WAYNE'S 2024 BOOKS: BOOK 9

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
by K.J. Parker

Book #3 from KJ Parker this year, and book #3 in The Siege trilogy. Unfortunately, I think this was the worst of the three. I enjoyed the start as the new protagonist was a good change from those in the first two books, but it felt like with this installment that the steam had run out of the series and it was coasting towards an end.

The main character is a translator that's somehow as prepared as Batman thanks to reading books as part of his translator studies, and he slides through the story effortlessly. There's no real threats; his plans are executed perfectly without obstacles other than some rumblings of discontent from a side character. Everything works out too easily and there's very little sense of peril or tension for most of the book.

The final section of the book took a strange and unwanted turn in an effort to link it strongly to the first two, resulting in a lacklustre finale for a series that started very strongly. I'd read that this book was the weakest of the three, but didn't want to believe it, but at the end I was forced to agree with the assessment. Stick to #1 and #2 and skip #3 and you won't really miss anything.

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WAYNE'S 2024 BOOKS: BOOK 8

How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
by K.J. Parker

Book #2 in The Siege trilogy, and book #2 from KJ Parker for my 2024 reading list! I enjoyed the first book in this series (before I knew it was a series) – Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, see book 3 of my 2024 Books – so I while waiting for the release of Cory Doctorow's new book, I thought I'd read the sequel. I enjoyed this one a little more than the first, mostly due to the more animated tone the protagonist brings.

Like Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, the protagonist Notker is Not A Nice Person. These books aren't fantasy with noble hero leads, but nor are they terrible grimdark; they're depressingly realistic in their depictions of the things that people do to survive. Notker is an actor, but finds himself in the unenviable position of needing to use his skills to further an impersonation plot created by City elites. (And in this plot, we see the return of a character from Book 1, but not in the way you'd expect.)

His turn from actor to statesman is fuelled by a rich knowledge of the deeds of famous rulers from days past, and the hard lessons taught by his father, a gang strongman. We get to see the 'big bad' of Book 1 once again, and Notker shows that he's willing to turn to any expedient to save his city, ramping up from identity theft to good old fashioned war crimes. The pace is quick, the characterisation is strong, and the plot kept me interested until the very end. I'll definitely be moving onto the next book in the series!

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Tom Holt writing as KJ Parker is really rather good. Best known for some middling comedies he got good at those (The Portable Door which is a movie I think now).

The KJ Parker stuff reads like the best Ancient History that never happened. If you get the chance 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City is a fantastic comedy drama and worth your time if you liked anything else I said.

#kjParker #TomHolt #BookReview #Ahistorical #AncientWorld

"Lying is like farming, or draining marshland, or terracing a hillside or planting a grove of peach trees. It's an attempt to control your environment and make it better. A convincing lie improves on bleak, bare fact, in the same way human beings improve a wilderness so they can bear to live there."

I just love starting a new #kjparker #book. I know it's not going to end well, they never do, but this sets things up so nicely, how could you possibly resist what comes next?