The Escapement

Engineer Trilogy #3

by K.J. Parker

The engineer Ziani Vaatzes engineered a war to be reunited with his family. The deaths were regrettable, but he had no choice.

Duke Valens dragged his people into the war to save the life of one woman - a woman whose husband he then killed. He regrets the evil he's done, but he, equally, had no choice.

Secretary Psellus never wanted to rule the Republic, or fight a desperate siege for its survival. As a man of considerable intelligence, he knows that he has a role to play - and little choice but to accept it.

The machine has been built. All that remains is to set it in motion.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Steampunk, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction, Epic, Science Fiction Fantasy

409 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2007

About the author

K.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.

Reviews

[Rowan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everything that made me love the first one, and plod through the second one, crashed and burned for me in the conclusion to of this trilogy. What seemed like the protagonist's belief that all evil is caused by love and only somewhat veiled misogyny could have developed interestingly, but instead turned out to be heart of the author's transparent agenda by the end. Attempts at philosophy and reflection were ultimately undermined by the unsophisticated and undeveloped monotone. The repeated assertion that there is no choice but to do evil in the name of self-interst is either a right-minded but sloppy parody of Ryndist solopsism, or an atrocious reiteration of the same theroy. In any case, this trilogy didn't develop at all, and is a disappointing waste of several thousand pages.

[Anitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

This final book in Engineer trilogy pushed me to my limits. I don't think I agree with Parker's philosophy in this book. I have issues with the ending and I don't like the arcs of female characters. However, I liked the unpredictable nature of this story while being predictable. I liked not knowing which character to root for while hating Parker for doing this to me. It's bleak, brutal and brilliant. It also features one of most complex characters I ever read. I will definitely reread just for this character.

[Steve Kimmins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This final volume of The Engineer trilogy was as dramatic and climatic an ending as you’d like to a series. In fact, a seriously twisted ending following on from the betrayals and underhand dealing that have featured throughout the plot.
More siegecraft than in my favourite entry level novel to the author (Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City) and more battle action than I’m used to in a Parker novel though the battles are typical of the author - confusing messes where luck is critical to survival.
As an example one vignette sticks in my memory - half a dozen pages documenting a farm boy mustered for military action by his tribe. He’s excited to leave the only place he knows, his village. He’s no idea what’s required even though he’s made an NCO because he’s a better archer than the other farm lads called up for service; some pointless and useless training; night journey towards the enemy, no clue as to the plans, sitting still for hours followed by unexpected noise and arrows, bodies on the ground, and he’s wounded in the dark by an arrow. All over, nothing accomplished, interrogation by the enemy who in a rare example of mercy release him to carry a warning message back to his tribe!

The overall theme of the series is about the evil that love can cause (!) which is continued with a vengeance. I must say that as I approach dotage that this isn’t a general lesson that life has taught me!! But that is the dark core chosen for this plot; that love can have a serious downside in the circumstances that at least three separate groups of people featured in the story find themselves. It does all start in volume 1 with the engineer Vaatzes being torn away from the only people he cares about, his wife and daughter, after all. This is the start of the death and destruction of his revenge and reaches its conclusion here.

Although this author is one of my favourites despite only having come across him in recent times I can see his unique style will not suit everyone. He is an acquired taste. As this book features a skilled engineer from an industrial Guild style city state the author diverts off into plenty of descriptions of workshop practises, metalwork, machine descriptions, siegecraft. For me this is deep world building; for a reader maybe not interested in such detail (or engineering!) I can see it may not interest. No magic, nothing supernatural. Almost historical fiction - but set in a fantasy late medieval landscape.

And the author doesn’t neglect characterisations. Far from it, that’s usually one of my biggest attractions to this author’s novels. However, no prominent character is particularly admirable - they very much have good and bad sides, usually in equal quantities. I particularly enjoy scenarios where characters with differing interests have an upfront conversation to ‘clear the air’, which happens several times - one may ask the other if he betrayed their cause; the other will admit this quite honestly and explain clearly why he did it. The questioner will often accept that the explanation has weight and may even forgive him!

