The Two of Swords, Volume One

4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
A complex web of characters are engaged in multilateral conflict for control of territory, all influenced by the mysterious network of ‘craftsmen' who seem to know more than anyone else.

Review
I was raised with a respect for accountability – admitting mistakes and accepting consequences. With books, that plays out in odd ways. As I've done with a few others (e.g., Johnathan Carroll), I bought too many K.J. Parker books, but I feel compelled, once they're bought, to read them.

As I've said many times before, each individual Parker book is generally very good. They're also very much the same – the same characters, the same tone, the same twists and tweaks. If you've read one, you've pretty much read them all.

Happily, this first volume of The Two of Swords, probably because it was first released as a serial, bucks that pattern a bit. Parker shifts sequentially between a half dozen character perspectives here, and that change provides some much needed variety. The characters aren't too different – they're mostly highly talented, yet do all the wrong things which somehow work out well – but they are different within the book.

There's a backstory that, as often with Parker, provides a complex puzzle that somehow everything contributes to. And, of course, vague geography and generic political entities. Here, I find the backstory – involving a guild of craftsmen that's somehow near omniscient – both interesting and too convoluted to follow. Luckily, you can get by with the just the bare outlines, and many of the characters aren't sure what's happening either.

The book ends in a cliffhanger, and presumably is best read as one large volume, so I'll be going on shortly to the next book. This volume, though, is par for the course with Parker, but a little more engaging.