Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I knew that this would be a quick read, but I hoped that it would be a satisfying end. It was not a satisfying end for me. That said, I thought this was interesting. The worldbuilding is well thought out for the most part, but I wish it was longer.

Ugh, novella. I thought this was a full book and wondered why it moved so quickly. Interesting read overall even if the ending was...just fine. Interesting thoughts on the...making of history...

Making History was a quick, short read. The worldbuilding was interesting and I liked that it wasn't overly detailed. If it was a full length novel, I would have wanted more detail but with the novella it was a good moment.

I did want more character development from the main character but overall, I still liked him. There was quite a bit of violence and torture in the novella and sometimes it was handled so casually that it was a bit off putting.

I would be interested in trying this author's work again in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Making History lives up to the idiom "History is made by the victors'... in this case literally. The narrator is one of a dozen scholars who are drug out of their beds and set to work by a ruthless king- to create a believable historical dig site in order to prove he has rights to the land. The narrator is a linguist and tasked with creating the language used my these historic people. Even though he knows the king is in the wrong, he is caught up in the challenge of building a language. For a word nerd like myself the linguistic tangents were, by far, the best part of the novella. The story itself was good, though it was a bit difficult to root for the scholars when none of them were particularly likeable. Still, the twist at the end was a chef's kiss and I think the nerdy historical buff readers will enjoy this cautionary tale.

Clever, thought-provoking—feels more like an essay? I think it needed a little more plot but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Our narrator is a academic linguist, obsessed with the nature of history the structure of changing words. He can ponder truth all day long, but that's put to the test when the kingdom's new ruler asks him to reconstruct history to justify claiming the land of a neighboring city state.

This is weird and clever novella, perhaps overly cerebral in places as KJ Parker plays with words and structure on top of philosophy and the limits power. There is some plot, especially in the second half of the story, but the whole book feels like a speculative fiction exercise. (I say this as a complement - I knew to expect that of this novella, and if you enjoy that style of writing, this is the perfect length for the exploration.)

The premise of Making History instantly hooked me: a team of brilliant scholars is tasked with fabricating an ancient civilization—language, culture, artifacts and all—so that a ruler can later “discover” it and use it as justification for war. Our narrator, a linguist, guides us through the painstaking process of building a history from nothing. The attention to detail on language (and the other academic disciplines involved) is fascinating. How a tongue is born, how it shifts over centuries, what relics a people might leave behind—these sections had me completely engrossed.

Then Parker throws in a curveball. The story takes a turn that’s clever and unexpected, and I found myself puzzling over the implications right alongside the characters. It’s sharp, layered, and the kind of twist that makes you stop and think.

That said, the final stretch lost me a bit. The last quarter heads in a direction I didn’t love, and it softened the impact of what had come before. It wasn’t enough to derail the novella, but it kept me from giving it a full five stars.

Still, as far as Parker’s novellas go—especially written in first person—this one stands out. It’s inventive, intellectually chewy, and compulsively readable. A must-try for anyone who enjoys stories about history, language, and the slippery line between truth and fiction.

Making History tells a compelling story in less than 100 pages that left me reeling in many senses of the word.

A group of the foremost experts in several academic fields are forced into a secret project by the leader of their nation: to plant the existence of a fake, ancient civilization that he can use as a pretext to declare war on their neighbors. What follows is a short but DEEP analysis on what makes a civilization, what survives and changes over time, and the lens with which historians perceive and interpret the past. The first-person POV submerges the reader into the mind of a linguist, and his rambling train of thought delivers juicy tidbits of world-building while engaging in esoteric breakdowns of languages both spoken and written. It is written in the style of the linguist telling his story to someone else, so he frequently sprinkles in some self-deprecating and lighthearted humor; he often cuts off mid-tangent or summarizes elements that he knows would be considered boring to the audience, but it's so clear that he cannot help it sometimes, which made him endearing to me.

This novella, like so many, leaves the reader wanting more! I don't wish that the plot was longer, but I want to stay in this world and see more of it. If Parker has other works in this setting, I will definitely track them down. He certainly packs quite a lot of knowledge into such a short book, which sometimes made it hard to keep my tired brain tuned in, but it was entertaining to see these various senior professors rattle off niche information as if it should be OBVIOUS and of life-altering importance to anyone present. And of course, I found the climax delightful, with our protagonist's further consideration of certain possibilities and outcomes astute and thought-provoking.

A great little story for anyone who enjoys more academic-style speculative fiction!