I’m in danger of over analysing. You’ll either like the authors style or you won’t and I can’t persuade you if it’s not to your taste. This is one of his darker series, with little of the wry humour that one often finds elsewhere in his works. Not Grimdark, but few endearing characters and love shown to have an evil side. It sure was as enthralling a fantasy series as I’ve read in the last year, and he firms up his place in my top 3 fantasy authors.

[Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

This whole novel felt like a really bad M. Night Shyamalan movie. You remember the movie The Village that came out a few years ago, where the twist ending revealed that the creatures threatening the villagers were really just people dressed up in costumes? (Sorry to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it sucked anyway) You either loved that ending or like me, you felt betrayed by sneaky ol’ Shyamalan for tricking you. Well that’s kind of how this novel was for me. The whole time I was thinking the ending was going to make up for all of the slow buildup, (remember books 1 and 2 are 600+ pages) but man was I wrong. I hate to report that book 3 of the Engineer Trilogy was just as disappointing as book 2. I can’t remember the last time I was so happy to close a book. Some people might enjoy this one, especially those who have any interest in detailed accounts of siege warfare, or the anatomy behind medieval weaponry. If those two things don’t really tickle your fancy, then I’d suggest you avoid this trilogy entirely.

What bothered me about this concluding novel was the promise that something major was going to happen. In books 1 and 2 we saw great conclusions that were shrouded in mystery and these cliffhangers led me to believe that all of my questions would be answered in book 3. When the novel comes to a close you can’t help but feel disappointed, even cheated. Several characters that played such crucial roles in books 1 and 2 come across as unimportant and their story arcs seem to just flat line. Now I wasn’t asking for a huge shocker of an ending where the bad guy reveals himself to be the main characters father, but to see everyone essentially just “go home” felt like a huge middle finger from Parker.

As I said in my review for Evil for Evil, Parker excels with standalone novels, so if you’re interested in giving K.J. Parker a shot, then try The Company or The Folding Knife, but steer clear of this one. (Sincere Apologies to any M. Night Shyamalan fans)

[kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked this book up after reading the previous two, I couldn’t help but notice it was half the size. I felt a bit cheated. The first handful of pages underscored that feeling, due to an unexpected shift of perspective. Perseverance, however, paid off. This small book is the implementation of the device created in the first two books. Sudden and devastating. And surprising. Well worth it.

[Shane Findlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parker is a master and a heavyweight in the genre.
Edit 2nd read: Never really had ONE particular favourite author. That fact has changed.

[José · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un final redondo para la trilogía del ingeniero.
Todos los personajes tienen cierres que están a tono con lo que pasaron en los libros anteriores y terminan siendo peores personas.

No es una trilogía ligera y por momentos tiene muchos detalles sobre mecanismos de asedio e ingeniería en general, pero el desarrollo de los personajes principales y sus complejas relaciones hacen que valga la pena. De todas formas, este último libro me resultó mucho más ágil que los anteriores y lo devoré en pocos días.

Si les gusta el Grimdark y quieren leer a un protagonista sumamente manipulador y sociópata, esta es la trilogía indicada.

Me declaro fan de K.J. Parker 🧐

[Mr. Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Escapement brings the story of Ziani Vaatzes to a close. It also brings the terrible, multi-nation war between the Mezentines, the Eremians, the Vadanis, and the Aram Chantat. And, thankfully, it brings the Engineer Trilogy to a close as well. These were three big, fat books and I found myself growing progressively more disappointed as I read.

When an author builds an alternate world, I expect it to make a certain amount of sense. And I just couldn't buy the conclusion of the Engineer trilogy. After waging a war of extermination against first the Eremians then the Vadanis, killing the last Aram Chantat heiress, the allies finally besiege the Mezentines and slaughter tens of thousands of the hapless defenders. At this point, the author wants me to believe everyone just says 'oops' and turns around and heads home? No. I don't buy it - neither party was truly defeated. There was too much death, too much blood. It wasn't like the Germans at the end of WWII, or the Confederacy at the end of the US Civil War. These were absolutely beaten powers that lacked the will to resist. Neither the Mezentines nor the allies were 'broken.'

Along these lines, although I like twists and turns and plats within plots, there were too darn many in this book. Ziani betrays everyone. Darenja betrays Ziani and Duke Valens. The Allies betray the Aram Chantat - who also betray the other allies. No one is that smart, and collectively I don't think it is realistic to have that many brilliant plotters in one place at one time. Oh, and for a war to a great extent started over love the Duke's wife decides she is not in love with him, and Ziani's wife, we discover, was never in love with him. Argh! Too much. I don't think I liked any of the characters by the time this book was done.

