Reviews

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker

phonophobia's review

funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

paranoidmarvin's review

4.0

Short and fun. This was good read! Told from the first person point of view of an unreliable protagonist, it's a rather simple story of old school tech and city defense. Although the class division based on skin color was a bit icky, the story would've been the same without it.

hueofgray's review

2.0

I don’t know if I like this book or not. It’s one of those books I think I’ll have to reread later in my life to really know.

vxg's review

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

cskye's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

reverse racism?

dsty292's review

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

cloudsinthecupboard's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

jferguson1138's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Story about a no-name, wrong skinned, engineer who got thrown into commanding the defense of a capital city in a siege. Humorous and mcguvery. An enjoyable read.

newyearcarol's review

funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

mridzyreads's review

4.0

4.5 rounding down.
I didn't think I'd like this as much as I did.

Bloody hell, this was brilliantly done. What happens when you have an engineer in charge of your bloody defence? Specially when he lies, gambles and does everything not to do what people expect. Yep, you're in for a ride.

They're under siege. They're trapped.
But they have an unconventional hero.

Read the synopsis of book 2 and welp, the character changes. But hey if that's as good as this one, that shouldn't be a problem. You can read this as a standalone and if you like it as much as I did, go for the trilogy.