K. J. Parker is the fantasy pen name of English author Tom Holt.
The identity behind the pseudonym was kept private until 2015. Books published as K. J. Parker are generally darker and more politically focused than Holt’s comic fantasy, with recurring attention to engineering, law, siegecraft, economics, religion, forgery, military logistics, and the practical uses of deception.
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Parker’s bibliography does not form one numbered super-series. It contains several completed trilogies, loosely connected novels, novellas about recurring characters, short-fiction collections, and a large secondary-world setting whose political systems and technologies sometimes resemble or overlap one another.
The safest rule is to complete each named series internally. Do not attempt to force every Parker book into one exact world chronology.
Choose the Book That Matches Your Interest
- Start with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City for an accessible siege novel with engineering, improvisation, and a fast first-person voice.
- Start with Devices and Desires for a completed trilogy about an engineer who turns institutions, armies, and human relationships into parts of a revenge machine.
- Start with Colours in the Steel for legal duelling, military invasion, and Parker’s earliest published trilogy.
- Start with The Folding Knife for a standalone political rise-and-fall story.
- Start with Prosper’s Demon for a short introduction to Parker’s more openly magical fiction.
- Start with Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead for a completed trilogy with battlefield salvage, political escape, and a narrator who survives through argument and misdirection.
- Start with Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead for Parker’s newest series, involving church politics, demons, murder, and an unusually resourceful nun.
The Main Series at a Glance
The Fencer Trilogy
- Colours in the Steel
- The Belly of the Bow
- The Proof House
The Scavenger Trilogy
- Shadow
- Pattern
- Memory
The Engineer Trilogy
- Devices and Desires
- Evil for Evil
- The Escapement
The Two of Swords
- The Two of Swords, Volume One
- The Two of Swords, Volume Two
- The Two of Swords, Volume Three
The Siege Series
- Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
- How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
- A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
The Saevus Corax Trilogy
- Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead
- Saevus Corax Captures the Castle
- Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder
The Loyal Opposition Trilogy
- Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead
- Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know
- Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One
The third Loyal Opposition novel was scheduled for December 8, 2026 and remained unpublished on this article’s update date.
The Fencer Trilogy Books in Order
The Fencer trilogy follows Bardas Loredan, a professional fencer-at-law in a society where some legal disputes are resolved through formal combat.
The books combine courtroom procedure, siege warfare, engineering, family conflict, and the destructive consequences of treating human beings as pieces in a plan.
1. Colours in the Steel
Colours in the Steel (1998): Professional duellist Bardas Loredan becomes involved in a legal case and a military conspiracy while an enemy army prepares to besiege the Triple City of Perimadeia.
The novel introduces Parker’s interest in technical skill as both a survival tool and a source of moral danger.
Bardas’s legal work, family history, and role in the defence of the city all continue into later books.
2. The Belly of the Bow
The Belly of the Bow (1999): Bardas becomes entangled with bow-making, family resentment, political manipulation, and a conflict whose weapons are designed long before its participants understand the plan.
The book expands the importance of Bardas’s relatives and the long history behind their hostility.
Its title refers to the construction and power of composite bows, but the central mechanism is still the way technical knowledge can be turned into control.
3. The Proof House
The Proof House (2000): Bardas and the surviving members of his family face the final consequences of the plans, wars, and betrayals that began in the earlier novels.
The trilogy’s separate political and personal conflicts converge here.
Read it only after The Belly of the Bow, since the emotional and strategic resolutions depend on the complete family history.
Is the Fencer Trilogy Complete?
Yes.
The Proof House concludes the three-book sequence.
Later Parker novels may revisit similar institutions, technologies, and political structures, but they do not continue Bardas Loredan’s story as a fourth Fencer novel.
The Scavenger Trilogy Books in Order
The Scavenger trilogy begins with a man who wakes on a battlefield without a reliable memory of who he is.
The series uses amnesia, prophecy, false identity, military conflict, and uncertainty about whether the protagonist is an ordinary man, a divine figure, or an instrument created by other people’s expectations.
