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tome15's review against another edition
3.0
Parker, K. J. Evil for Evil. Engineer Trilogy No. 2. Orbit, 2007.
In the first volume in this series, an engineer with more creativity than his straitlaced bosses can tolerate escapes his execution and defects to a rival city-state, where he improves their feudal technology. In this second volume he is on the run again and hanging out with a nomadic group and improving their technology. If that were all, then we would have a tight little 300-page novel that I probably would have liked better. As it is, this one adds plots and characters like barnacles and bloats to almost 700 pages. There are duels, love triangles that don’t much involve the engineer, spy plots and battles—the whole game of thrones panoply. Sorry. I only care about the engineer.
In the first volume in this series, an engineer with more creativity than his straitlaced bosses can tolerate escapes his execution and defects to a rival city-state, where he improves their feudal technology. In this second volume he is on the run again and hanging out with a nomadic group and improving their technology. If that were all, then we would have a tight little 300-page novel that I probably would have liked better. As it is, this one adds plots and characters like barnacles and bloats to almost 700 pages. There are duels, love triangles that don’t much involve the engineer, spy plots and battles—the whole game of thrones panoply. Sorry. I only care about the engineer.
besha's review
3.0
I’m really beginning to hate this trilogy. If this post is excessively long, detailed, and tripartite, consider it a pale reflection of the work itself. Here are my main complaints so far:
1. A character is framed and executed for a crime. The decision-maker really doesn’t want to do it and has previously described his reasons for not believing anything the key witness has to say. However, he states his unqualified belief in the story given to him. This made absolutely no sense. I wouldn’t have done it, and he’s a lot smarter than I am.
2. I’m having trouble believing that one of a dozen desert-dwelling tribes is going to build up a fairly organized society of eight million people who are all nomadic pastoralists. I may be wrong about this, as the Mongol Empire at its peak encompassed some 100 million. That, however, includes everyone the Horde subjugated, and most of those people had agriculture and permanent settlements.
3. There are about four meaningful women in the series so far, and none of them ever speak to each other. Fair enough; it’s military fantasy set in a feudal society, and you don’t have to retcon the development of civilization just to pass the Bechdel test for my enjoyment. What bothers me is that the author never refers to the female characters by name: they’re named only when another character is talking about them. In fact, we never learn the name of one woman except that it starts with an A and it’s unpronounceable.
The narration is third-person limited, spread among one female lead and half a dozen men (in addition to various minor military leaders, who are usually about to be stabbed). When the male leads are up, they’re identified: Miel thought, Ziani walked, Valens smiled. When the woman takes the stage it’s she read, she realized, she sat. I had to refer to Book I to remember what her name was.
I’d like to believe that this is a sophisticated literary device, but the author does the same in The Folding Knife and The Company. Between that and the minutely detailed descriptions of weaponry, warfare, and hunting—not so much the subject matter as the nearly autistic level of focus—I’m having trouble believing these books are written by a woman.
Here’s hoping that Book III at least ties up all the loose ends.
1. A character is framed and executed for a crime. The decision-maker really doesn’t want to do it and has previously described his reasons for not believing anything the key witness has to say. However, he states his unqualified belief in the story given to him. This made absolutely no sense. I wouldn’t have done it, and he’s a lot smarter than I am.
2. I’m having trouble believing that one of a dozen desert-dwelling tribes is going to build up a fairly organized society of eight million people who are all nomadic pastoralists. I may be wrong about this, as the Mongol Empire at its peak encompassed some 100 million. That, however, includes everyone the Horde subjugated, and most of those people had agriculture and permanent settlements.
3. There are about four meaningful women in the series so far, and none of them ever speak to each other. Fair enough; it’s military fantasy set in a feudal society, and you don’t have to retcon the development of civilization just to pass the Bechdel test for my enjoyment. What bothers me is that the author never refers to the female characters by name: they’re named only when another character is talking about them. In fact, we never learn the name of one woman except that it starts with an A and it’s unpronounceable.
