Demon Daughter
core novella 2024 World of the Five Gods
Record
| First published | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.47 (3,428 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 153 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781645242192 |
| Internal chronology | 14 |
Synopsis
Set a few years after the events of the earlier novella Knot of Shadows, this story begins when a six-year-old girl named Otta unexpectedly acquires an elemental demon, passed to her from a rat that had been carrying it after being thrown overboard from a ship. Unable to control her new ability to create fire or her sudden second sight, Otta frightens the people around her and is abandoned by villagers who do not know how to help her. When Penric and his wife Nikys take the girl into their household in Vilnoc, a disagreement arises between Penric and his own demon Desdemona over what should become of Otta and the demon she now carries, since Temple doctrine and personal loyalty point toward different outcomes. The novella follows the household's efforts to protect Otta while working out what her future, and her demon's, should hold.
Where it sits
- Universe: World of the Five Gods
- Series: Penric & Desdemona core; position 12 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 12 of 16: previous Knot of Shadows (2021) · next Penric and the Bandit (2024)
- Internal chronology, within World of the Five Gods: position 14 of 19: previous Knot of Shadows (2021) · next Penric and the Bandit (2024)
Sources
← World of the Five Gods dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.