1. Shadow
Shadow (2001): A nameless survivor wakes among battlefield corpses, discovers that several groups believe they know his identity, and begins trying to reconstruct a past that may be more dangerous than ignorance.
The novel deliberately withholds stable answers.
Readers should expect competing accounts of the protagonist rather than a straightforward recovery of memory.
2. Pattern
Pattern (2002): The survivor’s search continues as political factions, religious beliefs, and apparently meaningful coincidences begin forming a pattern around him.
The second book tests whether events are guided by destiny or arranged by people who benefit from belief in destiny.
It should be read directly after Shadow because its uncertainties are extensions of the first novel’s central puzzle.
3. Memory
Memory (2003): The competing identities and explanations surrounding the protagonist reach their conclusion as forgotten history, political ambition, and the possibility of divine purpose collide.
This completes the trilogy.
The answers are designed to emerge from all three books, so beginning with Memory would remove the uncertainty on which the series depends.
The Engineer Trilogy Books in Order
The Engineer trilogy follows Ziani Vaatzes, an engineer expelled from the technologically advanced city of Mezentia.
Ziani responds by constructing an elaborate plan involving war, marriage, diplomacy, industrial knowledge, and the weaknesses of everyone around him.
1. Devices and Desires
Devices and Desires (2005): Engineer Ziani Vaatzes is condemned for an illegal technical innovation, escapes Mezentia, and begins designing a sequence of events intended to reunite him with his family.
Ziani treats political institutions and human emotions as mechanisms.
The novel establishes the cities, rival states, manufacturing systems, and personal grievances that drive the full trilogy.
2. Evil for Evil
Evil for Evil (2006): Ziani’s plan expands through alliances, military campaigns, secret negotiations, and the manipulation of people who believe they are pursuing independent goals.
The sequel reveals more of the cost paid by people caught inside the engineer’s design.
Read it second because nearly every political development is a consequence of Devices and Desires.
3. The Escapement
The Escapement (2007): Ziani’s political and mechanical design reaches its final stage as armies move, alliances fail, and the people closest to him discover how completely their lives have been incorporated into his plan.
The title refers to the mechanism that controls movement in a machine.
It also reflects the trilogy’s central question of whether anyone inside Ziani’s system can escape the role assigned to them.
Is the Engineer Trilogy Complete?
Yes.
The Escapement ends Ziani Vaatzes’s principal story and resolves the plan introduced in Devices and Desires.
The trilogy should be read without inserting unrelated Parker novels between volumes.
The Two of Swords Books in Order
The Two of Swords was first released as a nineteen-part digital serial between 2015 and 2016.
It was later collected into three large print volumes. Readers using the collected editions need only those three books.
The story follows a long civil war between the eastern and western parts of an empire, while soldiers, agents, engineers, commanders, and members of a hidden order carry out assignments whose real purposes are often concealed.
1. The Two of Swords, Volume One
The Two of Swords, Volume One (2017): Soldiers and agents move through an apparently endless civil war while a secretive organization recruits, tests, and redirects people for plans neither side fully understands.
This volume collects the first eight digital instalments.
It introduces the war’s principal institutions and the recurring problem that almost every mission serves more than one agenda.
2. The Two of Swords, Volume Two
The Two of Swords, Volume Two (2017): The civil war widens through new viewpoints, covert operations, technical schemes, and shifting loyalties as the hidden structure behind the conflict becomes more visible.
This volume collects digital parts nine through fifteen.
The changing protagonists are intentional. The serial is built around a network of connected operations rather than one uninterrupted hero’s journey.
3. The Two of Swords, Volume Three
The Two of Swords, Volume Three (2017): The rival empires and the people manipulating their war approach the final stage of a design that has used soldiers, rulers, and civilians as expendable components.
This volume collects digital parts sixteen through nineteen.
It concludes the published Two of Swords narrative.
Should the Nineteen Serial Parts Be Read Separately?
