This latest story in the Penric and Desdemona series is actually an early one. That's not as contradictory as it seems as the series is published in the order in which it strikes the author to write one, not chronologically. (So you don't have to read in order as long as you read the first book , first.
So this latest entry in the series goes back to an earlier part of Penric's life, to an earlier day in his career when he had more bosses, less authority, and was more inclined to throwing himself in the way of adventures. That his patron-deity is the god of chaos aids in all those propensities and his patron's business entirely too well.
So this story slips back more than a decade in Penric's life, to a point where he's traveling with his earthly boss, Princess-Archdivine Llewen, as her combination, secretary, translator, bodyguard AND spy, while she adjudicates an ecclesiastical peace treaty.
Those 'mute things' of the book's title are accounting ledgers, which can't speak but certainly have a lot to say about ecclesiastical chicanery, financial skullduggery, and murder. It's up to Penric to find a way through a thorny knot of conflicting criminality to find a truth that the innocent can live with while putting the guilty where they belong.
I love this series for its combination of epic fantasy and cozy fantasy setting with its frequently forays into twisty fantasy mystery. That Penric, Desdemona and the world they inhabit is fascinating just adds to the series charm. So if any of that appeals, and/or if you're a fan of 's or series, Penric is a special delight!
