Penric's Fox
core novella 2017 World of the Five Gods
Record
| First published | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.21 (6,868 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 113 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781596068636 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Set in the interval between Penric and the Shaman and Penric's Mission, this novella finds Penric and Desdemona drawn into investigating the death of another sorcerer under unusual circumstances. Rather than passing to a new human host in the ordinary way, the dead sorcerer's demon appears to have transferred instead into a fox, leaving Penric and Desdemona to puzzle out both the mechanics of how that could happen and what it means for solving the murder itself. The case gives Penric an opportunity to apply his growing expertise with demons to a mystery outside his usual temple duties. First published in 2017, Penric's Fox belongs to the World of the Five Gods series.
Where it sits
- Universe: World of the Five Gods
- Series: Penric & Desdemona core; position 5 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 5 of 16: previous Mira's Last Dance (2017) · next The Prisoner of Limnos (2017)
- Internal chronology, within World of the Five Gods: position 4 of 19: previous Penric and the Shaman (2016) · next Testimony of Mute Things (2025)
Sources
← World of the Five Gods dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.