Review: Sharps by K.J. Parker

Sharps is the latest from critically acclaimed author K.J. Parker (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon). It’s a stand-alone second-world fantasy with no magic in which a rather motley team of fencers is assembled by the government of a small nation to perform a diplomatic tour through a neighboring nation with whom 30 years of war is only barely a memory. The fencers and their coach are caught up in events beyond their understanding as their trip seems to go wrong at every turn.

Sharps is the first Parker novel I’ve read (I have read a short story or two previously) and I’m surprised it’s been so long with her* impressively positive reputation among my fellow blogger/reviewers. This of course led to me having quite high expectations for this book. The result – it’s complicated. My initial reaction and one that I held throughout reading is that it’s a good book, a really good book, but I still was expecting something…more. However in retrospect, I only become more and more impressed with what Parker does with Sharps. Parker’s writing is polished, it’s clearly the work of seasoned writer and lacks any obvious weaknesses. Parker’s writing is subtle and complex, and my appreciation of this only improves with time.

 

I like a book with sophisticated and nuanced politics – the truth is that few books in the SFF genre really pull politics off very well. Generally, even books that gain a reputation for having complex politics typically show the nuance of an idealistic congressional candidate running for their first term in office (suffice to say, I hope for more). Parker effortlessly weaves subtle, complex politics into the background and foreground of Sharps. And it’s the effortlessly aspect that stands out so starkly – even the SFF books that do politics really well leave me thinking how the author really worked hard to make it so. That’s not the feeling I had with Sharps – in retrospect, the superbly presented politics were so well constructed that they truly felt effortless. And while to some it may seem to be only a semantic difference, to me it’s an important distinction that places Parker’s writing among the best in genre, and perhaps at the top.

Parker builds well-rounded, flawed and realistic characters. Read pretty much any review of Parker’s writing and it gets discussed, so I’m not going to go beat a dead horse on this one. But I do want to discuss a very fine line that Parker walks in dealing with the points of view in Sharps. As the plot develops and our band of wayward fencers continues along a journey in which nothing seems to go as planned, a sense builds that there is something more going on. It’s clear from the very beginning that there is more than meets the eye, though exactly what that is remains a mystery. And while some will call it a spoiler, I’ll go ahead and say it – at least one of those fencers knows what’s going and has plans that go well beyond fencing. Only we don’t know who or what until pretty much the moment of the big reveal (and we even get a red herring or two along the way). And here’s the fine-line – we see points of view from all of the characters throughout the book in a limited third person perspective – a perspective where we get into the heads of the characters and come to ‘know’ them pretty well. Yet the mystery remains. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how Parker pulled it off, and sometimes I’m not sure she does. But in retrospect, even though I sometimes wonder if she really pulled it off or not, I can’t help but admit it was handled masterfully.

Parker has a fair bit of fun in other ways with Sharps – there is a nice little bit of subversion of the standard barbarians of fantasy, she has some interesting things to say on the role of sports in contemporary society, draws some rather sharp parallels with some the on-going financial and political struggles in our own world, and throughout there is a running conversation between the words on the page about the motivations and consequences of violence at scales ranging from conflict between to individuals all the way up to wars between nations. It’s not didactic, but it’s not exactly subtle either and it sure makes it look like she’s a fairly bitter cynic.

Parker has gained a very good reputation for her brand of dark, gritty, grim-dark fantasy (or whatever term you choose to call it), and from what I see in Sharps, it’s a well-earned reputation. Sharps is a book of subtly, nuance and rather fun adventure that is masterfully executed. And it only gets better the more you think about it. While it’s the first book I’ve read by Parker, it most certainly won’t be the last. Any fan of fantasy that is looking for more than the traditional absolutely needs to be reading her work.

*The identity and even the gender of K.J. Parker is not known, but as described here, the prevailing ‘guess’ is that she is female, so I choose to refer to her as such.

Who Is K.J. Parker?

K.J. Parker is a critically-acclaimed, best-selling author of fantasy fiction. However, K.J. Parker is a pseudonym, and unlike many pseudonyms that are essentially open secrets to anyone who digs, the identity of K.J. Parker remains a mystery. In fact, it is not even known if K.J. Parker is male or female. The Wikipedia entry and theories below go into more detail.

