This series and the series that starts with Sixteen ways to defend a walled have a very similar feel of the good for nothing or at least good for very little protagonist cleverly finding the way to survive overwhelming odds that really ought to do him in. They’re very much aimed at a male reader I think but I’m enjoying them and full intend to read book three. They’ve got a fun dry humor to them and a certain scruffy charm.

Are you looking for a fun, adventure, told by a character who makes a lot of mistakes, has a penchant for a good lie or four, but cares deeply for those around him? Then this series is the series….

We join Saevus back in the battlefield collection business, having narrowly escaped his previous adventure. He is broke and now part of his crew has been kidnapped by his mother in law….or maybe monster in law. All she wants is him to capture a castle…

From there it’s quite the story, all told from the perspective of Saevus

Thank you Orbit and Net Galley for the ARC

Another boring adventure with Saevus Corax. I so want to like these books, but I just can’t. The pacing is off and it is pages upon pages of explanation and then you are hit in the face with a short action scene. And the narrator has become more annoying, not less.

This is book 2 in a trilogy, and I am obsessed with this world. I referred to the first book as ""A Knight's Tale" + "Ocean's Eleven" with a dash of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", told by an unreliable narrator with fourth wall breaks", and that holds true for this installment as well. It's not quite as quippy as book 1, but it adds some interesting introspection and emotional depth (with plenty of tongue-in-cheek commentary on said depth) to Saevus as a main character to offset the humor.

Saevus and his gang of battle salvagers end up having to carry out a siege to capture a castle being held by a familiar frenemy in order to save some of their number who are being held captive. Of course, nothing goes as planned, Saevus talks out of his ass the whole time, and the devolving of the plans and unexpected turns are the best part of the story.

This series does a great job of having each installment stand alone but still interconnect. All 3 books will be out by the end of the year, but you can dive into these without a fear of cliffhangers. If the part of heists or mysteries where everything gets explained and you can yell AHA! is your favorite part, these are for you. So excited to be starting book 3 now to see where it all ends up!

Overall, this second book of this series is an improvement over the first book. It is a more enjoyable read, and I am glad I gave this series another chance. I will give it three and a half stars as the book is still a little bit of a mixed bag for me. I will try not to go into spoilers, but what I found so enjoyable in this book was not the main plot, but to do with an interesting civilization full of "nice" and civilized cannibals, Hetsuan. If that doesn't provide a good idea of the world you will enter in this book, then I don't know what will.

The novel is a first-person narrative with a protagonist that is difficult to like, Saevus Corax. Saevus is in charge of a group of 500 that pays for the rights to scavenge battlefields. They provide the needed service of cleaning after the horrors of war. They are medieval cleaners. After a job, members of Saevus's work family are kidnapped. He is provided a task to complete, capture a castle or he will not see them again. So once again, reluctantly Saevus, must play the hero to save his work family and friends.

The whole book is an inside joke for those that like to read heroic fantasies. The protagonist is not a hero by any means, in fact, like in the first novel he does some despicable things within these pages for selfish and altruistic reasons. This isn't an adventure with a burly, muscle-bound hero looking to save the world, but a cowardly, ruthless, and devious minded main character who questions too often if he wants to be the prey or the predator.

The only negative with this book is if you don't find the inside joke humorous, you really are not going to like this book. In some ways, I truly believe that is what the author is going for. He is making light of many of the tropes of fantasy, like how character spend so much time doing nothing in their medieval worlds, but just walking from one place to another. There are pages where nothing happens and then the author will realize he is losing his audience and speed things along. You could say this egotistical narrator, the protagonist, doesn't want us to keep reading, He isn't providing us a grand adventure geared towards us as the audience that is going to be enjoyable, but is writing his adventures for himself and doesn't care if we finish the book.

With this book once again, the author has created a unique voice in this novel. And after two books with this unique voice, I hate to say this, but Saevus has grown on me over time, like a bloated, arrow-riddled corpse left out in the sun on the battlefield.

And I have to mention it again, the novel has a society of civilized cannibals in it. What isn't there to like about that?

I want to thank the publisher Orbit and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A unique premise that takes a light-hearted approach to traditional siege warfare. K. J. Parker's books are always worth a read.