Only when a reader already owns the original digital editions.
The three collected volumes preserve the correct order and provide the same complete narrative in a simpler form.
Do not read a collected volume and then repeat its corresponding serial instalments.
The Siege Books in Order
The Siege books are connected novels set in the same broad imperial world.
Each follows a different first-person narrator who survives a crisis through technical knowledge, performance, persuasion, or strategic dishonesty.
The books can resolve their immediate conflicts separately, but publication order preserves historical consequences and references.
1. Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (2019): Engineer Orhan is left responsible for defending the Robur capital after its army is destroyed, forcing him to build weapons, improvise fortifications, and deceive both the enemy and the city he serves.
Orhan belongs to an ethnic group treated as inferior by the empire.
His technical usefulness gives him authority without removing the prejudices built into the society he is trying to save.
2. How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (2020): Actor and impersonator Notker is recruited to replace a public figure during a political emergency, then discovers that performing power can become indistinguishable from holding it.
The novel takes place after the siege crisis of the first book.
It uses theatre, imitation, propaganda, and public expectation rather than engineering as its central tools.
3. A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World (2022): Scholar and translator Felix becomes involved in military expansion, cultural misunderstanding, and the creation of an empire that may be easier to conquer than to govern.
The story moves beyond the capital and examines the wider consequences of imperial weakness.
It completes the three-book Siege sequence.
Can the Siege Books Be Read as Standalones?
Each novel has a different narrator and a distinct immediate problem.
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City can be tested independently. Readers continuing beyond it should retain publication order because later books assume that the empire has already undergone the earlier crises.
The safest classification is connected standalones, not three unrelated novels.
The Saevus Corax Books in Order
The Saevus Corax trilogy was released across a short period in 2023.
Its narrator operates a battlefield salvage business, recovering weapons, armour, and valuables from the dead. His work is complicated by political history, royal responsibility, creditors, former allies, and people who refuse to let him remain anonymous.
1. Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead
Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead (2023): Saevus runs a battlefield salvage company and attempts to profit from war without becoming part of it, until his concealed identity and old obligations pull him into another political crisis.
The novel introduces his crew, commercial methods, past, and talent for arguing himself out of immediate danger.
It begins one continuous sequence.
2. Saevus Corax Captures the Castle
Saevus Corax Captures the Castle (2023): Saevus’s efforts to escape responsibility lead him into a siege, a castle, and a political situation where every possible solution increases someone else’s interest in controlling him.
The second book continues from the consequences of Deals with the Dead.
Its military problem cannot be separated from what readers have learned about Saevus’s identity.
3. Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder
Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder (2023): Saevus attempts to survive the accusations, political claims, and personal debts accumulated across the trilogy while discovering that escape may require accepting the role he has spent years avoiding.
This concludes the Corax trilogy.
The title refers to both literal danger and Saevus’s habit of surviving through explanation, calculation, and selective honesty.
Is the Saevus Corax Trilogy Complete?
Yes.
All three books were published in 2023, and Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder concludes the sequence.
They should be read consecutively because the narrator’s concealed history is revealed in stages.
The Loyal Opposition Books in Order
The Loyal Opposition is Parker’s newest trilogy.
It follows Sister Svangerd and her priest through church assignments involving demons, political conspiracies, forbidden knowledge, and institutions that prefer useful servants to informed ones.
1. Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead
Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead (2026): Sister Svangerd investigates a murder and a victim who is not behaving as dead people should, drawing her into church politics, supernatural danger, and questions about who benefits from the official explanation.
The novel introduces Svangerd’s methods, religious institution, priestly companion, and the forces operating behind the church’s public authority.
It was published on January 27, 2026.
2. Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know
Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know (2026): The Church of the Invincible Sun sends Svangerd and her priest to steal a dangerous book, turning an apparently simple assignment into another conflict involving demons and the Loyal Opposition.
The sequel continues the characters and church politics introduced in the first book.
It was published on May 12, 2026.
3. Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One
Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One (Scheduled for December 8, 2026): Svangerd and her priest face the final stage of the Loyal Opposition’s plans as prophecy, church authority, and the idea of a divinely selected saviour become part of the conflict.
This is the announced conclusion to the trilogy.
It remained unpublished on August 6, 2026 and should still be listed as forthcoming.
Is the Loyal Opposition Trilogy Complete?
Not on this article’s update date.
The first two books were available. Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One was scheduled for December 8, 2026.
After that release, the trilogy’s complete order will be Not Quite Dead, Devil You Know, and Chosen One.
The Saloninus Stories in Order
Saloninus is a brilliant philosopher, inventor, alchemist, liar, and criminal who appears in several Parker novellas.
These stories are linked by character rather than by one continuous novel-length plot.
Blue and Gold
Blue and Gold (2010): Saloninus explains the events surrounding alchemy, money, murder, and a ruler who expects him to produce impossible results.
The story presents him through his own highly selective account.
It is the strongest introduction to Saloninus’s combination of intelligence, vanity, and self-preservation.
The Devil You Know
The Devil You Know (2016): Saloninus makes an agreement with a supernatural adversary and attempts to use logic, technical interpretation, and contractual detail to escape the expected price.
This novella is not the same work as Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know.
The repeated phrase appears in two different Parker titles, so readers should check the protagonist and publication year.
The Big Score
The Big Score (2021): Saloninus becomes involved in another elaborate scheme where invention, wealth, fraud, and the confidence of people who believe they understand him create the opportunity for a major theft.
The story works best after Blue and Gold.
It continues the pattern of Saloninus designing solutions that also function as traps.
The Best Saloninus Order
- Blue and Gold (2010): Saloninus’s alchemy and unreliable narration provide the clearest introduction.
- The Devil You Know (2016): His talent for exploiting rules is tested against a supernatural contract.
- The Big Score (2021): His later scheme turns technical knowledge and confidence into the machinery of a theft.
Some collections include one or more of these stories, so readers should check contents before purchasing them separately.
Prosper’s Demon Books in Order
These novellas follow an unnamed exorcist who removes demons from human hosts.
His methods are effective, destructive, and shaped by the belief that saving the larger world can justify severe harm to individuals.
1. Prosper’s Demon
Prosper’s Demon (2020): An exorcist discovers that a demon is influencing the brilliant artist and engineer Prosper of Schanz, whose work may shape the education of a future ruler.
The narrator must decide whether removing the demon is worth destroying what Prosper could create.
The novella introduces a magical setting where exorcism is practical work rather than a ceremonial mystery.
2. Inside Man
Inside Man (2021): The exorcist’s conflict with demons continues through another case involving possession, hidden motives, and the difficulty of knowing which consciousness is truly in control.
The story builds on the methods and moral assumptions established in Prosper’s Demon.
Read it second even though its immediate case can be followed independently.
Is Prosper’s Demon a Complete Series?
Two linked novellas are published.
Inside Man is the second available story, but the pair has not been formally presented as a completed trilogy or closed sequence.
Treat it as an open two-story series.
Standalone Novels
The Company
The Company (2008): Former soldiers who survived a war together attempt to build a new community on an island, but old loyalties, class differences, secrets, and the habits learned in combat undermine their plan.
The novel examines what happens after a celebrated military brotherhood no longer has a war to organize it.
It is a standalone and does not continue the Engineer trilogy.
The Folding Knife
The Folding Knife (2010): Basso rises through the political and financial system of the Vesani Republic, using intelligence and confidence to gain power while one earlier decision remains capable of destroying everything he builds.
The novel opens with Basso’s fall and then reconstructs how it happened.
It is one of Parker’s clearest standalone studies of political ability becoming inseparable from personal blindness.
The Hammer
The Hammer (2011): Gignomai belongs to an exiled noble family living among settlers whose laws and customs his relatives despise, and his attempt to escape their control develops into a carefully engineered act of revenge.
