Read08:05:24 I enjoyed it to the last page.

Hello, K.J. Parker, it’s good to see you again. Oh, and another one of your books, too, of course! ;)

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City was a good book, and its sequel (which can be read as a standalone) was even more enjoyable.
The author’s signature snarkiness and sarcasm are very much in evidence. Sudden plot twists abound, there are anti-heroes that you can kind of root for, despite the fact that they are sneaky bastards, and the Byzantium-like City is a great setting. As a reader, you have FUN. (Unlike The Engineer Trilogy, my latest Parker…) Also, I find that since I have now read quite a few books set in Parker’s universe, I can understand the references to other countries, empires, peoples, famous people, events etc etc. It adds to your enjoyment of the book.

In case you didn’t know, fantasy logistics is a thing. Someone clever (the Internet offers different versions of who it was, so I am not taking any chances here) once said “the amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics”. Parker illustrates this well.

I liked that there is so much theatre and acting in this book – who doesn’t like these things, right? “Fish out of the water”-scenario is always interesting. The first book in the series was about “what can an engineer do?” and this one asks, “what can an actor do?” Quite a lot, as it turns out.

If you are new to Parker, just a friendly warning: his female characters are WEIRD. They are less so in this book than in others, but still WEIRD. To quote Jo Walton, writing about a different book by him in her book blog (check it out at tor.com!): “it’s possible that at some point I could meet him and say, look, really, women, we’re people, we do things for the same reasons men do, not for the kinds of mysterious reasons you think, really.” I still remain a fan...

P.S. There is a sarcastic phrase from the book that I now long to use in a conversation, and I encourage you to do the same: “an unfortunate money-to-taste ratio”. Delicious. ( )

After a pretty good first part of the trilogy... I might have had to read another book or two inbetween. It soon got to be too much. The new narrator by far isn't as funny as the first one. And the rest drags on. I might finish it later, though. Or at least give it a try. ( )

The follow-up to Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City: which is a really good book.   If you haven't read that already then you really should before embarking upon this quest as this follows immediately on from that story.

And, seriously, once you've read and totally enjoyed Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City you'll be very pleased to know that this is just as good as that was.   K.J. is as brilliantly absurd in his story telling in this as the previous book.

Yes, the siege is still going on and nothing much has changed but, instead of our story being told by a disgruntled military engineer, we're now treated to a story told by a disgruntled playwright who does some acting on the side -- who is obviously much better at telling stories and also pretending to be people who he isn't: now what could be better than that, eh?

So if you haven't tried K.J.'s writing yet, these two books are a great place to begin.   You'd have to be a proper grump not to enjoy them. ( )

Admittedly this took me a while to get into, but when I did I sped through the whole thing. In a fantasy world where a civilization called the Robur used to rule the world, they are currently under a siege that has been going on for about seven years. Nokter, a two bit actor who makes most of his money doing impersonations of famous political figures in the city, is enlisted when one of these political figures is killed, but his colleagues don't want the Public to know about it. Using Nokter as their mouth piece, they get him to impersonate the dead general for as long as possible, resulting in Nokter eventually manging to rule the empire (just as it says on the tin) and saving everybody from the siege that has been plaguing them for years.

What I particularly liked about this book is that it takes us into the view of the people who are being attacked, rather than the view of the people doing the attacking. Most of the time, these books will revolve around the civilization that was plagued by the empire and then decides to rebel; this time, the story is told by the colonizers as they slowly start to lose their footing on the world that they held a firm hold over. I also liked that the Robur are a race of black people who have taken over the known world, and are now losing it to the 'milkfaces'. It's not often you see black characters being the conquerors for obvious reasons, and it's not often you see so many of them as main characters without their race being a point of contention.

I really did enjoy this book. Highly recommended to fans of fantasy and slight alternate histories. ( )