The narration is third-person limited, spread among one female lead and half a dozen men (in addition to various minor military leaders, who are usually about to be stabbed). When the male leads are up, they’re identified: Miel thought, Ziani walked, Valens smiled. When the woman takes the stage it’s she read, she realized, she sat. I had to refer to Book I to remember what her name was.
I’d like to believe that this is a sophisticated literary device, but the author does the same in The Folding Knife and The Company. Between that and the minutely detailed descriptions of weaponry, warfare, and hunting—not so much the subject matter as the nearly autistic level of focus—I’m having trouble believing these books are written by a woman.
Here’s hoping that Book III at least ties up all the loose ends.
msjenne's review against another edition
4.0
My god, it took forever to finish this, but it was awesome.
ekfmef's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastisch boek. De perfecte combinatie van literatuur en fantasy en daarbij ook heel erg spannend.
lisarue's review
3.0
The second book in this series was a little disappointing to me. On the one hand it continued and intensified its exploration of a grand scenario where people have huge scope to do evil while trying to do good, or do greater good through small evils, or don't even consider their evil works to be evil. But on the other, I was really fatigued by the treatment of females. I normally don't focus on "how does the book I'm reading handle women" but while reading this book, I kept on hoping for one of the women, any of them, to have any agency whatsoever. They were all either married off, killed or raped. Some male characters in the book even talk about what a waste it is to have women sit home and embroider... but even women who sit home and embroider sometimes have agency.
footnote 1: the first book in the series has female characters with agency: the red-robed merchants who travel between cities and trade goods and carry letters. These practically do not appear in the second book as characters, although they have some slight influence on the plot.
footnote 2: this book would fail the Bechdel test used on movies. Does the book (1) have any female characters, (2) who have a conversation among themselves, (3) about something other than men? It fails at step 2. The one notable conversation involving a woman has her talking to Duke Valens and pleading for leniency for her husband.
footnote 1: the first book in the series has female characters with agency: the red-robed merchants who travel between cities and trade goods and carry letters. These practically do not appear in the second book as characters, although they have some slight influence on the plot.
footnote 2: this book would fail the Bechdel test used on movies. Does the book (1) have any female characters, (2) who have a conversation among themselves, (3) about something other than men? It fails at step 2. The one notable conversation involving a woman has her talking to Duke Valens and pleading for leniency for her husband.
smcscot's review
3.0
K.J. Parker really tries to get into the heads of their characters. The problem is all the characters only really have one voice and that's K.J. Parker. Everything is so intricate and convoluted, but at the same time there are gaps in logic (with people who think that there is nothing better than ultimate logic). This could play out as a commentary how no body is perfect, and in fact I believe that is what was meat to be, however it just comes across as poor writing because it, ultimately, is something the character should have seen.
Now that I have that off my back, it was in fact a fun read. Probably too verbose, but at the same time as a second of a trilogy, it utilized the existing world in the first book and expanded upon it's peoples. Well done and I look forward to finding out what happens with the Mezentines and the Vadani.
Now that I have that off my back, it was in fact a fun read. Probably too verbose, but at the same time as a second of a trilogy, it utilized the existing world in the first book and expanded upon it's peoples. Well done and I look forward to finding out what happens with the Mezentines and the Vadani.
celiaedf12's review
3.0
The Engineer Trilogy are really not my favourite books of Parker's - I'm used to coming to like his rather awful characters despite myself over the course of reading one of his novels, but everyone in Evil For Evil is just irredeemably dreadful and it makes getting through this long novel with Parker's typical tedious infodumps a bit of a slog.
therewithal's review
4.0
Still liking this series and the complex shades-of-gray characters, and it's hard to look away from the inexorable way the plot works itself out.
doorisajar's review
3.0
Interesting reading, but I'm still annoyed by the withholding of information by POV characters.
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