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It looks like I haven't mentioned "A Practical Guide To Evil" yet, so here goes: It's a web series which is currently working through book five, out of a projected six. The author ought to take editing more seriously (especially since his commentators are helping), but that's not so bad as to be distracting, and the story is really good.
Summary: In this world, Good and Evil are largely essentialist, backed by a wager among the gods. Certain people have Names which grant them various powers, making them Heroes and Villains.
Twenty years ago, the Good Realm of Callow was conquered by The Dread Empire of Praes and its Legions of Terror, led by the Black Knight. It was a very thorough conquest, destroying the royal line and most of the Good institutions. Today, Catherine Foundling gathers money in the fighting pits... she's saved nearly enough to enroll in the College of War, which will let her join the Legion and rise in its ranks. She has dreams of gaining power and reforming the Empire from within. Then, in a dark alley, she is rescued by the Black Knight himself. He offers her a shortcut -- a way to gain power and position within the Empire within just a few years, instead of a lifetime of struggle. Catherine will become the Squire...
The Black Knight turns out to have some interesting ideas about the practice of Evil: “The key to the Empire maintaining control over the lands it conquered isn’t fear, my dear, it’s apathy. As long as the common people can go about their business and live their lives mostly untroubled, what do they care who their taxes go to? The Governor is making people care about who rules them again, and that is a very dangerous thing.” (Obviously, that doesn't end well for the Governor.)
But gaining a Name is only the first of her transformations. Yes, she will gain great power to change things... many things. I can't say too much about the plot without spoilers, but I will say that in the current book (Book V), her machinations were literally enough to make a saint swear... when she surrendered! She does come out of that on top (big-time), but that was only the prologue to the current arc, still in progress.
Summary: In this world, Good and Evil are largely essentialist, backed by a wager among the gods. Certain people have Names which grant them various powers, making them Heroes and Villains.
Twenty years ago, the Good Realm of Callow was conquered by The Dread Empire of Praes and its Legions of Terror, led by the Black Knight. It was a very thorough conquest, destroying the royal line and most of the Good institutions. Today, Catherine Foundling gathers money in the fighting pits... she's saved nearly enough to enroll in the College of War, which will let her join the Legion and rise in its ranks. She has dreams of gaining power and reforming the Empire from within. Then, in a dark alley, she is rescued by the Black Knight himself. He offers her a shortcut -- a way to gain power and position within the Empire within just a few years, instead of a lifetime of struggle. Catherine will become the Squire...
The Black Knight turns out to have some interesting ideas about the practice of Evil: “The key to the Empire maintaining control over the lands it conquered isn’t fear, my dear, it’s apathy. As long as the common people can go about their business and live their lives mostly untroubled, what do they care who their taxes go to? The Governor is making people care about who rules them again, and that is a very dangerous thing.” (Obviously, that doesn't end well for the Governor.)
But gaining a Name is only the first of her transformations. Yes, she will gain great power to change things... many things. I can't say too much about the plot without spoilers, but I will say that in the current book (Book V), her machinations were literally enough to make a saint swear... when she surrendered! She does come out of that on top (big-time), but that was only the prologue to the current arc, still in progress.
Congratulations! The first books I downloaded when I finally gave in and got my smartphone were PTerry's.
I had two here for a while, but this box contains, if not the entire set, a large chunk of them.
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