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The Two of Swords #19
The Two of Swords: Part Nineteen
"Why are we fighting this war? Because evil must be resisted, and sooner or later there comes a time when men of principle have to make a stand. Because war is good for business and it's better to die on our feet than live on our knees. Because they started it. But at this stage in the proceedings," he added, with a slightly lop-sided grin, "mostly from force of habit."
A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no one knows how it will end.
This serial novel from the World Fantasy Award winning K. J. Parker is the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of its soldiers, politicians, victims and heroes. The first three parts of The Two of Swords will arrive in April 2015, with further installments to be released monthly.
This is the nineteenth installment in the Two of Swords serialization.
A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no one knows how it will end.
This serial novel from the World Fantasy Award winning K. J. Parker is the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of its soldiers, politicians, victims and heroes. The first three parts of The Two of Swords will arrive in April 2015, with further installments to be released monthly.
This is the nineteenth installment in the Two of Swords serialization.
- GenresFantasy
50 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2017
2 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
K.J. Parker
134 books1,692 followersK.J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt.
According to the biographical notes in some of Parker's books, Parker has previously worked in law, journalism, and numismatics, and now writes and makes things out of wood and metal. It is also claimed that Parker is married to a solicitor and now lives in southern England. According to an autobiographical note, Parker was raised in rural Vermont, a lifestyle which influenced Parker's work.
According to the biographical notes in some of Parker's books, Parker has previously worked in law, journalism, and numismatics, and now writes and makes things out of wood and metal. It is also claimed that Parker is married to a solicitor and now lives in southern England. According to an autobiographical note, Parker was raised in rural Vermont, a lifestyle which influenced Parker's work.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2017
Aaaaaand… it’s over. This is the last instalment of the series (or so it seems) and it gives closure to the main threads, although I still feel something is missing. Can’t put my finger on what it is exactly, but something is missing. Could be that I expected something to surprise me or maybe that THAT pack of cards should have had a more significant role in the finale. Or maybe it’s the implausible thing one of the characters did at the end. Will figure it out someday…
Still, I very much enjoyed this series. It’s all about the journey, not the destination: the bluffs, the twists and turns, the humor and witty dialogues, the unpredictability of the characters and events (up until the end).
All 19 installments are now comprised in a trilogy, The Two of Swords, Volume One being available from October 17.
Still, I very much enjoyed this series. It’s all about the journey, not the destination: the bluffs, the twists and turns, the humor and witty dialogues, the unpredictability of the characters and events (up until the end).
All 19 installments are now comprised in a trilogy, The Two of Swords, Volume One being available from October 17.
September 26, 2017
This one takes place on an extended time scale of months if not a year or two and it is the last installment and yes all is finished (more or less as there is some openness) - I actually guessed absolutely right about both who the lodge boss is and the whys and hows of the schism and the ending is again about where I expected it to be (after volume 17/18 obviously when things started clarifying) maybe except for the Belot brothers (their conflict roots were a bit underwhelming though not unlike the ones between Axio and Oida - btw in the print book it is Axio and Lycao from the beginning for whom wondered about that as i have the first volume and it is the serialization word for word except for minor things like that 1-8)
Anyway the last volume brings again all the main characters, we understand the whys of all and pretty much everyone gets some closure (including a head on a spike or two, a promotion or two to the top, a marriage or two and an exile or tw0 since after all, the series is about Two - Two of Swords also gets to appear in the last paragraph)
Excellent entertainment (and for once a great ending of a series) and one of the best fantasy series of all time for me
Anyway the last volume brings again all the main characters, we understand the whys of all and pretty much everyone gets some closure (including a head on a spike or two, a promotion or two to the top, a marriage or two and an exile or tw0 since after all, the series is about Two - Two of Swords also gets to appear in the last paragraph)
Excellent entertainment (and for once a great ending of a series) and one of the best fantasy series of all time for me
September 28, 2017
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+
This is it. The end of the long journey. But what a journey it was!! Truly and honestly a masterpiece. I cannot recommend this series strong enough. Clever, stylish, sophisticated.. all round delight!
This part offers a a bittersweet ending with a resolution of all plot-lines and big reveals.
Planning to re-read from the start once the paperback books are out later this Fall.
This is it. The end of the long journey. But what a journey it was!! Truly and honestly a masterpiece. I cannot recommend this series strong enough. Clever, stylish, sophisticated.. all round delight!
This part offers a a bittersweet ending with a resolution of all plot-lines and big reveals.
Planning to re-read from the start once the paperback books are out later this Fall.
September 26, 2017
The way this chapter flows, it feels like it's the end of The Two of Swords. Things are wrapped up (and, finally, explained) in a way that leaves me satisfied, with major characters reaching the ends of their arcs and machinations seemingly concluded, so this feels like the place to end the story. The thing is, I ordered all of the remaining parts of the book back in April, and those show four chapters to go. Granted, that was April, and who knows what could have happened between then and now?
