Academic Exercises

Academic Exercises

Academic ExercisesÂ is the first collection of shorter work by master novelist K.J Parker, and it is a stunner. Weighing in at over 500 pages, this generous volume gathers together thirteen highly distinctive stories, essays, and novellas, including the recent World Fantasy Award-winner, â€œLet Maps to Othersâ€. The result is a significant publishing event, a book that belongs on the shelf of every serious reader of imaginative fiction.
The collection opens with the World Fantasy Award-winning â€œA Small Price to Pay for Birdsong,â€ a story of music and murder set against a complex mentor/pupil relationship, and closes with the superb novella â€œBlue and Gold,â€ which features what may be the most beguiling opening lines in recent memory. In between, Parker has assembled a treasure house of narrative pleasures. In â€œA Rich, Full Week,â€ an itinerant â€œwizardâ€ undergoes a transformative encounter with a member of the â€œrestless dead.â€ â€œPurple and Black,â€ the longest story in the book, is an epistolary tale about a man who inherits the most hazardous position imaginable: Emperor. â€œAmor Vincit Omniaâ€ recounts a confrontation with a mass murderer who may have mastered an impossible form of magic.
Rounding out the volumeâ€”and enriching it enormouslyâ€”are three fascinating and illuminating essays that bear direct relevance to Parkerâ€™s unique brand of fiction: â€œOn Sieges,â€ â€œCutting Edge Technology,â€ and â€œRich Menâ€™s Skins.â€
Taken singly, each of these thirteen pieces is a lovingly crafted gem. Together, they constitute a major and enduring achievement. Rich, varied, and constantly absorbing, Academic Exercises is, without a doubt, the fantasy collection of the year.
Country USA
Manufacturer Subterranean Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2014-07-26
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Subterranean Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2014-07-26
Format	Kindle eBook

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