The story combines frontier conflict, family abuse, weapons, and planning.
It is independent of the Engineer trilogy despite its similar interest in mechanical design.
Sharps
Sharps (2012): A group of fencers is sent on a diplomatic tour intended to improve relations between former enemies, but their exhibition matches conceal a political purpose that none of them fully understands.
The novel uses fencing, travel, performance, and manipulation to examine how peace can be engineered as aggressively as war.
It is a standalone story.
Savages
Savages (2015): Weapons dealers, soldiers, rulers, and communities are drawn into a conflict shaped by the trade in military technology and by the assumption that violence can remain under the control of those who profit from it.
The novel follows the movement of weapons and expertise across cultures.
It stands alone, although its political and technological concerns are closely related to Parker’s trilogy work.
Pulling the Wings Off Angels
Pulling the Wings Off Angels (2022): A student attempts to solve a debt problem by exploiting a family legend about an imprisoned angel, only to discover that theology, proof, and supernatural power create consequences beyond the original bargain.
This is a short standalone novella rather than a full-length series novel.
It offers a compact entry into Parker’s openly magical fiction.
Making History
Making History (2025): A group of scholars is ordered to solve an impossible historical problem for a ruler, forcing them to confront the difference between the past, the surviving evidence, and the politically useful version of events.
The novella uses academia, language, power, and historical interpretation as the mechanisms of its plot.
It is a standalone and was Parker’s latest published non-series book before the Loyal Opposition novels.
Other Major Novellas
Purple and Black
Purple and Black (2009): An emperor and his old friend exchange letters while rebellion spreads, revealing how personal trust changes when one correspondent holds absolute power and the other must preserve an empire.
The story is told through correspondence.
It is collected in Academic Exercises.
A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong
A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong (2011): A respected musician becomes involved with a gifted prisoner whose talent creates both an artistic opportunity and a moral test.
The novella examines authorship, envy, reputation, and the price of being remembered.
It is collected in Academic Exercises.
Let Maps to Others
Let Maps to Others (2012): Rival scholars search for a lost place described in disputed records, turning academic competition into an expedition shaped by obsession and unreliable evidence.
The story focuses on maps, scholarship, and the desire to own a discovery.
It is collected in Academic Exercises.
The Sun and I
The Sun and I (2013): A group of young men invents a religion for practical reasons, then discovers that institutions and belief can develop beyond the control of their founders.
The story uses religious organization as a form of political technology.
It is collected in Academic Exercises.
The Last Witness
The Last Witness (2015): A man who can remove memories from other people absorbs those memories himself, making his livelihood inseparable from the identities and crimes he has taken away.
The novella explores memory, guilt, and the practical danger of knowing what others paid to forget.
It is collected in The Father of Lies.
Downfall of the Gods
Downfall of the Gods (2016): A goddess agrees to grant a mortal request and becomes trapped in a journey where divine power offers fewer easy solutions than expected.
The story reverses the usual relationship between gods and petitioners.
It is collected in The Father of Lies.
Mightier than the Sword
Mightier than the Sword (2017): A writer, document, or carefully controlled account becomes the centre of a conflict where words can redirect political power more effectively than open violence.
The novella returns to Parker’s interest in forgery, authorship, and official truth.
It is collected in Under My Skin.
My Beautiful Life
My Beautiful Life (2019): A man recounts his rise from poverty into political influence, presenting a success story whose omissions and justifications gradually reveal its true cost.
The first-person narrative asks readers to judge the distance between the speaker’s self-image and his actions.
It is collected in Under My Skin.
The Long Game
The Long Game (2022): A long-running scheme involving patience, institutional memory, and carefully delayed consequences tests whether any plan can remain controlled across generations.
The novella stands alone.
Its placement among Parker’s books is flexible.
Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit
Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit (2022): A professional involved with manuscripts, copying, or textual destruction discovers that controlling books can be as profitable and dangerous as controlling armies.
The story combines the book trade, fraud, and institutional power.
