Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on March 31, 2021 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
The Big Score by KJ Parker
The Big Score is an upcoming fantasy novella from author KJ Parker, and the third in his Saloninus series of novellas, although it works perfectly fine as a stand alone (indeed, I haven't read the prior works in the series). It's more of a comedy/heist novella than a fantasy story, featuring Saloninus, Parker's vain as hell supergenius always down on his luck theif/con-man and unreliable narrator, as he tries to start anew after faking his death, only to get involved with one of his old associates, a woman who always cheats him.
The Big Score is the first I've read of Parker's works, and honestly it's pretty fun for its short duration, which makes me want to check out the prior works at least in this series. Still, even though I enjoyed this one, it definitely lost steam in its second half, as the novella lost its free form narrative and focused more specifically on the titular "big score." So I probably wont' be in too much of a hurry to catch up with the rest of the series.
Plot Summary: Saloninus - the world's greatest genius, writer of the world's best plays, discoverer of most of its greatest discoveries, and of course....notorious con-man - is dead. And so, as he attends his own funeral, Saloninus figures he'll be able to move on in the world and can finally use his own genius without fear of being apprehended by the authorities worldwide. Except, all of his stashes of money seem to have been plundered. And his fake death didn't convince one person, a woman with whom he's worked before, the world's greatest forger, who has always double-crossed him in the end, but who brings with her the promise of one big heist using his genius to set them both up for life....the big score.
Thoughts: So I went into this cold, having not read either of the two prior Saloninus novellas, and this works quite well right from the get-go as a very humorous novella. The story is told from Saloninus' first person perspective, and he's so vain, so unreliable as a narrator, so insanely boastful of his own accomplishments and dismissive of the consequences of those actions, that it's hard not to laugh quite a bit, especially in the first half of this short novella. And the start of the heist sequence, as Saloninus tries to help the forger (who's never given a name here for some reason) deal with an ambassador who might recognize her, is also really fun and clever in how it plays out.
And then it kind of peters out a little bit, with the back half dealing with Saloninus creating a new brilliant play that they can pass off as a long undiscovered work worth a ton of value now that he's "dead", and the story just gets a bit too interested in the uninteresting details of creating the forgery and then the aftermath. Oh it's all clever and the story is short enough that it doesn't really drag or get boring, but it just isn't as fun as the parts preceding it all (presumably because unlike the prior cleverness, we don't really get to see the play). So yeah, this novella is pretty fun and humorous, but also very skippable and there's a lot more fun stuff out there at novella length I probably would recommend first.
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