2026/009: Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead — K J Parker

...we dig up their filigree and cloisonné and their rusted-solid clocks, we conserve and steal their books, and we know deep in our hearts that there are some things -- a lot of things -- that human beings used to be able to do once upon a time but can do no longer: that as a species we've shrunk and diminished, and we'll never be smart like that ever again. [loc. 220]

I was a great fan of Parker's earlier work, but lost enthusiasm somewhere around Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City -- an enthusiasm that I have now regained, and look! one and two-thirds trilogies to catch up on! Not including the new trilogy that begins with Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead ...

The eponymous Sister is a former prostitute turned deadly assassin: our narrator, Brother Desiderius, is her partner -- in a strictly professional sense, of course -- and a talented forger. Unlike Sister Svangerd, he happens to be an atheist. The two are sent to the fifteenth ecumenical council in Choris Anthropou to assassinate a princess: but of course it is not that simple. There are angels and/or devils; ancient gospels acquired by what might look like coincidence; heresies and schisms, convenient and inconvenient demises, and ... well, the titular Not Quite Dead. Desiderius spends a lot of time bemoaning the fall of the old empire (which gives the novel a somewhat Dark Ages feel) and refusing to believe in either the Invincible Sun or the Loyal Opposition. He clings to that atheism despite all signs to the contrary: I do love a stubborn protagonist, especially one who's given to philosophising.

I liked this a great deal, though recognised some familiar Parkerian tics: overuse of pronouns, a world-weary narrator who regards himself (probably rightly) as more competent than those around him, a certain cynicism (wholly reasonable, considering the setting and the events). I liked Sister Svangerd -- also fearsomely competent, and as flawed as Desiderius in completely different ways. The setting feels medieval, and not especially magical. (This is a good thing.) And I am vastly intrigued by the Loyal Opposition, of whom I expect to see more in the remaining two-thirds of the trilogy.

I would love a map and a timeline encompassing the whole of Parker's oeuvre: I'm pretty sure it all takes place in the same world, with its echoes of Classical and medieval history, its familiar technologies, its fierce and pointless wars, its great cities and fallen empires.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 27 JAN 2026.