Comments on: The Fencer Trilogy, K. J. Parker

By: Wrapping up 2010 « Jenny's Books

Wrapping up 2010 « Jenny's Books — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:31:40 +0000

[…] breathless and fun and amazing. Thanks, Trapunto! Honorable mentions go to KJ Parker’s Fencer trilogy and Jo Walton’s Still Life with Fascists […]

By: Memory

Memory — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:45:42 +0000

So, I didn’t read the bit about the yucky thing, but I’ve heard about it before. Not specifics, but just that it happens. Is it the thing the protagonist does to the antagonist that everyone who reads these books brands as the yuckiest thing in the history of the world? I’ve got a strong stomach, but I’m still rather concerned about it.

Also, I am catching up on my Google Reader, which is why this is such a late-to-the-game comment. I’m kind of stupid about GR; I save my favourite blogs for last because I want to read them carefully and leave meaningful comments, but then I have soooo many unread posts that I tell myself I should wait a little longer so I can read and reply to them ALL AT ONCE. Silly Memory!

By: ela21

ela21 — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:11:21 +0000

Yup, Iain M. Banks had someone making a chair out of his half-sister… (in ‘Use of Weapons’). One of Patricia Wrede’s stories, based on a ballad or two, had a harpist make a harp out of a dead girl (but he didn’t kill her, though that doesn’t make it any less yuck, in my opinion). And Dorothy L. Sayers had a sculptor kill his model/mistress and electroplate her, then use her as a couch (‘The Abominable History of the Man With Copper Fingers’, which you can find in the ‘Lord Peter Views The Body’ collection of short stories).

Sorry, shall I stop now?

By: GeraniumCat

GeraniumCat — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:33:01 +0000

I couldn’t get on at all with K.J.Parker, I’m afraid, and gave up partway through the first one I tried. So I read the spoiler, and I assumed that it was guts for stringing…gruesome, I agree, but Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks and Jon Courtenay Grimwood both compete for the prize. I think the latter gets it for me – happily I can’t remember the *exact* details of either death, in redRobe and Lucifer’s Dragon but the one in LD is to do with making a statue is really made me wince, because it’s so inventively horrible.

Good luck with the Transition (I’m reading Banks’ Transition at the moment, so I hope yours goes rather better!)

By: Vishy

Vishy — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:14:47 +0000

Wonderful to see you back, Jenny! Hope you are having a wonderful time in New York and your laptop gets fixed soon and you are able to find a house soon 🙂

Interesting review of ‘The Fencer’ trilogy. I haven’t heard of K.J.Parker before. The last passage you have quoted is really surprising in a sad and terrible way – it is like one of those sad surprises in a Greek tragedy, but this one is more sad.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:19:52 +0000

As a Texas writer, my eye immediately went to that “y’all.”

I hate yucky. Thanks for the warning.

By: Nish

Nish — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:17:18 +0000

Military fantasy…wow! that’s a first, I never even heard of this genre. And your review made my head spin, just spin!

I was definitely not going to pick up the books because it sounded messy, and then the spoiler just KILLED it for me …KILLED, haha 😀

Now that my dumb joke is out of the way, it’s good to hear that you are enjoying the job :). Don’t stress toooo much about the living situation, you just need to hang in there!

All the best to you!

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:57:29 +0000

In reply to Emily. I stand by my original "foes" then. Go, Jenny, go! Defeat those foes!

By: anna

anna — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:19:32 +0000

In reply to Emily. I like foes better: Brave Jenny tackles her apartmental foes, swashbuckling her way through the newspaper advertisements with a flair entirely her own!

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:22:02 +0000

In reply to Emily. Okay, that was supposed to be apartment WOES, not FOES. Although I guess foes would work here, too . . .