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The Folding Knife
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August 2018 - The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker
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Yay, finally a standalone! :DI will attempt to join.
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I might pop in for this
So is anyone reading this? I would definitely like to.
I'll try to read this, if I can manage my crazy BR schedule and KD binge ;)
Arkadeb wrote: "So is anyone reading this? I would definitely like to."I'll deffo be here but in the latter half of the month, most likely Week 4.
OK, I am starting but taking it slow.
P65 “He’ll end the war and we can get back to normal. That’s with sensible people do with wars. They put a stop to them.” This entire page was genius.
Why is nobody reading this? Lena, you are here?
I love this...why did Scoron drop this...
Lannister...
If Machiavelli and Cicero and Thomas Cromwell pooled their...uhh gene pool...they'd produce a razorwit evil bast@rdo like this here Bassiano Severus.
*jackal face*
Gotta love imagining living in Roman times when everyone was this cunning and manipulative. Heck, long enough of such times and humanity (I mean the physical species, not the intellectual/cultural one) will probably evolve....grow a pair of extra googleeyes bugging outta the small of the back to watch for the...TERRIBLE WORDPLAY ALERT...wait for it...folded knives...😂
The mother....prolly more terrifying than anyone!
If the whole book is this good then I will buy a physical copy as well.
@whomever chose this...xcellent choice, you!
Ohk this is prolly gonna seem really retarded...but there is a (stupid blunt almost toy) knife I got here that kinda flicks open IN A WAY and I have been practising...
I am such a sliiiick...haha 😂😂😂
Is nobody reading with?
:-(
I am going to be returning to this. Let me just finish up Malazan
Arkadeb wrote: "I am going to be returning to this. Let me just finish up Malazan"The historical fiction reader/ theorist in you will enjoy all the plotting....
😊 I'm not alone.
I'm a quarter of the way in. It reads as a Roman Historical fiction, not a bad thing but I don't see why its labeled fantasy... Yet. It's been a few days since I picked it up because of my dislike for Basso’s sister.
Hmm. 3 chapters in. Very intricate trade+politics story, lots of history, definitely getting an Italian city-state vibe, 15th to 16th century.
Is Basso a sociopath though?
@ArkaHaha + the size of their egos 😂😂😂 (I'm talking about most of the ppl in this book) probably proportionate to the size of their achievements...
NON-PLOT
Yea...Basso did exhibit the classic psychopath trio of traits...cruelty to small animals in childhood (the wasp and spider thing), extreme intelligence and observation + weird headaches/numbed from actual human feelings...a sort of cold dispassionate detachment from himself and everybody...
CH 2 SPOILER
Y'know whenever a married guy (view spoiler)
You're reading Malazan and I started an SA book so..haha...I am totally expecting they will cannibalise all the other reads...
Zaara wrote: "@ArkaHaha + the size of their egos 😂😂😂 (I'm talking about most of the ppl in this book) probably proportionate to the size of their achievements...
NON-PLOT
Yea...Basso did exhibit the classic p..."
Yeah what really made me notice was when Basso did not exhibit a lot of emotion when (view spoiler)
I finished my Malazan but I have a huge bunch of BR's going on. I have to pull quite the balancing act.
In fact....(view spoiler)Me too. Let's just keep pottering on with this around the other BRs and make random and sporadic posts...
💁 Deal!
7 chapters done. This book gets more interesting with time.
I actually really liked the (view spoiler)
Sorry @Arka...I am here...just got totally sucked into WoR and was lost to the world. That book is a Highstorm and it ate my life for these three days.And I am only a third of the way thru...😂
But for 24 hours I ban myself from Roshar and will read the Folding Knife. Or else I reckon I will go mad. I was forming the most insane theories!
I'll have some spoilers for you moro.
Zaara wrote: "Sorry @Arka...I am here...just got totally sucked into WoR and was lost to the world. That book is a Highstorm and it ate my life for these three days.And I am only a third of the way thru...😂
But..."
No problem.
This book takes a bit of getting used to, but I absolutely love the overall style and theme
I saw you finished...and liked it (not loved it)...it IS a change from the huge worlds and epic landscapes, no?
Zaara wrote: "I saw you finished...and liked it (not loved it)...it IS a change from the huge worlds and epic landscapes, no?"This book gave me something I search for a lot and rarely find - a detailed look at the actual process and infrastructure of ruling. All too often its 5 scrappy underdogs against the evil empire, or a ragtag group of rebels, or some hopelessly marooned group. This book makes the ruling power the PoV and actually tries to address the story on that scale. This is different and interesting.