This story is wild. It's about a scholars who is forced to invent a fake ancient civilation to help justify a war. It's insane until what he makes up starts to somehow pops up in reality throughout artifacts. I loved this story. It's funy, dry, in it's own why. It's weird, but I love it. Most of the time its just the narrator talking, but I love it for this story. There's not much action in this book, but that's not what this book is about. This is a story that's good to read in one sitting. If you like a huge plot and twist, this isn't one for you.

There were many components of this book that I found to be enjoyable. First, was the voice in which it was written. Parker's protagonist has just the right amount of sass and nonchalance to make the novella humourous and light-hearted. I found that it greatly endeared me to the character and the world. Secondly, I loved the concept of this novella with scholars working backward to re-create a society. The protagonist is a master of linguistics and I greatly appreciated the amount of care placed in the accuracy of how languages evolve over time. It's also interesting to think of how exactly something of this scale could be attained and there is enough detail to make the plot seem believable.

There were only two drawbacks I found in this novella, however. The first was the sheer amount of names and places which seemed to venture into "name soup" territory in several places. Overall, this deluge of information didn't really matter since the story could still be parsed out without knowledge of how any of the characters really were. Additionally, because of this, it felt like there was so much of the world to be explored and that could be expanded upon. This also ties into my other quibble which is the ending. This was definitely one of those stories were you wonder how the book was going to be wrapped up in the last ten pages and come to the conclusion that even if this story was to be wrapped up in the next ten pages, the conclusion wouldn't be satisfying. Unfortunately, Making History falls into this camp for me since it felt as if so much tension was built up for next to no payoff.

That being said, Making History is still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it based purely off of the unique voice in the prose and the innovative concept.

Well, this was a fun little read. Making History‘s premise made me decide to give K.J. Parker another a shot. I tried picking up Parker’s 2020 novella Prosper’s Demon once upon a time, but DNF’d after maybe 10 pages because I couldn’t stand the narrative voice. And the premise of Making History turned out to be perfectly suited to the form. Here is a novella that did not leave me wanting more! The premise is fairly simple and accurately described in the blurb above. The plot serves as a means for exploring who gets to define truth, through the lens of history and discovery. These ideas could not doubt be more fully explored explored in a novel, but the way Parker structures the story means its well-suited ot the novella length.

I suppose this is a fantasy story in that it’s set in a secondary world. However, there’s no magic or supernatural elements. I’m going with “historical speculative fiction” as a better descriptor. I was a wee bit disappointed when there wouldn’t be any magical interventions, but it still made an entertaining afternoon read. The protagonist being a linguist, the dry humour, and the turn that takes the story in an unexpected direction made up for any lack of the fantastic, for my part at least.

One last thing I’ll note is that all the scholars are men. The lone woman character is a prostitute (the narrator’s love interest) who shows up with no prior mention about 65% of the way through. Now to be fair, I do think this story is critiquing male-dominated academia to some extent, but this still made me sigh and roll my eyes a bit.

The Bottom Line 💭 A creative exploration of truth and history, I recommend Making History for readers who enjoy their specfic with a touch of darkness and a lot of humour.

Thank you to Samantha at Tor who provided me with an ARC copy through NetGalley.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. The concept was very interesting, and the ending twist was fantastic, but it took 20% to even get to the start of the task at hand because of historical backstory that was hard to navigate (ironic given the whole point of this) and another 30% for the plot to really take off. Additionally, for that first half of the book, the prose read more like an academic work, the kind that strings words together that should make sense but doesn't since I have neither the context, foundational understanding, or emotional connection to latch on to that makes all of that worth persisting through.

By the halfway point I was frustrated and considered DNF’ing this, but I persisted. This title won’t be for everyone though that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t give this a try if they thing it might be up their alley.

First Citzen Gyges of Aelia has a job for the University faculty. Create a “ancient city” on the border of a particular country with a specific history to be used as an excuse to go to war with said country. There needed to be ruins, potshards, inscriptions, etc. all telling the appropriate tale. And if this does not get done on schedule, off with the faculty heads! So the faculty worked on creating the impossible, but what are they to do when they find an actual city already there in ruins with inscriptions that can be read using the “fake ancient Aelian” language that the narrator had concocted? Were they being played? if so, by whom? An interesting little tale on the perils of having to work for a dictator while also pointing out the issues that historians have in reconstructing the past accurately!

Thanks Netgalley and Tor for the chance to read this title!

