o image there is a “Roman” sort of empire, with a huge city and a privileged founding race (literally blue-skinned), an empire that spans most of the known world. Imagine you are a white-skinned “barbarian” who has elevated himself to a position of commanding a regiment of engineers – and hey, you like just building bridges. You also are a smart-ass and a realist with a touch of mild Tourettes.

And then your content life of engineering and problem-solving is upset when you realize that a massive army has been moving around inside the borders of this empire. It has lured out and slaughtered the garrison of the capital city. Retiring inside its huge walls, you find yourself besieged, a large portion of the population fled, grains running low, water supply questionable, with only your untrained troops and the city’s lower classes to man the extensive wall. Oh, and this mysterious army? They’ve vowed to take the city and slaughter you all to the man.

This is the setup for K. I. Parker’s wonderful Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. Our hero, Orhan, is a cynical, conniving, self-centered bastard who views everything as an engineering problem. Told from his internal point-of-view, I found myself thinking of the wonderful Harry Flashman – the definition of the anti-hero. While Orhan is actually trying to keep the barbarians out of a city that won’t let a milkface like him drink from its public fountains, he realizes that all he can do is delay the inevitable assault, possibly gaining an hour or two of life for the inhabitants with every defense he enacts.

And I’m going to say this right now – unless I get a bunch of even better books, this novel is going to make my best of 2024 list. It was thrilling, thoughtful, and most importantly, it didn’t follow the sometimes-rigid formula of heroic fantasy novels. I laughed. I cared. I blinked. The author even threw in his thoughts about things like Christianity and the American Revolution (as they occurred in this reality), blunt and astute. I even liked the bit about the difference between luck and wheelbarrows (you can’t push luck). I was up late finishing this and all I’ll say, to avoid spoilers, is it went in a poignant and unexpected direction.

Wow.

So yes,a strong recommendation from me, the blogger, to you, the reader. Even if you don’t read fantasy novels, this one is worth the scan.

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