This is presented as a single book, but it's actually a collection of thirteen semi-connected short stories which gives me more context for reading The End of All Things (which I read out of order). Many of the stories feature Harry Wilson (Colonial Defence Force), Ambassador Abumwe (Colonial Union) and Hart, Harry's friend and Ambassador Abumwe's aid. The stories (especially Harry's) move the situation forward as the CU/CDF try to figure out who is stealing their starships, while trying to repair the CU/CDF's damaged relationship with Earth and open a backchannel to negotiate with the Conclave who might or might not be their enemy.
| <input ... > | <select ... ><option ... >Detect language</option><option ... >Afrikaans</option><option ... >Albanian</option><option ... >Amharic</option><option ... >Arabic</option><option ... >Armenian</option><option ... >Azerbaijani</option><option ... >Basque</option><option ... >Belarusian</option><option ... >Bengali</option><option ... >Bosnian</option><option ... >Bulgarian</option><option ... >Catalan</option><option ... >Cebuano</option><option ... >Chichewa</option><option ... >Chinese (Simplified)</option><option ... >Chinese (Traditional)</option><option ... >Corsican</option><option ... >Croatian</option><option ... >Czech</option><option ... >Danish</option><option ... >Dutch</option><option ... >English</option><option ... >Esperanto</option><option ... >Estonian</option><option ... >Filipino</option><option ... >Finnish</option><option ... >French</option><option ... >Frisian</option><option ... >Galician</option><option ... >Georgian</option><option ... >German</option><option ... >Greek</option><option ... >Gujarati</option><option ... >Haitian Creole</option><option ... >Hausa</option><option ... >Hawaiian</option><option ... >Hebrew</option><option ... >Hindi</option><option ... >Hmong</option><option ... >Hungarian</option><option ... >Icelandic</option><option ... >Igbo</option><option ... >Indonesian</option><option ... >Irish</option><option ... >Italian</option><option ... >Japanese</option><option ... >Javanese</option><option ... >Kannada</option><option ... >Kazakh</option><option ... >Khmer</option><option ... >Korean</option><option ... >Kurdish</option><option ... >Kyrgyz</option><option ... >Lao</option><option ... >Latin</option><option ... >Latvian</option><option ... >Lithuanian</option><option ... >Luxembourgish</option><option ... >Macedonian</option><option ... >Malagasy</option><option ... >Malay</option><option ... >Malayalam</option><option ... >Maltese</option><option ... >Maori</option><option ... >Marathi</option><option ... >Mongolian</option><option ... >Myanmar (Burmese)</option><option ... >Nepali</option><option ... >Norwegian</option><option ... >Pashto</option><option ... >Persian</option><option ... >Polish</option><option ... >Portuguese</option><option ... >Punjabi</option><option ... >Romanian</option><option ... >Russian</option><option ... >Samoan</option><option ... >Scots Gaelic</option><option ... >Serbian</option><option ... >Sesotho</option><option ... >Shona</option><option ... >Sindhi</option><option ... >Sinhala</option><option ... >Slovak</option><option ... >Slovenian</option><option ... >Somali</option><option ... >Spanish</option><option ... >Sundanese</option><option ... >Swahili</option><option ... >Swedish</option><option ... >Tajik</option><option ... >Tamil</option><option ... >Telugu</option><option ... >Thai</option><option ... >Turkish</option><option ... >Ukrainian</option><option ... >Urdu</option><option ... >Uzbek</option><option ... >Vietnamese</option><option ... >Welsh</option><option ... >Xhosa</option><option ... >Yiddish</option><option ... >Yoruba</option><option ... >Zulu</option></select> | | <select ... ><option ... >Afrikaans</option><option ... >Albanian</option><option ... >Amharic</option><option ... >Arabic</option><option ... >Armenian</option><option ... >Azerbaijani</option><option ... >Basque</option><option ... >Belarusian</option><option ... >Bengali</option><option ... >Bosnian</option><option ... >Bulgarian</option><option ... >Catalan</option><option ... >Cebuano</option><option ... >Chichewa</option><option ... >Chinese (Simplified)</option><option ... >Chinese (Traditional)</option><option ... >Corsican</option><option ... >Croatian</option><option ... >Czech</option><option ... >Danish</option><option ... >Dutch</option><option ... >English</option><option ... >Esperanto</option><option ... >Estonian</option><option ... >Filipino</option><option ... >Finnish</option><option ... >French</option><option ... >Frisian</option><option ... >Galician</option><option ... >Georgian</option><option ... >German</option><option ... >Greek</option><option ... >Gujarati</option><option ... >Haitian Creole</option><option ... >Hausa</option><option ... >Hawaiian</option><option ... >Hebrew</option><option ... >Hindi</option><option ... >Hmong</option><option ... >Hungarian</option><option ... >Icelandic</option><option ... >Igbo</option><option ... >Indonesian</option><option ... >Irish</option><option ... >Italian</option><option ... >Japanese</option><option ... >Javanese</option><option ... >Kannada</option><option ... >Kazakh</option><option ... >Khmer</option><option ... >Korean</option><option ... >Kurdish</option><option ... >Kyrgyz</option><option ... >Lao</option><option ... >Latin</option><option ... >Latvian</option><option ... >Lithuanian</option><option ... >Luxembourgish</option><option ... >Macedonian</option><option ... >Malagasy</option><option ... >Malay</option><option ... >Malayalam</option><option ... >Maltese</option><option ... >Maori</option><option ... >Marathi</option><option ... >Mongolian</option><option ... >Myanmar (Burmese)</option><option ... >Nepali</option><option ... >Norwegian</option><option ... >Pashto</option><option ... >Persian</option><option ... >Polish</option><option ... >Portuguese</option><option ... >Punjabi</option><option ... >Romanian</option><option ... >Russian</option><option ... >Samoan</option><option ... >Scots Gaelic</option><option ... >Serbian</option><option ... >Sesotho</option><option ... >Shona</option><option ... >Sindhi</option><option ... >Sinhala</option><option ... >Slovak</option><option ... >Slovenian</option><option ... >Somali</option><option ... >Spanish</option><option ... >Sundanese</option><option ... >Swahili</option><option ... >Swedish</option><option ... >Tajik</option><option ... >Tamil</option><option ... >Telugu</option><option ... >Thai</option><option ... >Turkish</option><option ... >Ukrainian</option><option ... >Urdu</option><option ... >Uzbek</option><option ... >Vietnamese</option><option ... >Welsh</option><option ... >Xhosa</option><option ... >Yiddish</option><option ... >Yoruba</option><option ... >Zulu</option></select> | | | | | |
Text-to-speech function is limited to 200 characters
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
At last a novel-length Penric book! The action takes place two years after The Physicians of Vilnoc. Penric's brother in Law, General Adelis Arisaydia, survives an assassination attempt. The would-be assassin shares her consciousness with a demon, as does Penric, but whereas Pen's demon, Desdemona, is mature, having lived with several previous 'riders', this chaos demon is young. Pen is drawn back into Cedonia, and into court intrigue while trying to expose a corrupt temple sorcerer and train his new apprentice in how not to be an assassin.
I read this many years ago when it was first published in 1981, and loved it. I was surprised it was only a runner up for the Carnegie Medal, but delighted when it won the Guardian Fiction Award. I was worried about reading it again, but it was just as good as I remembered. Willie Beech is evacuated from London to the country during the Second World War, leaving behind an abusive religious nutter of a mother, and placed with the reclusive Tom Oakley – a widower. Though there is a lot of sadness in this book its message is one of hope and trust in a found-family.