I couldn't get a hold of this book fast enough! Parker pits Saevus against seemingly insurmountable odds and reminds us that in-laws are pretty much the worst!

ARC review thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley.

I just wanna say this books really aren't for me. I feel the marketing as "fantasy" is not correct and they are more like historical fiction, or alternate history.
That being said I still think the writing and character work is done really well and I liked this better than book 1 and K. J. Parker's other trilogy.
We get more of a look at Saevus's backstory and get more of the world as he has to deal with the problems life keeps throwing at him. Definitely a compelling story and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends!

Again, we get more fun with Saevus, but this time we get to deal with his horrid nightmare of an ex mother in law, and a bit more of a delve into his past. These also have the benefit of all coming out within a month of each other to keep it fresh in your mind if nothing else. Just a very specific voice you have to be in a particular mood for, and if you're not in that mood, it can be grating. Interested to see how this concludes.

More of the same from Parker, book 1 escalated quickly, this book slows down quite a bit but feels more reasonable and fun.

I have made a terrible, terrible mistake as I thought that I really like KJ Parker (having previously enjoyed 4+ books by him) and not realizing that when I requested this arc, it was part of a series. And not even the first book, oh no.

Having now read the first book... I cannot in good faith (or mental health/sanity) continue to read this series, so I'm DNFing them and giving a neutral rating on NetGalley. My sincerest apologies and thanks to the publisher.

Here is what I disliked about book 1 and why I shan't continue:

Normally I like KJ Parker and consider him at least a 3.5 of a good time. But I honestly hated every single second of this and can point out no redeemable features. I can't even say that if you normally like KJ Parker you'd be okay with this, because then I'd be in the same boat.

This is boring. It is a lot of talking between mostly gruff men who all think that they're smarter than everyone else but never actually prove any cleverness. I like in other books by KJP where he gets really nerdy and nitty gritty into the details of some little engineering or supply chain or something else mundane but builds it into useful knowledge for this plot. The best the characters in this can muster is 'hey, that's a lot of money just lying around in a place that was recently robbed. this sure does feel like a trap.'

There's also not enough plot. Every conversation flits constantly or circles back to repeat the same core concepts over and over again (mostly about "I bet you think you're clever" or "you asshole" or "I pretended I knew all along") and I couldn't form a coherent storyline in my head, but I really just think it's cause it's lacking here rather than my focus. Could be a bit of both, though, I'll give him that.

I found the writing to lack the normal background wit and levity that Parker's writing usually has. All the characters lacked any interest and were mostly just insufferable. The female character is as flat as his women characters ever are, and I didn't think it was great that he tried to lampshade it by having characters talk about how hard it is to write a believable woman. Plenty of people can succeed at this very simple task and I'm tired of the low bar.

I have found this book extremely tedious and dull.
It took me forever to read and the story didn't grab my attention not for one second.

"From one of the most original voices in fantasy comes a heroic tale of honor, friendship, and battlefield salvage.

It's important to look after your crew when you're in the battlefield salvage business. It's stressful work at the best of times, and although your employees are unlikely to be happy it makes sense to keep them alive.

So when Saevus Corax finds himself having to capture a castle to stop his men from being killed, he has no choice but to give it a try. Needless to say, the conventional rules of siegecraft are unlikely to be followed."

A little Monty Python, a little Terry Pratchett, I'm here for all these vibes.

I enjoyed this book. As with the first book, to me, the book had several strong points. The first-person narrative was enthralling and I thought that the character was very self-aware. The development of the secondary characters was very good, as was the banter between all the characters. I found the writing easy to read and very fluid. I also liked how the protagonist/narrator discussed social issues. I think that the book can be considered a stand-alone. Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advance reader copy.

I liked this one less than the first largely because it was so similar. In a world of however many millions of people, it feels a little strange to be running into that many royals, and it begins to feel like maybe the characters are given interesting positions because otherwise they can't be made to be interesting.

