The Folding Knife

by K.J. Parker

Book Overview

A new stand-alone novel from the acclaimed author of the Engineer Trilogy and The Company.

Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man.

He is ruthless, cunning, and above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031603844X
• ISBN13: 9780316038447
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

exciting speculative fiction

Bassiamus "Basso: Severus was born to an aristocratic family in the Republic of Vesani. His father was First Citizen, but lost his position in the next election to an offspring of a sausage worker. He decided to buy up a bank's outstanding shares. When Basso grew up he married the woman his parents chose for him. When Basso comes home one day, he sees his wife and brother-in-law having sex; he kills both of them. His sister who Basso loved more than anyone else turned her back on him. However, he is the First Citizen of the Vesani Republic and owns the bank so still does his best for her. The only demand she made of him that he could not fulfill was to cut all ties with his son Bassano. The people love Basso and the House passes all the bills he presents to them. He knows the Republic must annex their neighbors to become an empire because he fears the Empire of the East, once it stops rebuilding, will look westward to places like Vesani. His first invasion is mineral rich Mavortis which has no central army, but a traitor insures his plan fails to execute properly. Based on Ancient Rome, The Folding Knife is a work of exciting speculative fiction. The fascinating story line focuses on idealistic Basso the Magnificent who is a brilliant pragmatic strategist. He knows his decisions will cost lives, but though he grieves what will occur, Basso feels this is only way to save his beloved Republic. What his idealism concealed from him is that it only takes one mistake to devastate even the greatest person. This is excellent because of the great storyline, well crafted characterizations and a look into a fascinating culture. Harriet Klausner

Delicious, irreverent, challenging and dark

If you're like me you're familiar with the sinking unease one feels when attempting to describe something subtle or complicated -you're sure the perfect word or phrase is out there, swimming around silently in the darkness, so close you can almost touch it. You feel certain this elusive word or phrase is so perfect in its direct meaning and subtler connotations that it would express with grace and simplicity the matter in your mind. If you're like me you continually feel the faint buzz of disappointment of knowing you've settled for an approximation and let the true prize get away. And if you're like me you'll delight in Parker's surprising gift of making you fee that the perfect word has been found and a sentence, chapter or book has been built around it. The folding knife is just such a book. The perfection of word choice is probably an illusion, but it is a satisfying and enjoyable elusion and one I happy to submit to for the duration of the trip. Parkers uses language in a deliciously brilliant and irreverent style. She(?) has not only carefully considered the subtitle difference between saying: "I believe you are capable of anything" "I believe there's nothing you can't do" But uses them together to simultaneously illuminate the light and dark sides of ambition (think Picasso or Jung). In another passage she damns political correctness and likens the ambiguity of omen to words spoken from a cleft pallet or an angry man shouting in the street. The combined metaphor elicits not only the sensation of confusion and failure to understand but also a mildly shameful willful ignorance. But that's all about the language. What of the book itself? The folding knife begins with an ending -stops and begins again, but playfully does so with yet another ending. But that's not quite it, the folding knife itself is the symbol of the story and is at once the beginning and the end. A better man than I could simply sit and consider the whole: life, love, ambition, foley and triumph and in a single moment return to where he started. But not being a better man, I wind my way though the story and find delight in the sparkling perfection of language along the way.