When Nikys' mother is incarcerated in a retreat for the Mother that only lets in women, Nikys' and Penric travel to Limnos to plan a daring escape. ( )

This 3rd novella about Penric & Nikys has some themes familiar to those Vorkosigan fans out there - in particular, the fact that love & romance isn't necessarily restricted to monogamous pairs of one male & one female. Indeed, for Penric & Nikys, there will always be a third party - Desdemona - but Bujold also gives us another trio: Arisaydia (Nikys's brother), Tanar (Arisaydia's potential fiancée) and Sura (a eunich who loves Tanar).

Of course, there is plenty of adventure too! ( )

Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Prisoner of Limnos. Penric and Desdemona No. 6 (Publication Order). Spectrum Literary Agency, 2017.
One could wish that Lois McMaster Bujold would give us a few more Vor games, but in the meantime, Penric is becoming a good servant of the Bastard God and getting along with his Chaos demon and all her previous hosts. He has fallen in love, and his prospective mother-in-law is a prisoner. It’s fun, fun, fun in the realm of the five gods. Before embarking on this or any other Bujold series, be sure to read a recent version of her reading order suggestions, often included at the end of her novels. 4 stars. ( )

3 stars from the first read

Re read this 23 months later and I have no idea what the hell i was thinking to only give it three the first time around. Ridiculous reviewing, now given it a well deserved 5stars. ( )

This isn't the most exciting or the most original of the Penric stories, but it's still enjoyable, with some intriguing new characters. I do think this novella, plus the two that precede it, are more like one continuous story than individual self-contained parts of a series. (And in fact, I suspect the next book in the series continues that trend, because there are a number of plot points left unresolved at the conclusion of this ones.)

This series is also another example of Bujold's mildly queer heterosexuality (or seriously straight queerness), which will be familiar to readers of her Vorkosigan series. I like the ideas she's playing with in both series, but I feel like once again here, she shies away from really committing her main characters to anything that strays too far from the norm - and also notably, from committing herself to having to write actual queer romance. ( )