★★★★☆ Penric and the Bandit, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Pen and Des pick up another stray
Penric and the Bandit
Lois McMaster Bujold
Pen and Des pick up another stray
We begin Novella 13 in Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona inside the head of Roz, the bandit referred to in the title. His thoughts make it clear right from the start that he's up to no good. He attaches himself to a blonde stranger in a tavern.
If you've read previous books in the series, you will immediately recognize the blonde stranger as Penric. Pen is taking a holiday in Oxousa, a realm that borders on his home country Orbas. He lets slip that he's hunting for an abandoned temple and hermitage, where he hopes to find something of value. And you'll realize that Roz is not half so clever as he thinks. While he thinks he has cleverly attached himself to Penric, Pen and Des have drawn him in.
You can imagine what ensues, in general terms. Roz gradually learns who and what Penric is. It gets more complicated, but to explain would be spoiling. It's a lot of fun, of course. Bujold can always be relied on.
Penric and the Bandit might be more fun if you didn't know in advance about Penric. The table-turning plot works, but it would be more fun to a naive reader who couldn't foresee it in advance. I might even recommend it to a reader familiar with Bujold's Five Gods World who had not read any of the previous Pen and Des books.