This all sounds overly negative (and it is) but there are some really good parts to the story that redeem it somewhat. I like the world. It is very gritty and 'real.' There is no magic that I can tell. Instead there is technology. This war is really an arms race between the Mezentines and the allies. In fact, Darenja and Ziani labor long and hard to bring a new super weapon (a canon) against the Mezentines.

Sigh. Two stars. I had high hopes for this book and this series.

[Randal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, awful end to a series that was hanging on by a thread after book two anyway.
Pretty much exactly this.
The moral, for me, is to trust my instincts and don't bother to track down the conclusion of a trilogy when book two is as bad as this was. Book one was interesting because it substituted close attention to technology for magic in a standard fantasy series. Book two lost the thread because it substituted technical detail for depth; book three ... was just empty: the clockwork needed to get to the end of Vaatzes' ludicrous plan and nothing else.
Ultimately, the series wound up solely the laying out and following of an empty, intricate plot; there's no emotional payoff (virtually no emotion, despite the author's ongoing philosophizing blather about love). You have to have fully realized characters to have emotion in a novel, and after 2,000-odd pages, there are no fully realized characters in these books, in large part because the few rounded male characters are defined largely by their relations to women and women essentially don't exist in this series. Archetypes of women are used as placeholders by men, but that's not the same thing.
Possibly not the emptiest work I've ever read, but I would have a hard time naming the competition.

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pina la urma nu a fost un final rau pentru o serie dramatica de fantasy ( mai mult militara decat fantastica) destul de bunicica. AM observat ca majoritatea volumelor lui Parker sunt dramatice si singeroase.

Iar personajele in general nu sunt caractere din cele mai placute, insa toata situatia asta cu netrasarea unei linii clare intre bine si rau face bine atmosferei generale.

POate mi-as fi dorit sa se mai exploreze si alte aspecte, insa per total ramane o serie memorabila cu plusurile si minusurile de rigoare.

Ciudat cum nu a fost publicat de nimeni pina acum in ROmania.

Sa vad daca voi putea scrie in zilele urmatoare cateva cuvinte si pe blog.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine end to a great series. Historically -- what, reasonable, I suppose, considering that it's set in a fictional world? Amusing and playful. Generally clever. Did he stick the landing? Not exactly, but he didn't blow it, either. [If you've read the books, something about tolerances here, tsk-tsk.] I got to see most of my questions resolved in a way that made sense, there were a few surprises that gave me a good start, and I had a few satisfied that's-what-you-deserve grins as things wound down. Not bad for the price of admission.

Oh, and love gets a black eye. Well, sort of. You'll see.

Recommend the series for fans of: sprawling-and-lightly-edited fiction, world building, swordplay, engineering, sieges, realistic fantasy, ahistorical historical fantastical realism (?), pseudo-Venice-Carthage, people who dislike Venice (real or pseudo), people who dislike Carthage (real or pseudo) steppe peoples, human migration, revenge fantasies, plotting, early gunpowder weaponry, late torsion-powered weaponry, fortress design, Ottoman wars, Italian wars, Vauban, romantic betrayal, romantic disappointment, the Industrial Revolution, and love.

Oh, and it's got thinly-disguised Finnish people living on the margins of civilization. If you're the type of person that's easily pleased that you recognize that an author 100%, without a doubt made up a race of people who are clearly, 100% Finnish, you'll want to pick this up. I was undeservedly proud of myself for several days for noticing that, which says something unflattering about me, but whatever, they're Finnish and I figured it out.

[Deb Koelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this third book in the Engineer Trilogy unsatisfactory. The writing is good, and the central motif of a single intelligence manipulating human beings as cogs in a large machine to achieve an end is ingeniously applied.

What I find unsatisfactory is the morality of this world and the characterization of women within the book. No female has a major role in the trilogy; the two main female characters —Veatriz and Ariessa— are present merely as love objects which compel the action. Both of these women are immoral, charmless, selfish, empty, useless enigmas.

