Purple and Black
K.J. Parker
Subterranean Press, 2009
U.S. hardcover, deluxe hardcover edition
ISBN 978-1-59606-241-2
120 pages; $25.00

I tried to find out a few things about K.J. Parker before writing this review, but all I discovered is that she is “enigmatic.” The name is a pseudonym; the Fantastic Fiction website refers to her as someone who has worked in journalism and the law who now “writes and makes things out of wood and metal.” I’m not even certain that “she” is the correct pronoun. It’s all very mysterious.

There’s nothing mysterious about Purple and Black, though. It’s another of Subterranean Press’s novella-length books, and a very fine one, too. It is an epistolary novel, containing letters between an emperor – one whose empire seems very Roman in character – and the former schoolmate he has appointed as the governor of Upper Tremissis, a province that is the focus of an insurgency. Official communications between the two are written in flowerly language in purple ink: “Phormio begs to inform his His Majesty that he has safely arrived at Tremissis City, and has assumed control of the civil and military administration.” The less formal and much lengthier portion of any message is written in the vernacular, in black:

You are, of course, an unmitigated bastard. Not content with dragging me away from my chair at Anassus, which I worked bloody hard to earn and which will not go to that pinhead Atho, you made me waste three months of my life in a military academy, of all places, and now you’ve dumped me here, in the last place on earth, surrounded by snow, soldiers and savages. What the hell did I ever do to you?

Obviously, the former school friend persona is more in evidence than the formal governor persona; and the emperor responds in the same form. It’s clear that both men are young and still idealistic, thrust into positions of power that they’re smart enough to handle as an intellectual exercise, but a bit too naïve to manage as well as more seasoned men might. It’s one thing to read about how to handle an insurgency in Art of War, and pretty much as easy to order soldiers to perform a certain task, but quite a different one to deal with the consequences.

One would suppose that a book about an insurgency and how the government deals with it would either be relatively dry or entirely vicious – or a combination of both. This book isn’t. It’s moving: sad, even bittersweet, much more emotionally touching than I expected when I picked it up. It is so well-written that the reader genuinely feels he knows these characters, and their dilemmas. Seeing what happens to them, then, is painful. This was not the military drama I expected, but something much more.

Purple and Black is my introduction to Parker, and I intend to read more of her work. There’s much more to be read; three trilogies and two stand-alone novels are currently in print, and a new novel is already scheduled for 2011. I’ve sampled the first few pages of The Company, and I can see that I’ll be sucked into it in exactly the same way I was captured by Purple and Black. Parker is a major new find for me. I’m delightedly anticipating the hours I’ll be spending in the worlds she’s created.