Fantasy Book Critic: Book review: Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead (The Loyal Opposition #1) by K.J. Parker

According to the biographical notes in some of Parker's books, Parker has previously worked in law, journalism, and numismatics, and now writes and makes things out of wood and metal. It is also claimed that Parker is married to a solicitor and now lives in southern England. According to an autobiographical note, Parker was raised in rural Vermont, a lifestyle which influenced Parker's work.

Publisher: Orbit (January 27, 2026) Page count: 352 pages Formats: audiobook, ebook

I’m a die-hard fan of K.J. Parker’s cynical wit. He’s had some ups and downs lately, but, to me, Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead is one of his best books in years.

The voice is unmistakable. It's dry, calmly funny and precise in its take on power, religion, history, and the stories people tell themselves to survive. Parker’s logic is brutal, almost mathematical, and every belief gets poked. Every moral claim gets cross-examined.

Brother Desiderius, the atheist monk and professional forger, is classic Parker lead: smart, tired, self-justifying, and painfully aware that history tends to happen to people like him. Sister Svangerd, meanwhile, is a knife-expert nun with a dark reputation and a very practical view of violence. They’re sent to an ecumenical council to assassinate a princess. Naturally, everything goes wrong.

The council itself is a great setting. People gathered there are petty, corrupt, verbose, and buzzing with theological politics. When we add fake manuscripts, real heresies, half-dead assassins, and arguments about whether good and evil actually mean anything at all to the mix, things get complicated. Parker has a lot of fun inventing theology and fake scholarship, and somehow makes parchment forgery feel suspenseful (for real).

The story remains engaging moment to moment. Things happen and deals are made. Knives come out. People die, or don’t quite. On top of this, we also get a truly philosophical and cerebral take on religion. The pacing worked for me, though it mat feel to slow for some readers. Parker's quiet, bleak humor is running through everything and make it work. I like it because it's not joke-heavy, just a steady drip of irony and weary observation.

Above all, this is a book about belief and who controls it, who benefits from it, and whether it survives contact with reality. Good and evil exist, maybe, but they’re compromised, and oddly similar. History looms large, yet nothing ever quite changes. Even death struggles to finish the job.

It won’t be for everyone. Parker still plays with the reader. He still withholds, doubles back, and shrugs at tidy meaning. But if you like his voice, this is him in strong form. Sharp, funny, bleak, and intellectually alive.

I loved it.