I liked this but didn’t love it- but that may be because I generally have trouble with novellas. I felt like the pacing may have been off in places, but was definitely entertained overall.

Saloninus has a problem. He is dead, I mean, he has attended his own funeral which he had arranged. But now he has cut off one of his few revenue streams since being a con man does not do well for him while creating masterpieces of philosophy and plays has made him famous. Unfortunately, he never seems to get the money from either his con jobs or his writings. Hence the funeral. But then She found him. She needed him to create one last masterpiece that she could sell to a certain duke for a big score. She twists his arm, hard, to get this favor out of him. In the end, he produces the play , but the scheme goes sideways, so another scheme has to be hatched. K. J. Parker has fun with literary tropes of philosophy, British literature, and scholarly authentication of manuscripts. A nice short crime caper set in the same universe as Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and Prosper's Demon. Have reading this tale!

Saloninus has faked his death to escape his fame/infamy and finds out the hard way that while he still possess all of his genius, nobody is willing to pay for it without the name to go with it. What follows is a terrifically twisty money-making scheme that takes a swipe at the authorship question.

I don't know that I'd ever want to read a full-length Saloninus novel, but I treasure each novella and hope Parker continues to delight us with tales of the rascally genius.

Received via NetGalley.

There are very few authors that I can trust to give me a fun reading experience. Of the the few that can I try to stick to a series or two of their writing. With K.J. Parker a.k.a. Tom Holt I find myself becoming a fan of his work the more I read from him. This book was a very smooth read, meaning that once you start reading it the book flows by very quickly. I found myself reading half the book in a few hours. For me that's a sign that the author wrote something that I enjoy. The story is a heist book where the protagonist/antagonist of the previous books has to come up with one more scheme to make money. That is after he's faked his death and ran away from his fame but without any money. You don't need to know more then that. Just dive in for a few hours and you'll be just fine.

Welcome to the nefarious world of Saloninus. He is proficient as a philosopher, scientist and playwright ... but, above all he is a shyster. He is capable of reeling off a masterpiece involving literature, philosophy or science, but none seem to bring him wealth and success. Rather, he is shaped by his skills as a con artist and finds himself perpetually fleeing from the encroaching arm of the law. This tales starts with Saloninus, once again, faking his death to avoid apprehension.
In the aftermath, he chances upon an old flame, who has partaken in several of his misadventures. She enlists him in an another "heist" that will involve both his literary and nefarious skill sets. She convinces him that this will lead to "The Big Score" that will set them both up for life. ( Saloninus to say the least is extremely skeptical of her plan and motivation)
K.J. Parker weaves a delightful and humorous tale with frequent twists and unexpected reveals. Concealments and devious motivations abound in this marvelous novella. This can be enjoyed as a standalone, although this is the third outing for our intrepid scoundrel. Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
( at readersremains.com)

The Big Score by K. J. Parker- Another first-person rumination full of highs and lows from a Post-Renaissance un-named con man in one of Parker's imaginary worlds, who never seems to profit from his misdeeds. A romp full of comic asides and dark goings-on. The clever, often almost poetic, passages reflect the mood of the times with brief modern slang to keep you aware that you are being conned as well. Early on She enters, a also un-named person from his past(think heroine, villain, thief, seductress, backstabber). She wants to involve him in a fraud of false treasured documents that he needs to write. Of course, She is not telling him everything and of course he knows that, but the game is on! Utterly enjoyable. If you like Parker's sharp wit and laughable style, this goes down nicely.

The Big Score is an upcoming fantasy novella from author KJ Parker, and the third in his Saloninus series of novellas, although it works perfectly fine as a stand alone (indeed, I haven't read the prior works in the series). It's more of a comedy/heist novella than a fantasy story, featuring Saloninus, Parker's vain as hell supergenius always down on his luck theif/con-man and unreliable narrator, as he tries to start anew after faking his death, only to get involved with one of his old associates, a woman who always cheats him.

