Review: The Escapement, by K.J. Parker

The Escapement, by K.J. Parker
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Orbit, ©2007
ISBN 10: 0-316-00340-9
ISBN 13: 978-0-316-00340-7
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: PeterWilliam

From the back of the book: The engineer Ziani Vaatzes engineered a war to be reunited with his family. The deaths were regrettable, but he had no choice.

Duke Valens dragged his people into the war to save the life of one woman -- a woman whose husband he then killed. He regrets the evil he's done, but he, equally, had no choice.

Secretary Psellus never wanted to rule the Republic or fight a desperate siege for its survival. As a man of considerable intelligence, however, he knows that he has a role to play -- and little choice but to accept it.

With The Escapement, K.J. Parker brings the Engineer trilogy to a close. The climax that has built thus far, explodes (literally) before the gates of Mezentia. The result, while not necessarily expected or anticipated, is in keeping with the style Parker has set thus far. In that sense, the ending seemed symmetrical and orderly, while also being bittersweet -- probably more bitter than sweet.

The destruction brought about by love and duty is a dominating theme throughout. In that sense, each character defines their circumstances as, "having had no choice." While I found the characters' reasoning, positions and definitions unpersuasive, it remained consistent, coherent and self-contained.

Truly, there is a malaise that underlies the characters, theme and totality of the tale. I wouldn't necessarily link it to the concept of 'depressing' proper, but would attempt to pin it down as "dysthymia, secondary to PTSD."

One item that was very noticeable to me was that the cultures within the tale had a near-total absence of any spirituality. There were no priesthoods, deities or religions, which seemed rather unusual since nearly every culture among our species has something to that effect. Within the trilogy, such things are briefly addressed by stating that certain cultures (i.e. Mezentine, Vadanai) used to have such things. I don't recall where they went, but it was treated as a vestigial element of the culture that had long since fallen away.

Without interviewing the author on the matter, it isn't likely to be discovered if the temperamental, and spiritual, apathy was a part of the plot design, or if it was the subtle influence of the author's own experiences/worldview. It does make me wonder, as though I were plagued with an inexorable itch, what the person behind the K.J. Parker pseudonym is really like.

Either way, the Engineer trilogy was a wonderfully composed and executed trilogy, which has convinced me to go forth and acquire every other work by K.J. Parker that I can find. Based upon the Engineer trilogy alone, Parker deserves a larger profile than he/she (frackin' pseudonyms!) currently has.

Plot - 9
Characters - 9
Style - 9

Overall - 9

REVIEW: Evil for Evil, by K.J. Parker

Evil for Evil, by K.J. Parker
Paperback: 684 pages
Publisher: Orbit, ©2006
ISBN 10: 0-316-00339-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-316-00339-5
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: PeterWilliam

From the back cover: CIVITAS VADANIS is in trouble. The Mezentines have declared war, and the Mezentines are very focused on their goals when it comes to killing.

DUKE VALENS, of Civitas Vadanis, has a dilemma. He knows that his city cannot withstand the invading army; yet its walls are his sole defense against the Mezentines. Perhaps the only way to save his people is to flee, but that will not be easy either.

ZIANI VAATZES, an engineer exiled by the Mezentines for his abominable creations, has already proven that he can defend a city. But Ziani Vaatzes has his own concerns, and the fate of Civitas Vadanis may not be one of them.

The war upon Civitas Eremiae, by Mezentia, is all but complete. The ultimate goal of which, however, has not been achieved. Several of the individuals marked for death, by Mezentia, have survived. As a result, Mezentia's eye turns to Civitas Vadanis and it's remarkable amount of native wealth, in the form of silver mines. It won't be long before Mezentia manufactures a pretext upon which to make Civitas Vadanis the next target of the war.

In fact, who can hope to be safe from Mezentia. Indeed, the only thing they seem to fear are the vast, innumerable hoard of Cure Hardy beyond the desert. The Aram Chantat tribe alone numbers over one million. The only solace for Mezentia is that there is no easy path across the desert. If there were, or one was discovered, Mezentia would be facing what would amount to certain annhiliation, a fact Ziani Vaatzes is poignantly aware of and hopes to exploit.

And then, a most unique political alliance is proposed. Among all these machinations, Ziani Vaatzes continues to poke, file, trim, shave, thread, calibrate and nudge events into an alignment most suited to his own ends. Indeed, Parker's core message is that, for love, a human being will do anything. It is the direct by-product of this dynamic that gives humanity it's notions of "good" and "evil." While I may not agree, you can certainly see that Parker has an extremely coherent and salient point.

