This is the twelfth part of K.J. Parkers serialised novel,
Two of Swords. The last part was largely
focused on Axeo, as he attempted to perform a rather daring heist in the
company of Musen, the trainee thief whom we’ve seen, off and on, since the
first volume. This part picks up directly where the preceding one ended – with Musen
on the run with their prize.
As Musen tears across the country, desperately trying to
outpace a seemingly relentless Axeo, we do get to see a little more of the
world. Admittedly, we see most of it
rather quickly, Still, it seems there’s more to the area than the bizarre
palace from the preceding section; Musen runs into a collection of floating
barges at one point, and we get a little time with the cheerful, hard working,
and utterly ruthless people of the barges. It’s a credit to Parker’s prose that
this feels like a dimmer, more liminal space – as Musen settles in with the
people of the barges, he seems to transition between worlds; away from the
frentic activity of the Lodge, he’s a bucolic farmboy – or at least a
convincing simulacra of one. There’s a
sense of place in the words here, mixed with a feeling of transition. What
comes after this, it seems, will be impossible to turn back from.
There’s some other interesting spaces thrown up as well. We get
a little digression to another small village, where Musen follows the clang of
steel to the resident blacksmith. It’s an opportunity to again have emphasised exactly
how pervasive the Craftsmen are, and to show off another part of the world which
has been depopulated by the ongoing war between the East and the West. Parker
always evokes desolation well, and this is no exception. The inclusion of
threads of humanity, pushing on with lives wrapped in hope or hopelessness, is
a side-benefit. What exists here is life on a fringe, and one which is subject
to the whims of events far outside of their control. To be fair, this has
actually been one of the key threads running through the overall text, as we
discover the constraints of power and the seemingly unstoppable occurrence of
the seemingly inevitable. Still, after a few books with generals and Emperors,
we’re back down at the grass-eye view, and it doesn’t look any rosier from
either position.
Musen…well, he’s familiar to long time readers already of
course, but we do get to see another side of him here. Previously, it’s been
simple to see Musen as a pragmatic, amoral sort of fellow. He’s a thief,
unashamedly so – and in fact, has been trained in it. There’s still plenty of
that familiar Musen here, be he lifting small trinkets from passers by, or smuggling
priceless artefacts. On the other hand, he is, it appears, also an individual
with faith. It’s the strength of his faith that drives him through the events
of this part, and leave him in opposition to his usual allies. It’s nice to see
that he has other facets, and we get to see a vulnerability and a naiveté here
that isn’t visible elsewhere in his character.
We also get a bit more of a view on the cheerfully brutal
Axeo from the previous part, as he pursues Musen – rather efficiently – in
service to his own goals. Axeo’s rambunctious ebullience is infectious, and
that it’s paired with hard-edged violence emphasises the contrasts in his personality
all the more. In this part, we can see the growing affection he has for Musen,
as he attempts to retrieve his recalcitrant cohort without having to murder him
in some increasingly unpleasant manner.
There’s also an opportunity to follow
some more threads on Axeo’s relationship with his brother, and with people whom
he claims – possibly without irony –a re his friends. The overall portrait is
conflicted, and more than a little disturbing. Axeo is, like most of Parker’s
characters, not a very nice person – but he has all of the capacity to leap off
the page and become, if not nice, then a person. He’s believable as someone you
might know, and that makes him all the more worrying.
Plot-wise, this feels a lot like a chase movie. Musen sets
out on the run, and Axeo follows. Over the course of the text though, we get a
little more insight into the goals of the Lodge, at least in the short term,
and find out what they’re up to with the item that Axeo and Musen retrieved in
the last part. That said, this is a book which delights in its characters
having multiple levels of reason for anything they do, so I fully expect what
is going on ‘on the surface’ is only at least partially correct. I can’t deny
though, that this part was a riveting read – Parker makes the reader feel Musen’s
fear as he runs, and Axeo’s resigned aggravation as he follows. There’s some
great heart-stopping moments in here, and Parker ratchets up the tension with
every page.
Is it worth reading? Well, if you’ve not read any of the
preceding parts, this one’s going to be pretty difficult to take on as a stand
alone. It’s probably possible without the context, but there’s layers of depth
here that require reading the preceding parts for context. If you’re already up
to date, then yes – this part moves the larger plot along, and gives us intense
insight into two engaging, charmingly horrifying characters – it’s a great
read.
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