The Engineer novels
Jul. 3rd, 2007 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylIt feels like it's been a while since I wrote anything book related. Maybe now is a good time to correct that minor oversight with a few words on K.J. Parker's first two fantasy novels from the Engineer series.
Devices and Desires opens with the trial of Ziani Vaatzes, foreman of the Menzentine ordinance factory. Found guilty of the crime of breaking the Specifications and creating an improved clockwork doll for his daughter, Ziani is sentenced to death. Through cunning and ingenuity, he manages to escape, only to run into an army lead by Duke Orsea of the mountain duchy of Eremia. Having been comprehensively routed by Mezentine artillery, Orsea reluctantly agrees to allow the rogue engineer to accompany him back to his capital.
Horrified by the prospect of a rogue engineer, spilling the secrets of the Specifications to the barbarian tribes, the Mezentine guilds — the rulers of the city state — decide to press the war against the Eremians and kill the renegade. As the forces start to build up around the fortress of Civitas Eremiae, Ziani's knowledge of advanced weaponry comes to the fore and he agrees to train the Eremian blacksmiths to create the very latest in ballista technology.
Evil for Evil opens with the aftermath of the battle for Civitas Eremiae. Orsea and the remains of his people, including Ziani Vaatzes have been forced to seek refuge with their former enemy, Duke Valens. Having failed in their task to recapture the engineer, the focus of the war shifts from the shattered ruins of Eremia to the Duchy of Vadani and its valuable silver mines.
Convinced of the futility of defending his capital against the vast Mezentine army, Valens decides to abandon his duchy and to destroy the mine, in the hope that this will cause a political split between the Mezentine guild factions. Being wily, he asks Ziani to come up with a plan that will only appear to put the mines out of commission, whilst allowing them to be quickly reopened when the Vadani return to reclaim their lands. This turns out not to be sufficient to force the rift that Valens hoped for, and the Vadani are forced to take refuge in the desert.
Both novels have a lot going for them. Unusually for fantasy novels, the characters behave realistically and convincingly, suffering from moral dilemmas and doubts about their own abilities. Orsea, a fundamentally good man, has the naivety and hopeless of Prince Myshkin, someone whose good intentions almost always result in disaster and misunderstanding because of the nature of the world around him. Valens is intensely Machiavellian, always designing strategies and treating everything as a game, but despite his passion for hunting and the manly arts, doubting his own abilities. Ziani, the core character, impresses with his moral ambivalence. He is just as gifted at plotting the movements and responses of people as he is at predicting the motions of a clockwork toy, and he has no problems with telling people just what they need to hear in order to ensure that they do what he needs them to do. Although some of his motivations are clear, others are obscure — it's not quite clear why he modified the doll.
The backgrounds are particularly well drawn. The two feudal duchies are elaborately detailed, populated by precise notes on falconry, boar hunting, and the various different types of medieval armour and weaponry. The Mezentine Republic, with its complex politics, multistory tenements and clever mechanisms, is very firmly in the grip of an industrial revolution, albeit one with no knowledge of chemistry and iron-fast rule that stifle innovation and preserve everything in aspic.
Conclusions? Excellent novels, well detailed, with a good plot and convincing characters. Well worth reading.
Devices and Desires opens with the trial of Ziani Vaatzes, foreman of the Menzentine ordinance factory. Found guilty of the crime of breaking the Specifications and creating an improved clockwork doll for his daughter, Ziani is sentenced to death. Through cunning and ingenuity, he manages to escape, only to run into an army lead by Duke Orsea of the mountain duchy of Eremia. Having been comprehensively routed by Mezentine artillery, Orsea reluctantly agrees to allow the rogue engineer to accompany him back to his capital.Horrified by the prospect of a rogue engineer, spilling the secrets of the Specifications to the barbarian tribes, the Mezentine guilds — the rulers of the city state — decide to press the war against the Eremians and kill the renegade. As the forces start to build up around the fortress of Civitas Eremiae, Ziani's knowledge of advanced weaponry comes to the fore and he agrees to train the Eremian blacksmiths to create the very latest in ballista technology.
Evil for Evil opens with the aftermath of the battle for Civitas Eremiae. Orsea and the remains of his people, including Ziani Vaatzes have been forced to seek refuge with their former enemy, Duke Valens. Having failed in their task to recapture the engineer, the focus of the war shifts from the shattered ruins of Eremia to the Duchy of Vadani and its valuable silver mines.Convinced of the futility of defending his capital against the vast Mezentine army, Valens decides to abandon his duchy and to destroy the mine, in the hope that this will cause a political split between the Mezentine guild factions. Being wily, he asks Ziani to come up with a plan that will only appear to put the mines out of commission, whilst allowing them to be quickly reopened when the Vadani return to reclaim their lands. This turns out not to be sufficient to force the rift that Valens hoped for, and the Vadani are forced to take refuge in the desert.
Both novels have a lot going for them. Unusually for fantasy novels, the characters behave realistically and convincingly, suffering from moral dilemmas and doubts about their own abilities. Orsea, a fundamentally good man, has the naivety and hopeless of Prince Myshkin, someone whose good intentions almost always result in disaster and misunderstanding because of the nature of the world around him. Valens is intensely Machiavellian, always designing strategies and treating everything as a game, but despite his passion for hunting and the manly arts, doubting his own abilities. Ziani, the core character, impresses with his moral ambivalence. He is just as gifted at plotting the movements and responses of people as he is at predicting the motions of a clockwork toy, and he has no problems with telling people just what they need to hear in order to ensure that they do what he needs them to do. Although some of his motivations are clear, others are obscure — it's not quite clear why he modified the doll.
The backgrounds are particularly well drawn. The two feudal duchies are elaborately detailed, populated by precise notes on falconry, boar hunting, and the various different types of medieval armour and weaponry. The Mezentine Republic, with its complex politics, multistory tenements and clever mechanisms, is very firmly in the grip of an industrial revolution, albeit one with no knowledge of chemistry and iron-fast rule that stifle innovation and preserve everything in aspic.
Conclusions? Excellent novels, well detailed, with a good plot and convincing characters. Well worth reading.
