"Mightier than the Sword" by K.J. Parker is a brilliantly crafted novella that delves into the power dynamics of literacy and knowledge. Parker seamlessly blends dark humor with intricate plots, creating a narrative that keeps readers on their toes. With compelling characters and thought-provoking commentary on the potency of written words, this story reaffirms that the pen can be as mighty as any weapon. A must-read for those who appreciate multifaceted tales of intrigue.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed it, as I have the author's other novellas, which feature complex main characters who are cynical and jaded, and struggle against their baser instincts, but who are also sensible and reasonably good-hearted. I especially enjoyed the role that books and a library played in this story, and the subtle commentary about what an important part they serve in our civilization. Highly recommended for fans of the author's other novellas.

A concise beautifully written story that bucks the trend of so much modern fantasy for huge numbers of page. We need more fantasy like this.

K.J. Parker is a wonderful British author who also writes under his real name "Tom Holt." This book, as well as his other Parker stories are a touch more "serious," but still fanciful and amusing in a Wodehouse kind of way. I recommend this (and his others) to all fantasy readers.

A fantastic introduction to K.J. Parker, for me, and what I can only describe as P.G. Wodehouse meets a bit of hard scrabble fantasy and a distinct love of books and their importance in this, or any, world. It's a super quick read and a very enjoyable one.

A really fun novella that showcases the administration and court intrigues of a fictional empire clearly based on Rome. My good opinion is no doubt influenced by the fact that I love stories set in fake Rome, but I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, the characters and the prose, and I will certainly be seeking out more books by Parker in the future.

Mightier Than the Sword
K. J. Parker
Subterranean Press, June 2017
ISBN 978-1-59606-817-9
Hardcover

From the publisher—

An Imperial legate is called in to see his aunt, who just happens to be the empress running the civilized world while her husband’s in his sick bed. After some chastisement, she dispatches her nephew to take care of the dreaded Land and Sea Raiders, pirates who’ve been attacking the realm’s monasteries.

So begins a possibly doomed tour of banished relatives and pompous royals put in charge of monasteries like Cort Doce and Cort Malestan, to name a few. While attempting to discover the truth of what the pirates might be after, the legate visits great libraries and halls in each varied locale and conducts a romance of which he knows but doesn’t care his aunt will not approve.

With enough wit and derring-do (and luck), the narrator might just make it through his mission alive…or will he?

Mightier than the Sword is a sort of Canterbury Tale-like retelling of “Concerning the Monasteries”, the personal document of the narrator that relates how he traveled in search of the pirates who were attacking and pillaging monasteries throughout the Empire of the Robur in medieval times. Our somewhat reluctant hero is the nephew of Empress Eudoxia Honoria Augusta and, along the way, he spends time with his aunt’s best friend, Svangerd, Abbess of Cort Doce, and his own best friend, Stachel, Abbot of Cort Sambic as well as others before discovering the truths behind the raids.

What ends with a number of surprises is mostly a pleasant story with interludes of off-scene violence at a handful of monasteries. The surprises, though, turn everything topsy-turvy but what happens to, and because of, our narrator are what had to be to complete the story and his destiny.

K. J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt, used for his fantasy writings. I first read Holt‘s many novels that are a wacky sort of science fiction and fantasy blend chock full of humor and satire and loved them so much that, when the bookstore was open, I had an account with a British book wholesaler just so we could stock his books (and a few others). The man makes me laugh out loud so I was not surprised to see hints of his comical side in Mightier than the Sword like this exchange:

“Rabanus isn’t a Mesoge name. What do they call you back home?”

He grinned. “I’m Hrafn son of Sighvat son of Thiudrek from Gjaudarsond in Laxeydardal.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll call you Rabanus.”

Although I don’t read a lot of high fantasy, this novella called to me because of the author but it also sounded like just the sort of thing to while away a couple of hours and, besides, how could I resist a tale that has so much to do with books? 😉

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

The novel is set in the same world as some others of Parker’s work (even Saloninus gets mentioned) and, despite the short length, the plot is complex and interesting. The story is told in 1st PoV by an Imperial legate in his thirties, nephew of the empress who practically rules in her ill husbands’ place. He is summoned at court and sent to investigate and solve a recurrent problem of raiding pirates, which plunder the monasteries in the far North. From here on, there’s lots of mystery and political scheming. The hero is the usual smart and witty guy, well versed in politics. There’s not much action in the classical meaning of the word, but the story is compelling and holds your attention right to the very end.

