
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
The Siege, Book 3
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Narrated by:
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Ray Sawyer
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By:
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K. J. Parker
About this listen
This is the true story of Aemilius Felix Boioannes the younger, the intended and unintended consequence of his life, the bad stuff he did on purpose and the good stuff that happened in spite of him.
It is, in other words, the tale of a war to end all wards and the man responsible.
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World can be listened to by itself, but for those who like endings, it can also be considered the refreshingly pragmatic conclusion to K. J. Parker's acclaimed sequence of novels that began with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and continued with How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It.
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Holt strikes again
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This time we follow Felix, a member of the Robur race, who works as a translator for the Echmen empire. He enjoys books and peaceful life. But alas, Parker has other plans for him. When armies wipe out the Robur race, Felix joins the Hus' ambassador, who owes him for saving the life of his princess. Unfortunately, shortly after, the Echmen kill the Hus king and enslave his people. Felix decides to save a group of people he doesn't actually like. Not an easy task - he must unite the Hus with their enemy, the Dejauzi, and find a way to defeat the Echmen empire. How you may ask? Well, inventing a religion and becoming a prophet is a good start.
Felix's bold plans and cynical view of the world are always entertaining. He idolizes no one and knows that if you want to do something right (even if it's conquering the world), it's better to do it yourself. And so he decides to fight the war to end all wars.
The pacing is excellent and the twists are legion. Add to that Felix's unreliable narration and you get a tremendously entertaining and darkly humorous romp. Like most Parker heroes, Felix has no strict moral code. So readers should ask themselves: what does he really want?
The Siege is a series of loosely connected books. You don't need to have read the previous volumes to understand, follow, and appreciate the story. However, if you read the books in order of publication, you can enjoy certain nuances. Besides, they're fun, and why deprive yourself of a good time?
I'll read anything Parker writes. A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is an excellent, darkly humorous, and an insightful story I'll happily revisit in the future. Highly recommended!
Additional note: I've listened to the audiobook version and had a great time listening to it. Ray Sawyer captured the tone of the book perfectly.
A great story
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The weakest of the 3, but still good and worth it
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If you love KJ Parker, you'll love it
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KJ Barker Does It Again
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The main protagonist is without any redeeming characteristic or personality. They are utterly without empathy or any concern for those whose lives are ruined or uprooted. They are by far the most interesting and intriguing character.
Cynicism
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The timing also seemed off – they get belated word of the siege at the beginning of this book, and four years later there are events that happened after the end of the second book. Not huge, but I like how detail oriented the world building in the first book was.
I could’ve gotten past those things however except, as another reviewer has pointed out, it’s pretty much the exact same story with pretty much the exact same characters. Different people/name/settings, but the same tropes the same personality, etc. and it just seemed tired and overdone. Using the same narrator for all three books was probably also a mistake. While the narrator is fabulous, he uses the same accents and inflections book to book, and it only strengthens the repetitive nature of the main characters between the books.
The writing is good, but not as good as the books at the beginning of the series. I’m 7 1/2 hours into the 13 hour book, and I’m honestly not sure I’m gonna bother to go on.
If you loved both of the first books in the series, and you haven’t re-listened to them too recently, it will probably be a fun read.
Meh
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I
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Meh
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Fine
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