Genre: Low fantasy
Published: July 10, 2025
Print length: 139 pages
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Kindle Unlimited? No
Series: Penric & Desdemona (book 14)
Warnings: A person gored by an ox, with serious injuries; death and/or injury of animals.

Synopsis:

Learned Penric never misses a teaching opportunity... but getting himself critically injured wasn't supposed to be part of the lesson.

When Sorcerer-divine Penric and his chaos demon Desdemona are summoned to a remote construction site to investigate a possibly demon-possessed ox, he decides to bring students along: his daughter Rina; his adopted daughter Otta, a sorceress-in-training with a young demon of her own; and Kittio, the teenage son of another temple sorcerer. It's an opportunity to tutor them both in identifying and restraining wild elementals.

The learning experience turns deadly when Penric is gored by the possessed ox, Desdemona kills the ox in self-defense, and the ox's demon jumps to Kittio. With Penric critically injured and Kittio unconscious, it's up to Rina, Otta and Otta's fledgling demon Atto to keep everyone alive in the wild, with the sun going down and wolves starting to prowl.

What I thought:

Bujold's Penric & Desdemona books are always among my go-tos for fantasy when I'm in the mood for something quieter than epic battles and kingdom-ending disasters. This series is all about what's called "low fantasy" (as opposed to "high fantasy" like LotR or ASoIaF): magic in everyday life, with stakes that are personal rather than world-spanning but nonetheless engaging. The Adventure of the Demonic Ox continues that theme perfectly.

Quick background for anyone new to the series: Penric was a younger son of a down-on-their-luck noble family who accidentally acquired a demon named Desdemona, an old and powerful one who'd outlived twelve previous hosts. Demons in this world aren't evil, per se, but they are powerful agents of chaos who require careful management but grant their hosts considerable magical power. Penric perforce enters the priesthood, becoming a Learned Divine and sorcerer. He remains a bookish scholar and all-around nice guy at heart who just happens to have a several-hundred-year-old snarky chaos demon living in his head. The fun is watching Penric, Desdemona and an ever-growing cast of family and associates navigate the challenges of medieval living while carrying out his priestly and sorcerous duties.

In The Demonic Ox, the focus is less on Pen and Des, and more on the next generation: Pen's daughter Rina and his adopted daughter Otta, who in a previous book (Demon Daughter) acquired a young demon of her own. In one way, this was a bit disappointing, as readers get less of the byplay between Pen and Des that's a highlight of the series. On the other hand, it was a pleasure to see things from Otta's point of view and to check in on how she's fitting in with Pen's family and how she's maturing since the earlier book.

There's some tension in the story, but honestly not that much. Desdemona's healing powers have gotten Penric through worse scrapes than this, and the girls, though young, are smart, sensible and capable. In fact, one of the joys of the book for me was that they handled the unexpected situation well. I hate it when characters do stupid things, and there's almost none of that here. (Well, there was maybe a little stupidity in what incited the goring itself, but mostly it was the dog's fault—which I can relate to, as my own dog sometimes acts like he's possessed by his own chaos demon.)

The best part for me was watching Otta and Rina learning to trust themselves and each other, and working out their plans for the future over a long night of conversations, in between worrying about Penric and plotting how to summon help in the morning.

If you're just discovering the series, this isn't the place to start; go back to the first volume, Penric's Demon, or pick up the collection that includes the first three stories, Penric's Progress. Also, be sure you've read Demon Daughter before this one, for a proper introduction to Otta and Atto.

It won't be the most exciting fantasy you read this year, but it might be one of the most enjoyable.


Who will love it:

• Fans of the long-running Penric & Desdemona series, for whom this is a worthy addition to the canon.
• Especially, anyone who enjoyed Demon Daughter and has been curious about what's been going on with the characters from that story.

Favorite quotes:

"Theology is more the study of people than the gods, in truth."

"Most anyone you meet will harbor at least some stories that can teach you something new. Or so I've always found it."

"Who would be stupid enough to try to steal an insane ox? Not that you should ever underestimate the power of stupidity."


About the author:

From Goodreads: "Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children."

Bujold doesn't seem to have her own website or social media; the following are fan-run:

Website | Facebook