It can be read independently.
Set in Stone
Set in Stone (2024): A discovery connected to inscriptions, objects, or historical evidence turns scholarly interpretation into a struggle over what the past will be allowed to mean.
The novella stands alone.
It continues Parker’s recurring examination of experts whose knowledge becomes politically valuable.
Short-Fiction Collections
Academic Exercises
Academic Exercises (2014): This collection gathers Parker’s early novellas, short stories, and nonfiction essays about weapons, armour, sieges, scholarship, magic, and the professional uses of specialized knowledge.
Major included works commonly associated with the collection include Purple and Black, Blue and Gold, A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong, Let Maps to Others, The Sun and I, and several shorter pieces.
It is an excellent entry point for readers who prefer Parker in shorter form.
The Father of Lies
The Father of Lies (2018): This collection gathers darker stories involving gods, memory, demons, false accounts, manipulation, and people who profit from controlling what others believe.
It includes The Last Witness, Downfall of the Gods, The Devil You Know, and additional short fiction.
Readers interested in Saloninus should note that The Devil You Know appears here.
Under My Skin
Under My Skin (2023): This collection brings together later Parker stories and novellas involving possession, fraud, politics, invention, religion, and narrators whose explanations rarely make them innocent.
It includes works such as Mightier than the Sword, My Beautiful Life, Prosper’s Demon, The Big Score, and several shorter stories.
Owning the collection may duplicate separately released novellas.
Do Parker’s Collections Share One Continuity?
No single continuity covers every story.
Some pieces feature recurring characters such as Saloninus or the exorcist from Prosper’s Demon. Others use separate narrators and worlds.
The collections are organized as bodies of short fiction, not as numbered novels.
Are K. J. Parker and Tom Holt Books Connected?
K. J. Parker and Tom Holt are names used by the same author, but the books are generally marketed as different bodies of work.
Parker fiction usually emphasizes secondary-world politics, technical systems, war, law, religion, and morally compromised narrators.
Tom Holt novels often use contemporary comic fantasy, mythological parody, workplace absurdity, or historical fiction.
A Tom Holt series should not be inserted into a K. J. Parker reading order merely because the author is the same person.
How Parker’s Secondary Worlds Connect
Many Parker novels use similar empires, technologies, religions, names, and historical patterns.
Some books are clearly connected through named series. Others may occupy related versions of a broader secondary world, but Parker has not supplied one complete canonical chronology linking every novel and novella.
Readers should distinguish between:
Confirmed series: Fencer, Scavenger, Engineer, Two of Swords, Siege, Saevus Corax, Loyal Opposition, Saloninus, and Prosper’s Demon.
Possible or loose world relationships: Standalones and novellas that share cultural, technological, or geographical echoes without a required narrative sequence.
A repeated institution or historical name does not automatically make one book the sequel to another.
K. J. Parker Books in Publication Order
This list focuses on the principal novels, collected serials, major novellas, and collections.
- Colours in the Steel (1998): Fencer-at-law Bardas Loredan becomes part of the defence of Perimadeia.
- The Belly of the Bow (1999): Bow-making, family history, and political violence drive the second Fencer novel.
- The Proof House (2000): The Loredan family conflict reaches its conclusion.
- Shadow (2001): An amnesiac battlefield survivor begins searching for his identity.
- Pattern (2002): Political and religious forces construct competing meanings around the survivor.
- Memory (2003): The Scavenger trilogy resolves its questions of identity and destiny.
- Devices and Desires (2005): Exiled engineer Ziani Vaatzes begins building a plan to recover his family.
- Evil for Evil (2006): Ziani’s design expands through war and diplomacy.
- The Escapement (2007): The Engineer trilogy’s human and mechanical systems reach their final movement.
- The Company (2008): Former soldiers attempt to build a peaceful settlement together.
- Purple and Black (2009): An emperor and his friend correspond during a rebellion.
- The Folding Knife (2010): Basso’s political rise is reconstructed from the knowledge of his eventual fall.
