Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
K. J. Parker's new novel is the remarkable tale of the siege of a walled city, and the even more remarkable man who had to defend it. A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all. To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job. Sixteen Ways To Defend a Walled City is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten. For more from K. J. Parker, check out: The Two of SwordsThe Two of Swords: Volume OneThe Two of Swords Volume TwoThe Two of Swords: Volume Three The Fencer TrilogyColours in the SteelThe Belly of the BowThe Proof House The Scavenger TrilogyShadowPatternMemory Engineer TrilogyDevices and DesiresEvil for EvilThe Escapement The CompanyThe Folding KnifeThe HammerSharps
Stats for nerds
5recommend
7mentions
7people
2021–2024years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Maybe the pop culture obsession is new, but the snarky, reluctant protagonist is something I have seen enough to be kind of tired of. Off the top of my head, Murderbot also reminds me of the protagonist of Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City which I recently read.
If you enjoyed Murderbot, take that as a recommendation, although it is less sci-fi and more historical fiction.
- I went on a kick of reading "competency porn" (think Project Hail Mary/The Martian but not necessarily solving engineering problems). On top of PHM, I read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City (great dark satire despite the shit ending) and The Goblin Emperor (more on the social engineering side of things, so better characterization than something like The Martian)
- I've been mostly reading fiction:
Tom Holt "Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City" and its two sequels. Sardonic fantasy similar to Ursula Vernon. Fun.
Max Gladstone "Last Exit". Magic/alternate-worlds/tentacled-horrors-ish America. Will definitely win the Hugo.
Chuck Tingle "Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus" (from which I learned that Chuck Tingle actually writes the stories, not just the title, and they're ... actually not terrible and pretty funny and very meta.
Katherine Addison "The Grief of Stones". Sequel to Goblin Emperor/Witness for the Dead. Murder mystery in an extremely engaging industrial-era fantasy world.
Alix E. Harrow "A Spindle Splintered" and sequels. Fairy tales encounter the multiverse.
C L Polk "Witchmark" and sequels. Fantastic series in a world where magic is outlawed - but the rich are aware of and use it, and imprison and exploit the poor who use it.
Tamsyn Muir "Nona the Ninth". Book 3 in Locked Tomb. More magic skeletons. A bit more of the backstory. Do I have any idea what's going on? Not so much. But I love it.
Naomi Novik "The Golden Enclaves". Scholomance book 3. Magic school, metaphor for boomers ruining the world and climate change, probably. Good conclusion.
qntm "There is no antimemetics division". A SCP novel. Not quite as good as his "Ra" but fun and mindbending.
Becky Chambers "The Galaxy and the Ground Within". A warm hug of a book. Travelers stranded at a space-rest-stop find they have something in common.
Charles Stross "The Bloodline Feud" and sequels. Alternate-universes-travel, Medici-style mercantilism feuds.
Madeline Miller "Circe". Gorgeously written, captivating reimagining of Circe's story. timeless.
- I read a ton of KJ Parker books last year, they were all really good. His most popular series is the one that starts with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. The premise is that a city is under siege by an army that has made it clear they're not going to spare anybody if they win. The protagonist is the highest-ranking surviving officer in the city, a lowly military engineer, who is suddenly in charge. Think The Martian meets The Siege of Gondor (or Constantinople). It's fantasy, but there's no magic.
- For anyone that's curious about this, there's a fun 'medieval fiction' book set in a made-up universe called Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker that follows a military engineer during a siege:
> This is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten.
> A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all.
> To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job.
* https://bookshop.org/books/sixteen-ways-to-defend-a-walled-c...
* https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/37946419-sixteen-ways...
It's the first in a trilogy (third book scheduled for 2022).
- Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City has a protagonist who is reluctant but is forced to face huge stakes, namely the fall of a city at war. Murderbot is interesting for more than its reluctance: the stakes are distinctly different and far more about introspection and self actualization.