The Big Score is the first I've read of Parker's works, and honestly it's pretty fun for its short duration, which makes me want to check out the prior works at least in this series. Still, even though I enjoyed this one, it definitely lost steam in its second half, as the novella lost its free form narrative and focused more specifically on the titular "big score." So I probably wont' be in too much of a hurry to catch up with the rest of the series.



Plot Summary: Saloninus - the world's greatest genius, writer of the world's best plays, discoverer of most of its greatest discoveries, and of course....notorious con-man - is dead. And so, as he attends his own funeral, Saloninus figures he'll be able to move on in the world and can finally use his own genius without fear of being apprehended by the authorities worldwide. Except, all of his stashes of money seem to have been plundered. And his fake death didn't convince one person, a woman with whom he's worked before, the world's greatest forger, who has always double-crossed him in the end, but who brings with her the promise of one big heist using his genius to set them both up for life....the big score.

Thoughts: So I went into this cold, having not read either of the two prior Saloninus novellas, and this works quite well right from the get-go as a very humorous novella. The story is told from Saloninus' first person perspective, and he's so vain, so unreliable as a narrator, so insanely boastful of his own accomplishments and dismissive of the consequences of those actions, that it's hard not to laugh quite a bit, especially in the first half of this short novella. And the start of the heist sequence, as Saloninus tries to help the forger (who's never given a name here for some reason) deal with an ambassador who might recognize her, is also really fun and clever in how it plays out.

And then it kind of peters out a little bit, with the back half dealing with Saloninus creating a new brilliant play that they can pass off as a long undiscovered work worth a ton of value now that he's "dead", and the story just gets a bit too interested in the uninteresting details of creating the forgery and then the aftermath. Oh it's all clever and the story is short enough that it doesn't really drag or get boring, but it just isn't as fun as the parts preceding it all (presumably because unlike the prior cleverness, we don't really get to see the play). So yeah, this novella is pretty fun and humorous, but also very skippable and there's a lot more fun stuff out there at novella length I probably would recommend first.

Genius (and grifter) scientist-philosopher-playwright Saloninus has faked his death to escape the creditors and arrest warrants that have been closing in on him. On the one hand, being dead means that no one looking for Saloninus is likely to find him. On the other hand, being dead also means that he has no connections and his ideas are worthless without his name backing them up. When a con artist old flame shows up with blackmail and a grand idea for how they can pull off a score that will set them up for life, he reluctantly joins her scheme.

My favorite of Parker's stories are those with a lovable rogue protagonist, and Saloninus, who has appeared elsewhere in Parker's works, is his most memorable. I love the complexity in Saloninus, where he is simultaneously an unrepentant scoundrel and genius scholar and artist. He writes Shakespearean plays while hiding from the law, writes a seminal medical textbook after his experiences caring for wounds sustained while fleeing pursuit for theft, and uses his knowledge of alchemy to stage a prison break. He's a brilliant disaster of a man who can't help but get himself in trouble.

The plot here is full of delightful irony, as Saloninus and his partner in crime forge a lost play by the "deceased" Saloninus. It's a real play, written by the real author, but forged to look as if it were written long ago. After all, works by Saloninus have exploded in value since his supposed death, so a previously unknown work would be an incredible find. The resulting scheme is hilarious in its details and the way it unfolds. The story does meander a bit through Saloninus' memories and sardonic philosophy of life as he skewers academia and laments his lack of royalties for his many hugely famous works, but these detours are entertaining and useful illumination into his character and the corrupt, frequently absurd world around him.

Readers unfamiliar with Parker's work will find this a perfectly good place to jump in. There are plenty of winks and nods to the previously published exploits of Saloninus and other characters and stories in this universe (Prosper's Demon is a recent one), but there's no missing context for new readers to try to sort through. If you're looking for a fun, short fantasy about a couple of con artists trying to pull off the big score, I highly recommend this one.