Penric's Progress by Lois McMaster Bujold (World of Five Gods, Penric & Desdemona #1-3)

Okay, I am still quite confused about the reading order for the World of Five Gods saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. I messed up with the first trilogy and it looks like I might have messed up this sub-series within the greater world.  Sheesh.  I am pretty sure you're supposed to read the following books in the following order to start the saga:

The Curse of Chalion
Paladin of Souls
The Hallowed Hunt

After that, things start to get a little dicey. There's a sub-series called Penric & Desdemona and I took out Penric's Progress from the library because I thought it was the first three novellas in the sub-series, but it looks like there's a fourth novella that isn't actually captured in this collection.  Why is this so confusing?  

So, regardless if I'm doing it correctly or not, this collection contains the novellas "Penric's Demon," "Penric and the Shaman," and "Penric's Fox." In the first novella, we're introduced to Penric, the third born son of a poor nobleman. On the way to his betrothal ceremony, he goes to the assistance of an ailing lady and as she dies, it turns out that she's a Temple Divine and she bequeaths her demon to Penric.  Penric names the demon Desdemona and soon we're off on adventures of Penric and his demon.

In "Penric and the Shaman," Penric is on the hunt for a shaman who has been accused of murder and in "Penric's Fox," a Temple Divine is murdered and Penric must find her demon.  These stories are simply brilliant - Bujold has built a wonderful world and it's so very immersive. And Penric is joyful and smart and funny. The whole series has an irreverent humor to it that is so very rare to find in epic fantasy stories that tend to take themselves seriously.

I just love the World of Five Gods. 5/5 stars for this one, too.

Lines of note:

The man could certainly put the grim in grimace. (page 36)

"For all that we trust the gods, I think we can trust them to know the difference between humor and blasphemy." (page 191)

"It was a revelation. Trees had leaves. And letters were not elusive fur-bearing creatures hiding coyly behind each other. I wasn't stupid, I just couldn't see." (page 220)