A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is just exactly what the title suggests. The third in a loose trilogy by K J Parker that has gradually been upping the stakes and now we arrive at world domination. Aemilius Felix is the last of his people, the rest of them having been wiped out in the previous book, he is spared because he is working as a translator in another empire that just so happens to have a very big library containing all the books you need to help you take over the world. Felix manages through careful plotting, keen manipulation and sheer dumb luck to manoeuvre himself and his associates in to the right places at the right times to conquer the world. If you liked the first books in this series you’ll like this one. There’s a lot of info dumping and neat coincidences but it’s entertaining enough and Felix makes empire building seem effortless. You just have to have read the right book. A lesson for us all.

Received arc from Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for honest read and review,this review is my own.
This is the 3rd in series and I made the mistake of reading this before the other ones,but I don't think it made much of a difference as first books were referenced and kind of made the story here.
So this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I was hooked from the beginning.
The author certainly knows how to write a funny and captivating story and I loved this one.
I will now go and read the first two in series.

K.J. Parker is one of the a-bit-under-the-radar authors we at Sceptical Reading have grown to like quite a bit. And in A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, his mix of humour and cleverness works its charm again.

It is the third and final instalment in Parker’s The Siege trilogy and follows Felix, a translator stuck in another country while his home is conquered.

But what would a Siege book be, without an outsider/unlikely hero saving not only his own, but everyone‘s bacon? And that‘s exactly what happens. Again. But let me tell you, the formula does not get old. This time, the whole world is the playing field. It really makes you appreciate the power translators may wield.

Another funny book to complete the trilogy. I have loved this series and enjoyed this book, perhaps not quite as much as the first two, but it still had the trademarks that make Parker’s work so entertaining. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This has been a really fun and different series of companion novels, but unfortunately this third installment didn't work quite so well for me. I still loved the tone of our narrator, Felix and thought that the characters were great, but the overall scale of the plot just felt a bit too big for the narrative. I much preferred the first part of the book when the action took place in the palace, but once the world expanded, I found that the narrative became a bit choppy and was harder to connect to. Overall, while this is my least favourite of the three, I would still definitely recommend it as I know that for a lot of people, this will be their best book of the series!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I really loved the first two books in the series but for me this instalment fell short of the standard I expected.

All the characters felt very 2 dimensional, the humour felt weak and forced.

Sorry i can't be more positive about it.

I'm going to open with, this is an excellent K.J. parker book. If you're already a fan, then you'll know what you're getting here. Cynicism, witty banter, a lot of wry humour, and politics, scheming, and people whose motives are less than clear. It's maybe a little less dark than some of their other work, but still not afraid to explore the truth of what people are actually like, behind the stories that they write for themselves.
Actually, that's one of the central themes here. The protagonist is trying to make the best of the situation from the preceding two books in the series - the destruction of the Empire he called home. At least until it was burnt ot the ground. Now he's living on charity and trying to work out where ot go from here. Saving his skin leads to consequneces that escalate his visibility, which leads to more actions, well, in line with the story title.

Felix, the protagonist, is wonderfully drawn, and fits the mode of other Parker leads. He's introverted, intelligent, has a deep affection for books and knowledge, and mostly wants to be left alone. His narrative is self deprecating, sharp edged and unforgiving, but it also cloaks a lot of his motivations. Why Felix does what he does is a bit of a mystery, not just to the reader, but to himself. There are always reasons privuded, both to him and us, and the joy is that they're always sensible, plausible reasons. But it often turns out that they were also bullshit. Or they were true, but in service to a different goal. Parker is a star turn at creaitng characters with multi-layered motivaitons, and that's not changed here.

The story is one I don't want to go into great depth on, because its evolution is par tof what make sit so conmpelling. But the progression from lowly translator sleeping on the floor, to someone conquering the world, and afterwards, is artfully paced, and the world is one which is filled with detail and vividly realised. There's a lot of politics and talking, and a lot of careful planning of battles, and seeing how that actually goes - and the epxloration of expectaiton and reality in military matters is compelling enough to keep you turning pages, and it certainly serves to build tension.

