Darksight Dare
core novella 2026 World of the Five Gods
Record
| First published | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.55 (1,848 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 157 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9798228994126 |
| Internal chronology | 17 |
Synopsis
Set a few months after the events of the earlier novella The Adventure of the Demonic Ox, this story finds Penric and Desdemona confronted with two difficult cases at once. A mutilated Cedonian cavalry captain, left blind by his injuries, seeks out Penric hoping for aid restoring some form of sight, while separately a dying hedge sorceress who wants no help at all is nearing the end of her life while still carrying her own demon. The Temple sees an opportunity in the coincidence: the sorceress's demon could in principle grant the blinded captain an unconventional form of perception to compensate for his lost sight, but accepting it would commit him to years of theological training that would upend the life he had planned. Penric must weigh the needs and reluctance of both people as their separate problems become entangled.
Where it sits
- Universe: World of the Five Gods
- Series: Penric & Desdemona core; position 16 of 16 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Notes
- From the series record (Penric & Desdemona): 16 novellas (2015-2026); publication order diverges from the author's own stated internal chronological order (recorded via internal chronology). Set roughly 150 years after The Hallowed Hunt and roughly 100 years before the Chalion novels. Classified Core Canon (not Expanded) because the novellas are marketed/sold as their own numbered series, are narratively load-bearing rather than side content, and the Hugo voting body treated them as full constituent parts of the universe when awarding the 2018 Hugo Best Series to the whole World of the Five Gods.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Penric & Desdemona: position 16 of 16: previous Testimony of Mute Things (2025)
- Internal chronology, within World of the Five Gods: position 17 of 19: previous The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (2025) · next The Curse of Chalion (2001)
Sources
← World of the Five Gods dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.