- Blue and Gold (2010): Saloninus explains a scheme involving alchemy, murder, and money.
- The Hammer (2011): Gignomai engineers an escape from his family’s control.
- A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong (2011): Musical genius, envy, and reputation create a moral trap.
- Sharps (2012): Fencers undertake a diplomatic tour with a concealed political purpose.
- Let Maps to Others (2012): Rival scholars pursue a disputed lost land.
- The Sun and I (2013): Young men create a religion and lose control of its development.
- Academic Exercises (2014): Early short fiction and technical essays are collected.
- The Two of Swords, original serial (2015 to 2016): Nineteen instalments trace a civil war and the organization manipulating it.
- Savages (2015): The trade in weapons and expertise destabilizes several societies.
- The Last Witness (2015): A memory remover becomes burdened by the lives he erases.
- The Devil You Know (2016): Saloninus attempts to out-argue a supernatural contract.
- Downfall of the Gods (2016): A goddess becomes trapped by a mortal request.
- Mightier than the Sword (2017): Writing and documents become instruments of political power.
- The Two of Swords, Volume One (2017): The first eight serial instalments are collected.
- The Two of Swords, Volume Two (2017): Serial instalments nine through fifteen are collected.
- The Two of Swords, Volume Three (2017): The final four instalments complete the collected edition.
- The Father of Lies (2018): Parker’s middle-period stories and novellas are collected.
- Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (2019): Engineer Orhan improvises the defence of an imperial capital.
- My Beautiful Life (2019): A political climber narrates his own rise and moral compromises.
- Prosper’s Demon (2020): An exorcist confronts a demon inside a brilliant creator.
- How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (2020): An actor is required to perform political authority.
- The Big Score (2021): Saloninus undertakes another technically elaborate scheme.
- Inside Man (2021): The exorcist faces another problem involving possession and control.
- A Practical Guide to Conquering the World (2022): Felix becomes involved in conquest and the creation of political order.
- The Long Game (2022): A plan built around delayed consequences tests the endurance of strategy.
- Pulling the Wings Off Angels (2022): A student attempts to exploit a captive angel and a family legend.
- Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit (2022): Manuscripts and destruction become part of a profitable deception.
- Under My Skin (2023): Later novellas and short stories are collected.
- Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead (2023): A battlefield salvager’s concealed past returns.
- Saevus Corax Captures the Castle (2023): Saevus becomes trapped inside another military and political problem.
- Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder (2023): The Corax trilogy reaches its conclusion.
- Set in Stone (2024): Historical evidence and interpretation become the centre of another Parker scheme.
- Making History (2025): Scholars are ordered to produce an answer that history may not support.
- Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead (2026): Svangerd investigates murder, church authority, and a victim who may not be entirely dead.
- Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know (2026): Svangerd is ordered to steal a dangerous book.
- Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One (Scheduled for 2026): The Loyal Opposition trilogy is set to conclude through prophecy and church conflict.
Short stories originally published in magazines or anthologies are not all separated in this list when they are readily available inside the three major collections.
Latest K. J. Parker Book
As of August 6, 2026, Parker’s latest published book was Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know.
Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know (2026): Svangerd and her priest are ordered by the Church of the Invincible Sun to steal a dangerous book, drawing them deeper into demonic activity and the operations of the Loyal Opposition.
It was published on May 12, 2026.
The next confirmed release was the trilogy’s conclusion.
Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One (Scheduled for December 8, 2026): The final Loyal Opposition novel is expected to bring Svangerd’s church assignments, supernatural enemies, and the developing prophecy into one concluding conflict.
Current Series Status
Fencer
Complete trilogy
The Proof House concludes Bardas Loredan’s sequence.
Scavenger
Complete trilogy
Memory concludes the identity and prophecy narrative.
Engineer
Complete trilogy
The Escapement completes Ziani Vaatzes’s plan.
Two of Swords
Complete serial and collected trilogy
The nineteen digital parts are available in three print volumes.