In the end, this is, well, it's K.J. Parker. This is an author interested in history, in the lies we tell the world and outselves. In digging into things which are true and hidden, and working out if there actually is a nugget of truth under all the nonsense. Or if we are driven to do what we do by the winds of circumstance and historicla chance. There's whip-smart characterisation, a story whose pacing is set up perfectly to ratchet tension and keep you turning pages, and some rock solid worldbuilding. It's a story that's an absolute pleasure to read, and one I'd recommend to existing fans; it does also work as a standalone for neophytes, but the extra textural details you get from the preceding books are great fun, so maybe read this last.

Anyway, overall, a highly entertaining read, and one I do not hesitate to recommend.

K.J. Parker es un autor que está tan dentro de mi zona de confort que escriba lo que escriba me va a interesar, pero es que además A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, es la tercer parte de la saga The Siege, situada en su Parkerverso y de lectura independiente, aunque se premia al lector fiel que ha seguido la saga desde el principio con guiños y sin escatimar un final para la historia que comenzó en 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City y continuó con How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It.


Hay que reconocer que la forma en la que se desarrolla la novela no es precisamente innovadora, porque el autor ya nos ha ofrecido en otras ocasiones personajes eruditos que cuenta su historia en primera persona mientras vemos como el resto del mundo va cayendo de cabeza ineludiblemente en sus trampas, elaboradas desde la superioridad intelectual. Aunque en este caso el protagonistas sea muy joven, da igual, porque el acceso a todo el saber de la humanidad y tiempo para digerirlo le sirve para montar una trama colosal desde las sombras cual eminencia gris vaticana.

Pero lo que es innegable es lo que se disfruta con este despliegue. Las pequeñas pinceladas de las distintas culturas que rodean el imperio donde nuestro protagonista se haya desplazado en misión diplomática como intérprete, son cautivantes. Y el hecho de que le haya dedicado toda una novela a una función que suele pasar desapercibida como es el noble trabajo de volcar ideas de un idioma a otro le sirve para ensalzar esta labor, normalmente ignorada y a veces vilipendiada.

El autor no da puntada sin hilo y critica las religiones atacando desde dentro, inventando una desde los cimientos para su conveniencia tomando las partes que más le interesan de tradiciones anteriores (¿a qué me recordará esto?). Y también es genuinamente divertido que esta propia creación se le vaya de las manos cuando los fanáticos comienzan a aparecer y a hacer una interpretación distinta de sus propias escrituras.

Aunque en esta ocasión Parker ha dejado un poco de lado la parte ingenieril, sí que hace gala de sus conocimientos de despliegues militares haciendo uso de las soluciones que en el pasado se encontraron para las cargas de caballería pesada, invencibles hasta la llegada de los lanceros. Dedica unas cuantas páginas también a explicar profusamente cómo se crea un arco que alcanza mayor distancia que los demás, cómo hacer armaduras con los medios disponibles en el desierto… Puede que estar parte resulte algo árida para otros lectores, pero a mí me encanta aprender de esta manera que me parece muy didáctica.

En resumen, A Practical Guide to Conquering the World es una obra dentro de las habituales de Parker, que le gustará a sus fans pero que quizá no sea la mejor introducción para un neófito en su obra.

trigger warning
<spoiler> genocide, trauma, animal death, mention of torture, racism, xenophobia </spoiler>

A translator on the Echmen court decides to stop doing what he is told, and trying his hand at manipulating people.

This is the second book from this series I read, and I will definetly go back and pick up book one. The stories are not connected as such, but set in the same world and it's the same tale, only with different people: A person who is supposed to be played narrating how he started taking an active interest in things, and didn't stop.
The fun lies in seeing how far he can take it, and that is very far indeed.

I am not sure this concept would work for many books, but for this, it did. The beginning was quite slow, and it certainly didn't help that I didn't have the time at the moment to sit down and read as much as I could in one sitting, but once I got round to do exactly that, I enjoyed myself immensely.

And now I need to research if horses can stand the smell of camels.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is a vestigal limb of a third book. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se, but advertising it as the conclusion to K.J. Parker’s Siege trilogy feels wrong, considering how little page time the characters and locations of the previous two books are featured.

