Lois McMaster Bujold

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  • Bibliography:
    48 Books (4 Series)
  • First Book:
    June 1986
  • Latest Book:
    August 2024
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About the Author

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. She began writing with the aim of professional publication in 1982. She wrote three novels in three years; in October of 1985, all three sold to Baen Books, launching her career. Bujold went on to write many other books for Baen, mostly featuring her popular character Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, his family, friends, and enemies. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her fantasy from Eos includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife series.

Full Series List in Order

Chalion/World of the Five Gods

1 - The Curse of Chalion (Aug-2001)
2 - Paladin of Souls (Sep-2003)
3 - The Hallowed Hunt (Jun-2005)
4 - Penric's Demon (Jan-2016)
5 - Penric and the Shaman (Jun-2016)
6 - Penric's Mission (Nov-2016)
7 - Mira's Last Dance (Feb-2017)

A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure

1 - Falling Free (Apr-1988)
2 - Shards of Honor (Jun-1986)
3 - Barrayar (Oct-1991)
4 - The Warrior's Apprentice (Aug-1986)
5 - The Mountains of Mourning (May-1989)
6 - The Vor Game (Sep-1990)
7 - Brothers in Arms (Jan-1989)
8 - Cetaganda (Jan-1996)
9 - Ethan of Athos (Dec-1986)
10 - Labyrinth (Aug-1989)
11 - Borders of Infinity (Oct-1991)
12 - Mirror Dance (Mar-1994)
13 - Memory (Oct-1996)
14 - Komarr (Jun-1998)
15 - A Civil Campaign (Sep-1999)
16 - Winterfair Gifts (Feb-2004)
17 - Diplomatic Immunity (May-2002)
17 - Cryoburn (Oct-2010)
18 - Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Nov-2012)
18.5 - The Flowers of Vashnoi (May-2018)
19 - Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (Feb-2016)

Penric & Desdemona

1 - Penric's Demon (Jan-2016)
2 - Penric and the Shaman (Jun-2016)
3 - Penric's Mission (Nov-2016)
4 - Masquerade in Lodi (Oct-2020)
5 - Penric's Fox (Aug-2017)
6 - Mira's Last Dance (Feb-2017)
7 - The Prisoner of Limnos (Mar-2018)
8 - The Orphans of Raspay (Jul-2019)
9 - The Physicians of Vilnoc: A Novella (May-2020)
10 - The Assassins of Thasalon (May-2021)
11 - Knot of Shadows (Oct-2021)

The Sharing Knife

1 - Beguilement (Oct-2006)
2 - Legacy (Jul-2007)
3 - Passage (May-2008)
4 - Horizon (Feb-2009)
4.5 - Knife Children (Jan-2019)

Book List in Order: 48 titles

  • Shards of Honor

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 2

    IT WAS THE WRONG WAR... In the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. She even wore the wrong uniform; Cordelia Naismith, Betan Expeditionary Force, had been hurried into battle still wearing her old tan Astronomical Survey fatigue...

  • The Warrior's Apprentice

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 4

    Discharged from the Barrarayan academy after flunking the physical, a discouraged Miles Vorkosigan takes possession of a jumpship and becomes the leader of a mercenary force that expands to a fleet of treasonous proportions. ...

  • Ethan of Athos

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 9

  • Falling Free

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 1

    AND SUDDENLY HE WAS FALLING FREE... Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong and move on to the next job. Everything neat and according to spec, just the way he liked it. But all that chang...

  • Brothers in Arms

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 7

    PEACE HAD BROKEN OUT ALL OVER THE PLANET... Which made it tough, to be a mercenary captain. If his enemies would just leave him alone, Miles Naismith decided bitterly, the, Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet would collapse all on its own. But Miles'...

  • The Mountains of Mourning

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 5

    Twenty-year-old Ensign Miles Vorkosigan plays detective in a murder case, and tests the balance of power as a member of the Barrayaran nobility. ...

  • Labyrinth

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 10

    When Miles Vorkosigan is captured while on a secret mission to a lawless world, his only hope of escape is an unlikely pair of allies: a quaddie and a teenage werewolf. ...

  • The Vor Game

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 6

    THE PRINCE AND THE MERCENARY Together, they can get into a lot of trouble. Trouble only the combined forces of the Free Dendarii Mercenaries can get them out of. At least, that's what they're hoping... In this latest adventure with the galaxy's...

  • Barrayar

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 3

    NOT MY CHILD, YOU DON'T... Cordelia Naismith, legendary ship commander in the Betan Expeditionary Force, a woman who beat the Barrayaran militarists at their own game, was never one to fulfill stereotypes. Having married the commander of the forces ...



  • Borders of Infinity

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 11

    TRICK QUIZ Which best describes a Vor Lord? a) Officer in the Barrayaran Imperial Space Service b) Supreme Commander of a Mercenary Company c) Detective, Judge and executioner in a back-country murder d) Rescuer of Damsels Deeply Distressed ...

  • The Spirit Ring

    Brought up by her widowed father, legendary creator of truly enchanted objets d'art, Fiametta was a good and faithful daughter...if perhaps a little wild. She wanted desperately to he more than her father's unpaid and untrained apprentice; she wanted...