**UPDATE, April 21, 2015: K.J. Parker's ID has been revealed, one of our contributors pretty well nailed it**

The internet being what it is and fantasy fans being who they are, conversations on K.J. Parker’s identity are somewhat common on forums, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. A recent Twitter conversation of such has led to this post, with several SFF bloggers offering up their ideas on who K.J. Parker is. Speculation ranges from very well though-out ideas that use what evidence is available to what are essentially wild-ass guesses. We tried to get a comment from a representative from Parker’s publisher, Orbit, to give a comment, but we didn't receive one in a timely manner.

Make of this post what you will. On one hand it’s a (small) internet campaign to figure out the identity of K.J. Parker, though it’s mostly just a bunch of fun speculation among a few SFF fans and bloggers. The truth is that we all respect the privacy of K.J. Parker and his/her desire to remain anonymous, however our curiosity cannot be denied.

On to the theories….

Jared @ Pornokitch:

Here's what we know:

The big stuff:

- Married to a solicitor (1)

- Lives in southern England (1)
- Worked in law, journalism, numismatics (1)
- Bit of a crafty geek: building things of wood, metal (1)
- First published (as Parker) in 1998 (1)

The more specific stuff:

- Not Tom Holt (2)

- Raised in Vermont (3)

The conflicting stuff:

- Male! (4)

- Female! (5)

Stuff I can add myself:

- Based on an inscription in one of my books, KJ Parker can use a semi-colon correctly (6)

- Parker gets both American and English idioms; something that comes across naturally in the work (7)

Oh, and the bit that everyone takes for granted:

- KJ Parker is a pseudonym (8)

However, we also know a lot about Parker from the primary sources. What we know about Parker appears in the books - the time in a foundry, the professional background, even the numismatics (The Folding Knife). So what if we stretch this a bit more. From the Scavenger Trilogy and Purple & Black, as well as the short stories, there's quite a bit in there about very old, very formal and very posh universities - including several instances of a middle class protagonist being surrounded by the scions of the upper crust. So why not put Parker at Oxford or Cambridge? (9)

Another fascinating twist - "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong" - involves a creator (a composer) publishing the work of another composer, and feeling imprisoned, then freed by the experience. (10) Following on from that, KJ Parker's real name is, probably, a published writer - not a journalist, but an author. Following the "Birdsong" theory, the "real" Parker was possibly already famous before the first "Parker" book, but now "Parker" is the more popular name. Controversial! (11)

So, in conclusion:

I have no idea. (12)

----

Footnotes:

(1): About the author, UK editions of Parker's books

(2): Two sources - first, taking the Tom Holt/KJ Parker interview at face value. (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/interview-with-k-j-parker-by-tom-holt/) Second, a statement from William Schafer (Parker's publisher at Subterranean) declaring that Parker absolutely was not Holt.
(3): Have to admit, this one is new to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._J._Parker#cite_note-1 - but I'm not sure why an Australian SF/F magazine, no matter how reputable, would have/share more detailed information than anyone else. Incidentally, SF/F authors from Vermont that kinda fit the profile? Michael Stackpole (hmm) and Piers Anthony (YIKES).
(4): http://www.sffworld.com/interview/85p0.html - and many other reviews
(5): About the author notes on the Bragelonne editions of Parker's Fencer trilogy. (#YesIhavetheFrencheditions and #noIamnotcompletelyobsessed)
(6): Seriously, that removes, what, 99.885% of the English-speaking world?
(7): No, really. Anne spotted this, and it makes sense.
(8): Weirdly, not written down in a lot of places - but it is there on the US The Company, as well as in the Parker/Holt interview
(9): Holt, for the record, is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford. The two say they met at their local blacksmith's shop, which could've taken place while they were students...
(10): It is a bit more complex than that, but, whatever. It is free online, go read it yourself. (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter-2011/fiction-a-small-price-to-pay-for-birdsong-by-k-j-parker/)
(11): A bit like The Dark Half, really.
(12): And you know what? I kind of don't want to, either. Not to go all "death of the author", but KJ Parker's work has made Parker my favourite author - there's nothing that Parker him/herself could add into the mix to make me appreciate the books more.  

