SAEVUS CORAX GETS AWAY WITH MURDER

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

K.J. Parker brings his trilogy about Saevus Corax to a conclusion win Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder. Following the events of Saevus Corax Captures the Castle, his life has once again settled down to normal. Stauricia has gone her own way and Corax is once again leading his band of battlefield scavengers. In many ways, the beginning of this book feels as if is re-setting Corax's life to where it was at the beginning of Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead, however, that isn't the case. For one thing, the reader knows secrets of Corax's life that were revealed in the first two novels, even if the majority of the characters he deals with may not be entirely aware of those revelations.

Another difference is the world in Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder. The war Corax helped postpone in the first novel now appears to be inevitable, with Aelia preparing to attack the Sashan Empire, even if everyone is convinced that the Aelian forces can't win. Although a war would seem perfect for Corax's line of work, he is insistent that war is one of the worst things for the scavengers who clean up after the battles. With a war the size of the one he sees brewing, it is too much of a good thing. To that end, he is trying to figure out how to get out of the business. Unfortunately, his men distrust him to the extent that any attempt to push them away makes them believe it is only so he can make more money and not have to share it.

While Corax spends much of the first two novels separated from all of his men, in the current book, he finds himself tied not only to Gombryas, one of his captains who collects relics of the past's great warriors, and Stauricia, who has reappeared. Everyone, with the exception of Corax, is convinced that Corax is in love with Stauracia, although he still believes the two are staunch rivals, no matter the evidence. Gombryas believes that he knows where a great treasure, golden armor from one of the earliest emperors, is kept. The three set off searching for this big score, even as the clouds of war continue to gather.

Parker spent the first two novels allowing Corax to present himself in the manner in which he wanted to be seen. At the same time, he laid the groundwork for the revelations, not only of those books, but of who Corax really is. With a price placed on his head by both his father and his sister, it is inevitable that he faces both of them in one form or another. These meetings also mean that he has to reflect on his own past and whether events occurred the way he remembered them and whether he is really the person he has led both himself and the reader to believe he is.

The strengths of Parker's trilogies are his ability to play the long game and his willingness to subvert the narrative he has written. Details introduced in the first book become important in later books, although not always in a way that can be anticipated. Parker walks an excellent tightrope between using common tropes of fantasy novels and subverting them to create surprises for the characters and the reader that allows the reader to view fantasy in a different way.

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