K. J. Parker

Saevus Corax leads a battlefield clean-up crew and is just trying to get by, when he somehow becomes extremely embroiled in heist attempts, kidnappings, and war.

The world is complex and interesting, and though few characters are likeable, they feel real. I know Corax would be the first to disagree, but I found him to be a charming protagonist, and enjoyed both his voice, and all his machinations.

I enjoyed the vast majority of this book quite a lot, and even though I thought it faltered show more somewhat at the end, I still immediately started the sequel. show less

An impulse purchase, I can't believe I've not read Holt before. The surmise is simple, the execution deft, the result great fun.
Hildy Frederiksen is an archaeology student who is brought in to investigate a suspected Norse barrow burial. Only instead of finding bones, she discovers that the Norse crew of the boat burial are just waking up form a rather long snooze, 1200 years, or thereabouts. The culture shock impact of waking into the late 20th century is excellently played, with all the show more culture shock and incongruity you would expect. It was fast, fun, varied, yet had emotion and feeling. Great fun all round.
I sometimes struggle with fantasy, most noticeably when the fantasy seems to rely on illogical progressions, I like my fantasy to ask me to accept one illogical step, but that the remainder of the book follows logically form there. This seems, to me, to achieve that. show less

The Patsy, The Thief, The Gangster and The "Smartest Man In The World": Playing 4D Chess with God The Invincible Sun

This book is a glorious Rubik's cube, maybe even a pentamix. Let's get down to brass tacks. We are presented with a main character who technically did something wrong under coersion however in the grand scheme of celestial law - he did "nothing" wrong and yet; he is not innocent because he has inherited sin. Essentially, he is guilty without cause - well and truly screwed as show more the situation unfolds. His moral conundrum and the ensuing chaos are basically like an escape room with tons of egress options to choose from but every time he comes up with a key to get out of eternal damnation - he enters into the next room and is right back in the same place he started. And worse, he's chained to the wall. He just can't seem to get out of it, a deal with the devil would have been easier to break..

What would you do in his unfairly damned shoes? I'd have probably arrived at the exact same conclusion and subsequent last-stand action.

The gist of it?

1. A study of the Godmaker: the nature of God through the eyes of a clerical student who literally does not believe in God. So, what makes God? Is it the quantity of worshippers or the quality of worshippers - are the numbers all that count? In this book God was secure in the fact that people believed...without question - but not all were steadfast worshippers.

2. A study in the God-Complex or in laymens terms, the Audacity...the bloody Arrogance: Florio vs God, and again Saloninus "The Smartest Man in The World" vs God.

3. A study of the Godkiller: What can kill a god? Is it a tangible weapon that you can feel and touch like that room God cannot see into with his Angel locked in? Or is it some intangible essence? This book took me back to the crisis of "The Old Gods" in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" so the answer began to take shape as we got closer to the crescendo of this conflict. Still, there is something melancholy about what transpired in this book - but also...suck it big G, loophole!

4. Faith vs Sheer determination: Did he truly believe he could get out of this binding afterlife sentence or was he just driven to get out of it and thus found a way. Even when he had literally given up - there lay the answer.

5. A Study in the bloody violent nature of the Homo Sapien: Just look at our main character, pulling wings of an angel, I mean we can even trace back everything that led to that moment. Small transgressions leading up to that major, irreversible one.

Suffice it to say - my first K.J. Parker novel has been intense and enjoyable. show less

Entertaining, intelligent, funny (with some of the most hilarious scenes I’ve recently read) and with two unforgettable main characters (a goddess and her protégé), this novella is a sheer pleasure to read. And although it’s an easy read, it’s not shallow at all, as it’s peppered with reflections on quite a few deep issues (religion, absolute power, the real meaning of “right” and “wrong”…).
I was a big fan of K. J. Parker before, but I’ve become a greater fan after show more reading this book. Highly recommended, both for fans of fantasy and humor. show less