Mira’s Last Dance

Lois McMaster Bujold
Completed 9/11/2026, Reviewed 9/14/2026
4 stars

It can be tough writing a review for a novella sequel.  The story is short, so the plot is not usually as complex.  Plus, the character development is already in place.  And of course, there are SPOILERS for the last installment.  That’s the struggle I had while writing this review.    I loved this book as much as Penric’s Mission, mostly because it continues the story of characters I’ve come to really enjoy.

The story picks up as Penric, Adelis, and Nikys continue their trek to the duchy of Orbas, a safe haven for the general and his sister.  Penric was critically hurt and Des needs time to heal him completely.  They end up staying in a brothel.  In repayment, he cleans the place of vermin.  Des alerts him to the madame’s breast cancer, which they try to heal, though it takes away from Pen’s own healing.  They decide he must remain undercover and poses as a woman.  While disguised, he meets a general, Chadro, who wants to buy Pen’s services, being he is in a brothel.  The personality of Mira comes to the forefront to help him pass as a courtesan, as she once was.

This is a reminder that Desdemona is a chaos demon who retains the personality imprints of her past hosts.  Pen can draw on this experience in his daily life.  That is why he was able to heal Adelis’ eyes in the last book, as one of the past hosts was a physician.  In this case, Mira the courtesan comes forward to help Pen pose as a woman and to deal with General Chadro.  It’s really a cute sequence, reminiscent of the film “Victor/Victoria.”  She helps Pen make interesting choices in their quest to get to Orbas.  

The sexual tension between Penric and Nikys is still high, and Adelis and Nikys still bicker about it.  Nickys is pretty resistant to marriage to Penric.  She has quite the realization about him: “Most men kept to their assigned parts in life.  If you knew the part, you could reliably guess how they would behave.  She had no script for demon-ridden sorcerer.”  I like this sardonic thought.  As a counter to this, the sexual tension between Penric as Mira and Chadro is pure comedy with an underlying tension of Mira getting too deep into the acting.  

These story lines made the book a very enjoyable read, very tight and humorous.  There is a third novella in this subseries that continues the story of Adelis, Nikys, and Penric, even though this one doesn’t end in a cliffhanger.  I already jumped into that one just because I love the dynamic between the main characters.  I give this book four stars out of five.