Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

The Siege, Book 1

De: K. J. Parker

Narrado por: Ray Sawyer

K. J. Parker's new novel is the remarkable tale of the siege of a walled city and the even more remarkable man who had to defend it.

A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all.

To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the deeds and sufferings of great men may never be forgotten.

©2019 K. J. Parker (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Full of invention and ingenuity...Great fun." (SFX)

"Parker's settings and characterisations never miss a beat." (Library Journal)

excellent book

I had trouble knowing who was who at times but that often happens in audiobooks when you cant read the names and they're made-up and unfamiliar.
This is quite the story.

Great Story for the Right People!

If you have ever fancied yourself as a tactician, strategist, engineer or just enjoyed siege games then this book is for you! This story artfully conveys the challenges of defending the equivalent of a city in medieval times intertwined with interesting subplots and creative writing. It does so with colorful characters and surprising plot twist. The narration is slower than I am used to and the limited range of character voices made it hard to follow who was talking at times. Nonetheless I looked past that to enjoy the book. Do not look for a sequel to this story. It is a stand alone story. A snapshot of an epic struggle from a distant time and far off place.

A good story with very dry humor

The narrator has the perfect British style dry humor voice and tone. I enjoyed his narration thoroughly. This book was extremely creative and if you like the whole, city under siege dynamic and dry humor, you'll love this book.

Excellent

seems a little slow until you get used to the writing style. I look forward to rereading it in a few years.

Instantly fell in love with the book

Amazing story with an amazing narration. perfect encapsulation of Europe for a period pf 1000 years, without actually having to dove into any hostprically accurate places, persons or events.

The characters are all charming, especially the narrator, and the world building is natural ans logical, requiring no extra explanations od cpntext other than what the narrator provides.

Like Pratchett, but with a bit of vulgarity.

A story of not-quite-rome being defended by an engineer who would much rather not.

The dry tone and humor is reminiscent of Terry Pratchett in all the best ways and the narration is perfect for the character being portrayed.

If Croaker and The Stainless Steel Rat had a love child

Fun, plausible ways to examine a city under siege. All the snarky writing you could want. Just a fun listen.

original fun, not a common thing now a days

loved it, laughed with it. enjoyed it. I'm not a fan of these type of books (the fantasy type that is), I prefer science fiction, but this one I loved

Engineer as conman (the 15rh way)

Best fantasy novel I have read in years! Voice in the protagonist counts for so much and the narrator captures this excellently.

Our imperial hero Orhan is quality assurance engineer (hah!) but, this siege story is not one of meeting the specs and clever engineering tricks, but of lies, forgery and faking it.

Good book with some unfortunate content

This was a good book except for some unnecessary explicit content. In addition, the ending was very unsatisfying. Admittedly, the ending fit the book, but it still felt like the story was incomplete.