The morality is even worse. The trilogy concludes that there is no good or evil but only actions which we do by compulsion, and since we are compelled to these actions (and have no choice in the matter) then they are free of conventional moral standards. "Necessary evil" is the phrase the trilogy uses to describe this behavior, and the behavior is given allegorical shape in the form of a repulsive character named Daurenja, whom everyone in the book finds disgusting but who is tolerated by all because he is useful in achieving their ends.

Only one character seems to be able to make a decent moral judgment, but I may be reading too much into it because he never really states his opinion aloud. Interestingly enough, this character — a humble clerk named Psellus— is the only male in the trilogy who "To the best of his knowledge" has never been in love (The Escapement). The message of the book is clear: loving a woman leads to evil, and the women are unworthy vessels of this kind of devotion.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concluding volume to Parker's engineer trilogy is once again, a grim, dark fantasy tale. At the end of the second volume, we knew the two nations (or what was left of them) had allied with the savages from across the desert for a final assault on the Eternal Republic (where the engineer hailed from originally) and it begins with the prolonged siege of the Republic's city. This volume tells the story of that siege and its conclusion.

What is most striking about this trilogy is the total lack of any character the reader can really identify and root for. All the main characters really lack empathy, and while the story purports itself (according to the author) to be a love story, it is hard to imaging any of the characters feeling love other than an obligation. Further, any attempt at any good deed was met with failure by most of the characters involved. For instance, this is a quote from the engineer: "So really, I've only got myself to blame. I was trying to do the right thing, but it made everything go wrong. You'd be surprised how often it works out like that." That is pretty much the moral of the trilogy. Both the Dukes (kings, really) of the nations had solid aspirations, only to be met with failure again and again. I mentioned that while this was a love story, there was very little love or, really, any emotion displayed by the MCs. I can see why people have ripped this series in the reviews; if you are looking for heroic fantasy, you have come to the wrong place. If you are up for a bleak exploration of the human condition and up for some snarky dialogue on the way, you may enjoy this. 3.5 stars.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker, K. J. The Escapement. Engineer Trilogy No. 3. Orbit, 2007.
The Escapement, and indeed the Engineer Trilogy as a whole, has an original approach to its material that is marred by some clumsy execution. The trilogy is set in a world that makes us expect heroic fantasy. There are warrior dukes and cities under siege. There are love triangles and characters with romantic aspirations. But the protagonist, Ziani, approaches every problem, be it military, mechanical or romantic in terms appropriate to mechanical engineering. Machines can always be designed and constructed to perform their functions; people can be motivated and moved in predictable ways. Things that look like magic or romance are simply parts of a complex machine operating as it must, given its materials, construction, and design. I like the way the novel upsets our expectations for romantic heroism, but it is much too long, so I found myself putting it down for weeks at a time.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

“That’s the trouble with books,” he added bitterly. “There’s no way of knowing whether what’s in them is valuable practical advice or just someone’s flight of fancy.”

Formulaic. It’s a good formula, but #3 reads much like #1 and #2 with the scope and stakes raised, of course. Disappointing, illogical conclusion cost Parker a star.

“I’ve learned two important things so far. First, you can’t be hit if you aren’t there. Second, if someone’s close enough to hurt you, he’s close enough to be hurt back.'

Many characters hide behind the cop out that they have no choice but to act or not is a choice. Unsatisfying female characters. I like when authors include their title in the story, but Parker beats it to death.

‘He told himself, a lie will be good enough, because I love her, because I have no choice.’

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted this book to be as awesome as the first two. Oddly enough that is my main hope with reading any series, just that the quality be consistent. This book is a failure. It is almost if he just ended it because it was time to move to somthing else. While still being as well written as the first two, it fails.

[Scott McNulty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think this trilogy is for everyone, but if you like:

Fencing
Siegecraft
Good people doing awful things
Awful people doing awful things
Duty making people do the right thing, and getting screwed over

Then it might be for you!

The writing is good, the characters are well fleshed out, but if you like rooting for the good guy you probably should skip this.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ending to the trilogy; not as good as Evil for Evil and lacking the freshness of Devices and Desires, but very, very good

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the first two books in the Engineer trilogy, Parker creates a complex, slowly-progressing story that remains riveting, and keeps you wondering what will happen next. In short, the first two books are typical Parker books, and they lead you toward the third book with high expectations as you finally get to see how he pulls it all together. In the end, though, the final volume feels pretty ordinary.

