4.0
How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
ByPublisher Description
"Full of invention and ingenuity . . . Great fun." - SFX on Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
This is the history of how the City was saved, by Notker the professional liar, written down because eventually the truth always seeps through.
The City may be under siege, but everyone still has to make a living. Take Notker, the acclaimed playwright, actor, and impresario. Nobody works harder, even when he's not working. Thankfully, it turns out that people enjoy the theater just as much when there are big rocks falling out of the sky.
But Notker is a man of many talents, and all the world is, apparently, a stage. It seems that the empire needs him -- or someone who looks a lot like him -- for a role that will call for the performance of a lifetime. At least it will guarantee fame, fortune, and immortality. If it doesn't kill him first.
In the follow up to the acclaimed Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, K. J. Parker has created one of fantasy's greatest heroes, and he might even get away with it.
For more from K. J. Parker, check out:
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
The Two of Swords
The Two of Swords: Volume One
The Two of Swords Volume Two
The Two of Swords: Volume Three
The Fencer Trilogy
Colours in the Steel
The Belly of the Bow
The Proof House
The Scavenger Trilogy
Shadow
Pattern
Memory
Engineer Trilogy
Devices and Desires
Evil for Evil
The Escapement
The Company
The Folding Knife
The Hammer
Sharps
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesHow to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It Reviews
4.0
“2.5/5 I wanted to like this book as much as I liked the first but it dropped the ball at a few points. The book tends to veer too hard into the 'I'm a genius and everyone else is stupid trope'. The parts were its actually about defending the city and pulling everyone in the same direction are really interesting, however more often than not the narrator delves too much into theatre examples that it kills the story and I felt I was waiting for an anecdote to end. Also screw Hodda. Very unlikeable side character! I wish it had more links to the characters from the first book.
All that being said, it was fun ride and actually very engrossing generally. I felt the final third let it down but definitely worth reading if you enjoyed the first book.”
“Lots of fun although I personally preferred the first book”
About K. J. Parker
K.J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt. He was born in London in 1961. At Oxford he studied bar billiards, ancient Greek agriculture and the care and feeding of small, temperamental Japanese motorcycle engines; interests which led him, perhaps inevitably, to qualify as a solicitor and emigrate to Somerset, where he specialized in death and taxes for seven years before going straight in 1995. He lives in Chard, Somerset, with his wife and daughter.
Other books by K. J. Parker
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