I think Paladin of Souls is my favorite (by a slim margin) of the Chalion books. And I read the latest Penric and Desdemona story and enjoyed it, although it was sad.

And I may be the only person who didn't really enjoy Mexican Gothic. It just ... didn't work for me.

Paladin of Souls is my favorite, but I do like them all, and more on each re-read, I think. I do particularly enjoy that the Penric & Desdemona novellas are novellas - quick reads and smaller stories (in that the problem they have to solve is not usually on the order of save an entire nation) and seeing more of the world as they move from place to place (although I do want the current settled domesticity to continue because I want the characters to be happy...). I would like to find out what happened after Paladin of Souls, though: did Chalion and Ibra successfully unite? How is Foix getting along with his bear (did he name it?), what do you do with all those Roknari if you *do* conquer their provinces, etc. Wouldn't mind the further adventures of Ista, for that matter.

t your spoiler font makes me go “gosh I need to re-read those don’t I?”

I found re-reading over the last week or whatever very rewarding, I had forgotten a lot! I'm into early Penric now and I had forgotten a lot of this, too

I do feel better about the death magic question that was bothering me before. Although I still wish there was a little more explanation in Penric's musings on despair and grace - I feel like I almost get it but not quite. Maybe if I finish rereading and give it another go I'll understand better...

My hold on The Gilded Edge by Catherine Prendergast came in! Super excited to read this.

I had several golds come in on my ebooks and am trying to not read them this weekend and instead wait until next week when I’m on a plane and on vacation!

The e-book of Cinnamon and Gunpowder is on sale at Amazon. It's good; took me a little while to get into it, but it has pirates, cooking, adventure and a good story.

I really enjoy the Chalion books, but my pleasure is somewhat tempered by my new understanding that they are based on Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Roknari are stand-ins for the Moors. So if you look at it that way, that's ... less awesome. One hates to think of the Quintarians as analogues for the Spanish Inquisition, but that's structurally what they are. And there's not much sympathy for the Roknari perspective, including the fact that the text itself shows the Roknari are theologically incorrect: the Bastard is a god.

In other news, I have found a podcast that goes deep on Tolkein: it's doing The Silmarillion chapter by chapter, and there are several hundred episodes. I think I have enough to cover my dogwalking for the next couple of years.

Have you read The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay?

[link]

The historical basis does bother me some, Consuela, and that is one reason I would be really interested in seeing what happens next in Chalion. I really like some of the things Bujold did in her worldbuilding to separate the World of the Five Gods from historical Europe, like swapping north and south and expunging the Roman Empire entirely (I feel like the difference have gotten more pronounced and apparent as the series has gone on) and I hope she would be similarly thoughtful with a closer look at the Roknari (who are also, per Bujold, somewhat based on Vikings although both about as much as Barrayar is based on Klingons, you know?). It also seems clear that while the Quadrenes are objectively incorrect about the Bastard (although, honestly, I am not entirely convinced of that, either, he certainly has demonic qualities, no?) the gods may not much care about that. Which would be interesting to see spelled out. While my most recent re-read clarified some of this stuff for me, it definitely left me *more* uncertain about why Forno the Fairly Wise was able to successfully call for a death miracle against the Golden General who was apparently beloved by the Father and not already bound for sundering and I would like to think Bujold has also thought about that.