People keep going back to fast food and fast casual chains because of the predictability - they know they will like what they get. I don’t mean to demean this book by saying that the Saevus Corax books by KJ Parker are like that - you know what you’re going to get and if you like it, you’re really going to like it.
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. In this novel, Corax is blackmailed into capturing the titular castle, but the book spins off in some unexpected directions from there. Like in many of his books, Parker’s treatment of women seems odd and stilted, and I didn’t buy the romantic angles of this book, but I kept being surprised by the surprises and the betrayals.
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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