Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead introduced Brother Desiderius and Sister Svangerd, the most improbable duo I didn't know I needed. K. J. Parker came up with a winning team and I couldn't wait to discover what the author had in store for them. I wasn't disappointed!
Here's the blurb:
From World Fantasy Award-winning author K.J. Parker comes a fiendishly complex tale of ecclesiastical espionage and divine deceptions.
When the Church of the Invincible Sun is looking for someone to do its dirty work, they call on Sister Svangerd and her priest. Stealing a book might sound like a relatively simple task, but this isn’t any old book.
To get their hands on it, they must impersonate a legendary figure, create the world’s most expensive letter of introduction, and sneak into the most heavily guarded library in the world. All in a day’s work, but the machinations of the mysterious Loyal Opposition threaten to derail their best-laid plans.
And when Svangerd begins to act not at all like herself, it soon becomes clear that the secret war between divine forces is going to test everyone’s faith.
For this new mission, Brother Desiderius, reluctant priest of the Church of the Invincible Sun, scribe, and self-proclaimed top-of-the-line forger of documents, must accompany Sister Svangerd, devout nun and eager assassin and the poor sod's secret crush, on a journey to retrieve an ancient book against seemingly impossible odds. Business as usual for the unlikely duo, it goes without saying. Alas, the would-be thieves are once again thrust into a shocking episode of the Long Game, the eternal struggle between the forces of Good and Evil. Various factions support/oppose their mission, making it well nigh impossible for them to understand who the good/bad guys really are. But what can a cynical atheist who doesn't even believe in the Long Game do when Loyal Opposition agents reveal that the priest is now an asset and they've been ordered to help him achieve his objective at all costs? It's quite the moral and religious quandary for someone who doesn't even believe in the Invincible Sun, let alone the Evil One.
As was the case with the first installment, the title can be a bit misleading, as Sister Svangerd is not the main protagonist. Indeed, this is Brother Desiderius' tale, first and foremost. Once more, it's definitely Brother Desiderius' first-person perspective that gives this book its unique flavor. Through the priest's cynicism and ironic world views, K. J. Parker continues to explore themes such as the nature of good and evil, faith, religious dogma, free will and predestination, and more. The dark humor that permeates every page of this book worked its magic on me from start to finish. To be honest, I couldn't get enough of his point of view.
I understand that your mileage may vary in that regard, however. In the first volume, after meandering for the better part of the entire novel, the plot only started to make sense following a number of info-dump conversations which came late into the story. And yet, as meandering as the plot was, there was a structure to it that is more or less absent in Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know. If not for the fact that the narrator is so entertaining, it could have been a problem for me and it might well be for some readers. Info-dumps are still a necessary evil. Unfortunately, given the atheist nature of the main character, the fact that he believes in nothing and figures that religion is rubbish, it forces those who are trying to pressgang him into furthering their own agenda, be it for good or evil, to explain every little thing to Brother Desiderius. I didn't mind this second time around, so enamored was I of the priest's POV. But I realize that some people might find this lack of structure to be off-putting.
Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know does suffer from a number of pacing issues. The apparent lack of plot structure doesn't help. Like its predecessor, it's a slow-moving read that can be a little confusing at times. To all ends and purposes, this novel is a succession of fuckups as soon as Brother Desiderius and Sister Svangerd embark on their journey. When everything goes wrong and they must somehow make their way back home before news of their massive blunder precedes them, encounters with supposedly friendly forces of the Invincible Sun and their archrivals the Loyal Opposition leave the priest completely bewildered as to whom he can really trust. Once again, there isn't anything that can be called an exciting endgame or a riveting finale. And even if it lacks a bit of direction, I enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to the final volume.
How an irreverent and cynical unbeliever ended up as the lynchpin for all the factions involved in the generation-spanning battle between the forces of Good and Evil, Brother Desiderius has no idea. With the next one titled Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One, it looks as though fate is not done with the priest. I can't wait!
The final verdict: 7.75/10
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