I heard so many good reputations about this author, but Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead was my actual opportunity to read from his writing. I started without expectations and in the end he got new fans!

Saevus Corax is new character from trilogy. It got me hooked since earlier narration. I love Corax as narrator, he remind me of Locke Lamora (my face character) with his funny, witty banter and high level sarcasm. Corax and his crew make scavenge battlefields sound like truly high management business. I enjoyed the plot and the writing style. The pace is perfect and each chapters very engaging. I love the way Corax's background unrevealed and gave me big pleasant surprises.

I just wished there is more war strategies, political court and extra longer tactical to gave Corax extra growth. I cant wait to read the next installment.

4.5/5

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Publisher from Little Brown Books UK for providing copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Expecting Publication : 5 Oct 2023

KJ Parker is actually Tom Holt, so expect a sure hand on the pen, quirkiness, and a delicious unreliable narrator. Saevus Corax deals with the dead in several ways. Firstly (and most literally) he leads a team of battlefield scavengers who reclaim armour, clothing, valuables etc. from the fallen and then dispose of the bodies. It’s a job, and he doesn’t have to actually fight the battles. Secondly he’s still dealing with the accidental death of his brother, an accident that drove him from home, on the run for murder, and caused him to change his name. But his past and his real name are both catching up with him when his uncle looks likely to die and our hero is kidnapped and taken to face the inheritance he never wanted. Is he going to get out of this, and if so, how?

dnf. this didn't grip me enough to continue which is a shame as the premise sounded so good. also, the long chapters got me.

3.5 stars
I think that if you enjoyed the previous series by this author, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and sequels, you would highly enjoy this one too. I have only read the first book of the previous series (and obviously I enjoyed it enough to keep reading the author's works) but there are a lot of similarities between the two: the general vibes, the tone of it, but also the MC and the fact that they seems to always came out on top, even when things don't go as planned and disaster is near.
And this last thing is the one thing that I really appreciate about this book: our main character, Saevus is not a winner.
He and his crew scavenge battlefields, and they have to contend with other crews, too. I'll be back to the MC in a moment, but I want to spend some words on his job. He is a scavenger and in this world this is not a thing of opportunity, scavenging is a proper business, and there are regulations and tax (obviously!) and things like that (and this reminded me a bit of Pratchett's world, in the best possible way. The subtle, but not too sublte, irony of it all was exquisite!).
But, even if it is a proper activity, it's far from glamorous or profitable ( I mean, they can live with it, but I don't see them becoming rich with that), and they are still scavengers so... there is not so much shine to it all. And sure, Saevus is good at what he does, and his crew is made up with people that know what they are doing too, but it is a dangerous job, strctly linked with politics and the twists of it.
So... he is not a winner (and mind me, he has a past that we don't know a thing about, at least for a good chunk of the book, and that would make things all the more interesting, but that won't change this single fact) and he is also the perfect scapegoat for the winner of this world. He is resourceful and lucky, he is like the personification of one of the trickster Gods, really! And I loved that even when all seems going against him, in the end, with his wits and his luck he came out on top. And mind me, this does not mean that he became a winner, or that things start getting amazingly well for him and his crew, just that, in the end, he manage to come out on top.
(And I don't think this is a spoiler, since this is the first book in a series, so it would be quite strange for the MC to die in the first installment, right??)

Anyway, this part aside, it is a good book, with irony and humor in every aspect of it, and with an interesting plot, with twists and turns. It is never boring! I appreciated it quite a lot, even if I didn't love it. I think that, from time to time, it tried too hard. But still, I had a great time with it, and I appreciated a lot of things. I am happy to have read it, and I would read more books by this author!

I enjoyed this one, but it wasn't a new favourite. I thought Saevus had a great voice as the protagonist and liked his interactions with both the Sisters and the Knights, but the plot itself was a bit convoluted and confusing in places to establish exactly what the main point was. I think the world is interesting and will definitely read the next book in the series and I am hopeful that the second installment might have a more straight forward plot.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The descriptions were too long and the plot did not hold my interest. The only advantage was the rather dark sense of humour.

This book is really funny, a very dry humour that I appreciate.

