It shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm enamored with K. J. Parker. Not all his work is great, but he has single-handedly established economic fantasy (and yes, I'm going to coin that term). This is an offshoot of the genre, a tall tale of a siege as seen through the eyes of a military engineer trapped in that city and told from his witness perspective (subjective as that may be).
But Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus is not trapped by the city, more so by his own morals, his own interpretation of duties, obligations and maybe even loyalty to people of mutual despise. Shrewd as he is, misguided as he may be, against overwhelming odds none of the 15 established ways of defense are going to work and thus he has to come up with a sixteenth. War and Death forges weird alliances and pushes the
ties of friendship to their breaking point with the bad luck of having
most of the friends on the other side of the impregnable walls.
Witty, entertaining and deeply imaginative with relatable characters (I mean, just refer to Orhan's musings about Lysimachus) and some that are larger than life. The exact right mix to make it feel a fantasy with all the heroic deeds this entails while keeping it grounded in reality. To me, this is already the fantasy novel of 2019.
- First thing in the morning we'll need to pull the roof off the Guildhall. You'd better find somewhere else for all your clerks for a day or so.
- What? You can't- ...
- I need the rafters. Really big, solid oak beams. Private houses, the beams just aren't big enough. Besides, nobody lives in the Guildhall.
Ha gave me his words-fail-me look.
No comments:
Post a Comment