Saevus Corax seems at first to be an interesting character, too, but I found myself losing interest as I came to realise that he didn't have the capacity for change. He is usually one of the smarter people in the room, he's capable of significant violence, and he's going to make it through alive and unchanged. He makes plans within plans and doesn't tell the reader about them all to the point where you come to expect that there will be some reveal about a hidden aspect to the plan, and when you know that's coming it's harder to get invested in the surface level plan. He's full of interesting information about his world, and there are ways in which that information is relevant to the reader's world, but he's cynical to the point where all of his asides blur together in a wash of snark.

I've now read three books in this world with basically the same vibe, and I'm experiencing diminishing returns. The first (Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City) was novel and exciting and fantastic; the second (Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead full of enough new characters and ideas to be interesting; this one has just dragged on. I don't think I am motivated to read the next one, because I feel that the same types of things will happen, and while I enjoyed those things the first few times around, they grow old.

Saevus Corax is back for another round of high adventure. Saevus Corax was just minding his business, going out and cleaning up after a battle and cleaning things up when someone up and kidnapped most of his department heads! That someone turned out to be his mother-in-law who wanted leverage to get him to take a certain castle. Of cause there was opposition to overcome and then the challenge to figure out just what his mother-in-law was really up to. There is plenty of back-stabbing, intrigue, desperate rides, and heartache in this 2nd tale of Saevus Corax to enjoy! It will be interesting to see what K. J. Parker does with Saevus next!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this tale!

Saevus Corax Captures the Castle is the second novel in a trilogy, following Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead. But it very much stands on its own. Here, Saevus Corax is a battlefield scavenger unwillingly conscripted to capture a castle (just like the title promises). But, as with all plans that are made by or simply involve Saevus, things quickly go sideways as he tries to navigate both internal and external pressures.

Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead takes place in a world that very much feels like it could be the same as that in the Siege Trilogy for longtime K.J. Parker fans. In fact, the titular character reminded me so much of Orhan--a bit of an antihero dealing with chaos and violence with ruthless, but resigned, cleverness--that I was tempted to go back to Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. 

Like the Siege Trilogy, Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead is challenging to classify. It's probably fantasy but everything is basically grounded in some real-world physics and there aren't any dragons or other such. It's definitely funny but there is some brutality and violence. At the end of the day, for fans of the Siege Trilogy and K.J. Parker (or at least those works for Parker/Holt that are tonally similiar), it's a no-brainer.

Kj Parker.....thanks so much for another devious, witty, entertaining romp with Saevius Corax.

In the second book of the trilogy, we are introduced to many amazing characters through a system of twisty Turny adventures across the world.

Surprisingly, even to Corax himself, he lives to be available for the 3rd and supposedly final book in trilogy.

Zany "family" members, hidden royalty, and the usual fanfare of well thought out schemes to get the upper hand in ever dire situation.
Love the world, the characters and the overall

Wonderful continuation of this series. Parker has such a keen wit and sense of biting humor that makes these more than just mere fantasy stories. There's a depth to them and a feeling that you know each character personally. Simply can't wait for the third and final book in this series. A more complete review will be forthcoming on the blog in the coming weeks.

Thanks Netgalley and Orbit for the ARC, I appreciated the chance to read early!

I didn’t realize this was book two of a three book series, so now I’m going to have to hunt down book one and see what additional context it gives. I did find the plot to be pretty self contained so I don’t think I lost out on too much by skipping ahead.

The writing of this book has a rhythm to it. Short, declarative sentences with first person narration. I found it a bit jarring at first, but I was reading it at the cabin on Sept long weekend, so I was easily distracted and that didn’t help. Once I got home and settled into the last half of the book, I didn’t notice it at all.

The main character does a lot of detailed exposition throughout the book. Saevus seems like a combination of a university history professor and a ne’re-do-well scoundrel. By the end of the book, he’d grown on me a lot. Saevus might be a little hapless, but he came across as well intentioned and ultimately, savvy.

I will be looking for books one and three when they come out, as book two left me both curious about what happened before and excited about what’s happening next.

Highlights:

- Interesting time period!
- Lots of good details about the setting/world.
- Unreliable narrator and characters

Lowlights:

- Writing style took some getting used to
- All the details and explanations made it feel a little too in the weeds and like I missed a bigger picture

All posts scheduled for Nov 7.