shorter this part introduces Forza Belot and his redoubtable wife, It also manages to mention Daxin partand Teucer has a walkon and shoots four arrows, saving Forza's life.
We also meet Senza Belot and have a couple of battles or parts thereof,
The craftsmen/mysterious lodge manages to sort out the insurrection in Blenya, leaving the brothers to resume their campaign.
La más corta historia de esta serie, por fin vemos, y nos metemos en la mente de, a uno de los dos generales hermanos que luchan cada uno en un bando.
El relato está muy bien llevado, con la aparición estelar de la mujer de uno de ellos.
Las batallas muy bien descritas, y la resolución apelotante, Y eso solo enpáginas, Otra serie serial de novellas apelotante, The Two of Swords, by K J Parker parts
Im not going to search for a review this time around.
Its useless.
PartVirtue
Its awesome woman time again, This time, the queen of Blemya, Shes young, inexperienced and made a grave mistake not wanting to be completely alone when interiting the throne, she made her best childhood friend, Dexan, her prime minister by creating a post that hadnt been there before.
We dont even get her name and contrary to Telamon she doesnt kick ass not now, The setup, however, leaves a lot of space for development here,
This part is more concerned with Daxen and sets him up as someone The Craft desperately tries to remove from the deck.
PartTwo of Spears
The older of the Belotbrothers two genius generals, fighting on opposite sites is the main character in this part.
We learn, that apart from his ability to see a battlefield graphically in his mind diagrams and all, he completely lacks in terms of strategy and/or tactics on a chessboard.
The brain, the intelligence behind his moves, is his wife: Raico a darkskinned genius, There are so many enjoyable and utterly quotable bits in this part, Its my fave up to now,
I gather you play chess, hed said, and shed given him a look, later hed ralised it was fair warning yes, she played chess.
The had a mignificent coral and ivory set, worth a thousand acres of good arable land, Hed made soft opening, the way you do when youre playing a girl, and suddenly he found himself staring defeat in the facs hed never los a game except three times, to Senza.
Of course, he married her,
Ah well, Hed beaten her twice sind then: once on their honeymoon, though he still suspected her of throwing the game, and once on the day she lost the baby.
And two out of eight hundred and six wasnt too bad, against such an opponent,
Yes, good, However, it makes you wonder about Forza, Really. The cliffhanger at the end is something aweful, though,
PartTwo of Arrows
The younger of the Belotbrothers, deadly set on destroying his brother, because somebody has to do it, before he loses control.
Seems, Forza has some uncontrollable mean streak in him,
Still, we learn a lot about the background, the emperor, Glauca whos “imbecile nephew” leads the fight on the “other site”.
By now I have the deepest suspicions when it comes
to the composer, Oida, Something is definitely murky about him, A gobetween Come on!
Also, the reappearence of Teucer and Telamon indicates that the cast of characters is now complete and the stage all set for the main thing.
The Rules of the Game Teucer Musen being the lead for the next part,
The Thief Musen the link here is Telamon,
Poverty Telamon the link: the Blemyan Queen,
Virtue Daxen the Belot brothers,
Two of Spears Forza,
Two of Arrows Senza,
This was all very enjoyable, with really good parts, Parkers style is unmistakable, you get so much intrigue and wit few other authors can compare to this.
My faves were,,. Musen isnt my cup of tea, He reminds me a of Mat Cauthon, However, Musen is in thiefschool now actually a cloister of sorts and we may expect a lot of mayhem from him.
What I still dont get until now, is how this all connects with Tarot Cards of all things.
shortest installment so far, bringing together a lot of stuff from the past, more backstory, moving things forward and obviously leaving one wanting more immediately not to speak of the brutal cliffhanger in the last paragraph
highly recommended
btw for anyone interested, installmenthas the following blurb interesting to say the least given the cliffhanger of this one.
. .
"The bard Oida arrives on the battlefield with some very helpful information, but is the timing too perfect Can Senza truly trust Oidas motivations" This series took a while but really picked up with this book.
Very short but what an ending! KJP keeps the quality up naturally I feel I should add,
NONE of the following contains spoiler to the best of my evaluation,
This one is told primarily from the POV of Forza Belot, the genius general of the Eastern Empire, who briefly appeared in part.
Other main characters are his brother Senza, the you guesses it genius general of the Western Empire, Forza's wife Raico a very interesting character, Duzi an Imperial and member of the Order and Goainuz sp, who is now referred to as 'The Prophet'.
This prophet is also the first link I spotted to Parker's usual playground because he is linked to the temple of the 'Invincible Sun', a staple in all of KJP's novels and stories so far.
A novelty in this part is a look back ! to the battle with quotes from volume fifteen of Forza's biography right in middle of the text.
A word of criticism about the publisher Orbit: The Kindle's xray function would have been very helpful for this serial novel also, a professional book like this should not have typos mainly missing spaces.
Forzas PoV: Forza Belot and his brother Senza are the generals who lead the two opposite armies of the Empire.
Here they clash together on the battlefield, But because they know each other so well, it all comes down to anticipate the others moves, The parallel with the chessboard is just perfectly suited,
New characters are being introduced and Forzas wife, Raico, most likely will become a very interesting one.
Also, Teucer from the first part, remember :D makes a short appearance dont blink cause you'll miss him.
Big cliffhanger at the end and I expect the next one to be told from Senzas PoV.
Generals at last. Cliffhanger though, moreso than previous installments, Fortunately six comes out today,
"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 lopsided 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, with further installments to be released monthly.
This is the fifth installment in the Two of Swords serialization,
.