Having greatly enjoyed the first two books of this trilogy, I regret to admit that I was a little underwhelmed with the book that rounds everything out. Note that I don't say conclude, in that Parker introduces a new character (Felix the embassy translator), who suddenly finds themself trying to survive the fall-out from the events of the first two books; though the reader is given some sense about what happened after the earlier stories. Like the protagonists of the first two books, Felix also rises to the occasion, but his trials just don't feel as gripping, at least to me. This is not to mention that I think I see a better way to connect this novel to the previous books, in regards to Parker's agenda of drolly commenting on the fragmentary ways history comes down to us. ( )

The third instalment in The Siege.   The first two thirds of the trilogy were excellent, this book has a lot to live up to.

As soon as i got a copy of this book i dropped everything else i was reading and jumped straight in: that's how much i enjoyed the first two books of the trilogy.

Once more, great writing with great characters being forced into corners and having to do whatever it takes just to survive another hour or so, because you only need another hour or so to figure out how you can find a way to survive the next hour or so.   Fortunately for us avid readers our protagonists in these stories always find a way to keep surviving all those next hours or sos and thus the story keeps on rolling along with calamities and shenanigans abounding.

To be honest, i was sold on K. J. Parker's writing after the first book, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, the second book, How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It, just confirmed that i wasn't mistaken in my assessment, and this book now makes me realise that i've been missing out on some great writing for over 20 years, but hey, now i can go back and read the complete K. J. Parker back catalogue and really enjoy myself.

So yeah, if you're looking for a good fun read then do give The Siege trilogy a go, i'm sure most people with even just a tiniest smattering of a sense of humour will enjoy these books. ( )

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

A man is forced into exile to serve as an interpreter. Then his home is destroyed, he is forced into servitude to people that despise him, then he has to lead a rebellion, and topple empires. Plus, he finds religion. Sorry, I mean, he founded a religion. Little wonder why his name is Felix (it means lucky).

K. J. Parker’s loosely tied-together trilogy “The Siege” reaches its conclusion with A Practical Guide to Conquering the World. And I do mean loosely tied-together trilogy. The basic premise is that in the Low Fantasy world there is an empire called the Robur that rules from their capital, the City. They are cruel and harsh people, think the Roman Empire on a bad day. So, obviously, they’ve made a lot of enemies that join forces and lay siege. The novels follow the consequences of that battle.

Prior knowledge of the first two novels is not really necessary. There are no returning characters. Yes, the events of the previous ones will be mentioned, but there are enough context clues to help the reader figure out what they’re missing. In fact, I skipped the second of the trilogy and found that made this reading experience rather delightful. Parker plays up the lack of knowledge transmission and how what people are told is rarely what happens, so going in blind kind of helps enhance that aspect. I knew just as much as Felix did about what happened to the City and the Robur.

The narrator, Felix, is engaging. The man has depths that constantly surprise the reader. You’re never really sure what his motives are and the reader gets a sense that it is because he’s not really sure what his motives are. He’s a clever man that puts together scraps of information gleaned from a library and creates amazing strategies and performs seemingly miraculous feats. His writings are witty and there are moments that caused me to actually laugh aloud. Also, he’s a total jerk that uses people around him.

While Felix is a great character, he’s about the only one. Every other character in the story is merely a cut-out. They are there for a while till they are tossed aside after they’ve served their usefulness. Some don’t even get real names. While I tend to dislike stories with such an abundance of flat characters, I find myself making an exception here. Since it is told in the first person, it reads less like a writing flaw and more like a look into Felix’s views on others.

What Parker lacks in characters, he more than makes up for it in an engaging look on religion. Felix becomes the Prophet (a mixture of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus). The story shows the power that religion has and how it can be abused to serve the needs of the one in control. Felix’s narration is very cynical on the nature of religion, but as the story goes on some questions are raised. What is Truth? If enough people say that he is the Prophet, then does that just make him the Prophet? What is a miracle? Sure he did miraculous things because he read them in a book, but the fact he found the right book, understood it, and implemented is rather miraculous.

In the end, I found A Practical Guide to Conquering the World to be entertaining, thought-provoking, and a little heartbreaking. A sure read to anyone who loves a fantasy story that tries to mirror real history, wants to discuss the nature of faith, or just wants to read about a jerk conquering the world thanks to the power of a library card. ( )

I liked this better than book 2 (the POV character doesn't blithely kill so many people, which is a function of his strategy) but not as well as book 1 (the pattern of likeable-rogue-strategist-dude riding roughshod over otherwise-kickass-female-sidekick becomes a bit obvious). The revelations about the City's fate are also a bit of a downer: I like cynicism but prefer it to be somewhat optimistic cynicism. Still an enjoyable read and a fitting end to the series. ( )

One Sentence Summary: An interpreter in Echmen, Felix suddenly becomes the only Robur left in the world and is taken in by the Hus, but he has a plan that involves more than just the Hus.

