The god’s Presence had to be a devastating certainty to every person there, Sighted or not, though some might not quite recognize the source of the awe that scraped on their souls so rawly. Foretaste of death. Too much World beyond the world for mortal minds to encompass. [loc. 3526]
Set two years after The Physicians of Vilnoc, this is a novel rather than a novella, with plenty of intrigue and action. Penric (and Desdemona, his chaos demon) are comfortably settled in Orbas. Penric's wife Nikys is pregnant with their second child. Her brother Adelis, approached by agents of their homeland Cedonia, is attacked by a sorcerous assassin: only Penric's presence, and Desdemona's power, saves his life. Penric would rather rid the assassin of her demon, thus making her a secular problem, and return to his books. But the White God refuses to take the demon from the assassin, a young woman named Alixtra: and Penric, Desdemona, Alixtra and her demon, and a charmingly rustic saint, head for Thasalon to unravel the assassination plot and, perhaps, the machinations of the god.
There they encounter Adelis' excellent fiancee, Lady Tanar, and her secretary Surakos Bosha (both introduced in The Prisoner of Limnos) and are caught up in the aftermath of another, more successful, assassination. After which matters become extremely complicated.
This isn't, or isn't only, a murder mystery. Both assassins have very good reasons for their acts; various villains have convoluted and well-established webs of influence; Pen and Des find their responsibilities, as well as their sympathies, changing rapidly. Kindness, compassion and mercy are set against ruthless ambition and greed: and here, in this novel, with the direct influence of gods as well as mortals, good triumphs over evil. Though nothing in The Assassins of Thasalon is quite as black and white as that.
Comforting, amusing, well-written and theologically intriguing: an enjoyable read.
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