"Something else I’d never realised before, in a desperate emergency, just how useful money can be. I see now why people prize it so highly."

As usual, Parker’s writing is spectacular and the result was simply delightful!

This is the second book I've read by this author and really liked it. The idea of the main character having to do the one thing he doesn't want to but everyone else around him makes sure that he does is abused often. This author doesn't abuse that idea while managing to stay true to the premise of the title. By the time you realize what was really going on in the story its already done. So when you think of the title you see how it tied into the story. Very well done on his part.

This is a clever and witty novella of mystery, intrigue, and political and tactical maneuvering, set in what seems to be a non-magical but otherwise generic fantasy world. Our protagonist is a general and the nephew of a shrewd empress governing in her ill husband's stead. The Empress sends him on a mission to solve a problem: raiders of unknown origin and motive have been razing the nation's monasteries. But gradually what seems like a straightforward mystery gives way to a story of much greater scope as our hero gradually comes to understand that his role in the empire is not and never truly has been exactly what he supposed.

In my experience, reviewers seldom seem to agree on what makes a story well-suited to a novella-length treatment, as opposed to a full novel or a short story. To my eye, Mightier than the Sword operates on two distinct levels, one of which suits the length a little better than the other. The mystery plot of the monastery raids is self-contained and perfectly paced, laying out all of the clues and delivering the exact right sort of surprise whodunnit. But the real heart of the story and of the character's development arc comes from the second level, the sprawling political epic. There are some big, meaty themes here, including personal worthiness, the difficulties of war, and the moral ambiguities of imperial responsibility. There's some fabulous biting commentary, and the first-person narrative voice is really great. That said, I think there's a reason we tend to see these stories more often in big, fat fantasy novels and series. There's a lot of world-building information, complex military tactics, and large-scale schemes and strategies that all had to be introduced and explained fairly quickly, and I struggled a bit with that.

I also found myself wanting a larger payoff from the framing device. The story is introduced through a brief scholarly preface as a document translated from a near-forgotten language from a long-ago civilization. It put me in mind of The Princess Bride a bit, but that's a really impossibly high caliber of meta fantasy storytelling for anything to live up to. The aim of this seems to be to tie together the theme of scholarship in the monasteries and the importance of recorded history by making the story itself a piece of recorded history, but that seemed pretty obvious to me, and I was sort of hoping for another big revelation from that corner that I never really got.

But overall, I found this to be a really enjoyable read, and would recommend it to anyone looking for that heady fantasy intrigue kick in a manageable less-than-tome-sized package.

I really like KJ Parker's work, but this is the novel I liked less. It should have worked better in a longer format.

A rewier in spanish.
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/07/dos-novelas-breves-de-k-j-parker-parte.html

"Do you have to make a lot of decisions like that? I suppose you must do."
"All the time," I said. "And each one is truly bad. All that can be said for them is that the alternatives are even worse."

K.J. Parker is at his best in the novella, and, as always, I was captivated by the sharp wit and darkly ironic humor as well as the satirical worldbuilding and characters and finished the novella in a single reading session. Parker reminds me a bit of Wodehouse in the way he builds sympathy with the narrator through a chattering first-person narration. In this case, our narrator is an officer in a Rome-like empire whose ruling faction is beset by murderous intrigue-- think the Julio-Claudian era -- while also squabbling with and/or conquering its neighbors. In recent years, the empire has fallen prey to attacks by a mysterious unknown enemy with unknown goals and desires, and this enemy's ships have been seen again.
Capitulating to the orders of the emperor's wife--who also happens to be his aunt--our narrator sets off to help the various abbeys and monasteries to help shore up their defenses against the mysterious invaders.

While I think Parker is very gifted in characterization, he's not big on character development, which is one reason I so prefer his short fiction. In this case, we get plenty of time to get to know the narrator and his compatriots, including his romantic interest, without feeling stifled by the characers' staticness. The most rounded character, partially because the story is told in his voice, is the narrator himself. I found him highly sympathetic, a realist yet an optimist who is fond of books and sees himself as a coward despite his insistence on leading from the front.

