Rating: 4.5 Stars

| TL;DR |

How to Rule An Empire and Get Away With It picks up seven years after the events of Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. Told from the perspective of Notker – thespian, playwright, and son of a late Theme boss – this witty and over-dramatised tale tells the story of his coercion into a seat of power as tensions begin to fray both within The City and beyond its battered walls.

Funny, action-packed, and almost always surprising, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It is a sequel worthy of its predecessor. Whether just one in a series, or the final chapter, this book is sure to shock, amuse and entertain in equal measure.

| Review |

How to Rule An Empire and Get Away With It tells the story of Notker, one part thespian, one part crook and two parts in over his head. Seven years have passed since the commencement of the siege. Seven years of enemy bombardments, seven years of death, blood and mayhem, and seven years staring at an enemy encampment turned temporary metropolis. Tensions within The City are frayed and, if the enemy doesn’t get there first, The City’s destruction might just come at its own hand.

With a speciality for impersonating the great and the good on stage, Notker finds himself in the unlikely position of having to impersonate hero and darling of The City, Lysimachus. But this time the world is his stage and life isn’t so easy at the top – pride most definitely comes before a very, hard fall. Notker, along with his grudging partner Hodda, and a whole host of crazed, bureaucratic and megalomaniac puppet masters, must save both The City and his own neck – well, mostly his own neck – before the ruin of all.

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Through the Acts of a play, K.J. Parker has woven comedy, tragedy and fantasy tropes aplenty into an engaging and well-paced narrative. This stand-alone novel set in the same world as Sixteen, is often humorous and always charming, yet has an undercurrent of darkness that gives the story both depth and purpose. Told entirely from Notker’s perspective, this is a clever and surprising novel which revels in shocking and surprising its reader.

Throughout the tale Notker, in the true character of a performer, relishes in expounding humorous descriptions of books and plays which tie directly back to his own narrative. These amusing and anecdotal recitals help to develop both Notker’s character and flesh out the world around him, which despite his best intentions, remains a mere backdrop to The City’s leading lady. His own history and engagement with The City, through his familial connections, his work and his somewhat questionable lifestyle, allows The City to grow in tandem with Notker and become the true supporting character to his tale.

The style of narrative, however, lends itself to the caricature-esque development of ‘extras’ to Notker’s narrative; his reluctant partner, his crone-like mother and the rival parties vying for his control. Painted through Notker’s witty observations and unconscious bias, these supporting actors often miss out on the depth of character employed in other works of fiction, but retain their own unique and theatrical charm as a result of it.

In essence, this novel, and Sixteen before it, are books about ordinary folk who find themselves in a city on the brink of destruction, and who find that they have been coerced, tricked, or pulled into positions of power by friend and foe alike. The events may result in shock, laughter, surprise or an eye roll, but these are their stories; imperfect realism of an imagined history.

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While the shock conclusion to Sixteen left a little to be desired, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It does not suffer from the same limitations. The climax is clever, surprising and ties the threads of the narrative together with a verve and panache one can only expect from a true tragicomedy. This is a book which reflects Notker – which is Notker – and the style that the author has chosen to employ can only be applauded.

Whether in The City or another land entirely, I can only hope to return to Notker, or Lysimachus, or whomever may be impersonating now, once again.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the first book. You think it will but it doesn’t. Like a lot of things really. Notker is the narrator and for all his skill at impressions, he never knew the other bloke. He takes centre stage since he’s the one writing it and because it’s K J Parker there’s a trick, you know there’s a trick. I’m here to tell you they pull it off. This is how you rule an empire and get away with it, and make a long-running siege interesting to read about!

I hugely admire K. J. Parker. Nevertheless, I was a little fearful when I picked this up - I had found the previous "16 ways to defend a walled city" a little formulaic, and "Two of Swords" was far too long for its content. Neither was of the glorious standard of his best work, for example the Engineer trilogy.
I need not have worried. This is right up there with his best. The manerisms somehow seem fresh again. The humour, cynicsm and fascination with medieval seige technology, (yes I kow it doesn't sound promising!) once again drove the plot forward in vintage Parker fashion. Two strong original leading characters. The constant twists are delightful, and the book flew by, to its outrageous conclusion. If you like Parker, the you will love this. If you're new, this would be a good start.
Highly recommended.

I would have said it was impossible to have this book be anywhere near as good as Sixteen ways to Defend a Walled City, but i'd be wrong. An unlikely yet masterfully impressive and enjoyable sequel!

The City is under siege, but theatre carries on, Notker is a playwright, actor, child of a criminal and occasional petty criminal himself when needs must. Until his most recent gig is flattened just before he gets there and his convincing impersonation of a hero is needed to keep the City going. Almost before he knows it, Notker is Emperor, but no-one believes that he isn't who he says he is. Can he save the City and himself without becoming worse than the other side?

It's a farcical plot slightly reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, with a lot of breaking of the fourth wall where Notker explains himself to the audience. Ever more unlikely things happen and he manages to just about survive them all - sometimes by being cleverer than people think he is, sometimes by coincidence. Only his mother and his Empress are unconvinced. It's fun to read, but not quite as engaging as I thought it might be, a little too easy to put down for a while. But enjoyable enough!

Not quiiiiiite a four-star novel, but charmingly roguish enough that I'm happy to grant it the benefit of the doubt.

Which is of course, the central conceit of How to Rule an Empire: charm, narrative, and some old fashioned good luck give its protagonist the power to coax people — the most unyielding, expensive, and unpredictable of the materials that make up the imperial City — into just the right shape. Now, basically-good-hearted tricksters are an old trope, the City is a stock Byzantium stand-in, the prose style is ingratiating but hardly dazzling, and for all its twists and turns How to Rule an Empire's plot never really surprises.

But an old story well-told is its own pleasure, as our not-really-antihero reminds us now and again. And his constant metafictive commentary makes it quite clear that Parker/Holt isn't trying to do much else but entertain us here. He does so admirably, and humanely too.

In fact, the whole thing reminds me (fondly) of mid-late Pratchett. If you ever wondered "what if Moist von Lipwig ended up running Ankh-Morpork in the face of mortal peril?", well, this is a pretty good answer.

I just couldn't take to this story and to be honest gave up after the first few chapters. I struggled with the writing style which prevented me from being absorbed into the story and didn't take to the main character. I can't say there's anything really wrong with it, it just wasn't for me

This is one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time, I wanted to give it a standing ovation at the end.

The plot is so cleverly put together and the way it weaves pretty much every trope in the book into the book is masterful.

The characters are almost caricatures and for me this just adds to overall flavour and enjoyment.

The pace is fast and bang on right for the story.

I loved it.

The city has been under siege for years. Along comes Notker, sometime playwright, sometime actor, frequent liar and part time criminal. The Empire appears to need him for a new role whether he likes it or not. This then is Notker's story.

Maybe unsurprisingly Notker, a thespian, frequently addresses his audience - us the reader - while he is telling his tale. Initially I found this light hearted and easy to read though maybe less easy to understand what is going in the city/story. However around 20% in things became much clearer and I found myself more engaged with the story. The story is partly addressed to the reader and partly narrative of events etc. I enjoyed Notker as a character but the rest felt rather shallow.

In the end I found this mildly entertaining and easy enough to read. However there was nothing here to get my teeth into. The story was ok I guess however I was never held by it I've not read anything by this author previously. I don't recall reading anything by Tom Holt - the real author - either. Comedy writing (indeed "comedy" generally) is a tough area I think. I don't actually regret reading this however I never really felt all that engaged in the machinations of the war and the siege. I imagine fans of the author may well be pleased with this book even if it wasn't particularly for me.