K. J. Parker is an author of fantasy fiction. The name is a pseudonym and the writer's true identity has never been revealed. Very little is definitely known about Parker, even his or her gender, and there has been speculation as to his or her real name.
While Parker's stories take place in alternate universes with invented geographies and histories, some of the typical features of fantasy fiction such as explicit use of magic are not present. The stories tend to have tragic themes with characters whose actions are unintentionally, ultimately self-destructive.
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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.[1] According to an autobiographical note, Parker was raised in rural Vermont, a lifestyle which influenced Parker's work.[2] This note implied that Parker is female, a supposition supported by a page on Parker's French publisher's website.
Parker is known to have a connection with the author Tom Holt; in a 2010 interview with Parker, Holt mentioned that they had known each other for some years, and Parker had shown Holt his or her first novel, which he then showed to his agent who sold it.[3]
In Parker's novel The Folding Knife, it is mentioned that the Auxentines once fought the Aram Chantat, one of the major powers portrayed in the Engineer trilogy. This suggests that both works take place in the same world. Both books make use of the 'scorpion' bolt-launching siege weapon, but in The Engineer books its design is a guarded secret, which logically places The Folding Knife chronologically later.
The story A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong is set in Perimadeia and the narrator is from Ap’Escatoy, two cities featured in the Fencer trilogy. A character in the story is named Subtilius of Bohec though the narrator disavows knowledge of the whereabouts of Bohec. The Bohec valley figures prominently in the Scavenger trilogy. This suggests all three works take place in the same world.
In the novella Purple and Black, the Vesani empire draws some of its auxiliaries from the Aram no Vei, one of the tribes that the Cure Hardy of the Engineer trilogy are fleeing from. Arms dealers make use of banks in Perimadeia, the Triple City of the Fencer trilogy
The Fencer trilogy follows Bardas Loredan, a fencer-at-law.
The Scavenger trilogy is about a man, or possibly god, who wakes up on a battlefield with amnesia and discovers that he is being hunted by enemies he no longer remembers.
The Engineer trilogy features an engineer, Ziani Vaatzes, who is forced into exile from his home city and plots an elaborate revenge.