Welcome back, lovely sarcasm, it’s nice to see you again. I am very fond of K.J. Parker novellas featuring Saloninus, and I’ve just spent a couple of very happy hours reading this one.

There is a lot of theology and philosophy, as well as a very snarky (understandably so) captive angel. Some people get to meet Him. It doesn’t go the way of the scriptures of this world, because it’s Parker we are talking about.

A few favourite quotes:

“Faith, of course, is just another way of saying opinion.”

“There’s nothing quite like the scriptures for killing faith stone dead.”

“Compassion and forgiveness are the opposite of justice, when you come to think of it.”
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The Patsy, The Thief, The Gangster and The "Smartest Man In The World": Playing 4D Chess with God The Invincible Sun

This book is a glorious Rubik's cube, maybe even a pentamix. Let's get down to brass tacks. We are presented with a main character who technically did something wrong under coersion however in the grand scheme of celestial law - he did "nothing" wrong and yet; he is not innocent because he has inherited sin. Essentially, he is guilty without cause - well and truly screwed as the situation unfolds. His moral conundrum and the ensuing chaos are basically like an escape room with tons of egress options to choose from but every time he comes up with a key to get out of eternal damnation - he enters into the next room and is right back in the same place he started. And worse, he's chained to the wall. He just can't seem to get out of it, a deal with the devil would have been easier to break..

What would you do in his unfairly damned shoes? I'd have probably arrived at the exact same conclusion and subsequent last-stand action.

The gist of it?

1. A study of the Godmaker: the nature of God through the eyes of a clerical student who literally does not believe in God. So, what makes God? Is it the quantity of worshippers or the quality of worshippers - are the numbers all that count? In this book God was secure in the fact that people believed...without question - but not all were steadfast worshippers.

2. A study in the God-Complex or in laymens terms, the Audacity...the bloody Arrogance: Florio vs God, and again Saloninus "The Smartest Man in The World" vs God.

3. A study of the Godkiller: What can kill a god? Is it a tangible weapon that you can feel and touch like that room God cannot see into with his Angel locked in? Or is it some intangible essence? This book took me back to the crisis of "The Old Gods" in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" so the answer began to take shape as we got closer to the crescendo of this conflict. Still, there is something melancholy about what transpired in this book - but also...suck it big G, loophole!

4. Faith vs Sheer determination: Did he truly believe he could get out of this binding afterlife sentence or was he just driven to get out of it and thus found a way. Even when he had literally given up - there lay the answer.

5. A Study in the bloody violent nature of the Homo Sapien: Just look at our main character, pulling wings of an angel, I mean we can even trace back everything that led to that moment. Small transgressions leading up to that major, irreversible one.

Suffice it to say - my first K.J. Parker novel has been intense and enjoyable.
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Parker is as formulaic as Wodehouse, but as with Wodehouse it’s a formula I like a great deal. Here again we have the witty, morally ambiguous narrator paired with a charming, bemusedly tolerant woman and the brilliant Saloninus. Not Parker at his absolute best — the ending is a little rushed — but a good read nevertheless. ( )

Condemned for his grandfather's sin a monk collaborates in gangster's plot that leads to death of god.