The first thing that comes to mind to mention for K.J. Parker's first entry into her Engineer Trilogy, DEVICES AND DESIRES, is that the author knows how to do her research. There are very technical descriptions for nearly everything in the novel, and it really lends a lot of credibility to both the story and the writer. However it isn't without drawbacks.
We will get to those later though; let's do like we were taught and focus on the positive. The book was interesting and the plot is engaging. Most of the character's exploits are fun to read, with a few exceptions. The plot is also laden with political intrigue and it plays out remarkably well.
OK, we did our job as reviewers and at least acknowledged the good.
The biggest failing of the book is it's most basic premise. The main character, the titular engineer, sets out to create a machine capable of reuniting him with his lost family. Fine and dandy. Where everything goes awry, however, is that we have no idea where this guy mastered the art of psychological manipulation. Wasn't he an amazing engineer?
We can believe he can improve upon machines, which is the reason he is exiled and separated from his family, but we cannot simply believe he has the capacity to create a multi-national machine made entirely of human components. The engineer plans every little choice, move, and action every other character in the series makes, and manipulates them all into making those said choices. It is simply, and completely, unbelievable. Machines are predictable and controllable. People are not.
You're saying, "Up yours, you elitists. You want believable? This is fantasy. Have you forgotten?" (By the way, thanks for acknowledging that we are, indeed, elitists. We are like the Marines, only much fewer, and much prouder. Moving on...)
No we haven't forgotten. What makes fantasy strong is the characters and how believable they are. That is how the fantasy is capable of such exotic and unfamiliar settings and such. Without believable characters the fantasy genre collapses. K.J. Parker seems to have forgotten this when she created her supposed everyman, who is in all actuality, an intellectual superman.
The other drawbacks of Devices and Desires are the coincidental events that would make Stephen King happy. (Yep. That's right. We just made a dig on two authors in one sentence. Yippee for us.) By the end of the book, you will most likely be doing the same as we did. Shaking your head saying, "What? Really?". The plot also slows down in parts from Parker's expansive detailing of the technical machinations of the engineered creations in the book. If you are a technophile, this may interest you--it interested us slightly. But all told, it was too high in volume, and detracted far too much from the pacing of the plot.
Our final decision about the book is that it is "meh." Worth the read, not your money. Visit the library and check it out first to see if you like it. Or borrow it from a friend (but remember to treat the book nicely). The second and third entries, EVIL FOR EVIL and THE ESCAPEMENT respectively offer much of the same fare. If you liked this first book, your mind won't be changed by the others and you will be satisfied by the ending. If you are like us and thought "meh", or hated it, you will wish you had stopped after the first book, we do.
Recommended Age: 18 and up (if only because we think it may be a little too technically verbose for teens, but then again they may like it).
Language: We don't remember anything real explicit.
Violence: Lots of people die, but it is handled very mildly.
Sex: None.
Nick's Note: I really feel like this trilogy should have been named The Gambler Trilogy, because that is what the main character does most. He gambles, and almost always, arguably, wins. That's not exciting. What makes winning so awesome when you're gambling, other than the money, is how rare it is.
Devices and Desires
2:00 AM
Nikki
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