#also i should like to mention the story absolutely hits the gas pedal about 2/3 of the way in

[alteredphoenix]

Finished reading K.J. Parker’s Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City.

It was...decent. I don’t think it was as good or as acclaimed as the reviews made it out to be. The cast is pretty shallow, all things considered, but at least the intricacies of engineering being fleshed out makes up for it (bit of a slog to go through those passages, though, if you’re not into that sort of thing; maybe it’s the way they were written, but I wasn’t).

Also (spoilers under the cut):

Orhan’s scum, but at least he’s shamelessly honest (and honestly shameless) when he admits that everything he does is to save his own skin, will do what he can to make himself look more heroic and eloquent than he actually is in the story, and shows, a few times throughout the story, he’s willing to betray the people - most of whom don’t like him not just for being white but his decision-making in keeping the City going - he’s been trying to keep from getting slaughtered in the siege just so he doesn’t have to betray and kill his friend (the guy leading the siege).

So I’ve never been happier to have an MC die when Orhan takes an arrow right through the gut in the last couple pages of the (e-)book, when the assault has been thwarted by the Imperial Sixth Fleet. Like, at least when Fire Punch’s MC dies at the end I knew it was a foregone conclusion but at least I felt a little bad for him for all the trauma he went through (that, you know, he didn’t cause). No such thing for Orhan here. Good riddance, I say.