The Prisoner of Limnos
core novella 2017 World of the Five Gods
Record
| First published | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.32 (5,982 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 138 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781596068841 |
| Internal chronology | 9 |
Synopsis
Set after Penric, Nikys and Adelis have reached safety in the duchy of Orbas, this novella opens with the family settled but troubled by the fate of Nikys's mother, Lady Tanar, still held prisoner in Cedonia. Learning that she is confined at a Question Sanctuary on the island of Limnos, Penric agrees to leave the comparative safety of Orbas and travel with Nikys back into hostile imperial territory to arrange her rescue. The mission requires posing as ordinary travelers and coordinating a plan discreet enough to avoid drawing the attention of Cedonian authorities still hunting Adelis's family. As Penric and Nikys make their way toward the sanctuary, they must balance careful preparation against the urgency of freeing an elderly captive from a well-guarded religious prison, with failure risking exposure for the whole family.
Where it sits
- Universe: World of the Five Gods
- Series: Penric & Desdemona core; position 6 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 6 of 16: previous Penric's Fox (2017) · next The Orphans of Raspay (2019)
- Internal chronology, within World of the Five Gods: position 9 of 19: previous Mira's Last Dance (2017) · next The Orphans of Raspay (2019)
Sources
← World of the Five Gods dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.