After an unsatisfying end to Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, the sequel, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It managed to give things a neat ending and rescued my feelings for the first book. In many ways, this third entry does its best to undermine that ending. We meet Felix, a translator and apparent genius (not uncommon in Parker’s work) who finds himself the last of his people, his people being the Robur, who were under siege by their former slaves and auxiliaries in the first two books. Like Orhan and Notker before him, Felix has a special type of brain, and is incredibly resourceful. While Orhan’s skills come from being an ace engineer with a penchant for wheeler-dealing, and Notker was all about acting, misdirection and selling a performance, Felix has his languages and the fact that he reads a whole lot of books. For my money he’s the least compelling of the three, but he’s certainly no slouch.

The problem here is that Felix clearly has a plan, but despite the book being an account ostensibly written by Felix himself, we don’t learn the full extent of his plan until it unfolds, and even then only by insinuation. Felix is good at driving things the way he wants, but the plot sort of lurches along from one event to another, with most of the problems that need solving being invented by Felix in the first place. The immediacy of the previous two books is replaced with that, and while it’s possible to guess at what he wants, Felix is not exactly an open book.

It’s a good job then, that page for page this is probably one of the wittiest Parker books I’ve read yet. As you may have noticed from my reviews, I’m not the sort to copy down quotes to crow about later, but this time I was sorely tempted multiple times. It’s a very funny book, and clever as always in a myriad ways.

You might be surprised to see the score I’ve given the book below, since I’ve been pretty negative about the book. The fact is, I had a pretty fun time reading it. I just wish it was much more than it was. Parker fans will probably love this book, but if you enjoyed the other Siege books for the scrambling to defend a city against the odds, and thought the way they ended was just fine as is, you might want to consider giving this book a miss.

Rating: 8/10

I love the previous two books in this trilogy - what's not to love - and this didn't disappoint. It is the conclusion of the story of the fall of the Robur empire told through yet another character raised by accident and circumstance into an extraordinary position of power and having to survive through his wits. I only wish there was more! I loved every page of this story and read it in one sitting!

This is the capstone to Parker’s City trilogy.This time we’re outside the City and looking at how it’s fall has affected the rest of the world, and especially one Robur translator working hundreds of miles away in a foreign embassy who suddenly finds himself without a homeland or diplomatic protection. Like the other books in the series it’s darkly funny and bitterly ironic. It’s extremely readable and you’ll have a good time with it, plus I have to applaud a book with the message that going to the library is probably the best thing you can do in a tricky situation.

This is an utterly fantastic trilogy that should be read in order.
Here the author kind of switches away from The City that features in the first two books and gives us Felix, a smart young man who is a translator in the very ordered empire of Echmen. As he is a foreigner he has low status and is at the mercy of changing views and politics. Through luck, judgement and cunning he ends up escaping as part of a revolution where he becomes a key advisor and eventually a religious figure. Will he be clever enough to survive when taking over the world might be his only option? So far, that sounds like a standard fantasy novel, but not with this author and this trilogy.
It’s a witty delight as the author undermines so many fantasy tropes here along with the stupidity of structure and arrogance. It’s clever and, like the previous books, laugh out loud at times. It does eventually link very cleverly to the previous books, just when you wondered if it was just set in the same world.
Perhaps not quite as inventive as the previous two books (the fact that Felix is well read, but nobody else seems to be) doesn’t detract from a solid end to the trilogy. Absolutely loved this series, I have bought the first book many times to gift to people as in “you must read this” and that’s how I would summarise the whole trilogy…You must read this.

Oh my gosh!

This totally fictional and terribly amusing story was great.

On the surface it seems like the ramblings of someone in their personal diary and then you get to the end and laugh about how clever this seemingly nonsensicle person was.

I really enjoyed learning about the different races in the world and all their relationships to one another.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K.J. Parker is the third in the Siege trilogy also classed as a standalone novel. This book follows the events of book two but is instead told by someone completely different from that book.

Felix, our narrator, is sent to the Echmen empire to work as a translator. Events unfold and Felix saves a Hus woman who then saves him as he is marked for death. Felix finds himself doing little more after this until the Echmen conquer the Hus, making this woman the queen. Felix must use his resources to start his story of conquering the world.

