In Devices And Desires, K. J. Parker introduced readers to a mechanical universe in which precision and exactitude are matchless virtues which, if sufficiently mastered, can convey extraordinary powers upon both society and the individual. In Evil For Evil, the author expands upon this theme by arguing that these standards of personal conduct open up the mind to possibilities of perception and manipulation that, when cleverly used against the other players in life's game, can bring both victory and revenge. Though Parker earns points for novelty and for the courage of realizing that novelty in a vivid and interesting setting, he, or she -- the author's identity is unknown --, fails both to convince the reader of this premise and to maintain the reader's interest through to the lengthy novel's modest conclusion.
When we were last with Ziani Vaatzes, the exiled Mezentian foreman, wanted by his homeland for both fleeing his own execution and deploying his knowledge against the Great Republic that taught him, the city state that took him in was being obliterated. Betrayed to the besieging enemy, the hopeless Duke Orsea and his people were attempting to flee the Mezentian mercenaries who, having suffered massive casualties in the taking of the city, were set on slaughter. But whereas Ziani, by rights, ought to have run out of luck and been re-captured by the victorious forces, we find him, now, escaping into the protection of Duke Valens who, out of love for Orsea's wife, rides to the rescue of his fellow duke and his beleaguered people. But while Valens' ride has won them a brief reprieve, the relentless, Mezentian eye will soon turn to his lands where, despite Valens' cunning and extraordinary intelligence, there seems no force capable of stopping them. Or is there?
As Ziani is settling in to work for his second duke in a matter of months, a mysterious stranger arrives, pleading to become assistant to the wanted Mezentian engineer. Dismissive at first, Ziani's impression of this tall and ugly human evolves rapidly when his new assistant proves himself to have an intellect, in some ways, superior to Ziani's own. However, as much as this new stranger may offer Valens and his people a weapon that might level the playing field against the Mezentian armies, his dark past may well make it impossible for that advantage to be realized.
For lovers of dark fantasy, Evil For Evil has much to recommend it. It presents an unrelentingly bleak view of human relationships, deeming them to be based on treacherous emotions. In this universe, love is the most terrible force in the world for it is the only power capable of causing he who experiences it to jeopardize all in order to hold faith with it. While this makes the read unendurable at times, it also provides it a great deal of dark energy which Parker puts to great use by laying waste to the conceits of happiness and heroism. Given that the fantasy genre is all-too-littered with spunky, world-saving wizards and the fluffy, happy fellows who love them, this is a welcome digression into potent, imaginative realism.
But for all this, Evil For Evil must be considered a three-pronged failure. Most importantly, it is interminably long. Its 700 pages are bloated with endless and repetitive monologues on the nature of human failing, the removal of even a handful of which could comfortably reduce the piece by a couple of hundred pages. Secondly, it makes an unsuccessful attempt to convince the reader of its most vital plot point, that one man can, through sufficient foresight and planning, manipulate entire civilizations and their leaders into a succession of actions, all designed to bring about a single, future outcome. Not only is this highly implausible, it directly clashes with another of the author's themes, that plans rarely if ever work out the way their planners expect them to. In a universe based on realism, this is an annoying dependence on deus ex machina. Finally, but for one major incident, the book is almost entirely expository. It seeks more to justify its few developments than to launch the reader towards a satisfying conclusion. I will read on, mostly because I'm sufficiently invested to want to know how the story ends, but my suspicion is that this could have easily been a duology with the first volume concluding with the major event in this piece, and the final volume picking up from that.
Disappointing. Seven-hundred pages is a lot of dead trees for far too little advancement. (2/5 Stars)
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