Published: October 3, 2023
Publisher: Orbit Books
Series: Corax Trilogy #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400 (Kindle)
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
There’s no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armor, arrows – and the bodies, of course.
Over the years, Saevus Corax has picked up a lot of things. Some of them have made him decent money, others have brought nothing but trouble. But it’s a living, and somebody has to deal with the dead.
Something else that Saevus has buried is his past. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite succeed.
Prior to picking up Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City several years ago I had never read any of K.J. Parker’s (aka Tom Holt) books, but after that I was solidly a fan. The character’s voice was snarky and full of wry humor which perfectly counterbalanced the plot, which was a city besieged with no way out. So imagine my delight when I picked up Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead and found a book with another snarky character full of gallows humor!
We first meet Saevus Corax as he’s cleaning up a battlefield – some might call folks like that scavengers, but for him and his crew of five hundred it’s just business. They have rival businessmen they must face, quotas to meet, and profits to turn. Someone recognizes our shifty main character for who he really is and that someone suddenly becomes a corpse – woops, doc couldn’t save him after the battle. Who is the narrator of this tale, exactly?
Saevus Corax, who we rarely hear called by his name (any of them), is narrating this tale in the form of a memoir. He’s recording the true story of the Battle of Sirupat, which we haven’t gotten to quite yet, and is determined to make himself out to be a horrible villain. He’s moderately evil, but his main focus is self preservation because he really likes being alive. This point is proven time and time again throughout the book and despite the repetition (or perhaps because of it) I remained amused.
“Yes, you can be a real piece of work sometimes. But if you’re trying to make yourself out as some kind of unspeakable monster that needs to be put down for the sake of humanity, you’ve got delusions of grandeur.”
The plot is chock full of stuff happening, and “stuff” was a particular word choice. Saevus is always in the midst of some event or another, whether that be a pitched sea battle or an assassination attempt, and largely you spend the book wondering where this all might be going and what the point of it is. I found that I didn’t much mind the meandering thanks to the humorous bent of the story, but I do think it could put off some readers. I had a good time reading this, and honestly, that was enough for me!
Powder & Page 
Sometimes a good time is just what you need. This actually sounds pretty good😁
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