K.J. Parker

[Vladimir]

Or more specifically, The Scavenger Trilogy.

I read 'Shadow', the first part of this series, a few years back and thought it blew chunks.
Yet, since then it's been rattleing around in my head making a mess of things... so.. I decided to read it again a few weeks back and this time around I thought that it was mad funny, that it had very interesting fight scenes and that the plot/story line still was confusing as hell (but in the good way).. In short, I loved every second of it.

Funny, that.

so anyhow, the questions..

Anybody read these books?
Does he keep up the quality in the sequals?
Is his other trilogy (The Fencer Trilogy) worth buying?


Here's amazon to the rescue in case you haven't got a clue what I'm babbling 'bout - Amazon.co.uk

[ChrisW]

First off let me just say the Parker's writing style is imo an aquired taste. I'm thinking most people will not enjoy it.

I have not yet read the third Scavenger book but book two was just as good as one and things only get a little bit clearer.

The Fencer trilogy is easier to read imo and each book is based on a certian type of warfare/weapon. If you like going into detail about that kind of stuff you will enjoy them. Some people may find it too detailed. It's the same type of humour that is in Scavenger.

the question is what sex is K J Parker??

[Leiali]

I read Shadow. I bought it as I quite enjoyed the first two books of her other trilogy - the ones about the man who made bows - forget what they are called - Colours in the steel maybe? Anyway. Didn't understand a word. I figured something happened at the end that I totally missed.....I saw the next book was out but decided not to bother. It really made no sense to me!

[rune]

I quite liked the authors humerous tone in Shadow.
I did however, find the story confusing and found it difficult to follow the plot. There was no magic or unusual creatures in the story, and that left very little of interest to keep my attention.

rune

[Vladimir]

hm, no magic? didn't even notice the lack

anyways, I'll go hungry for a few days and buy the next book in the series then and go look for the first book in the Fencer trilogy while I'm at it.

And in regards to the sex of K J Parker, I searched on google and followed 8 or 9 links to find that out, only found one refference to his sex in the last link which happend to be a puny interview from ye old sffworld.com. Anyways, it refers to '_his_ writing'.

not that I should have cared enough to spend all that time finding out :|

[FicusFan]

Cool timely topic.

I just found the first book of the Fencer Trilogy at my local Barnes & Noble. It stuck out because the title was spelled wrong: Colours of Steel.
While you often get bad spelling in the book, rarely is the title misspelled. Anyway it turned out to be an import from the UK (so the spelling is ok). It looked interesting and I picked it up.

I also was able to order the other two books in the series, Proof House and Belly of the Bow and I now have those also. Normally I don't do that until I am ready to read them, and know that I will like the book, but since they were from the UK I didn't want to start the first one and not be able to get the rest.

If I ever finish my current book, Little, Big for the book group, I plan to start the series.

[Eventine]

It's you Americans who spell it wrong

[FicusFan]

Au Contraire ... The rest of English Speaking world just got an extra dose of Frenchification.

[snowmaiden]

Colors

[mistri]

I've just finished this trilogy (the Scavenger Trilogy) and enjoyed it...I think.

I know that sounds strange, but so were the books. They're written in a very distinctive style, feature a protagonist who isn't easy to like and the plot is incredibly hard to follow in places. (teeny tiny general spoilers here) The first book is spent meandering around the country, killing people here and there, the second book features hardly any action at all and the third book is spent mostly in a forge/bell-making place. Hardly sounds exciting, does it? But it kept me reading.

Now I'm going to talk about the end so semi-spoilers lie ahead:





Spoilers!

The end is downbeat and inconclusive. But still, I found the trilogy well-worth reading. This sounds silly, maybe but I found it more thought-provoking than probably any other fantasy series I've read, even though it is probably not one of my favourite series. And I still found the ending satisfying, even though it didn't truly answer the question I'd been asking throughout the books - is Poldarn a god? What do you all think (anyone who's read them, if there is anyone other than me)?

By the decisions he makes and the action he takes, he both consciously and unconsciously brings havoc upon the world. Indeed, had he never come to the mainland, the old lady with the plague-mice would never have wanted to seek revenge for the death of her son. On the last page, we are left with the realisation that he has been helping her escape jailtime throughout the course of the final book - and so he has been helping her make her final journey to spread the plague. He has also negotiated for his ex-partner and child to travel to his homeland. They will no doubt have already caught the plague and will carry it with them. He has doomed the world, even through his most altruistic actions.

So, as it was said of the god (thus suggesting the book's Poldarn is also the god Poldarn), Poldarn *has* brought about the end of the world, and we (or at least I was) are left wondering what will arise from its ashes.

Now I need to go and seek out KJ Parker's earlier trilogy

[Sir Stephen]

Just as I was about to start a thread on the Scavenger trilogy I find one ready made!

Got to say I just finnished the final book and damn it was good. Ive not enjoyed a book so much since Hobbs Farsear trilogy or Martins Song of FIre and Ice series. Finnished it, sat back and said "wow"

I just loved the writing and the plot so much. The first book was good, the second was supperb (who said no action??? Theres loads, though its not all bonk each other on the head with swords action, though there is still some). And the third is fantastic, with the best twist ending-on-a- sentence ever.

The writing is so good it all feels REAL, and its damn hillarious too, where else would you get lines like...

"Get your pants on! The enemy are attacking!"

As a matter of fact the opening scene in the second book is about someone dying in a house fire and I even chuckled my way through that! Granted I maybe insane but do you want to take that risk and not read these books? These books stretch black humour to the limits, then go a bit further.

Such a clever, fast paced, original, well written story, will you all read this please? Or are you still mired in the farm-boy becomes brilliant hero style books? Wake up everyone and read these.

If you havn't guessed I quite liked it.

[mistri]

Just as I was about to start a thread on the fencer trilogy I find one ready made!


I just loved the writing and the plot so much. The first book was good, the second was supperb (who said no action??? Theres loads, though its not all bonk each other on the head with swords action, though there is still some). And the third is fantastic, with the best twist ending-on-a- sentence ever.

I was talking about the Scavenger Trilogy.

[FicusFan]

I posted earlier about The Fencer Trilogy. I bought all 3 and finally read the first one. It opened really well, and seemed to be such an interesting premise, but I lost interest as the story went along - to the point of boredom, and haven't read the rest. Perhaps some day.

I loved the idea that lawyers are fencers and that a 'court case' is a duel, often to the death. I liked the city and most of the characters. But as the book went on we spent more time out on the plains which I was not interested in. I wasn't really interested in their story or the characters. The whole 'lets show the city' so we can destroy it, as the theme of the book also left me cold. I liked the info about the swords, but then he started in with pages and pages of 'how to' build various devices and I felt like I had wandered into shop or woodworking class. Then there was the applied physics lessons and it went on and on and was pretty boring.

[Arith]

Hi guys. I was on Pat's Fantasy Hot List and saw a booked called The Company by KJ Parker mentioned. I had never heard of this author so i went to Amazon and found Parker has several series available. The Fencer Series, The Scavenger Series and the Engineer Series. Is Parker any good? These books appear to focus on the military aspect of fantasy, which i love, is this true? Are the three series tied together in any way? Which order should they be read? Thanks guys!

[grey_tinman]

I think KJ Parker is an excellent author based soley upon my experience reading the Engineer trilogy. I would highly recommend them. I can't wait to read The Company.

I don't believe any of the trilogies are related.

You might want to do a forum search for "KJ Parker." There are already a couple threads out there discussing his/her books.