# The Fencer Trilogy by K.J. Parker



## Werthead (Nov 17, 2012)

*The Fencer Trilogy Book 1: Colours in the Steel*



> Triple-walled Perimadeia is one of the richest city-states in the world, famed for its teeming markets and its impregnable defences. After decades of trying fruitlessly to take the city, one of the plains tribes comes up with an ingenious idea: send one of their own to get a job in the city arsenal and learn its secrets from the inside.
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> Even as an ambitious young chieftain's son plans the most audacious siege in history, life in the city goes on. Bardas Loredan, a former soldier, now works as a defence advocate. In the courts of Perimadeia cases are settled through swordplay and Bardas is very good at what he does...until a vengeful young woman hires the city's Patriarch to curse him.
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## Brian G Turner (Nov 17, 2012)

Sounds intriguing - not least because of the obvious Byzantine references (triple walls, Patriarch) - might be a good research novel.


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 26, 2012)

Just to say am enjoying Colours in the Steel so far, thank goodness, after a poor run of reads. So far, doesn't read out of place beside Abercrombie or Scott Lynch, which is good. Only a few small criticisms so far, but good characterisation and intelligent ideas.


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## Werthead (Dec 6, 2012)

*The Fencer Trilogy Book 2: The Belly of the Bow*



> Shastel is a country owned and run by an academic foundation, whose bank holds the debts of its impoverished citizens in perpetuity. Spying an opportunity for profit, the Loredan Bank has taken over the nearby island of Scona and is undercutting the Foundation's economy, sparking a trade war that is in danger of turning very real and very bloody. For Bardas Loredan, living in seclusion as a bowyer in Scona's backwater, the last thing he wants is anything to do with the schemes of his ruthless brother and pragmatic sister. But he is soon drawn into the conflict, even as he comes to realise that his attempts to live a good life may be nothing more than a sham.
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> The Belly of the Bow is the second volume of K.J. Parker's Fencer Trilogy. At first glance, this is a slighter novel than Colours in the Steel. Whilst Colours centred around a massive siege and the attempts to defend a city, The Belly of the Bow is a much more personal story focused on the dysfunctional Loredan family. The war this time is more in the background, and played for maximum cynical impact. Parker's black humour and refusal to glorify the horrors of war combine to provide a damning indictment of violent conflict and the reasons for it.
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## Montero (Dec 16, 2012)

Interesting reviews, seeing a different viewpoint on two books I've already read.  (Read them a few years ago.)

Colours in the Steel - I remember taking a while to get into it, but then being very drawn in.   An important part of the book for me was the balance and contrast between the two main characters - the fencer and the tribal chieftan - and arising from that the balance and contrast between the two plot lines.

I was then disappointed by Belly of the Bow, as the tribal chieftan was not in that book, and the focus was all round the fencer, his brother and the ongoing grim family fight, with a side-dish of merchant banking.  In contrast to Colours in the Steel I found the book off-balance for want of a better term, as there was no equivalent, contrasting character.  The brother is too like, and too tied up with, the fencer.
Yes the horrific bit is horrific.  Interested that you found the book better on re-reading knowing what was coming.  

The books were very well researched and written, but in the end, not for me.  (I was impressed that KJ Parker had actually been making the bows.)


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## Brian G Turner (Dec 16, 2012)

Still reading Colours in the Steel, and while I appreciate the research, it does come across in a somewhat odd and off-balanced manner.

Firstly, nomadic plainsmen happen to know more about steel making than anyone else in the world. The trouble is, they appear to have little regard for sword making, other than as a hobby, which makes it hard to understand why they have become such masters at it. Even stranger, this great city, centre of civilisation, has never learned through trade and exchange of ideas how to improve their own weapon making up to this standard. 

A second point is that Bardas cleans his wounds with bread mould, after a story about a group of wounded soldiers dressing their wounds in mouldy bread, and healing faster than anyone else - an obvious allusion to penicillin. However, I have a hard time believing that men dressing their wounds with mould are going to encounter only benevolent pathogens and not actually going to give themselves blood poisoning. Additionally, even if you stretch credulity for this story, how would Bardas know exactly which types of mould to use for healing?

Other than that, interesting reading so far, but the research pieces seem to jar as bolt-ons to the story, and not necessarily in an intelligent way.


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## Brian G Turner (Jan 16, 2013)

Am still reading this, and am finding it a slog to get through.

The subject of fencing and weapons making is all very well done, but I have difficulty finding anything else around it that feels convincing.

Alexius is a wonderfully scripted character.

Temrai is awful.

For example, with Temrai - he goes to the city for a few months, and just by glancing at a trebuchet, knows exactly how to engineer one of any size, including where all the joins and bolts are placed, etc.

And his dialogue and personality are far more like an English civil servant, than the war leader of a barbarian Mongol-style tribe. 

For example, when informed of the approach of an enemy army towards his people's massive camp:


> "Well, I supposed I'd better see for myself," he said. "Jurrai, Mordenai, I need you for something. Could you get my horse and bow and meet me by the saw pits?"


Temrai just never feels convincing as a nomadic war lord, either by his astonishing engineering genuis, or his nerdy-teen personality.

Loredan is nicely done - but then again, his story revolves around fencing, which is detailed, seemingly to the absence of other important subjects, such as, oh, culture.


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## Werthead (Jan 22, 2013)

*The Fencer Trilogy Book 3: The Proof House*





> Thanks  to the efforts of Bardas Loredan - fencer turned bowyer turned sapper -  the city of Ap' Escatoy has fallen, allowing the Empire to begin its  expansion into the lands held by the plains tribes. Loredan is  reassigned to an imperial proof house, testing armour to destruction,  until his previous relationship with the leader of the tribes is  discovered. Loredan is the only person that Termai, sacker of  Perimadeia, fears and the Empire plans to make good use of that fact in  its invasion.
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