A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K. J. Parker (3)
Loved it, of course. Parker's trilogies are very structurally different from what's typical in the genre. Each one of these books works well on its own, while also containing an enjoyable through line to tie them all together. Even this third one is a fully contained narrative arc; someone could pick this up as their first Parker book and have no trouble enjoying it. That said, there is some greater enjoyment to be found in how it all ties together with the previous two.
This book goes way beyond where I expected it to go after the first two. It's again a first person account from a character we haven't met before and quite far removed from the setting of the first books. Parker packs it full of various themes and ideas, some notable ones being, agency, consequences intended vs. unintended, providence. There is significant riffing on some biblical stories, notably Moses, but also some sprinkling of bits of Jesus, John (the Revelator), and maybe some apostolic bits. All very wry, sometimes subtle, other times pointedly obvious.
As far as the greater "Parker-verse" is concerned, this book has maybe the most references to other places and events, and maybe the clearest pinning down of anything else in the broader geography and timeline. (For those who haven't read Parker, he is not a world-builder, although he likely has things concretely pinned down in his head, any references outside of the particular narrative scope are merely easter eggs and may or may not comprise a comprehensive whole, though they seem to.) We hear about Perimadeia (Fencer trilogy), Vesani (Folding Knife), Mezentia (Engineer trilogy), Sashan (Savages), several other minor recognizable people groups, and a distinct call out to a practice in Sharps.
I thoroughly recommend. The Siege trilogy will be my go-to Parker recommendation if people want something longer than a novella.
