![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Engineer Trilogy (K J Parker)
Jan. 13th, 2009 11:02 pmOkay, so, I finished the other two books and am finally posting about it. And I still really like the trilogy, but I've got more caveats. I think the take-away message is, if you really like the first book (as I did), you'll probably like the whole trilogy, which is basically just more of the same (highly dark, highly plotty, lots of descriptions of machines). And if you don't, there's really no reason to bother with the rest of it. The second book is kind of a repeat of the first, but the third does enough tying together of everything that it's very much worth reading the whole thing (again, if you like that sort of thing). The entire trilogy, really, seems to me like a print version of the machines the eponymous Engineer loves so much: a gleaming, finely calibrated machine made of words that gets you from point A to B. I have a great fondness for well-machined pieces, even if I myself am not so good at producing them, and so I think that this is a large reason of why I really, really like these books.
On the other hand, I wonder if it isn't a Rube Goldberg machine. It's all plots within contrivances within wheels anyway, which I love, but there's a significant (perhaps the most significant) strand of actions and motivations that, once I finished the book, I thought: ...really? That's really the most efficient way of getting from A to B, going through X and Z? I don't think so!
Also: I haven't read any more of his? her? stuff, so I have no idea if this is unique to this world or not, but all the women in this book totally suck. First, there are only two actual women characters who are developed at all, plus, hmm, three undeveloped ones-- and I am talking about more than 1500 pages of text here, with a fairly large cast in general. Furthermore, both the women are just really, really lame. I really hope K J Parker is female, because apparently she (he?) is married, and if my husband wrote a book like this I would start feeling really insecure.
Please, someone, read these books so I can talk to you about them! Especially the resolution of Valens' arc, which I found mildly comforting but mostly excruciatingly irritating at the same time.
On the other hand, I wonder if it isn't a Rube Goldberg machine. It's all plots within contrivances within wheels anyway, which I love, but there's a significant (perhaps the most significant) strand of actions and motivations that, once I finished the book, I thought: ...really? That's really the most efficient way of getting from A to B, going through X and Z? I don't think so!
Also: I haven't read any more of his? her? stuff, so I have no idea if this is unique to this world or not, but all the women in this book totally suck. First, there are only two actual women characters who are developed at all, plus, hmm, three undeveloped ones-- and I am talking about more than 1500 pages of text here, with a fairly large cast in general. Furthermore, both the women are just really, really lame. I really hope K J Parker is female, because apparently she (he?) is married, and if my husband wrote a book like this I would start feeling really insecure.
Please, someone, read these books so I can talk to you about them! Especially the resolution of Valens' arc, which I found mildly comforting but mostly excruciatingly irritating at the same time.