There are certain problems, but compared overall, they are minor. 4.5 would be a more honest star rating.
Arkadeb wrote: "This book gave me something I search for a lot and rarely find - a detailed look at the actual process and infrastructure of ruling."Hmmm...good point. This is true, the more you read, the more you find which things you enjoy and the LESS fresh examples you find of the kind of stuff that "scratches the itch" for that particular thing...
I swear, I was jezzt telling someone yest that once you read "the best stuff", it spoils you much for everything else...so we must always start with the least best series and progress to the best ones...and then we are safe and can enjoy everything. This was my method!
I like your kinda thing too, Arka. Which is why, if you read First Law Trilofy, the second book was mine (and Siobhan's) fave...bcuz it shows a char facing governance issues and hiccups...
Also GRRM has given many interviews about how so many classic fantastists ended the story (like you say) with battles and conquests....therefore he wanted to show Danaerys and Tyrion actually facing the details.
Also, Way Of Kings showed a lot of process leadership from Peter (Kaladim)
I don't know more (or niche) examples to discuss...I haven't read too many series...
Heh, I just realised after typing all this that you may have read all these series already...
😂
But Arka have you read The Broken Empire?
It has a mean ambitious bast@rd in it, a master manipulator of things, events, and people. If you haven't read it, you should totally buy Broken Empire. I will totally visit your status updates and chat about it. Anytime!
The book covers are also very cool and look amazing on your shelves, also they have the buttery soft feel + the font is nice...ok I know you don't care about this stuff....but I swear the story is TOO TWISTED, CUNNING, & EVIL!
*sigh* don't be expecting Malazan or anything...also *sighs again* it is a bunch of road brothers against the Empire...sorry!
Mmmm.... read Broken Empire, and Abercrombie and of course GRRM. I loved Broken Empire. It was smart, sharp, almost jagged, dark in the sense of a truly demented protagonist, yet that darkness is a layer on top of a truly appalling tragedy.
I love Lawrence and I have read everything by him.
I am less enamored with Abercrombie mainly because I think he tends to sacrifice plot and character to his own overarching ideas.
Regarding ruling being a part of fantasy, I think that its often vital to not just show the ruler handling a crisis, but also the nitty gritties of everyday ruling. Frankly that takes a lot more thought and application on the part of the author.
Parker has done it to some extent. I will be picking up some of his other books later.
*hushed respectful tones*O excellent Andorion...clearly you are a man of evolved tastes and a refined and superior intellect. I knew there was a discerning and very important reason why I have been following you for
I heartily concur with all of this most noble, heartening and amiable post.
Save for one word 😂 o worthy and formidable dragon
The word is Joe Abercrombie's "characters"...I love them!
ABERCROMBIE NONPLOT/CANON SPOILS
(view spoiler)
Also I immediately confess my shame!
I cannot lie to a fellow lover of the Broken Empire. I have not read any more of The Folded Knife, tho' I promised I would. For this part, I apo.
Instead I read 😝 Romamcing the Duke straight thru... alack and alas, I do admit to having horrible pulpy tastes...they seem to coexist peacefully with my loftier propensities.
In addition, I am shameless...but for this I do not apologise...I will only do it again...😁
Thirdly, I nevarr forgot your birthday Arka...which was all the way back in January.
But I didn't say anything bcuz you never spoke to me all thru the times. Then I was chary to approach bcuz I thought you will be sneering as an aristocrat at my classless, prole and talkative ways.
But you are nice AND you love the Brokem Empire and are not so scary, after all.
So happy birthday very very very late!
Does this even count as a 50% post on The Folded Knife?
Where I reached r Basso is now manipulating Aelius.
There!
I rescued it ALL, like a man.
Zaara wrote: "*hushed respectful tones*O excellent Andorion...clearly you are a man of evolved tastes and a refined and superior intellect. I knew there was a discerning and very important reason why I have bee..."
Thanks for the very late birthday wish! :D
Regarding Abercrombie's characters, read Best Served Cold and get back to me. I love Glokta, but what Abercrombie did in BSC...
