There is no going back for any of the characters in Evil for Evil, the second book of K. J. Parker’s Engineer Trilogy. Their world is coming apart and as the facades fall we gain insight into the men and women populating it. The war machine that the engineer, Vaatzes, is constructing -- with these people as the parts -- is coming together quickly and it will permanently alter everything.

Like its predecessor, Evil for Evil is a perspicuously written novel with a complicated story and complex characters. The politics of Mezentia, the manufacturing empire that dominates all the other nations, is brought to the fore. Also in the spotlight are the motivations of all the characters as they come to grips with a new power structure in their worlds.

Parker created complex characters in the first book of the series, Devices and Desires. They are characters with flaws, scars, doubts; people forced into difficult circumstances, often due to their own bad choices. We became interested in them all and the challenge for book two is to keep us interested and up the stakes for the characters. Challenge faced, challenge met.

There is Ziani Vaatzes, the engineer at the center of this storm. He was sentenced to death because he went beyond the engineering Specifications that are the gospel in Mezentia. But he escaped and set in motion a plan to be reunited with his family - a plan that will cost everyone around him dearly.

As he subtly manipulates events in Civitas Vadanis, the city of Duke Valens, he coldly distances himself from its people, preferring to think of them as savages. He grapples with the morality of the mechanism he manufactures and takes a peek into his past. He begins to see with clarity what brought him to this path. He is also brought face to face with the fact that what he hopes to accomplish via his war may no longer be attainable.

A significant new character is introduced: the very odd Gace Daurenja. He enters the story innocently and becomes a major presence - in fact, he becomes a match for the great engineer. Daurenja has as much engineering knowledge as Vaatzes and is just as driven on his own special project. But he needs Vaatzes help to finish his project, just as Vaatzes is forced to tolerate Daurenja assistance. Their schemes will intersect, whether they like it or not.