This story was tongue-in-cheek but I wasn't a massive fan of Felix and his lucky takes on sincerity and importance. There were times were I never understood if the character was struggling or being honest. He wasn't a character i enjoyed which is unusual as the main focal point.

I enjoyed how much it dove into book knowledge and lore. Felix was an identifiable character as he tried to gain the resources and really showed how important reading can be. The world-building was great and the different beliefs, cultures and areas were really expanded upon. The exploration was handled well but sometimes it felt that the different groups never varied apart from the odd few things.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World was not as fun as previous entries. Perhaps this was my lack of faith in Felix or his motivations, most of it felt like luck and not interpreted as a massive effort conquer the world. This was certainly an amusing novel but that's about as much as it was.

I loved this series and think this is the best book: fast paced, full of humour, and gripping.
Felix is a great character, I never know if was going to love or hate him but kept on reading.
There's a lot of humour and I love the style of writing and the great world building.
An excellent and entertaining read, highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Third and final book that takes an unusual viewpoint in fantasy sagas, as K J Parker (Tom Holt) likes to do. Throughout this series, the author has as his narrator someone who leads the action with trickery, someone who really should not hold the power, someone who is manipulating rather than leading outright. While this 'gimmick' was brilliant in the first book (sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City), it fell a little flat in book two ( How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It). I'm glad to say in this final book in the series, Parker has freshened it up enough to go out on a high. The protagonist this time is the last surviving member of his race, living within the enemy's city as a translator when he is employed to deliver instructions to a prisoner about to be executed. When he works out who the prisoner is this chance encounter will lead Felix to an amazing (and highly improbable) series of adventures as he single-handedly seeks revenge for his race's extermination. I have read maybe half of Parker's books so far, enjoyed every single one so far, and that I really must fill in the gaps and read everything else. (and this is another book that I wish Goodreads had a 10 star system for I would rate it 7 or 3.5)

With thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

I’ve read the the two books prior to this one - the accounts of Orhan and Notker - and I have to admit the style feels sharper outside of the City (in case you don’t know, the other books are set during a siege where this one is a about of disgraced countryman in an exile of sorts hence not being there when it all hit the fan). I especially enjoy the early half where Felix is “translating” but because the other person can speak the language perfectly well they’re mostly just reading insults.

So why am I only giving it 3.5 stars? Because they’re ultimately a sense of inevitability to the events, spectacularly fun and ingenious though they are in getting to where they are ultimately going (and props to Parker, there is an ultimate reveal despite the obvious). It is clever but formulaic in a quirky way, so if you want a bit of fun and do not mind certain distinctive features of nations being repurposed into another world where everyone is just trying to get by (some more murderously than others) and one smartypants decides to conquer it because he can, in a less evil way with zero romance… well, this is the one for you.

Synopsis: We follow the improbable quest of translator Felix, on his way from suddenly being the last of all Robur (read: Byzantines) at the court of the Echmen (read: Chinese) emperor, savior of the barbarian people called Hus (read: Mongolians), founding a new religion, becoming a prophet, to conquering the empire of the Echmen and then of the rest of the world. 

Felix inadvertently saves a young princess of the Hus from being executed by the Echmen by pointing out a translation error. 

The Echmen are extremely focused on paperwork and procedures, and when they find out that the Robur people have been extinguished (as described in the previous two volumes of this trilogy), there is no need for a Robur embassy anymore. Felix's boss and colleagues are killed and only he is spared, because he's adopted by the Hus out of gratefulness. That's how he became entangled with their fate. 

The next step is that the Echmen want to build a huge Wall (read: the Chinese Wall) at their border, and they need people for doing the job. It's only logical that they slaughter the Hus leadership and enslave the Hus people. This leaves the princess as the queen. Felix has to rescue her once again out of the palace. 

One might think, that all this rescuing sets up the two for a big romance. But the author has different plans for Felix. First of all, he isn't up to the task of romancing around anymore, caused by reasons which led to his exile at the Echmen court. Secondly, the princess is one hell of a young adult. 

