Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
by K. J. Parker · first published 2019
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Dark, sardonic medieval fantasy following a military engineer through a siege; readers praise its satire and its competence-focused protagonist, and it suits fans of sardonic fantasy and competency stories.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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For anyone that's curious about this, there's a fun 'medieval fiction' book set in a made-up universe called Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker that follows a military engineer during a siege: > This is the story of Orhan, son of Siyyah Doctus Felix Praeclarissimus, and his history of the Great Siege, written down so that the…
on “Fortification, Part I: The Besieger’s Playbook” ↗I read a ton of KJ Parker books last year, they were all really good. His most popular series is the one that starts with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. The premise is that a city is under siege by an army that has made it clear they're not going to spare anybody if they win. The protagonist is the highest-ranking surviving officer in the city, a lowly…
on “Ask HN: Best SciFi books in last 5 years” ↗…the pop culture obsession is new, but the snarky, reluctant protagonist is something I have seen enough to be kind of tired of. Off the top of my head, Murderbot also reminds me of the protagonist of Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City which I recently read. If you enjoyed Murderbot, take that as a recommendation, although it is less sci-fi and more historical fiction.
on “Murderbot, she wrote” ↗I went on a kick of reading "competency porn" (think Project Hail Mary/The Martian but not necessarily solving engineering problems). On top of PHM, I read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City (great dark satire despite the shit ending) and The Goblin Emperor (more on the social engineering side of things, so better characterization than something like The Martian)
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗I've been mostly reading fiction: Tom Holt "Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City" and its two sequels. Sardonic fantasy similar to Ursula Vernon. Fun. Max Gladstone "Last Exit". Magic/alternate-worlds/tentacled-horrors-ish America. Will definitely win the Hugo. Chuck Tingle "Trans…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗I first encountered the idea in fiction a few months ago reading "Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City" [1]. For those interested in this kind of thing, it is a fictional mashup of a variety of technical innovations when an engineer (the army core kind) is the highest ranking military officer left during…
on “Unraveling the linothorax mystery, or how linen armor came to dominate our lives (2013)” ↗Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City has a protagonist who is reluctant but is forced to face huge stakes, namely the fall of a city at war. Murderbot is interesting for more than its reluctance: the stakes are distinctly different and far…
on “Murderbot, she wrote” ↗