The Assassins of Thasalon Review: When Small Stories Start to Add Up
Long-running novella series face a peculiar risk. Each instalment may be satisfying on its own, yet the series as a whole can begin to feel weightless: a shelf of pleasant adventures that leave little residue once the immediate problem has been solved. Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Assassins of Thasalon makes the opposite case. Compact stories can gather considerable weight over time without announcing that ambition too loudly. There is an important qualification. The Assassins of Thasalon is not another novella but the first novel-length Penric and Desdemona adventure. The longer form does not replace the structure Bujold built through the earlier stories. It reveals what that structure has accumulated: recurring relationships, political consequences, unfinished obligations, and a widening community of people whose lives do not end when Penric moves on to his next problem. Cover image: The Assassins of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold, published by Subterranean Pre...