Siege
Complete three-book sequence
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World is the third published novel.
Saevus Corax
Complete trilogy
All three books were released in 2023.
Loyal Opposition
Two books published, finale scheduled
The third book was due on December 8, 2026.
Saloninus
Three principal linked novellas
Blue and Gold, The Devil You Know, and The Big Score can be read as a character sequence.
Prosper’s Demon
Two linked novellas
Prosper’s Demon and Inside Man are published, with no confirmed third volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
What K. J. Parker book should I read first?
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City is the most accessible series entry.
The Folding Knife is the strongest standalone starting point, while Prosper’s Demon is a useful shorter introduction.
Is K. J. Parker really Tom Holt?
Yes.
Tom Holt revealed in 2015 that he had been publishing the Parker books under a pseudonym.
Are K. J. Parker and Tom Holt books in the same universe?
Not as one formal continuity.
They are separate publishing identities with different tones and series.
Which Parker trilogy should I read first?
Choose the Engineer trilogy for planning and revenge, Fencer for legal combat and family tragedy, Scavenger for identity and uncertainty, or Saevus Corax for a more comic first-person voice.
Is The Siege a trilogy?
Yes.
It consists of Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, and A Practical Guide to Conquering the World.
Do the Siege books follow the same protagonist?
No.
Each book uses a different narrator, but the political world and historical consequences connect them.
Can Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City be read alone?
Yes.
Its siege has a defined narrative arc. Continue in publication order for the wider history of the empire.
Is Two of Swords one book or nineteen books?
It was originally a nineteen-part digital serial.
The complete story was later republished as three collected volumes.
What order are the Two of Swords volumes?
Read Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three.
Do not alternate them with the original digital parts.
Is Saevus Corax complete?
Yes.
The third book, Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder, concludes the trilogy.
Is Loyal Opposition complete?
Not as of August 6, 2026.
The first two books were published, and Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One was scheduled for December 8, 2026.
Are The Devil You Know and Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know the same book?
No.
The Devil You Know is a 2016 Saloninus novella.
Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know is the second Loyal Opposition novel, published in 2026.
What is the correct Saloninus order?
Read Blue and Gold, The Devil You Know, and The Big Score.
Are Prosper’s Demon and Inside Man connected?
Yes.
They follow the same unnamed exorcist and should be read in that order.
Is The Folding Knife part of a series?
No.
It is a complete standalone political novel.
Is The Hammer part of the Engineer trilogy?
No.
It is a standalone, despite its focus on technical planning and revenge.
Is Sharps part of the Fencer trilogy?
No.
It is a separate novel about a diplomatic fencing tour.
Are Parker’s books low-magic fantasy?
Many novels contain little visible magic and focus on politics, warfare, economics, and technology.
His novellas often use demons, gods, possession, miracles, alchemy, or angels more openly.
Do all Parker books share one world?
Not reliably enough to create one numbered chronology.
Some share clear series connections, while others only have similar institutions, cultures, technologies, and historical patterns.
Which collections contain the novellas?
Academic Exercises contains much of the early short fiction.
The Father of Lies gathers several middle-period works, and Under My Skin collects many later stories.
What is Parker’s latest published book?
Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know, published in May 2026.
What comes next?
Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One was scheduled for December 8, 2026.
The Most Useful Reading Route
Begin with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City when testing Parker’s style. Continue through the Siege books if the combination of engineering, unreliable narration, and imperial politics works for you.
Move to The Folding Knife for a standalone, then begin the Engineer trilogy with Devices and Desires for Parker’s most sustained treatment of planning as a weapon.
Read the Fencer, Scavenger, Two of Swords, and Saevus Corax sequences separately and in publication order.
For shorter fiction, begin with Academic Exercises or Prosper’s Demon. Read the Saloninus stories in the order Blue and Gold, The Devil You Know, and The Big Score.
For the newest series, read Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead, then Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know. Add Sister Svangerd and the Chosen One after its confirmed publication.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.