Justin @ Staffer’s BookReview and Occasional Musings:

I believe KJ Parker is none other than J.K Rowling. My reasoning... KJ is an obvious reversal of JK. Harry Potter was first published in 1995. In order to avoid the backlash of writing other things from hordes of unstable preteen psychos, Rowling published under Parker in 1998. I fully expect Rowling to admit this fact when her new adult novel is released by Little, Brown in 2013!

Bastard @ Bastard Books:

Robert Stanek (Bastard has not read any K.J. Parker books)

Ken @ Neth Space:

This falls much closer to the wild-ass guess than anything else. I blatantly ignore the known ‘evidence’ discussed here and elsewhere and use lots of second-hand ‘hearsay’.

My guess on the ID of K.J. Parker is that he is no other than best-selling author R.A. Salvatore. I’ve ‘heard’ from a couple of people who are friends with Salvatore that he writes other fantasy novels under a pseudonym, and that pseudonym is not known. I’ve been told that it would likely be a surprising revelation based on the fiction that Salvatore is best known for. And…this is the most damning evidence of all…both Parker and Salvatore publish under initials – K.J. and R.A., respectively.

Ole @ Weirdmage’s Reviews:

Is K.J. Parker a man or a woman?

This is a question that seems to come up in online debates from time to time. Usually it ends up with a teneous conclusion that Tom Holt is K.J. Parker. I tend to think it’s a little bit more complex than that. I will come to my theory later, but first I’ll look into the relationship between K.J. Parker and Tom Holt.

That there is a close relationship between K.J. Parker and Tom Holt is clear from this interview: http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/interview-with-k-j-parker-by-tom-holt/

Here’s an important passage:

TH: For the record, we’ve known each other for years, you showed me your first novel, I showed it to my agent, he sold it to Orbit. Is that about right?

KJP: Yes.

Of course if Tom Holt is K.J. Parker, this is completely made up. But let’s look at the two authors biographies. (Some of this is also in the interview.)

According to Holt’s official biography, http://www.tom-holt.com/about.htm , he’s married, has a daughter, and lives in Somerset in the UK. According to Parker’s official biography (the one printed in the books), Parker lives in southern England.

So, they both live in the same part of England. Doesn’t really prove anything, but there is more.

Holt has been a solicitor...K.J. Parker is married to a solicitor. Which is basically the basis of my theory. Tom Holt is married to K.J. Parker. This would explain why, as in the quote above, Holt read Parker’s first book and showed it to his agent.

There is some more circumstantial evidence to supprt this. Namely Tom Holt’s books. I have the first six “Tom Holt Omnibus” volumes. They contain twelve novels. Five of the novels are copyrighted to Kim Holt. And four of the volumes, 1/3/4/6, are copyrighted to Tom and Kim Holt. So it seems that they are at least two different people. And my theory is that K.J. Parker is Kim Holt, Kim J. Parker may even be her maiden name. Parker does say in the interview sited above that “Unfortunately, I was KJP while JKR was still nursing a lukewarm latte in the coffee bars of Edinburgh.” The first K.J. Parker book was published in 1998.

An interesting aside to my theory, is that Tom and Kim Holt may have functioned as a husband and wife writing team, much like David and Leigh Eddings. They may still do, maybe all Tom Holt and K.J. Parker books are written by them together. Or maybe it even could be that Tom Holt is a front, and Kim Holt has written all the books. In the interview Parker says: “I don’t do interviews or publicity stuff with, well, strangers, essentially. Not the world’s most articulate person, with people I don’t know.”

I could off course be incorrect, and Tom Holt is really the man behind the K.J. Parker pseudonym. Giving his wife, or it may even be his daughter, copyright credit on his books for financial/inheritance reasons. But from the evidence I have, I’ll go with K.J. Parker being Kim Holt, Tom Holt’s wife.