As always, the story is a satire, and chock-full of quotable quotes. For example:

"Does it say something about the nature of the beast called Empire? The idea is that Empire protects the towns and villages and little farms from the enemy, and in order to do so recruits soldiers, so that the towns and villages and little farms won’t be laid waste, and grass won’t grow in abandoned streets and good productive land won’t be smothered in weeds and briars. But if the act of protection brings about the destruction it was designed to prevent— well. I’m not a trained philosopher, so I’m not qualified to comment."

If you're looking for a short, enjoyable novella with more than a tang of satire, then Mightier than the Sword is well worth a look.

This was my first K. J. Parker/Tom Holt book. It was a great introduction!

The story is presented as a rare document from a fictional ancient empire. The narrator, an unnamed Imperial Legate and nephew of the empress and emperor, is sent out on a mission to defend monasteries from attacks by raiders. Our narrator is highly literate and competent, but not a dazzling genius. He is not shy about attributing his success to knowledge gained from books. The recurring theme of preserving knowledge in the form of writing figures heavily in the story.

The narrator demonstrates that he is much more thoughtful than those close to him give him credit for. His writing shows his full knowledge of the workings of the empire and a fair amount of empathy for the people in it. Though he is aware of his high station and privilege, the narrator presents his story without embellishment or pretension.

It is amazing how much context is fit into such a short book. Parker's novella manages to pack three dimensional characters and a thrilling story into only 134 pages.

Gritty in the right places, yet contemplative, even philosophical. The story has great pacing and highly readable prose, while packing a solid punch of epic grit.

Pirates, Monks, Libraries and Political Intrigue,

It is always a pleasure to read a novella from K. J. Parker.
His narrators always have a special voice, that alone is very entertaining with its ironic tone.
In this story the narrator has to deal with marauding pirates, plundering lonely monasteries. Nothing is known about the enemy, only that he leaves death and destruction on his way.
But this only part of the story. There is also his bride, unacceptable for the court, and the question, who will be the next emperor.
A satisfiable solution to all this is given, but that is only icing on the cake.

I feel like K. J. Parker (aka Tom Holt) doesn't have the rep he deserves. It's been a while since I read his trilogies, but I remember them as some of the best fantasy out there. Not flashy and severely lacking in the magic department, but let's face it, sorcery is just a cop out for people who suck at swords. Anyway, these recent stand-alones? Not quite the same ooomph, but decent reads nevertheless. This one, too.

Decorated general arrives at the capital after a campaign to get his next mission: defend the monasteries in the north from raiding savages. He also just so happens to be in line for empirical succession. Off he goes to the far north to visit various monasteries, trying to figure out where these raiders come from and what they are after. Then some succession issues come up.

As usual Parker does a great job of building characters with few words, which comes in especially useful in a novella where there aren't very many words to go around. Case in point: the protagonist leads all his battles from the front, but his fear always gets the better of him, and he needs someone to hold him when the enemy approaches otherwise he'd bolt. Tells you more about the character than other authors manage to get across with a ream of paper.

So what's missing for four stars? Just... something unique. More love for the worldbuilding to make the reader care about what happens to it or more punch to the plot. It's all good, but it doesn't have much of an edge.

"Will you shut the fuck up about politics," I said.

* * * *
4 / 5

It is so very rare that I find a good novella that I actually enjoy; Mightier Than The Sword was one of these. I picked it up almost solely because of the cover, not realising that it was a novella and not really knowing what it was about. This tale with an unnamed narrator, an empress of an aunt, monks, and political skulduggery was an excellent quick read.

"It's those wretched pirates." She made the dreaded Land and Sea Raider sound like a butcher who persisted in overcharging for sausages

Our nameless narrator is called before his aunt, the empress, to be scolded like a naughty little boy before sent off to deal with some devilishly annoying pirates that keep raiding monasteries. It's a simple enough foundation for a story and it works impressively well.

The problems I normally have with novellas include:

Undeveloped main character
Underdeveloped world
Lack of emotional connection
Really weird ending

To name but a few. Parker managed to make me feel really attached to our narrator, and he doesn't even have a name! That's some good writing. The writing style is probably behind this; Mightier Than The Sword is written in first person and it manages to be descriptive, informative, witty, and genuinely amusing. All the characters, even the ones that only get a few pages worth of appearance, seem like genuine people.

