Everything I had said in my reviews of the first two books in the Engineer Trilogy also applies here. It is all very clever and very cynical. All of the reveals are very "kjparkerian" ;-), and yet, not very surprising. These are probably the reasons I was tired of it all and just waited for the book to end. I realised that there was no real development of anything and anyone throughout the trilogy - just more of the same. (And when it comes to sieges, it was done much better in K.J. Parker's Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled do read this one instead, highly recommended.) The verdict is that this is not my favourite Parker! ( )

Well. Well written, convincing, and compelling. On the other hand I don't think a series has ever before made me so thoroughly hate every single person in the story by the time it's done. At least not without making me put the books down before finishing. I suppose that's an accomplishment, but it was certainly exhausting and depressing. Certainly won't be a repeat read for me, I wouldn't be willing to go through that again. ( )

Parker, K. J. The Escapement. Engineer Trilogy No. 3. Orbit, 2007.
The Escapement, and indeed the Engineer Trilogy as a whole, has an original approach to its material that is marred by some clumsy execution. The trilogy is set in a world that makes us expect heroic fantasy. There are warrior dukes and cities under siege. There are love triangles and characters with romantic aspirations. But the protagonist, Ziani, approaches every problem, be it military, mechanical or romantic in terms appropriate to mechanical engineering. Machines can always be designed and constructed to perform their functions; people can be motivated and moved in predictable ways. Things that look like magic or romance are simply parts of a complex machine operating as it must, given its materials, construction, and design. I like the way the novel upsets our expectations for romantic heroism, but it is much too long, so I found myself putting it down for weeks at a time. ( )

I really loved this series, but I almost think it would be better to just stop with the first one. ( )

Wow.

I just finished "The Escapement", the third and last book in the Engineer Trilogy by K.J. Parker.

Now- if you like feel-good books, this is not the series for you. Damn near all of the characters behave despicably in one way or another, usually saying "they had no choice".

I also doubt that things in real life could work out as neatly as they do here.

Still- wow.

I think one of the things I appreciate about it is the focus on "I had no choice". Personally, I am getting heartily sick of that as a plot device in novels; urban fantasy seems particularly prone to this.

And yeah- you DO have a choice. The choices may not be very attractive ones... but disclaiming responsibility for the choices you have made is also a Bad Thing. I am really tired of it as a plot device, and the exaggerated presence of it in this series kinda rubs one's nose in it.

There's also something of the flavor of a classical tragedy, where the results are inevitable. It's not quite as DOOMed as "The Wreck of the River of Stars"- where I doubt anyone could offer any intervention that would have changed things- but it's close- AND it has the plus over the other in that the characters were NOT doing their very best, but were in fact sacrificing others busily for their own priorities.

So- I would not want to read it again, but I'm glad I read it. And especially in this last volume, as things spiral together, there's a lot of good questions asked (and not answered) about culpability and decisions one makes, and priorities, and the results of such.

It's a challenging series, or I found it such. However, I AM glad I read it. ( )