Review: This is the third book in the Siege trilogy, which started with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, where snarky and nerdy Orhan rescued the Robur city from invasion, followed by How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It featuring professional liar Notkar playing the game of "Sudden Emperor". 

I wouldn't recommend reading this novel as a standalone, because there are several tight references especially at the end of this book to the other two. Also, and this is already a summary of this book, I enjoyed the first novel far better than this one.

In general, the story has the author's trademark elements. A snarky, funny first person protagonist stumbling through one difficulty after the other on his implausible crazy journey. The quasi-mediaeval world, almost but not exactly resembling our own. No magic at all. A fast flowing plot with lots of funny moments. In contrast to the other two novels, this one isn't bounded with a close environment like the walls of the City, but opens up to the whole world. Yes, you will have armies shuffling around in strategical and tactical movements, battlefield tricks playing out, and you will get to know several different kinds of people, including the Swiss. 

A lot of these battles and tricks are references to history, and neither Felix nor the author shy away:

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, plagiarism is practically a declaration of love.

While this standard recipe usually works very well for me, I had several issues this time, lessening my reading experience:

I didn't like the main protagonist like I loved Orhan from book one. Where Orhan was a petty criminal turned capable savior, Felix is far too often a self-centric, blithering, unsympathetic person. I could very well feel with sidekick talking to Felix: "I've met some real arseholes in my time [...] but you're something else, you know that? You're so full of shit I don't knwo how you live with yourself."
at the start of each chapter, there always was a longer excursion from the main plot, often with some info dump. I found my mind wandering which is always a bad sign, before jumping back to the story. To cite Felix commenting about himself: "it's like they say in medicine, the dose makes the poison. Unfortunately, I come with the story. You want one, you're goint to have to put up the other."
Felix's story and the overall story of the Robur didn't come to a final conclusion, and the ending was a letdown for me. 

I also understand that there are reviewers who had issues how Parker addressed and embedded PoC in his three books. If you're sensitive, you might want to avoid this book.

Those were minor issues, and overall I liked the book, just not in the way of the first two, and I would still recommend it. If you've read the first two, you won't want to miss this concluding book, anyway. It was good for many giggles with its deadpan humor, and it's a really fast-paced read.

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is the third volume in the author's "Siege" trilogy. It 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.

As with the previous volumes in the (Siege trilogy) the main protagonist Felix is written in the first person. We only get Felix’s perspective; he can be a bit of an unreliable narrator. Felix is a Robur translator now in the court of Echmen (read the previous two volumes for the fate of the Robur). Note, you can read this book without having read the previous two volumes. Parker is excellent at charting the rise of a character who is perceived as the underdog. In this case, Felix has come from very humble Robur beginnings. This story charts his fight for survival using only his wits and self-determination, cunning and sharp intellect. Admittedly, Felix himself has only a tenuous grasp on survival. However, it is Felix’s journey that was most appealing, witnessing what he does, how he achieves it, he is very self-serving but considering he is the last of his kind, hardly surprising! He sets out to make the best of it, and a little more. It is all very amusing, delightful and a real page-turning book. As with many of Parker’s books and characters, there is lots of irony, cleverness and loads of dry humour. I enjoyed how Felix manages to manipulate events and how plots fell into place. One of the real joys of this book was reading how Felix spends three years in a library reading and researching (working in one myself), a booklovers dream!

The most important part of this series, in fact, any Parker book is to enjoy the journey rather than the plot. On a more serious note, Parker does a really good job of tackling some serious issues and current social commentary. The genocide of the Robur, racism, wall-building, empire building, religion. For Parker fans, the story takes place in Parker’s larger universe, with recognisable nations like Perimadeia, Aram Chantat and Aram No Vei, etc. Still no map!

As always with many of Parker’s books, the writing is excellent, the tone sardonic but appealing, the hero understated but engaging. The ending was left rather ambiguous – but much like life…not everything is resolved. What Parker does give us is the nature of having faith in yourself and the power of reading and the importance of libraries. In the end, I found A Practical Guide to Conquering the World to be entertaining, thought-provoking, and a pure joy to read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the eARC, all opinions are my own.