Linguists and con-langers rejoice! A fantasy novella just for us. Making History is a delightful first-person tale of reverse-engineering an ancient society to legitimize a dictator's regime. A sentence I never thought I'd put together, but one I'm glad now exists. This book is academic and nerdy and ludicrous in all the ways this medievalist loves - we've got deep dives on linguistic evolution, the way art and city-planning develop across time, and the typical infighting of academics who obsess over these things. Add in do-or-die consequences for said academs, and rival polities attempting to sabotage the entire thing (maybe? Or maybe something more supernatural...), and this is nothing short of a great time. Yet again Tor.com strikes with a quirky, almost indescribable novella that will easily make it into my "books I can't stop thinking about" category.

This story seemed intriguing and up my alley from the description, but unfortunately the writing style was not for me. It seemed very stream of consciousness, which I don't mind at the right time, but it made this difficult to follow and ultimately a bit of a bore. Since it was short, I was able to muscle through, which may also work for others. Thank you to the publisher for the arc.

This novella's academic voice and mystery carry this slender story to great heights. It's full of interrogations on imperialism and the nature of history itself as a non-static thing. It appealed to me as a classicist with its tangents on language while using them as a vehicle to move the plot forward.

This was a fun and quick exploration of what truth really is and how this can be controlled to manipulate history and sway public opinions. While half of the time I kept trying to figure out what was actually happening (and this ties directly into the concept of the book), I was still really enjoying the vibes. The book comes together in an ending that is very cohesive - too cohesive to the point that you’ll be left questioning the truth.

It’s certainly a very experimental kind of story and will not be for everyone, but if you enjoy that kind of thing, this one is certainly for you!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC of Making History by K.J. Parker.

Going into this, I completely missed the part where this was a novella. Based on the description, it seemed impossible to fit the complex plot synopsis into the finalized page count. After having read Making History, I am still (and may forever be) torn and undecided on my feelings about this one.

The premise is right up my alley, but the actuality was not what I was expecting. What you get with Making History is a philosophical mind maze carefully constructed by Parker. And let’s just say it that was not necessarily what I was prepared for.

I found it a little frustrating to continue at times because even for the amount of pages, I still found myself getting bogged down quite often. The logistical descriptions, explanations and stream of consciousness narrative felt long-winded and could become distracting. I also found myself wishing that there was more story to actually dig into, it was easy to feel detached while reading

That being said, if you are looking for a book that will have you thinking for a long time after, this will do the trick. I’ve certainly never read anything quite like it before. Things that start out seemingly straight forward, full of intrigue and world building, turn into a psychological brain teaser that tests the bounds of what we “know”.

I gave Making History a three, rounded up from 2.5 based on the fact that I still find myself thinking about it. Parker weaves a web that makes us think we have it all figured out, but also questioning whether we really do have it figured out.

I have seen Parker’s works before, but this is the first I have read. I am definitely intrigued enough to read more of what’s out there and keep an eye out for what’s next on the horizon.

Making History is a witty and fast paced novella that's part dark academic fantasy and part absurd political satire. Told from the POV of an egotistical, self-serving academic who has been given an impossible task by a tyrannical ruler, this novella questions if it's possible to know the truth of a historical event when all history is recorded by fallible individuals with their own biases and goals.

I love this! I loved the dark humor, morally corrupt characters, and conversational prose. I think fans of Olivie Blake will devour this novella.

I received a gifted copy of MAKING HISTORY by K.J. Parker from Tordotcom Publishing.

Publication Date: 9/2/2025
MAKING HISTORY is set in the kingdom of Aelia. The king is determined to go to war with their neighboring kingdom, but they are a peaceful people. First Citizen Gyges is not giving up, though, so he's come up with a plan. Gyges has collected a group of the most brilliant minds in his kingdom with a mission in mind. They are going to create a fake ancient city between the two kingdoms with a history that can be "found" to justify an attack on their neighbors.

This novella had such an interesting premise and a lot of discussions about how truth and history are determined. Our main POV character is a linguist and he uses modern language to reverse engineer what a valid language might have looked like back in time. He makes for an interesting character to follow for someone who really enjoys language.

The writing style in this book was interesting too. The novella is very stream of consciousness with our POV character going off on a few tangents. He even tells the reader he's about to deep dive on a topic and suggests skipping ahead if it is boring.

As the story goes on, the concepts of reality become a bit fuzzy for the brilliant minds involved and it did have me interested to see what was going on. That said, my interest wavered in places.