In case any of you are Elizabeth Peters completists - there's a not previously published Amelia Peabody story in the Nov/Dec Ellery Queen

The Princess of Heartache - that sounds like something I might have written as a teen

Was it in matter that someone mentioned the new Penric and Desdemona story? I enjoyed it but not as much as some of the others, it felt very brief and a bit confusing on the “why” theologically

I’m reading it right now (was it Natter? I forget) and will be ready to discuss soon.

Hm. Yeah. Death magic seems more complicated than I previously supposed. Theologically.

Trying to remember when we've seen it before, and I'm pretty sure we have but I can't remember in what story. Whether that would clarify anything I don't know.

I DO know I'm still in the market for a Penric/Paladin crossover. Or Chalion/St of Steel. Five gods and White Rat. Whatever. Someone get on that.

Isn’t nowish the time we can pre-order erikaj’s book?

Yeah t, I understood the part where the mom wished the other guy dead And maybe even the part where her soul overtook his body?? But not the part where the little kid ghost took over hers? Like why? How was he involved??

That was coincidence, I think. The two ghosts were unrelated to the Death Magic, just took advantage of the empty bodies and moved in. And Penric seems to think that it was a sweetener to the Bastard that the timing of the ritual would leave her body free for the kid's ghost, giving him a chance to be found, I suppose. That whole business where if you don't get a funeral you'll be sundered seems harsh.

What I don't get is that part of the sacrifice is your soul getting carried off to hell in a demon's bucket, but maybe you can still be taken up by a god at your funeral? It's confusing.

It came up in The Curse of Chalion - early on, Caziel (?) takes the clothing from a man who'd done the death magic spell and died. Later on, he himself does the death magic spell but is protected by two gods and so has both the demon and the soul of the man he'd wished to death haunting him. I think the idea is a matter of balance - you summon a demon to take the soul of someone but have to give up your own soul to balance it. (If you haven't read the book, the problem is solved at the end.)

Hm. I reread that in the last couple of years but cannot recall any of the detail. Whenever I try to remember Curse of Chalion all I can come up with is actually from Paladin of Souls

ETA: thanks for the reminder, sumi! I have not been able to find the book to pre-order yet, have you?

Rereading Palidin of Souls and I just got to the part where a zombie rides out on a demon horse to decapitate sorcerers and it's striking me as much more Halloween appropriate than I had previously categorized it