For all the build-up of the series, the ending feels pedestrian; moreover, it feels grim (and that's saying something, considering how dark Parker's fiction is by default). Where his other books have a certain feel to them that Parker is writing whimsically, with no particular destination in mind, The Escapement reads like it was plotted. In another circumstance, in another book by a different writer, this would be fine; for Parker, it feels like a step back.

In short, Parker didn't stick the landing in this book, or in this trilogy. For as much as he was able to create something compelling and unique in the first two books, The Escapement just ends up being a disappointment.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really one continuous narrative split into three separate volumes owing to the impossibility of containing the thing within a single binding, although the previous two volumes break at natural breathing points in the story at the expense of creating books of equal size (and the first two are a bargain at the price, even though they make the third look puny).

In terms of genre, it sits in an awkward place where the retronym expansion of SF, speculative fiction, is probably the only umbrella to adequately cover it. The prominence of dukes and fencing and hunting in the story tend to align it more closely with fantasy, which is funny, when you think about it, because all of those things clearly were and are real enough. A very early reference in Devices and Desires seems to indicate a magical system of theology where miracles can be redeemed for hours of religious devotion, which is never referenced again and may be a fossilized remain of an earlier conception. In fact, something which happens quite late in this volume allows the reader to fairly definitively situate the setting as postapocalyptic, but clearly nothing that is revealed at that late stage can be said to define the genre of the preceding narrative.

Vaatzes the engineer gives the trilogy its collective title and gets a substantial portion of the page count narrated in his point of view, but I don't see him as ever being one of its protagonists, and would argue that he is hardly even one of its characters. He's part of the setting, part of the giant speculative what-if that sets up the story.

It's a fascinating way of telling a story, full of multiple redundancies and precision detail. The sort of thing that would appeal to an engineer, in fact.

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love is an important driving factor for the stupid decisions that male characters make, so the female characters, the objects of this love, should have some depth. One woman is cold, the other is slightly stupid and beyond that there isn't much to them, so no conclusion to this trilogy could be very satisfying. Even the object of one woman's love is such a misogynistic twonk that you wonder how he managed to keep that hidden long enough to woo someone.

That said I did really enjoy this series overall. A great military fantasy exploring love, duty, war tactics and engineering.

In this book I grew to like Psellus, Daurenja and Arietta more, and started to dislike other characters Valens, Miel, Vaatzes and Veatriz, which is a shame and meant that I enjoyed the book less than the others.

I particularly liked the parts where Psellus thinks about trapping a clerk in his office so someone else has to do his job, the flour store going up like a volcano (made me laugh out loud) and the prototype accident, Ziani's realisation while staring at a white spot, and the moment when Psellus is given the information that Boioannes was having an affair with a married woman and you are just BEGGING HIM to add 2+2 together.

I didn't predict the ending and I enjoyed the revelation that there was more to the history of Mezentia than meets the eye. Quiet a lot of the time during the seige descriptions and mechanism explainations I was beginning to lose interest. I do not think I would read this trilogy again but I do enjoy the theme that love will be your undoing, there are no real heroes and no happy endings.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything I had said in my reviews of the first two books in the Engineer Trilogy also applies here. It is all very clever and very cynical. All of the reveals are very "kjparkerian" ;-), and yet, not very surprising. These are probably the reasons I was tired of it all and just waited for the book to end. I realised that there was no real development of anything and anyone throughout the trilogy - just more of the same. (And when it comes to sieges, it was done much better in K.J. Parker's Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, do read this one instead, highly recommended.) The verdict is that this is not my favourite Parker!

[Miki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love K. J. Parker. Her characters are eminently human in a way few fantasy characters really are, not in the sense that they have the full gamut of virtues and vices, but that their reactions to the ones that they do have... just remind me of myself.

In this series, however, I found the character naivete to be a little over-stated, and not quite as credible. One character in particular swings violently between Machiavellian scheme complexity and complete haplessness with alarming rapidity. Still an excellent read, though, and, as always, the data whore in me delights in the loving attention to detail.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Morbid curiosity made me continue this series to the end. Love was obviously the villain and no one could be blamed for their actions because of course they had no choice. No heroes, no justice, no happy ending. No thank you. I will not be reading anything else by this author.