Take you time with Folding Knife, I am here
Arkadeb wrote: "Take you time with Folding Knife, I am here"Well...I took your word for it...okay the truth is I totally forgot to come here and say I finished this book long ago. I'm sorry...haven't been online much. Ok...I haven't been online....not at all. Been busy and my flatmate signed up to fulfil some Paperie order of 300 somethings for a festive charity sale and then panicked immediately. Now 'the house' (well, technically her place) is overflowing with coloured paper and ribbons and lace and random craft cr@p. So when I have even a few spare hours (since I am hopeless with everything) mine is the job of glueing things together...😂😝👍😁 and tying ALL the ribbons.
Any loose strings I see, now I have the urge to tie it in a beautiful bow...🎁 yuck! I can literally feel the sugar syrup dripping from my new UMBRIDGE pores...heh! Also I am the confirmed galley slave and cook all the meals...😝
Oh? How, you ask, do I get sucked into randomness like this?
Well, she did buy me the beautifully illustrated edition of A Monster Calls 😍😍😍 as a preemptive bribegift so I kissed the book many times and decided I am happy here with my ribboms & UHU sticks & wet glue.
+ she is genuinely panicked and she is my friend...
Ok regarding the book...also loved how low magic it was, Arka. I mean substitute Vesani Republic = Rome and this could've been straight up historical fiction. I also liked that battles took place largely offpage...was getting tired of blow by blow descriptions of extremely violemt gore, courtesy of my Abercrombie overload.
ENDING SPOILERS
Regarding haha kryptonite...yeah...
spoiler>
Told ya in my earlier comment she is the most dangerous person in the book...😝 still I didn't like how it ended. He was all Rhett Butler for all those years and suddenly "he didnt give a damn" 😂 yeah right!
The last chapter was my only complaint of the book. Of course I suspected Melsumtha. I just expected her evil to be more EVIL and much more personal. Perhaps consisting of a deal with the enemy/Empire, rather than her diffuse pointless effort with the mass plague...all that death...but he had to lose everything, no, for the poetic justice to work?
Re "waiting for the fall"...yeah, we knew it'd come bcuz of the prologue and also bcuz of how annoying it was that he WON everytime and in so many profound ways. Every deal of his was a multiple 'steal of a deal' on all the fronts...but when it came I was grittimg my teeth the whole time he was on the brink of that treasury crisis...practically by the textbook, throwing more good moneey after the bad to salvage...........
That arrogance got him...
It read so much like a case study in economics and finance...at any moemnt I thought he'll break into talk about the LIBOR or coffee futures. Did you know coffee is the most traded commodity after crude? Its funny...I always thought it'd be gold, humanity being what it is...
That said, I dunno why we find this story so shocking/ startling/refreshing. It is just very different to the rest of fantasy but humanitarianism as an idea is very new...it's only been around since the 19th century. Right? Before that people hardly thought of the human cost of battle. Empire and war and conquest was everything for hundreds of years, no?
Btw I don't think we counted the human cost of anything until then. Recently I read North and South but from a child...reading Dickens...I always knew a lot about the human cost of the Industrial Revolution...and science in general...
I'd surely like to read more with you, Arka, especially historicals. We like similar things.
Zaara wrote: "Arkadeb wrote: "Take you time with Folding Knife, I am here"Well...I took your word for it...okay the truth is I totally forgot to come here and say I finished this book long ago. I'm sorry...hav..."
I think this book is exactly what you describe : "a case study in economics and finance" with an addendum about what not to do.
I loved how all the small hints were there about the economic crash, how they slowly increased over time, until they could no longer be contained - it gave me the feeling of an avalanche accumulating, slowly but steadily, until it comes crashing down and the best you could hope for was to not be buried by it.
Nice point about humanitarianism. Honestly this book reads like Rome set in the 17th century. (Maybe what Venice could have been?) But yeah, the whole idea of war-weariness, wastage of life in war and other things are not really that widely explored in fantasy, though I would absolutely and totally urge you to read Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky which does explore these themes and follows it up with good character work.
I think we do share similar interests. Let me know if you find similar books, I always eager for history themed reads.
I read GoTD last Oct/Nov. It was amongst my earliest reads with this group. Liked it...but didn't superlove it, mainly bcuz I *megayerked* the enemies to true luuuurve thing at the time.I'd rate this one better, on the basis of MY LIKING. GoTD is prolly the better book.
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
The Folding Knife (other topics)Prince of Thorns (other topics)
The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker
This read will start August 1, 2018 and will be available throughout the month. The discussion will take place in this thread.
Thanks, Lena, for your nominations!! :)