March09_3
K J Parker wrote 'The Fencer Trilogy' containing, at the end of the second volume, one of the most startlingly unexpected and horribly upsetting plot developments I've read (I won't tell), so it's hard to explain why I read the third volume, let alone this new book. K J writes fantasy, sort of, but with no magic, no elves and dwarves and talking trees, no quests or golden orbs, and almost no women.
I picked up The Company' because it said on the blurb that it was 'a stand-alone book' and I can't bring myself to embark on another bulky series. I've just given up on Kevin Anderson's mega series (Saga of the Gods/War of the Endless Saga, something like that) at half way through book 5 because I happened to see book 7 arrive in the bookstore. Book 7, each with the heft of a housebrick, and it's not done yet. Barely forgivable if it was worth it, but Anderson doesn't appear to have an editor and these wretched books are pockmarked with repetition, retelling and unsubtle reminders of who the characters are, presumably so we can follow the idiotic story. Enough.
K J Parker has pitch-perfect insight, and s/he writes whole, human characters - hard men, warriors, fools and bloody-minded bastards - so beautifully. 'The Company' is about a group of war heroes after the war, who follow their General to an island to build a utopia, and are damned by their tangled history. It doesn't end well. At 436 pages it was hardly concise, but every word essential.
I picked up The Company' because it said on the blurb that it was 'a stand-alone book' and I can't bring myself to embark on another bulky series. I've just given up on Kevin Anderson's mega series (Saga of the Gods/War of the Endless Saga, something like that) at half way through book 5 because I happened to see book 7 arrive in the bookstore. Book 7, each with the heft of a housebrick, and it's not done yet. Barely forgivable if it was worth it, but Anderson doesn't appear to have an editor and these wretched books are pockmarked with repetition, retelling and unsubtle reminders of who the characters are, presumably so we can follow the idiotic story. Enough.
K J Parker has pitch-perfect insight, and s/he writes whole, human characters - hard men, warriors, fools and bloody-minded bastards - so beautifully. 'The Company' is about a group of war heroes after the war, who follow their General to an island to build a utopia, and are damned by their tangled history. It doesn't end well. At 436 pages it was hardly concise, but every word essential.
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