The Prisoner of Limnos

A Penric & Desdemona Novella in the World of the Five Gods

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In this sequel novella to Mira's Last Dance, Temple sorcerer Penric and the widow Nikys have finally reached safety in the duchy of Orbas when a secret letter from a friend brings frightening news: Nikys's mother has been taken hostage by her brother's enemies at the Cedonian imperial court, and confined in a precarious island sanctuary.

Their own romance still unresolved, Nikys, Penric, and of course Desdemona must infiltrate the hostile country once more, finding along the way that family relationships can be as unexpectedly challenging as any rescue scheme.

©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Penric returns

At 5 hours and 25 minutes, this is one of the longest of Bujold's novellas about Penric and his demon Desdemona. It starts soon after the ending of Mira's Last Dance. I don't want to go into plot details, as it is too easy to get into spoilers, but this book has Penric meet some new friends, have some adventures, tie up some loose ends and more. One of the new characters is an engineer, possibly a tribute to Bujold's late father who was an engineer as well as weatherman.

If there are no more Penric novellas in the future, this can serve as a conclusion to the series. But plenty of room is left for future tales if Bujold is inspired to write them (as I hope she is). And, if she writes more, I hope Grover Gardner narrates them also. Listen and enjoy. (But, I think you will enjoy it more if you have listened to earlier works in the series first, starting with Penric's Demon.)

Good story, but the pricing is off...

I am a lon-time Audible listener and also a fan of this author and narrator. Usually, I use one of my monthly credits on a 20-40 hour work, which lasts me mist of the month. However, after listening to the first longer book, there was a series of 4-5 hour separate books each costing $9.95 or 1 credit. I ended up buying each instead of using the credit I would need for a more expensive book. But with each book being so short, I ended up spending a lot. Frankly, all of these short volumes chronicle the tails of the same person and mostly the same characters. There is no reason I can see that they were not all part the f the same book, which would have made sense to use 1 credit on. So feel a bit cheated due to the strange pricing model.
Otherwise, the content and performance were good.

You're gonna wanna rush to read this one!

Ummm, yeah... I may have binged 4 of the Penric and Desdemona novellas in 2 days, wanna make sumpthin' out of it? LOL!  You gotta realize that if I did that (and I really did), that there's something to these fun lighthearted tales... Penric's so affable in his daily tête-à-tête with his Demon, Desdemona, it's just so much fun to eavesdrop on them. This may just be my favorite Penric story, yet!
This is the conclusion to the mini ARC which started with Penric's Mission, and we find him rushing into danger to aid the widow Nikys... a woman who's captured his heart, but sofar, refused his advances!
Will Penric get an HEA... or is that just a pipe dream? The answer lies ahead... if you let Lois McMaster Bujold and Grover Gardner take you on another fine adventure, with The Prisoner of Limnos!

The last chapter

Such a relief to see Penric and Des find peace. Wise women prevail with common sense.

wonderfully entertaining

the narrator supported the story and the characters continue to entertain. perfect length for an audiobook.