[Kiro Selanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a very long time to finish this book. Whenever I was reading it I appreciated its prose, but I had grown weary of some aspects of this trilogy, so I never felt motivated to read it. Warning: this review contains many spoilers, because I need to vent.

My main problem was how amoral the story and the characters are. Ziani Vaatzes engineers a genocide, and tries to engineer two more, for vague reasons. He says it's "for love", and claims that it was to get back to his previous life, but nothing he does indicates that this is true. He never mentions his wife and daughter, never dreams of them, and continues with his plan even after he figures out that his wife had engineered his downfall in order to marry his best friend.

The other characters don't fare much better. Duke Orseo imprisons his loyal lieutenant Miel Ducas based just on suspicions, and refuses to even let Miel make his case. Duke Valens executes Orseo on charges he knows to be false so that he can marry Orseo's wife. Daurenja is a known murderer and rapist, but he's useful for the war so they make him a general. Even Miel Ducas, the last of the "good guys", eventually commits war crimes. He reflects on this:

He remembered saving Daurenja’s life, when Framain and his daughter had wanted to kill him. It had been the act of a humane man. He couldn’t imagine those circumstances arising now. He wouldn’t have got involved in the first place.

So the project (the war) is amoral, as are the characters, on both sides. I've seen plenty of antiheroes in books and movies, but I'm struggling to think of any other work of fiction that lacks anyone the reader can identify with. K. J. Parker certainly knows that this is what he's doing:

“What do you reckon?” Daurenja asked anxiously. The fool, Ziani thought, he really does value my opinion. Of course, he was another example of the same principle: a device for being the hero and the villain simultaneously.

At the end of the book Vaatzes claims he had planned the whole thing even before the Eremians had picked them up. It's ludicrous.

The prose is very strong, as usual for K. J. Parker. There are occasional pages of technical mumbo-jumbo, which I glided over as is my custom. Like this one:

He clamped it to the faceplate with cramps and dogs, set the tailstock live centre in the dimple he'd already drilled in the other end, slacked off the winch and unbuckled the sling.

This is a dish that tastes good while you eat it, but leaves a bitter aftertaste.

[Brandon Deevey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointing read... a disappointing novel... and an overall disappointing end to a story that had so much potential.

The first book was great, the second book was good but definitely not near as good as the first. The second had almost felt too long where as this third and final book was too short. It could have used at least another 100 pages to not rush the ending. The overall consequences and outcome just did not seem believable.

I feel like this last entry in the trilogy was a rushed half baked idea of a finish. Terrible pacing... the last few chapters haphazardly resolving the complex (and unfortunately too unbelievable) "device" Vaatzes had been creating from the beginning. We had two previous books to be introduced to the characters and develop them into a what I thought were very interesting POV's. Throughout the book I felt like many of the characters were now not acting like they should have, making decisions that seemed very out of place or just didn't make any sense, for example the way Veatriz is at the end of the book was just frustrating and nonsensical.

The pen name K.J. Parker was originally thought to be woman..(actually Tom Holt, revealed back in 2015) which in hind sight makes no sense how that could have been, generally (not always) most female authors don't have such poorly written female characters. There is really only two somewhat major female characters and they are just bad.. just very very bad.

Also could have used less drawn out explanations of machine parts moving and interacting... this gear turns and moves a pulley which raises the lever and sends a spring forward which pitches the steel rod right into my freaking head which is what I wanted after reading the final pages. It was too much! too much pointless imaginary machines and not enough actual substance. Remove all that fluff and your left with an even shorter jumble of a story.

I realize now after typing this that I liked this book even less than I originally thought.

[Kaylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In The Escapement, K J Parker gives himself a difficult job to do: pull off the fiendishly clever plan that Ziani Vaatzes has been working up to for three full books. On a plot level, The Escapement is a success. There's no obvious plot holes to trouble the reader, but nor does Ziani fulfil all his ambitions in a way that might feel artificial.

