A while back, I became a fan of K. J. Parker. It started when I read an eARC of A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K.J. Parker and loved it! It was grabby (in a “can’t put this book down” kind of way) and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I said I’d be looking out for more books by K. J. Parker and I later really enjoyed an eARC of the Long Game and Pulling the Wings off Angels, which were both delightful books! After that, I went back and read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City and How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, which were also wonderful. Parker’s books that I have read have been first person tales whose protagonists are usually clever bastards (in a thoroughly enjoyable manner).
The titular Saevus Corax is no different - a man who is too clever by half that runs a business reclaiming armor and other loot from battlefield corpses. I don’t want to spoil the plot, which was full of delightful surprises, but suffice it to say that Corax is more than he originally appears, and he cleverly gets into and out of various and sundry scrapes.
When I tried to start reading this book the first time, I wasn’t quite in the mood for it, and couldn’t get more than a few pages in, but when I went back to it, I could not put it down. It has that same grabbiness as the other Parker books that I have read.
With Parker’s books, you know exactly what you were going to get. This book feels very similar to every other Parker book that I’ve already read, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone that has ever enjoyed any of his books before should enjoy this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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