I think I would have gone into this chapter with a different mindset had I known this was going to be the final chapter. Instead, I went in thinking things would be drawn together in anticipation of the conclusion, so I never felt like that was going to be it. By the time I finished it, though, it was pretty clear this was the end of the story.
It's been an interesting journey. Throughout the story, it was difficult to determine what was truth and what wasn't. The layers of subterfuge are many, and so interconnected that it almost takes a spreadsheet to keep up with what's a double-cross or quadruple-cross. I may have been able to keep up with the characters more had I been reading the story in collected formats, and had I been able to read them back-to-back from start to finish. I was actually surprised I could remember enough details from chapter to chapter to keep up with everything.
Before this book, my exposure to Parker was through his novellas, and those tend to read as stories that lead up to an unseen conclusion, sort of like The Sixth Sense, but with fewer ghosts and more humor. I didn't expect him to follow that structure here, so I was excited to see how his longer stories would develop, and I wasn't disappointed. I plan to read the rest of his fiction within the next year or so, and I hope I haven't messed it up by starting with his most recent works and then going back to the beginning. At the very least, I look forward to seeing him develop the shared universe of these books.
I think I would have gone into this chapter with a different mindset had I known this was going to be the final chapter. Instead, I went in thinking things would be drawn together in anticipation of the conclusion, so I never felt like that was going to be it. By the time I finished it, though, it was pretty clear this was the end of the story.
It's been an interesting journey. Throughout the story, it was difficult to determine what was truth and what wasn't. The layers of subterfuge are many, and so interconnected that it almost takes a spreadsheet to keep up with what's a double-cross or quadruple-cross. I may have been able to keep up with the characters more had I been reading the story in collected formats, and had I been able to read them back-to-back from start to finish. I was actually surprised I could remember enough details from chapter to chapter to keep up with everything.
Before this book, my exposure to Parker was through his novellas, and those tend to read as stories that lead up to an unseen conclusion, sort of like The Sixth Sense, but with fewer ghosts and more humor. I didn't expect him to follow that structure here, so I was excited to see how his longer stories would develop, and I wasn't disappointed. I plan to read the rest of his fiction within the next year or so, and I hope I haven't messed it up by starting with his most recent works and then going back to the beginning. At the very least, I look forward to seeing him develop the shared universe of these books.
September 28, 2017
Solid finish.
December 14, 2017
Phew. Finished.
Wow, I checked my bookshelf, and saw that I read Part One in August 2015. Nineteen instalments later, and it is all over … well, I see Goodreads does list a few more. But Part 19 has such a resonant and affecting ending, I doubt it will continue (that it can is highly probable, given the numbers of rabbits that Parker has managed to pull out of the proverbial trebuchet in the course of this).
Reviewing this has been extremely frustrating, as so many instalments ended on cliffhangers. This made it difficult to get a handle on the overall plot, not to mention the direction that Parker intended to take it in. Well, direction(s). The series has been a masterclass in smoke-and-mirrors literary obfuscation.
Given the current trend for Game of Thrones-type fantasy that OTTs on the supernatural elements of High Fantasy, Two of Swords is a remarkably droll (some would say cynical, or bleak) dissection of the true costs of war. There are long discussions about economics and military strategy – the analysis of the human numbers needed for an effective siege, for example, is truly chilling.
Perhaps the best part of this series is Parker’s tone, which strikes a perfect, and very difficult, balance between satire and empathy. An incredible experiment, and a remarkable achievement.
Wow, I checked my bookshelf, and saw that I read Part One in August 2015. Nineteen instalments later, and it is all over … well, I see Goodreads does list a few more. But Part 19 has such a resonant and affecting ending, I doubt it will continue (that it can is highly probable, given the numbers of rabbits that Parker has managed to pull out of the proverbial trebuchet in the course of this).
Reviewing this has been extremely frustrating, as so many instalments ended on cliffhangers. This made it difficult to get a handle on the overall plot, not to mention the direction that Parker intended to take it in. Well, direction(s). The series has been a masterclass in smoke-and-mirrors literary obfuscation.
Given the current trend for Game of Thrones-type fantasy that OTTs on the supernatural elements of High Fantasy, Two of Swords is a remarkably droll (some would say cynical, or bleak) dissection of the true costs of war. There are long discussions about economics and military strategy – the analysis of the human numbers needed for an effective siege, for example, is truly chilling.
Perhaps the best part of this series is Parker’s tone, which strikes a perfect, and very difficult, balance between satire and empathy. An incredible experiment, and a remarkable achievement.
December 14, 2017
Y por fin el final. Muy buena serie, que acaba con la resolución de todo lo que había planteado el autor durante la lectura de los episodios. Ahora que está saliendo en tres libros, quizás mereciera la pena releerlo de tirón para ver que se te ha olvidado por durar casi dos años esta serie. A
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews