Lois McMaster Bujold

When sorcerer Learned Penric hears of the suspected demonic possession of an ox at his brother-in-law’s bridgebuilding worksite, he thinks it an excellent opportunity to tutor his adopted daughter and student sorceress Otta in one of their Temple duties.

In an alternate Renaissance Italy where the church regulates magic and licenses magicians, fiery Fiametta Beneforte wants to be more than her goldsmith-mage father's unpaid apprentice....

The farmers and riverfolk have long distrusted the power of the mysterious and aloof Lakewalkers, even though they depend on them for protection from the evil malices....

In a world where malices, remnants of ancient magic, can erupt with life-destroying power, only the soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them....

Captain Ivan Vorpatril is enjoying his life on Komarr. But when an old friend asks him to protect a young woman with a secret who is on the hit list of a criminal syndicate, he cannot refuse....

Dr. Ethan Urquhart is chief of biology at a District Reproduction Center. He delivers babies from uterine replicators. You see, on Athos there are no women....

In this second volume, Fawn Bluefield, the clever farm girl, and Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, are newly married....

Lord Miles Vorkosigan has a problem that all his new power can't solve: unrequited love for the beautiful Vor widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson....

Young, pregnant Fawn Bluefield has just fled her family's farm to the city of Glassforge, where she encounters a patrol of the enigmatic soldier-sorcerers known as Lakewalkers....

Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard's Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on his first covert diplomatic mission....

Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda....

In this novella set in the World of the Five Gods and four years after the events in Penric's Demon, Penric is a divine of the Bastard's Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar....

Amidst the decaying splendor and poisonous intrigue of Chalion's ancient capital, Cazaril is forced to confront not only powerful enemies but also the malignant curse....

When Miles Vorkosigan decides to let his clone brother assume his secret identity and lead a mission to liberate other clones, things get really messy....

Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. Miles Vorkosigan should know - having done both. But when he makes the mistake of returning too soon to duty, he's summoned to face the security chief....

In the festive season of Winterfair on the planet Barrayar, Lord Miles Vorkosigan is making elaborate preparations for his wedding....

An unholy attack upon his brother-in-law, General Arisaydia, pitches sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon, Desdemona, headlong into the snake pit of Cedonian imperial politics. But they will not travel alone.....

Bastard’s Eve is a night of celebration for residents in the canal city of Lodi - but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and an unexpected saint of the fifth god....

It was the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. And Captain Cordelia Naismith of the Betan Expeditionary Force would be forced into a separate peace with her enemy....

These short stories were among the first life spontaneously generated in Lois McMaster Bujold's nascent writing career....