The characters are much the same: the Eremian Duke Orsea and his wife, the Duchess Veratriz; the Eremian Duke's former chief of staff, Miel Ducas; the Vadanai Duke Valens; the exiled Mezentian engineer, Ziani Vaatzes; and the Mezentian bureaucrat Lucao Psellus, who is slowly unwinding, and understanding, several intricately laid webs. The only new character installment of note is the unusual and bizarre, Gace Daurenja. What Vaatzes does for the story, Daurenja does to Vaatzes. Daurenja is able to twist and mold Vaatzes to fit his own agenda. As each man vies to incorporate the other into their plan, which one will come to a complete understanding, thus mastering, the other first? It would seem the outcome is overwhelmingly dependent upon the answer.

The more I read this trilogy, the more difficulty I have in pinning down a definitive description of Parker's style. It reads like a hybridization of the third-person voice and narrative, interwoven with first-person thoughts cavalierly tossed onto the page. I really, really like it - with one minor exception.

With perhaps 150 pages to go in the book, I became mildly aware of an acute irritation I was developing toward some of the characters. In stopping to analyze precisely why and what, I realized it wasn't the characters, but a particular theme beginning to be espoused by multiple characters. It was the theme that concepts such as duty and love are the true motile power for other concepts - like good, evil, creativity and destruction. Apparently, love makes the world go round. Some of the characters began to bemoan their individual circumstances because love, duty, or both, had 'done them wrong.' The Self-Pitysburg Address was tolerable once, but after reading it from Orsea, Ducas, Veratriz and Valens, it went from being old to an irritant rather quickly.

All in all, however, this is the strongest 'middle book' to a trilogy that I have yet read. K.J. Parker has, with this book, lived up to the standards set for me in the previous one, and I now look forward to getting my hands on all-things-K.J. Parker that I can find.

Characters - 9
Plot - 10
Style - 9

Overall - 9.5/10

Review: Devices and Desires, by K.J. Parker

Devices and Desires, by K.J. Parker
Format: P.O.U.S's (Paperbacks of unusual size)
Publisher: Orbit, ©2005
ISBN-10: 0-316-00338-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-00338-7
Copy: out of pocket
Review: PeterWilliam

From the back cover: When an engineer is sentenced to death for a petty transgression of guild law, he flees the city, leaving behind his wife and daughter. Forced into exile, he seeks a terrible vengeance -- one that will leave a trail of death and destruction in its wake. But he will not be able to achieve this by himself. He must draw up his plans using the blood of others...

This is the extraordinary tale of a man who engineers a war to be reunited with his family.

I have seen and read a great deal on K.J. Parker throughout the blogosphere. As a result, I became rather circumspect, due to the nature of the differing reactions. Regular readers/bloggers of sf&f liked Parker, while casual readers/forum posters seemed only mildly moved, at best. I jumped to the conclusion that it was "an elite thing," thus I wouldn't be interested. I was most definitely wrong.

This glorious find, for me, occurred one evening as I took my birthday gift card (Books-a-Million) to the closest store in town. I was there, primarily, looking for Ranger's Apprentice books I could hold onto for my son one day (I'm certainly hoping he'll become a reader). I found one such book and then, with plenty of gift card value remaining, began searching the sf&f section. I found the entire Engineer's trilogy sitting there -- staring at me. It was simply time for me to give Parker a try.

This story follows the actions of an engineer, and fugitive from justice, of an industrial, regional power as he lays a proactive strategy to bring about a war that will return him to his wife and daughter. The engineer, Ziani Vaatzes, uses his keen mechanical insight, and native intelligence, to pre-arrange a course of events that leaves the Guilds, as well as rivaling, next-door aristocracies reacting in a most flat-footed manner. The realization that there has been a set-up, or 'long game' if you will, usually comes after ruination, while a very few seem to know precisely what is taking place -- waiting for their proper moment to assert themselves, and achieve their own ends.

There are no heroes or villains in such a tale. The intrigue is non-stop and most of the characters involved are surprisingly unaware of the stakes involved. In the end, it felt like a combination of the character driven dramas of Tad Williams and the tantalizing and pivotal plot points dangled just beyond the reader's reach, common in works by R. Scott Bakker. There are no epic scale battles, no quest objects, no magic system, no mythical creatures and no dark overlord. There is a lot of engineering though. Parker takes the reader on an adventure that could be described as historical science fiction. Science fiction, traditionally, takes its reader into a futuristic setting, imagining what technology will be able to do one day. Parker takes science fiction, and the reader, retro. The reader follows learning how to improvise mills, lathes and cams and the author makes it all more interesting than I'm sure the topic truly is.

Parker writes in a third-person quasi-limited approach. That is to say that the author drops occasional subtle hints which leave the reader speculating about impending, foreshadowed and massive plot shifts upcoming in the tale. If all such Parker works are like this, I will have found another favorite author to watch.

There is simply no other way to say it, K.J. Parker, in Devices and Desires, hauls the reader through the pages.

Plot - 10
Characters - 9
Style - 9

Overall - 9.5

Around the Net

BOOK NEWS

R. Scott Bakker

R. Scott Bakker has established a new blog site called Three Pound Brain. The blog does have some interesting news including hints for his new book The Disciple of the Dog and some information on the second book The White-Luck Warrior from the Aspect-Emperor series.


K. J. Parker

Over at Orbit.com you can read a free extract of K J Parker's The Folding Knife. The extract contains the prologue and the first chapter of the novel. While not a huge Parker fan I may be giving this one a shot if I can clear some shelf space.

From Orbit.com:

This extraordinary book was released in the UK this month, and is a powerful tale of politics and war 

“Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning and, above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he’s only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough.”

You can read a free extract of it here and it’s also available in the States and will be out soon in Australia.

Cover Launch and Extract

Gail Z. Martin

From Orbit.com:

The Sworn, book 1 in the Fallen Kings cycle (US I UK I ANZ). This is a new series but has many familiar faces from Gail’s Necromancer series, so will be great for new readers and Gail Martin fans.

We wanted something that would draw you into Gail’s world, that would hint at the action and pure thrill of her writing and I think Steve Stone has delivered something wonderfully atmospheric with this visual. Here be swords, brigands, dark magics and other forms of mayhem aplenty, so those seeking adventure between the pages need look no further.

In addition to saying something about this new book, we were also keen to produce something that would be in sympathy with the cover style of the Necromancer Chronicles, as this book is set in the same world as that series. But at the same time, we had to balance this against not wanting to reproduce the previous style exactly as this book is of course the start of something new. And to find out for yourself just how much excitement is in store, have a look at our first sneak preview of The Sworn with this early extract here.

Magazine News

If you have not checked it out yet now is a great time to head over to Lightspeed Magazine the latest Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine to hit the internet. They have some short stories for you to read or listen to and an spotlight on author David Bar Kirtley. This is the first month for the new periodical so why not get in on the ground floor and check it out. 

Death Star Tweets

Topless Robot was having a fairly humorous contest over the weekend. Each contestant was asked to create 5 made up tweets from Star War's Death Star. They had nearly 2,500 "tweets." nearly every entry had at least one winner. I recommend checking out the comments for a quick laugh. 

Here are a few of the entries:

@Clone7323: @Clone6323 I'm telling you, they looked really similar. They weren't bf/gf. They could have been brother sister for all we know.


@Motti: And they all just sat there. The f*cking guy is choking me with his f*cking mind, and they do NOTHING!!!!

@TK421: Nocked out, yelld at 4 not @ post, and lost uniform to boot. ASSigned 2 garding cell blok 1138. Could this day get ANY worse? FML

@BigPapaPalpintine You sure you don't want to to order a thermal exaust post cover? They are like 20 credit

@Randall: @Dante I told you working here was a bad idea

@Dante: @Randall I'm not even supposed to be here today!

@Clone9376 @Clone7245 You think your job sucks? Big green laser breezes past me and I don't even have a rail to lean against.

@Mark Hamill: The moon is so beautiful tonight

@Alec Guinness: @Mark Hamill That's no moon, it's a space station.

@Gold_5 RT @Gold_5 hey @GoldLeader maybe you should STAY ON TARGET

@CorrellianPimp: I can't believe they bought that. 12 parsecs? Might as well have been 573 wookiemiles. 9384 jawameters. Effing N00bs.

@Master_P: @YoungJedi - you want this? Hmm? Gonna strike me down? Hmm? Use your hate? Hmm? So cute when they're young. #shitmyapprenticesays

RebelAgent1: Boooored in my prison cell. Death Star food sucks. Pretty bummed Leia's gone. Hopeful our comrades will rescue me soon!

@R2D2DaShizit: Why do these MFer's not understand I am telling them Vader is their F'ing DAD! Beep wooo Beep Beep Wooo MFer's!!!!

UFettUrAss: Slave 1 in pursuit of Milennium Falcon, OMG HATE YOU SO MUCH SOLO #followfriday

@LonelyGunner15: It's like no one gets me. But at the same time, everyone IS me. #Confused

@Clone1579: Someone explain why WE don't get laser swords! I mean wtf?

@OB1KENOBI @LukeSky NOT DEAD! QUIT SHOOTING AND GET IN THE FALCON!

WaxOnWaxMoff: Terrorist attack a government structure, and WE'RE the bad guys?! #NVR4GET

@Dianoga: You know what would be great? If you guys threw something other than random scraps of metal down here.

@DeathStarPR: Don't think of us as a "Death" Star, think of us as an "Opportunity" Star. #deathstarcares

StormTrooper3482: I'm supposed to guarding the exhaust, but I'm on Twitter, LOL!

MOVIE NEWS

Green Hornet

New official pictures from the Seth Rogan film Green Hornet have been released. Thanks to SciFi Wire for the images. Green Hornet will hit theaters 14 January 2011.

City of Scars

For a limited time (30 days) you can catch the 30 minute Batman fan film City of Scars. The movie was made for $27,000 by Aaron Schoenke.