I haven't read anything by this author before as it isn't my typical genre, but the plot was engaging although reliant on the next in the series. I found it a good pace, and enjoyed the world building, although I felt that the other characters could have been built up a little.

I will definitely read more in the series.

“Just as I was about to leave the big tent, a voice called out a name, one I hadn’t heard in years. … He said the name again; then, “It’s me.” I knew that, of course. “My name is Saevus Corax,” I told him. “Do I know you?” I wasn’t lying. I’d just left a word out: nowadays my name is Saevus Corax.”

My thanks to Little, Brown Group U.K. Orbit for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead’ by K. J. Parker.

This is Book 1 in Parker’s Saevus Corax Trilogy. In it Saevus Corax tells his story. He quite openly declares himself an unreliable narrator and compares lying to farming or landscaping; as a way to “control your environment and make it better”. It’s a bold statement and sets the tone for what follows.

Currently he makes a decent living as a Battlefield Salvage Contractor, through some would call him a grave robber. He and his crew clear battlefields: picking things up such as swords, armour, and arrows and of course disposing of the bodies. Not the nicest job but somebody has to deal with the dead.

Something else that Saevus has buried is his past. Unfortunately, in this he didn't quite succeed….

Before I started reading I wasn’t aware that K. J. Parker is the pen name of Tom Holt. While I have read a number of Holt’s books, this is my first experience of K. J. Parker.

As this is the first in a trilogy, I will reserve my judgement on the plot as I am planning on reading all three. There was plenty of action in this novel and Saevus’ tongue-in-cheek narration was very entertaining.

Overall, I found ‘Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead’ a great introduction to Parker’s work with strong character development and world-building. I look forward to reading more adventures with Saevus Corax and company.

An entertaining book but my issue is that the main character feels like any of the main characters from the previous first person trilogy from KJ parker I've read. Zany and sardonic and arrogant. If you had told me this was the same person form 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City I would believe you.

And unfortunately, it's just not a character type I like that much. This voice was maybe a bit better than that trilogy, but I still struggled with it.

Although, I did audio for this one and I think the narrator, while technically good, is mismatched for this book. So I will try the second one physically and see if that helps.

The start of a new trilogy set in the same world as his 'Siege' books, staring a very unreliable narrator (he would use the word Devious but that quality he considers a virtue). Everything we are told is up for question, including his name!
Told in a very definite 'dry' shaggy story style, where the listener just knows he should keep a hand on their coin purse, this is the life story of Saevus Corax who leads a rag tag team of battlefield scavengers. When they are set up to take the fall for a crime they didn't commit, Saevus suspects that his past has caught up with him, and it has but in a very different way then he expects. He soon finds himself caught between two large forces and the only person in the world who might be able to stop the biggest war in history.
You dont have to read the Siege books first but it does add a lot of enjoyment to Saevus's story.

K.J. Parker leans into his niche with this witty low fantasy novel centred around a crafty battlefield scavenger with a complicated past.


Saevus Corax is your typical Parker protagonist – smart (in a crafty way), not quite as good with people as he thinks, both luck and unlucky, a shaky morality and a couple areas of expertise that seem to be endlessly applicable to engineering, warfare and economics (in this case his scavenging career and a previous stint as a dependable playwright). He’s not my favourite Parker protagonist, but he’s got a solid enough voice to carry the story, and his background is uniquely interesting.

In fact, it’s his history that drives the plot, although that’s not apparent until a chunk into the novel, as things happen to him without him being sure exactly why at first. As he explains, Saevus Corax is not his only name, and with his other life (or lives) comes baggage enough to cause problems with a reach far beyond his own life (which is frequently in danger). There are of course, plenty of battles of wit and strategy, although Corax is unique perhaps in the way that he is trying desperately hard to prevent a big blowout war (so long as his own life can be preserved in the process.

The weakest part of the book is probably the supporting cast – there are a couple of prominent side characters who have good parts, but the rest are numerous enough that their relatively low page time makes them more forgettable than they deserve.

