Tor.com, December 2022

“Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit” by K.J. Parker

Reviewed by Mike Bickerdike

“Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit” by K.J. Parker is an entertaining and enjoyable fantasy tale (though it actually contains nothing fantastic, other than the imagined world). In a world with a medieval level of technology, the best scribe in the world is approached by a young woman to translate an old foreign scroll into a new, illustrated book as a present for her sister, the local abbess. The job is not straightforward, however: the scroll’s contents are dangerously heretical to the country’s religion, though the young woman—who has a murderous reputation and should not be crossed—does not know this. The world-building here is rather good and provides a rich canvas for the story, and the main character’s voice is both amusing and engaging. The author has something to say about the interpretation of texts, and how our pragmatic reality is dictated by what we believe and have memory of, as opposed to a strict material reality that no-one may be aware of. In short, this is both entertaining and thought-provoking and is recommended reading.

More of Mike Bickerdike’s reviews and thoughts on science-fiction can be found at https://starfarersf.nicepage.io/