This must be one of the most prosaic epic fantasy novels I've ever read, a matter-of-fact, down-to-earth novel set in an imaginary world. So much so that a significant conceit, lawyers fencing to the death to decide court cases, is an anomaly albeit taken for granted by the natives but regarded as barbaric and inexplicable by outsiders.

Bardas Loredan is one of the fencing lawyers, on the brink of giving it up and founding a school of his own. A succesfully fought case, however, brings a curse on his head and ensnares assorted characters in its resolution. Meanwhile, Temrai of the Plainspeople comes to stay in the city and learn its ways. Then his father dies and he goes home to become Chief and returns with an a horde thousands strong to put his learning to use in razing the city to the ground. Bardas Loredan is put in charge of the city's defence.

It would be wrong to say that this books is free of passion and drama. Passions drive the plots, with plenty of revenge and hate under the surface, friendships are formed and there's even a suggestion of hidden attraction, but even the most driven of characters rolls up their sleeves and gets to to work learning or building or trading or fighting. And there is plenty of drama, what with fights to the death and sieges and battles and politics, but most of the people involved are pros and they go about their business with a mixture of detachment and diligence. Between Martin's High Romance with blood and mud and Abercrombie's deeply embedded cyncism comes this: Parker's workaday world.

It's terrifically readable and refreshing in its lack of need to grapple with genre conventions, putting them to work instead and making them earn their way. Highly enjoyable.