All in all, it’s a pretty typical K.J. Parker novel, and despite being the first of a trilogy, ends in a pretty satisfying way. It’s hard to say whether I’d recommend it to a Parker newbie – it’s a little slow to get to the main point, and there are better entrypoints to his work. This is a very enjoyable yarn though, especially for those who enjoy Parker’s worlds with the heavy helping of wit that his novellas and more recent novels bring

Rating: 8/10

This is a review of the whole trilogy so it will be shared for the three books
KJ Parker is one of the most original writer in the current fantasy world and the characters are always well rounded, quirky, sarcastic and ready to tell their side of the story.
I was lucky to read the entire trilogy and this is another treat: gripping, fast paced and highly entertaining.
The charachters, the world building and the storytelling are in the typical Parker's style and I loved them from the first page till the last.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A KJ Parker book.

If, like me, you've read other books by KJ Parker, you're certainly familiar with Parker's snarky main characters telling the story from their point of view and breaking the fourth wall several times throughout their narrative.

Having read The Siege trilogy and several of Parker's novellas, I have to admit, I prefer the shorter works. I enjoyed Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead, but I would have enjoyed it much more had it been shorter.

From one of the most original voices in fantasy comes a twisted tale of murder, betrayal, and battlefield salvage.

There’s no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armour, 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.

This week, I’m taking a look at the recently released Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K J Parker. The story really couldn’t be simpler*. Saevus Corax has an uncanny knack for rubbing people up the wrong way. Cleaning up after battles should be a straightforward business, everyone who could cause a problem is usually dead, but after managing to irritate the two largest militant banking orders on the entire continent Saevus is forced to go on the run. Stumbling from one potentially lethal incident to the next, this joyfully chaotic series of ever-escalating events is a great deal of fun**.

More through luck than judgment, Saevus finds himself at the epicentre of everything. He’d rather go about his business and get onto the next job but fate has other ideas. In an effort to outwit his pursuers, Saevus has to try and always stay five or six steps ahead. It’s really not Saevus’ fault that the best course of action to keep himself alive almost inevitably coincides with doing the right thing. He’s adamant that he doesn’t care one way or the other. As long as his head remains firmly on his shoulders, he continues to breathe, and all the inside squidgy bits stay firmly inside he’ll do whatever it takes to maintain the status quo.

Upon reflection, I suspect that nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to Saevus Corax. I’m not sure our erstwhile protagonist can even be viewed as a hero. Unwitting hero at best, perhaps. It’s not that he’s bad perse but he’s not really a very good either. Put it this way, if a person can mark their worth in the world based on the number of enemies they have, then Saevus is a rich man indeed. The queue lining up to wish him harm does certainly seem impressively long. There also appear to be new people adding to the end of it every day. That all said, I’m also sure Saevus is the sort of person it would be great fun to socialise with. He’d likely lead you on a merry old pub crawl. I don’t doubt for a moment that Saevus would know all the best places to visit. I’m also fairly confident however you’d wake up the next morning in a cell and your wallet would be suspiciously absent.

Also along for the ride Saevus’ crew of associates are a grumpy, but essentially well-meaning, lot. There is a lot of money to be made after the outcome of any violent clash. As long as their boss treats them fairly, and does all the complicated thinking for them they are prepared to follow Saevus anywhere. It’s just as well, as it turns out he is going to need all the help he can get.

As an aside, I’ll admit that I’ve not read any of K J Parker’s other novels but if they’re on a par with this then I can only imagine they are jolly entertaining. I’ll need to go and check them out.

When it comes to fiction I firmly believe writing something funny is one of the trickiest tasks. Events in Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead are never laugh-out-loud funny, but then I’m not sure I expected them to be. This is the sort of fiction that elicits a wry smile or a knowing chuckle. Saevus is a creature of pure snark. He always has a barbed comment or witty rejoinder at hand. The comedy comes from Saevus often thinking he is the smartest person in the room and that not always being the case. He manages somehow to be irritating, charming and endearing in the same breath. In a similar vein to George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman, there is a delightfully roughish charm to Saevus Corax that means you can’t help but grin at his latest outlandish utterance.

Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead is published by Orbit and is available now. It’s the first book in a trilogy so there will definitely be more to come. How very splendid.

