Testimony of Mute Things
core novella 2025 World of the Five Gods
Record
| First published | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.43 (2,430 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 151 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9798228749689 |
| Internal chronology | 5 |
Synopsis
Set earlier in Penric's life, before his marriage to Nikys, this novella follows him and his demon Desdemona to the disputed border town of Occo, where a contentious Temple conclave has gathered under the authority of his superior, Princess-Archdivine Llewen kin Stagthorne. Penric expects to play only a minor supporting role as Llewen works to arbitrate a settlement between two rival duchies recovering from recent conflict. Those plans change when a chancery official named Consua requests an urgent private audience with Llewen but dies before the meeting can take place. Though her death initially seems to have natural causes, Penric's investigation suggests otherwise, drawing him into determining not only who is responsible but why, in a case where establishing guilt and proving it turn out to be two very different problems.
Where it sits
- Universe: World of the Five Gods
- Series: Penric & Desdemona core; position 15 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 15 of 16: previous The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (2025) · next Darksight Dare (2026)
- Internal chronology, within World of the Five Gods: position 5 of 19: previous Penric's Fox (2017) · next Masquerade in Lodi (2020)
Sources
← World of the Five Gods dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.