A Périmadeia, les affaires pénales se soldent par un duel à mort.
Bardas Loredan est avocat; suffisamment bon pour être encore en vie après dix ans au service de la justice. Pourtant, la mort se rapproche un peu plus à chaque procès et l'heure de la retraite semble arrivée. Malheureusement pour Loredan, c'est le moment que choisissent les redoutables hommes des plaines pour se lancer à l'assaut de la ville. En tant qu'ancien militaire, la défense de la cité, prétendument imprenable, lui est confiée. Ce ne sera pas une mince affaire, d'autant que les traîtrises et la magie s'en mêlent...

K. J. Parker livre avec La trilogie Loredan, dont Les Couleurs de l'acier est le premier tome, une œuvre de fantasy riche en humour et en aventures.

There’s no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armor, arrows – and the bodies, of course.
 
Over the years, Saevus Corax has picked up a lot of things. Some of them have made him decent money, others have brought nothing but trouble. But it’s a living, and somebody has to deal with the dead.
  
Something else that Saevus has buried is his past. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite succeed.

In K. J. Parker's new whip-smart dark fantasy, a group of scholars must do the impossible for a ruthless king. The cost of refusal, of course, is death.

History isn't truth, it's propaganda.

Seeking war with his neighbor, the tyrannical ruler of Aelia convenes several of his kingdom's professors for a chat. First Citizen Gyges only just invaded Aelia a few years back and, naturally, his public image can’t take the hit of another unjustified assault.

His totally sane solution? Simple, really. These scholars must construct a fake ancient city from scratch to verify Gyges’s apocryphal claims.

Now these academics must put their heads together to make history. Because if they don't, they'll lose their heads altogether .

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

It's important to look after your crew when you're in the battlefield salvage business. It's stressful work at the best of times, and although your employees are unlikely to be happy it makes sense to keep them alive.

So when Saevus Corax finds himself having to capture a castle to stop his men from being killed, he has no choice but to give it a try. Needless to say, the conventional rules of siegecraft are unlikely to be followed.

From one of the most original voices in fantasy comes a twisted tale of murder, betrayal, and battlefield salvage.    For more from K. J. Parker, check   Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
  The Two of Swords The Two of Volume One The Two of Swords Volume Two The Two of Volume Three   The Fencer Trilogy Colours in the Steel The Belly of the Bow The Proof House   The Scavenger Trilogy Shadow Pattern Memory   Engineer Trilogy Devices and Desires Evil for Evil The Escapement   The Company The Folding Knife The Hammer Sharps

"Why are we fighting this war? Because evil must be resisted, and sooner or later there comes a time when men of principle have to make a stand. But at this stage in the proceedings," he added, with a slightly lopsided grin, "mostly from force of habit."







A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no one knows how it will end. Except, perhaps, the Two of Swords.





World Fantasy Award-winning author K. J. Parker delivers the first volume of his most ambitious work yet-the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of soldiers, politicians, victims, and heroes.

The second volume in The Two of Swords trilogy by World Fantasy Award-winning author K. J. Parker.


"Why are we fighting this war? Because evil must be resisted, and sooner or later there comes a time when men of principle have to make a stand. Because war is good for business and it's better to die on our feet than live on our knees. Because they started it. But at this stage in the proceedings," he added, with a slightly lop-sided grin, "mostly from force of habit."

A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No-one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no-one knows how it will end.

The Two of Swords is the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of its soldiers, politicians, victims and heroes.

The epic concluding volume in The Two of Swords trilogy by World Fantasy Award-winning author K. J. Parker.
"Why are we fighting this war? Because evil must be resisted, and sooner or later there comes a time when men of principle have to make a stand. Because war is good for business and it's better to die on our feet than live on our knees. Because they started it. But at this stage in the proceedings," he added, with a slightly lop-sided grin, "mostly from force of habit."

A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No-one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no-one knows how it will end.

The Two of Swords is the story of a war on a grand scale, told through the eyes of its soldiers, politicians, victims and heroes.

When an engineer is sentenced to death for a petty transgression of guild law, he flees the city, leaving behind his wife and daughter. Forced into exile, he seeks a terrible vengeance -- one that will leave a trail of death and destruction in its wake. But he will not be able to achieve this by himself. He must draw up his plans using the blood of others. . .In a compelling tale of intrigue and injustice, K. J. Parker's embittered hero takes up arms against his enemies, using the only weapons he has left to his ingenuity and his passion -- his devices and desires.

A sculptor struggles when he is commanded to perpetuate the lies of a deceitful and cruel king...

Not even the Church of the Invincible Sun is invincible - and somebody has to do its dirty work. Enter Sister Svangerd and her accompanying priest, both accomplished practitioners. Their mission is simple: to make a meddlesome princess disappear (permanently).

To get to her, they must attend the legendary Ecumenical Council, the once-in-a-century convening of the greatest spiritual minds the world has to offer. But when they arrive, they find instead a den of villainy that would make the most hardened criminal blush.

To complicate matters further, it appears that some people long considered dead might not be after all. What began as a simple murder is about to escalate into a theological debate of terrifying complexity.

Pulling the Wings Off Angels is a madcap adventure brimming with the ethical quandaries and sardonic wit of The Good Place by World Fantasy Award-winning author K. J. Parker

Long ago, a wealthy man stole an angel and hid her in a chapel, where she remains imprisoned to this day.

That’s the legend, anyway.

A clerical student who’s racked up gambling debts to a local gangster is given an ultimatum—deliver the angel his grandfather kidnapped, or forfeit various body parts in payment.

And so begins a whirlwind theological paradox—with the student at its center—in which the stakes are the necessity of God, the existence of destiny—and the nature of angels.

Also by K. J. Parker
Inside Man
Prosper's Demon
The Devil You Know
The Last Witness

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The unnamed narrator of The Long Game is an Adept, a member of an Ecclesiastical order charged, among other things, with opposing a race of immaterial demons, creatures capable of possessing and controlling human minds. Complicating the narrator’s life is the fact that, over time, he has developed a cordial “relationship” with one of the demons. Complicating matters further is the unexpected arrival of Amalasomtha, a young woman with impossible abilities who claims to have come from the remote — perhaps mythical — country of Idalia. She also claims that, for reasons she does not entirely understand, she has been tasked with capturing one such demon and returning with it to Idalia. The truth, it turns out, is considerably more complex.

Amalasomtha’s arrival sets in motion a chain of events encompassing murder, magic, deception, and an array of unintended consequences. By the story’s end, this consistently witty account of demonic possession, hidden agendas and Ecclesiastical politics has taken us to some unexpected places and given us a glimpse of a larger story still, the “long game” that lies at the heart of all human history.

Cover illustration by Vincent Chong

Irongrove Lodge draws the broken and disillusioned, the merely curious, the poor and the wealthy alike. Steeped in a terrible and arcane history, it is a house like no other.

And here is a man like no other; for a fee he can change his face. He can be you – providing an alibi, manipulating evidence. When he encounters Irongrove Lodge, it causes him not just to question his own identity, but the nature of reality itself...