"What in God's name possessed you to spend six million on a house for a prostitute who refuses to marry you?" I grinned feebly. "It was the middle of the night"

The plot was simple: our narrator obeys his aunt and takes a handful of soldiers to go root out the problem destabilising the empire. Unfortunately, nobody knows who the pirates actually are and none of the nobility or monks he meets are particularly helpful. There's a fairly even mix between political goings on and action packed, bloody scenes. The ending was also very natural and quite amusing, but the world building probably could have done with a touch more explanation. Unfortunately, my eBook copy didn't have a map, which would have been nice.

Overall, I recommend this novella is a great short fantasy. The main highlight is the author's lovely writing style and the great narrator.

I won't provide a brief synopsis or overview of the plot here and I would advice it not be read before opening this book, as that is where my discontent with this tale lay.

Despite the short length, this provided a full and complex plot, a variety of characters with distinct traits and personalities, a well-structured fantasy world, and all was delivered in a compelling and intriguing voice. In short, this was a stellar fantasy read.

What ruined the clear brilliance of this was that much of the plot was already uncovered in the synopsis. I already knew much of what I was to read and, whilst not bored, this depleted the fun of the narrative. If this had been a full length novel, then the few short paragraphs, designed to sell a book, would have perhaps only sufficiently covered a small portion of the plot. As this was only of novella length I found that too much was already divulged and less was left for the reader to discover, on their own.

Espero cada nueva publicación de KJ Parker como agua de mayo, porque mezcla un humor inteligente y unas historias muy interesantes. Además Mightier than the Sword está situada en su mundo del Invincible Sun, un escenario tan vasto como desconocido, al que va añadiendo profundidad con pequeñas pinceladas en forma de novellas.

La historia está narrada desde el punto de vista del sobrino del emperador, al que encargan investigar los asaltos a los monasterios de una remota provincia. Nadie sabe de dónde vienen los agresores ni cuál es el botín que pretenden obtener de estos recintos.

Esta primera persona habilita a Parker para ponernos en la mente de un personaje contradictorio, capaz de encabezar un escaramuza arriesgando su vida como de conocer gran cantidad de citas y libros sin ser un erudito. Además, le permite crear chanzas a costa de su incomprensión de algunas situaciones, mientras sigue esa "ruta turística" en páramos olvidados, pasando de reducto en reducto hasta que casi es incapaz de dsitinguir unos de otros.

Con estos cimientos, se podría haber creado una historia llamativa, pero Parker se queda a medio camino. Aún siendo divertida, resulta tópica en su resolución y poco sorprendente en su desarrollo. Faltan las cuestiones filosóficas que tanto me dieron que pensar en Academic Exercises y al protagonista le falta algo de carisma, sobre todo cuando algunos problemas los arregla a base de talonario. De hecho, me parece mucho más atractiva su tía, que mientras maquina las alianzas imperiales se dedica a hacer calceta, como toda hacendosa mujer de su casa que se precie, aunque tu casa sea el Palacio Imperial. Los demás personajes aparecen muy deslucidos, meros comparsas para el lucimiento del protagonista.

Lo que sí me encanta de Mightier than the Sword es el AMOR que desprende por los libros. La protección de la sabiduría es el principal objetivo de los monjes y copiar los libros para que se pueda seguir transmitiendo el saber a las generaciones venideras es su labor. El tono casi reverencial con el que se refieren a los incunables, o frases más sencillas pero henchidas de sentido homenajeando los conocimientos de los sabios anteriores han resultado ser una alegría para mis ojos.

Mightier than the Sword no cumple todas las expectativas que tenía puestas en ella, pero sí que es una lectura agradable.

DNF – while I loved the flippant voice of the narrator, which really is different to most you get in fantasy, it needed to come with a plot. And while I've read there is a good ending to this, it was such a chore to get to the third-way mark I'll never know for sure.

4.5 stars
After reading his last novellas, for me, “Mightier that the sword” is just another prove that K. J. Parker is the best novella writer currently publishing in the genre. Although this story is set in the same fantasy world as most of the rest of his short fiction, it can be enjoyed without having read any of his previous stories. In fact, it can be a perfect introduction to Parker’s work.
The Emperor’s nephew, the extremely likable protagonist and narrator, is sent out to find more about some mysterious pirates who appear out of nowhere and attack the Empire’s monasteries. We follow him from one monastery to the next, where he meets monks and abbesses while trying to solve what’s behind those attacks.
Witty, intelligent, funny, full of ironic remarks sometimes far deeper than what they may seem, this novella is a pleasure to read.
I'll definitely include it in my next "Recommended Reading" post.