  • Mirror Dance

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 12

    THE CLONED STRANGERS Not everyone would envy young Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, even though he had formed his own mercenary fleet before attending the naval academy, and even though his mother was the beautiful Cordelia, the ship captain who ha...

  • Women at War

    A collection of original military science-fiction stories written by women ranges from the horrors of contemporary Bosnia, to high-tech peacekeepers in the distant future, to female mercenaries seeking war. Reprint....

  • Cetaganda

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 8

    Cetaganda is the latest installment of the Hugo-award winning adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, in which Miles and Cousin Ivan go to Cetaganda to play the part of sprigs of the nobility doing their diplomatic duty by good old Barrayar. The idea is that...

  • Memory

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 13

    ONE LIFE TO LIVE...WELL, TWO, ACTUALLY Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. At least that's what Miles Vorkosigan thinks and he should know, having done both once already. Thanks to his quick-thinking staff and the specialist who revived...

  • Dreamweaver's Dilemma

    Contains "Dreamweaver's Dilemma," a previously unpublished novelette set early the author's universe, the Hugo Award-winning "The Mountains of Mourning," a never-before-published Sherlock Holmes pastiche, an interview with Lois McMaster Bujold, and S...

  • Komarr

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 14

    Komarr could be a garden--with a thousand more years work. Or an uninhabitable wasteland, if the terraforming fails. Now the solar mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor ...

  • A Civil Campaign

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 15

    ONE CUNNING PLAN TOO MANY... ? It's spring in Vorbarr Sultana, and a young person's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love ... money ... bio-genetics ... love ... lack of money ... incompatible planetary sexual mores ... love ... District success...

  • The Curse of Chalion

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 1

    A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril has returned to the noble household he once served as page, and is named, to his great surprise, secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule. It is a...



  • Diplomatic Immunity

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 17

    A COMEDY OF TERRORS A rich Komarran merchant fleet has been impounded at Graf Station, in distant Quaddiespace, after a bloody incident on the station docks involving a security officer from the convoy's Barrayaran military escort. Lord Miles Vork...

  • Paladin of Souls

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 2

    Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets -...

  • Winterfair Gifts

    in Irresistible Forces
    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 16

    Hearts collide and desire consumes in worlds and ages far from our own.... Six of today's most popular authors join talents in this unique anthology that shows love can conquer all...even the boundaries of time and space. These stories -- many...

  • The Hallowed Hunt

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 3

    The half-mad Prince Boleso has been slain by a noblewoman he had intended to defile -- and Lord Ingrey kin Wilfcliff must transport the body to its burial place and the accused killer, the Lady Ijada, to judgment. With the death of the old Hallow Kin...

  • Beguilement

    The Sharing Knife - 1

    Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family's farm. But en route to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier-sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers armed with mysterious knives made of hum...

  • Legacy

    The Sharing Knife - 2

    Ill-chance brought young Fawn Bluefield together with Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, but it was love and loyalty that joined their fates. While their unorthodox marriage has been grudgingly accepted by the clever farm girl's peop...

  • Passage

    The Sharing Knife - 3

    Young Fawn Bluefield and soldier-sorcerer Dag Redwing Hickory have survived magical dangers with their passionate hearts strong and united. The bigotry of blood kin, however, cannot be easily overcome. Leaving behind all that they have ever known, th...

  • Horizon

    The Sharing Knife - 4

    A Lakewalker entrusted with protecting the populace from malices -- terrifying remnants of ancient magic -- Dag Redwing Hickory never expected to fall in love with Fawn Bluefield, the farmer girl he rescued. When they joined in marriage, defying thei...

  • Cryoburn

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 17

    Miles Vorkosigan is back Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove--he's been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-d...

  • Weatherman

    On Miles' first military posting, he is sent to an outpost with Arctic temperatures and a psychotic, unstable commander. When the commander orders his men to enter a facility that is leaking poisonous radiation, the men revolt, and it's up to Miles ...



  • Proto Zoa

    A delightful collection of Lois McMaster Bujold's early stories and a comprehensive Introduction by this New York Times bestselling author. Bujold's "work remains among the most enjoyable and rewarding in contemporary SF" - Publishers Weekly“Bujold...

  • Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 18

    Captain Ivan Vorpatril is happy with his relatively uneventful bachelor’s life of a staff officer to a Barrayaran admiral. Ivan, cousin to Imperial troubleshooter Miles Vorkosigan, is not far down the hereditary list for the emperorship. Thankfully...

  • Penric's Demon

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 4
    Penric & Desdemona - 1

    On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five god...

  • Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 19

    Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan returns to the planet that changed her destiny. FUTURE TENSE Three years after her famous husband’s death, Cordelia Vorkosigan, widowed Vicereine of Sergyar, stands ready to spin her life in a new direction. Olive...

  • Penric and the Shaman

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 5
    Penric & Desdemona - 2

    In this NOVELLA set in The World of the Five Gods and four years after the events in “Penric’s Demon”, Penric is a divine of the Bastard’s Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar, living in the palace where the Princess-Archdivine holds court...