On a character level, however, The Escapement leaves a lot to be desired. Every character who manages to survive all three novels is miserable for one reason or another, so that, no matter which of them a reader felt sympathy for, the ending is bleak. Not only that, but the characters trend towards uniformity of worldview — particularly, it must be said, the men. Nearly every male character at some point or another, thinks about love, and how it strips them of agency. If you're in love, you are doomed to act a certain way, regardless of any previously-held principles or opinions. It becomes infuriating.

The female characters fare little better; they rarely do anything, unless the idea was put into their head by a man. About the only exception to this is Juifrez Stratiotes' wife, who rescues both herself and someone else, but who doesn't even get a name! That's worse than infuriating.

So far, these reviews have failed to mention word building, which is probably what The Engineer Trilogy as a whole does best. In The Escapement, the Aram Chantat particularly stood out for having a culture in which violence against women is almost unheard of. They, like Lucao Psellus, buck the trend of having the exact same cynicism as everyone else, which is very refreshing. Getting the technical details of engineering or hunting fit perfectly into the perspective of the characters, both supporting each other to add up to more than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save The Engineer Trilogy's descent into a single unvarying mission statement.

[Adam Duckworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this trilogy. Quite different from what I'm used to. Such a focus on Mechanical Engineering and tolerance and... a very different view of love. It bases it from a very deterministic point of view. Everything can explained by love. Including that which doesn't make sense because we just seem to accept that love doesn't have to make sense. Its logical steps from A to B to C and when you need to jump from C to A43FE64 you use love as an explanation.I can see why some wouldn't like it.

I didn't mind the ending, but I did have some issues with it. The final reveal of the goal of Vaatses overall mechanism was plausible... but the Aram Chantat was only one of the many tribes beyond the desert. They were being wiped out by the others even.... I know the Mezentines would destroy the oases, but feeling content with a desert as the defence against the hordes beyond doesn't seem enough. Maybe because Terry Pratchett gave a counter example in Small Gods (No army could cross the desert. But maybe a small army could get a quarter of the way, and leave a cache of water. And do that several times. And another small army could use part of that cache to go further, maybe reach halfway, and leave a cache. And another small army...)
Vaatses also seemed to just accept his wife's adultery and treachery. But again, because he loved her... This is where I found it more difficult to accept. He still loved her after she plotted with her lover to have him removed? Given the theme that love doesn't have to make sense I get it, but I still struggle to accept it.
Similarly Valens and Veatriz. Why leave/put them in that state? You can leave one ray of hope/light goodness at the end. Maybe leave it with a cloud hanging over it, but I don't see how the story was stronger for leaving them as he did.
Miel… I can get that his whole world was uprooted more than anyone else's. Perhaps even struggling with sanity.

Still, no regrets spending time reading this series.

[Dave Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this conclusion more than I thought I might (after the mild let down of Book 2). The primary reasons are: Gace Duarenja, whom I enjoyed greatly in spite of his flaws; the strong themes explored, Parker's skilled turn of phrase and thought progression (always a joy); the detailed descriptions and specialized terminology associated with the various aspects of engineering on display throughout (it was like being educated and entertained at the same time), and successfully pulling off a surprise ending which simultaneously was the only logical way it could have ended (not easy to do).

Drawbacks: Ultimately, never really liked the main character Vaatzes - unless that was Parker's intent the whole time, in which case, job well done.; many of the events felt too contrived - in fact, looking over the vast scope of events that took place over three books, it's impossible to believe a single man could have skillfully orchestrated it all to play out as it did. I won't spoil it, but it goes deeper still, as far as who the puppet-master really is in all of this. It's like a rogue's gallery of manipulators.

All things considered, I'm glad I was sick this week, so I could rest and read. Hmm... what to read next..?

[Curtis Johnson-Hamm · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I rage read this just to finish the trilogy. I wanted to like it after appreciating the first but the sequel and definitely this one have put me off possibly picking up anymore of tom ford’s work either under this name or his actual. I like his style and he does have skill to craft a story but really does not make you like any of his characters in this series. Maybe that’s his style and it just took me this long to pick up on it. I can appreciate making me not like characters but making me downright not care what happened to any of them out of pure spite is disheartening. I don’t have to like them but I want to at least care what happens in the story and to the characters to know there was some merit in what I took the time and effort to read. That was not this for me. Finished it but not sure what that says about me at all. The premise was good for the first book but continued to fall apart under scrutiny which is what you have to give to make the whole thing work at all.