Honestly, this ended up being a gorgeous, melancholic end to the trilogy. The ghost of a grand haul haunts the whole thing, with the world slowly starting to fall apart around them, betrayals by long term friends and the last of Saevus' family, and a love story you may have saw coming but know it won't end well for anyone involved. I was lucky enough to be able to read these one after the other; the trilogy comes out in October, November, and December, pick it up for the holidays and curl up with them by a fire.

A bittersweet end to the trilogy, all the plot lines wrapped up in one way or another but I did feel the plot was slightly lacking and wasn't as compelling or engaging as book one and two.

I liked this book better than Book 1, but I think Book 2 is still my favorite. I thought this was a fitting end to the trilogy. This book is more weight-y and emotional than the previous two installments. It really felt like the trauma just finally caught up.

I really enjoyed the deep dive into the concept of war and what purposes for which war exists. Which was a kind of an ironic anthology given the exceedingly long list of bodies collected throughout the book.

All and all, a fitting end.

More of the same from Parker, continues the pace of Book 2 without losing any of the great prose. A lot of fun.

I loved this book. As with the first two books, 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. If I had one minor quibble with the book, it is that near the end there was too much introspection that interrupted an otherwise exciting story. Great book, nonetheless. Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advance reader copy.

Loved loved loved every moment of this. Fantastic ending to an amazing trilogy. Love Parker, and he hits it out of the park yet again.

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.

Super surprising and interesting end for readers of the first two books in the trilogy! In the first two volumes, Saeus Corax is a funny (within the bounds of a chaotic, violent world) and clever antihero. But he doesn't necessarily exhibit a tremendous amount of growth or engage with the emotional stakes of his actions all that much. But this book brings in the irresistible forces of both love and war with quite unexpected (both as to plot action and as to tone) results. It is, in some ways, the most complete work of the trilogy if not quite the same fun/light read. Even so, just as with the other books in the series, if you like Parker/Holt's books, you will likely like this one too!

Not my cup of tea. There is something in the writing style that makes this book a real pain in the back.

If you’re going to get ahead in the battlefield salvage business, you have to regard death as a means to an end. In other words, when the blood flows, so will the cash. Unfortunately, even though war is on the way, Saevus Corax has had enough.

Very interesting, funny, and well-written!

This book is a perfect ending to this trilogy, and I've had to revise my expectations a bit. In the first two books, Saevus bumbles along from one predicament to the next but always manages to emerge relatively unscathed. I mean, sure, his wife thinks he's going to kill her and he has never met his daughter, and lots of his friends/employees die, but he weathers these upsets after taking some down time. In this book, he is manipulated and abused terribly by his sister, and he is unable to bumble his way out of that. His utter inability to reject his sister actually had me pretty triggered. Thing just spiral downward. Saevus does, in fact, get away with more than one murder, and in the end things work out delightfully, but the poor man was already emotionally scarred from the incident with his brother, and now his trauma increased exponentially. The books have a lighthearted tone to them until this one, which felt so much more weighty, but maybe because I have emotional baggage about sisters myself. Still, terrifically written, full of interesting events and asides, and ultimately very impressive!

Another fun little story from the mind of KJ Parker. I really enjoyed his Prosper's Demon duology, and he replicates the same dark humor and philosophical musings in his Saevus Corax books. I think I struggled with this one more than the others just due to the sheer amount of violence and gore, which has always been a feature of the books but never so visceral. I did, however, like unpredictable nature of the story and the surprises of certain plot points.

Thanks immensely to KJ Parker & Netgalley for giving me the ability to read this book for my honest opinion.

The 3rd book in this this series and I've enjoyed each one.

More a military fantasy, than your typical sword and sorcery, but no less enjoyment comes from it. I love magic, but there's really none in this book. The magic is the characters and the story's twisty turns, I didn't see that coming way about.

The story sees Florian's....errrr Saevus' life evolving. He becomes a treasure hunter and winds up dealing with an intimate interest that has plagued him through all 3 books.

The stories and the characters are witty, the protagonist genuinely unique, and eccentric.


These books are just great and I hope KJ writes more about saevius.

4.5 stars

Again, I liked this one better than the first book, but not, I think, as much as I enjoyed the 2nd one due to the overwhelming about of reversals-of-fortune in this one that isn't <i>quite</i> the run-away-oh-crap-they've-found-me plot that often accompanies Parker's 1st person outings. Instead, this book is a culmination of the two main themes we've seen in the first two books and ends you with an outlook so promising and bleak simultaneously.

To the credit of Parker and this book, I often could not see the next event coming (which becomes not easy but doable if you've read most of Parker's works) and the body count in this book is absolutely staggering. Here, as in the rest of the series, Parker explores war: what causes it, what its purpose is, whether there can be such a thing as a 'good war'. He also explores the nature of memory and of truth, on if you're last person alive that bore witness to an event, then isn't <i>your</i> version of events the only true version of events? We once again get taken into the socio-anthropological minutae of different countries and cultures, which is always one of my favorite parts of a Parker book.

All in all, this was a great series that I enjoyed very much. Saevus grew on me from the first book, and even though he will never top Basso, Gig, Kunessin, or Calojan on my list of favorite Parker protags, I enjoyed the time I spent with him and his knowledge of the behind-the-scenes of war.