I have quick-talking smart-asses on the brain and in my heart, and I have been feeding that fire with KJ Parker’s massive catalog of books. Parker continues to add to this large body of work by doing stuff like releasing entire trilogies at once at alarming speed. Today’s subject is the first book in the Corax Trilogy, Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead. Parker put this book out in October 2023 and then published the sequels in November and December. So if you are looking for a new book that immediately has a wealth of additional content you can access, look no further. But what is this new series about, you ask?
Saevus Corax is the mysterious leader of a battlefield salvage team. His battalion of uniquely trained subordinates buys contracts to clean up the remains of wars, salvage what is left on the field, and sell it back to buyers looking to start new wars. The career is not without its share of dangers and difficulties, but things are going pretty well until we begin to learn that Saevus Corax has not always been Saevus Corax. As Corax’s hidden past starts to come to light he begins to find himself embroiled in truly awful political situations and must do anything and everything he can think of to keep himself afloat in a sea of misery.
I have a lot of very big feelings about Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead. Let’s start with a personal problem I had with the book. I have been reading a pretty sizable chunk of Parker novels and novellas over the last year, and I am beginning to have an issue with them all blending together. A lot of Parker’s recent work has all used the same “smartest guy in the room” style, and though the protagonists are all different on paper, they functionally feel indistinguishable. It is starting to feel a bit tired, and I was hoping that Parker would mix things up a bit. And yet, at the same time, I think Corax is probably Parker’s best “smart-guy” work yet.
There is an interesting look at human motive in this book that I really enjoyed. The entire plot is really just a nesting doll of wells that Corax keeps falling down. Each time he falls down a well, a friend or acquaintance throws them a rope to pull him out, only to drop Corax down a slightly larger well upon reaching the surface. Interestingly, Parker doesn’t make this out to be a grand statement that humans are inherently untrustworthy. Instead, we are shown that every new well drop could be explained by either betrayal or bad luck. The refusal to commit to either answer makes the entire cast feel unknowable to a degree, and I found it charming. The other byproduct of this thematic framing is Corax has more heart than most other Parker protagonists. Corax is cynical, without being nihilistically dead inside. Corax is untrusting, while still choosing to occasionally depend on others because he can’t do everything alone. While I struggled with Corax blending together with all of Parker’s other protagonists, it was this small light of hope in him that put him a step above the rest.
As for the rest of the book, the dialogue and pacing are immaculate, as always. The book moves extremely fast, and the back-and-forth between characters is always delightful. The plot was another place where I was pulled in multiple directions. I got really into the battlefield salvage part of the story early on but at about a third of the way into the book, it pivots away from the subject hard. I was disappointed I didn’t get more time with the crew, but the place Parker went instead was also good (even if I liked it less), and this is only the first book in a trilogy. I do feel like Parker left more doors open than usual at the end of this first section, and I get the sense that the Corax Trilogy will be more cohesive than some of the previous more standalone works of Parkers I have read.
Ultimately, I enjoyed Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead a lot. While I am a little concerned that Parker seems to keep writing the same story, at the same time, he is definitely getting better at it with each iteration. Originally I was going to space out the Corax Trilogy over the course of the year to give myself a bit of a break, but I am already feeling the siren’s call to read the next two books to find out what happens next. Do not be surprised if I am back soon with two more reviews for this fun series.
Rating: Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead – 9.0/10
-Andrew
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
