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A review by timinbc
Pulling the Wings Off Angels by K.J. Parker
2.0
I can see why an author would just keep pumping out the stories with a snarky, street-smart protagonist. But this book demonstrates that you can't force every idea, however clever, through the same mill.
Exploring some of the logic traps in religion sounds good. But Parker loses me, as he has done before, with the wanton cruelty that keeps popping up. And I am no stranger to books full of violence and cruelty.
Wing-breaking and decades of imprisonment seem fine by our "hero." I admit the possibility of an argument that this is how it was in the world depicted, which has a basis in our own world. But it comes across as if Parker's typing it more gleefully than reluctantly. Example: the use of a garden fork, especially when its victim's hirer just shrugs. There's a little bit of "woudja look at these guys, huh?" but quite a bit more of "I wish we could do this sorta stuff today."
I'm done with Parker. And I'd already decided that I've read enough Holt.
Exploring some of the logic traps in religion sounds good. But Parker loses me, as he has done before, with the wanton cruelty that keeps popping up. And I am no stranger to books full of violence and cruelty.
Wing-breaking and decades of imprisonment seem fine by our "hero." I admit the possibility of an argument that this is how it was in the world depicted, which has a basis in our own world. But it comes across as if Parker's typing it more gleefully than reluctantly. Example: the use of a garden fork, especially when its victim's hirer just shrugs. There's a little bit of "woudja look at these guys, huh?" but quite a bit more of "I wish we could do this sorta stuff today."
I'm done with Parker. And I'd already decided that I've read enough Holt.