My musical recommendation to accompany this novel is the soundtrack to the game Ruined King by Garth Coker. It’s a jaunty little fantasy affair, much like the book I’m choosing to pair it with.

*By which I mean it all gets very complicated very quickly. Essentially Saevus is playing an elaborate shell game that will determine the fate of nations. He may also be causing bucketloads of chaos just to satisfy his own deliciously twisted sense of humour.

**For the reader, not for Saevus. He has a terrible old time of it all.

Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead is the latest from K.J. Parker, and the start of a new series from them, to boot. Not to speak out of school, but it’s another solid entry, bringing the trademark wry wit blended with occasional violence, entwined with a story with as many twists and turns as a…twisty, turny thing. I’ll be the first to admit that I was never quite sure where the tale was going to take me next, but that I absolutely enjoyed every second of finding out.

As is typical for Parker, we have a protagonist whom we might charitably describe as “morally grey”, or less charitably as “a bit of an arsehole”. Saevus Corax, for it is he, makes up for it with both a bounty of charm, and a voice which is razor sharp, horribly cynical, and unforgiving of his own flaws. Saevus Corax may be an arsehole, but he knows that, and makes no apologies. Well, he might make an apology, but he’s still going to steal your horse. Or possibly hit you over the head and take your boots. Hard to say, really. For all that though, Saevus Corax is a charmer. He’s someone who likes to talk, who can make the glibbest lie seem plausible. And, in fairness to him, he’s also got a shiny trap of a mind, full of gears and wheels. Because you can always see him falling from one crisis to another, but what you can’t see is whether that particular crisis is also something he’s made into an opportunity. It is, to be honest, tricky to get one around on Saevus Corax, and he’d be the first to tell you so. It helps that he has a fun supporting cast, but if I’m honest, this is largely a one person show, a man thrown into the firmament by the vagaries of chance and his own survival strategies.

As usual with Parker, that firmament may end up being rather bigger than you expect. There’s a lot of world on display here, all of it clearly precision-crafted. We can wade through mud and blood and bodies, digging for teeth, straightening arrowheads, and asking questions like “Saevus Corax, would you say battlefield salvage is a good gig?”. Or we can approach lavish courts, and regal suites with high and oddly barred windows, to learn about how one nation survives as a counterbalance between conflicting empires. We can talk about the economics of murder, the economics of nation-states, and how those probably aren’t quite the same thing. The sense of history is always there, in the grime and the dirt and the banal humanity amongst the grandeur, and the surprising divinity of the humane amongst the grime. It’s a sprawling world, from sea battles to mud puddles and back around again, and it’s a world that makes sense to itself, both immediately and on a larger scale. Each character is taking sensible steps, and together, they’re changing the weft and warp of their world - and occasionally we may pull our vantage back and be able to see that. Or perhaps not, this time. In any case, the world is richly imagined, vividly described, and I’m rather grateful I don’t live there.

I already alluded to the story, and honestly, that’s all I can do without giving something away. It begins on a battlefield, but inside the first twenty or so pages, we;re having expectations upended, and truths turned into lies (and, perhaps, back again later). The story is at once personal, the story of Saevus Corax and how he got where he is, and epic in the sense that it’s about a world changing around a focal point, around central events - or just by chance. It’s a story that blends those two perfectly, makes you care, and is going to make you keep turning pages until you’re done. K.J. Parker at his best, and that’s saying something.

KJ Parker’s stock in trade is a sardonic cynicism, allied with dark humour and an eye for the realities of a situation that epic fantasy often overlooks. So it’s entirely logical that his latest is about someone making a living from battlefields in the aftermath of bloody conflicts. That’s where it starts anyway - Saevus Corax goes on quite the journey through this book. And you’ll enjoy going on it with him - it’s a good fun read, as long as you are the sort of person who can find the fun in treachery, betrayal, and corpse disposal, of course….

Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead is told in the first-person narrative. When we first meet Corax, it is after a battle. Corax, along with his company, are battlefield salvage contractors, recovering what they can from the slain (armour, arrows, etc.) dealing with the dead and selling the items off. When an old colleague unexpectedly appears Corax is framed for a crime he possibly didn't commit. The story takes us on a journey of cat-and-mouse where Corax tries to outrun his past, while his past does its best to try to catch up. As with many Parker stories, there are plenty of darkly humorous moments. As Corax’s journey progresses we understand increasingly more about him and the world, the same linked world for all of his stories often classified as Parkerland.

Parker is excellent at character development. Saevus Corax is very devious and continually holds part of himself back so you only get a version of the truth rather than the whole truth. This narrative device does work and propels the story narrative forward. Corax is very self-aware which makes for a narrative that is cynical, witty and often insightful like many Parker's books and characters. The development of the secondary characters is also very well done. The plotting is clever and very twisted and caught me by surprise on more than a few occasions.

Parker is at his best when he writes snarky, clever protagonists, Corax is no exception.
My thanks to both Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for an e-arc and an honest review.

This book certainly wasnt what I expected reading the description.
Its humorous, cynical and touches on a lot subjects regarding war, politics and friendship.
Its rather on the slow side, takes a while to get into things and at times drags on.

This book sides on the more 'real life' rather than full on fantasy which isnt typically what I look for.

It was an enjoyable read but just not the series for me.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I loved K J Parker’s siege trilogy and believed I would love this too. The humour was just as good as I’d expect but unfortunately the premise of the book, the scavenging of the dead and body disposal just sat wrongly with me and prevented me from enjoying the book. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Algunas veces me parece que hay escritores que tienen un plantilla y que de ahí van sacando todas sus novelas. Como dice mi amigo Josep María Oriol de una manera acertada, aunque un poco cruel, Peter F. Hamilton escribe sobre “megalómanos multimillonarios que salvan a la humanidad de una especie extraterrestre”. Y no le falta razón, pero también es importante cómo se cuente la historia.


En Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead Parker repite la fórmula que ya le funcionó con How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It y la sigue punto por punto. Cuenta las cosas en primera persona, haciendo un uso exquisito del narrador no confiable, añade más detalles sobre su Parkerverso que generan una ganas terribles de que saquen un atlas sobre el mundo y su historia, el protagonista entre otras cosas es escritor de obras de teatro… Y, por supuesto, no lo hace mal. Pero es que yo ya le he leído esta historia varias veces y al final el interés se pierde y las ganas de seguir leyendo menguan, porque ya imaginas por dónde van a ir los tiros (a poco que tengas algo de memoria, porque ya has leído el libro gemelo de este).

El afilado escalpelo que el autor utiliza para diseccionar los sistemas económicos y religiosos de su Parkerverso, que no son más que trasuntos de los nuestros, desvela todas las miserias que los oropeles pretenden ocultar. Ese elemento admonitorio que es una constante en su obra por supuesto que está presente aquí también, aunque creo que es de una forma más patente todavía. El equilibrio de fuerzas del que hace uso el protagonista para mantener el status quo mientras espera encontrar una salida a la peliaguda situación en la que se encuentra es un ejercicio de malabarismo espectacular. Pero tiene que recurrir a la repetición de varias situaciones que engordan la novela de forma innecesaria y algo cansina.

Lo curioso es que se trata del primer libro de una trilogía, así que siempre queda el interés por saber cómo continuará la historia.

KJ Parker también aprovecha para darnos una lección magistral sobre la logística posterior a las batallas, de una forma tan eficiente y meticulosa que nos hace olvidar que están despojando a los cadáveres de sus posesiones para revenderlas al mejor postor tras haber pagado a los contendientes por los derechos de esos mismos soldados muertos. El principio del libro da cuenta de qué se hace con cada armadura, túnica, bota, joya y despojos corporal que queda en el campo de batalla. Y para no dar puntada sin hilo, también habla de las inevitables corruptelas que ocurren durante los aprovisionamientos de los ejércitos. Todo expuesto de una manera tan fría y calculada que ni siquiera pestañeas.

En resumen, si ya has leído otras obras del autor, pues esta es más de lo mismo. Puede que la disfrutes porque tiene elementos muy atractivos, pero a mí me ha resultado repetitiva no en sí misma, si no por el bagaje lector de este escritor que ya llevo a mis espaldas.