Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
Orhan is a colonel of engineers in the army of the Robur Empire, though as a milkface, a Robur subject of the wrong colour, he has always ranked at the bottom of its hierarchy. When an enemy army led by Ogus, a man from Orhan's own past, marches on the imperial capital, the city's regular defenders are out of position and its walls are undermanned. Orhan has no real experience of war, only of bridges and drains, but he is put in charge of the defense anyway, and sets about improvising fortifications, weapons and strategy from whatever the city has to hand. Told in Orhan's own wry, self-deprecating voice, this is a siege novel about logistics and engineering as much as swordplay, and about a man who has spent his life on the outside of the empire he is now the only one able to save.
A colonel of engineers and former slave of the Robur Empire, cunning and insubordinate, put in charge of defending a city he has never fully belonged to.
Commander of the besieging army and a man from Orhan's own past, who keeps treating Orhan as a friend even while trying to take his city.
The city's prefect, who recognizes Orhan's competence and makes him the city's best hope against the siege.
A carpenter whose skill and craftsmanship prove as vital to the city's defense as any soldier's.
The daughter of an old friend of Orhan's, a tavern keeper's child he feels a strong sense of responsibility for.
Yes. It's the first book in K. J. Parker's "The Siege" trilogy, followed by How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (2020) and A Practical Guide to Conquering the World (2022). Each book follows a different narrator within the same world, and it can be read on its own.
No. Despite being shelved as fantasy, it's set in an invented, Roman-like empire with no magical or supernatural elements. The "fantasy" here is a fictional secondary world, not spellcasting; the conflict is won or lost through engineering, logistics and cunning.