  • Penric's Mission

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 6
    Penric & Desdemona - 3

    *Updated Chronology! PENRIC'S MISSION is now Book 4 in the Penric & Desdemona series.*In his thirtieth year, Penric fell in love with light...Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard’s Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on ...

  • Mira's Last Dance

    Chalion/World of the Five Gods - 7
    Penric & Desdemona - 6

    *Updated Chronology! MIRA'S LAST DANCE is now Book 5 in the Penric & Desdemona series*In this sequel to the novella “Penric’s Mission”, the injured Penric, a Temple sorcerer and learned divine, tries to guide the betrayed General Arisaydia and ...

  • Penric's Fox

    Penric & Desdemona - 5

    "Penric's Fox": a Penric & Desdemona novella in the World of the Five Gods. Book 3.Some eight months after the events of “Penric and the Shaman”, Learned Penric, sorcerer and scholar, travels to Easthome, the capital of the Weald.  There he agai...

  • The Prisoner of Limnos

    Penric & Desdemona - 7

    In this sequel novella to MIRA'S LAST DANCE, Temple sorcerer Penric and the widow Nikys have finally reached safety in the duchy of Orbas when a secret letter from a friend brings frightening news: Nikys's mother has been taken hostage by her brother...

  • The Flowers of Vashnoi

    A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure - 18.5

    Still new to her duties as Lady Vorkosigan, Ekaterin is working together with expatriate scientist Enrique Borgos on a radical scheme to recover the lands of the Vashnoi exclusion zone, lingering radioactive legacy of the Cetagandan invasion of the p...



  • Knife Children

    The Sharing Knife - 4.5

    Lakewalker Barr Foxbrush returns from two years of patrolling the bitter wilds of Luthlia against the enigmatic, destructive entities called malices, only to find that thesecret daughter he’d left behind in the hinterland of Oleana has disappeared ...

  • The Orphans of Raspay

    Penric & Desdemona - 8

    When the ship in which they are traveling is captured by Carpagamon island raiders, Temple sorcerer Penric and his resident demon Desdemona find their life complicated by two young orphans, Lencia and Seuka Corva, far from home and searching for thei...

  • The Physicians of Vilnoc: A Novella

    Penric & Desdemona - 9

    When a mysterious plague breaks out in the army fort guarding Vilnoc, the port capital of the duchy of Orbas, Temple sorcerer Penric and his demon Desdemona are called upon by General Arisaydia to resurrect Penric’s medical skills and solve its let...

  • Masquerade in Lodi

    Penric & Desdemona - 4

    Bastard's Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi -- but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon...

  • The Assassins of Thasalon

    Penric & Desdemona - 10

    An unholy attack upon his brother-in-law General Arisaydia pitches sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona headlong into the snake-pit of Cedonian imperial politics. But they will not travel alone. The mission from his god brings Pen...

  • Knot of Shadows

    Penric & Desdemona - 11

    When a corpse is found floating face-down in Vilnoc harbor that is not quite as dead as it seems, Temple sorcerer Penric and his chaos demon Desdemona are drawn into the uncanny investigation.  Pen's keen questions will take him across the cit...

  • Unrivaled

    Unrivaled: Four groundbreaking Hugo & Nebula winning stories includes four of the most outstanding and most acclaimed novellas in science fiction, penned by Joe Haldeman, Lois McMaster Bujold, Mike Resnick, and Nancy Kress.Each novella has stood ...

  • Demon Daughter

    A six-year-old shiplost girl draws the kin Jurald family of Vilnoc into complex dilemmas, and sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona into conflict—with each other.  It will take all of Penric's wits, his wife Nikys's wis...

  • Penric and the Bandit

    Strange company …When Rozakajin, road-weary bandit and army deserter, spots a hapless blond young man in a country inn with an intriguing treasure map, he thinks he’s scouted an easy and lucrative victim. Attaching himself to odd traveler...

Award-Winning Books by Lois McMaster Bujold

Barrayar
1992 Hugo Award -- Novel
1992 Locus Award -- Science Fiction
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
2014 Audies -- Science Fiction
Falling Free
1989 Nebula Award -- Novel
The Hallowed Hunt
2005 RT Reviewers Choice Award -- Fantasy Novel
Mirror Dance
1995 Hugo Award -- Novel
1995 Locus Award -- Science Fiction
Paladin of Souls
2003 Romance Readers Anonymous Award -- Best Romantic Novel outside the Romance Genre
2003 RT Reviewers Choice Award -- Fantasy Novel
2004 Hugo Award -- Novel
2004 Locus Award -- Fantasy Novel
2005 Nebula Award -- Novel
The Vor Game
1991 Hugo Award -- Novel
Winterfair Gifts
2004 Romance Readers Anonymous Award -- Best Romance Novella


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Lois McMaster Bujold has published 48 books.

Lois McMaster Bujold does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Penric and the Bandit, was published in August 2024.

The first book by Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor, was published in June 1986.

Yes. Lois McMaster Bujold has 4 series.
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