Overall
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is the last book in The Siege trilogy, but can be read as a standalone. It follows the intentional and unintentional consequences of who appears to be the last Robur left in the world’s actions and decisions. Sometimes it felt cleverly choreographed and planned and other times it felt like a snowball effect. Either way, I liked how much the narrator’s bookish knowledge came in handy and how casual he seemed about a lot of things, but I also felt it was impossible to trust him and his motivations. Overall, this was an amusing read with an interesting and kind of 2-dimensional world, but with a narrator I can’t say I actually liked.

Extended Thoughts
Years ago, after a horrible and bloody experience that should have killed him, Felix is sent to the Echmen empire as a translator. Some time after that, he saves the life of a Hus woman, who eventually saves him in return when his people are essentially declared extinct and he’s marked for death. Completely unnecessary and unwanted by the rest of her diplomatic group, Felix finds himself spending the next few years doing little more than reading in the expansive library.

But it comes in handy when the Echmen conquer the Hus, making the woman who saved him queen of the Hus and her people enslaved. In order to free her people and get the rest of the Dejauzi groups (of which the Hus are only one) to conquer the Echmen, Felix must use all the knowledge and resources at his fingertips, but that’s only the start of his story to conquering the world.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is the third in The Siege trilogy, but can be read as a standalone. Having only read the second book previously, I’d say that’s fairly true. This third book follows the events of the second, but it’s narrated by a completely different character who didn’t even personally know the narrator of the second book. Considering I don’t accurately remember all the details of the second book, I didn’t feel I really needed them to figure out what was going on in this one.

I was torn between bemusement and exasperation while reading this book. It’s very tongue-in-cheek to me, but tended to rub me the wrong way probably because of how casual Felix treated everything. He had a lot of interesting ideas and a lot of luck, and a quick way with words and the interpretation of those words. It made it a little difficult to figure out if he was being sincere about anything. For much of the book, I just got the feeling he was shrugging everything off while everyone around him kept elevating his importance. I did like how he seemed modest and didn’t demand to be crowned king or anything, but I also couldn’t figure out if he was being sincere and honest or just using the people who suddenly believe in him to get whatever it was he wanted.

Felix was far from my favorite character, which was kind of a shame since he’s the narrator. There were times when he felt like a strategist, times when he felt like a coward, times when he appeared brave, and times when he just didn’t seem to actually care. The reader is only getting his perspective in his own words, so it felt kind of impossible to tell just how truthful he was being. It both drove me nuts and kept me amused. There were times when he appeared to be just doing things so casually, but it all also felt extremely calculated and there where times when he really did seem weary of everything and wanted to escape.

But what I did like about Felix and A Practical Guide to Conquering the World was how much it leaned on history and book knowledge. As a reader, I can certainly identify with Felix’s thirst of knowledge, and I felt this book really encapsulated how important reading is. So much of what he did came from what he learned of history and the world in books. I loved how much of what he did leaned on his book knowledge, and it really seemed to prove to me just how important libraries are.

However, a lot of the good and fortuitous things that happened to Felix and his “people” was down to world building. There are numerous countries and groups of people, all of whom are quite different from each other and have very different beliefs and ways of doing things. What they all had in common, though, was how they never diverted from them. They were steadfast in how they had always done things, so, by knowing what they were going to do because of history, Felix was able to throw wrenches at them to ensure his victory. It became a little annoying after a while that every group just behaved the way Felix expected. But it did nicely highlight the groups Felix worked with and their ability to adapt, trust, and try things a different way despite misgivings. Since the second book was restricted to the City, it was nice to see so many different groups and to explore more of the world. It all felt very 2D because each group never really varied what they had always done, but it was fun to learn the different ways they did things.

As much as Felix and his seemingly sheer luck and true disinterest in correcting people exhausted me, I really liked the Hus queen. Since her people do not freely give their names, she’s mostly referred to as she and her. She’s the one who worked most closely with Felix, who knew more of what he was about and what he was doing than anyone else. I kind of thought of her as his voice of reason, even if he didn’t always listen to her. Still, their relationship was fun and I wish there had been more of it, especially when he was translating for her. It felt almost like a sibling relationship with a lot of sufferance on her part; she could never really change his mind, but at least she could have her input.

Overall, I found A Practical Guide to Conquering the World to be not quite as much fun as the second book, but I appreciated how much book knowledge was used. I also found I couldn’t quite trust Felix and, even by the end, I didn’t feel I trusted him and his motivations. He didn’t really have anything to lose and seemed to have a great deal of luck, though I think a lot of it came down to semantics and interpretation. It was amusing in a tongue-in-cheek way, but not exactly my cup of tea.

Thank you to Angela Man at Orbit and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own. ( )