In a Kearney novel you won’t get the usual Fantasy spiel:

“He's a werewolf. She's one of the cat-people. Together, they fight fur-balls...”

I can't also be arsed with fantasy that's too big on orcs, magicians and dragons and the like so I very much enjoyed reading “Corvus”. It manages to stay on the right side of fantasy and I found it a rollicking read. Kearney’s sentences sing and soar. He needs to be as well-known as Abercrombie (another favourite of mine). Kearney is a magnificent artist.

Fantasy for non-fantasy readers sounds a bit like alcohol free wine for tea-totals. If an adult is not a fantasy reader, firstly it's no big deal, and secondly that's his or hers lost. If one tries to think up a recommended book list, it invariably ends up trying a bit too hard to be clever, and many therein are overstretched and tedious. Sadly my list would be very unimaginative, and yes I have a special fondness for heroic fantasy of old. Lyonesse from Vance at the moment, and Howard, Lovecraft, Leiber, Moorcock, Shelley, are my favourites in the genre. And of course Corvus which I bet won't turn into a cult classic any time soon. More's the pity. It's quite good.

It's almost a shame that there isn't a section in bookshops for 'fantasy novels for people who don't like fantasy novels' as I suspect I would be lurking there regularly and below-the-line book suggestions. I think the title of 'fantasy' does unfortunately still conjure images of rather archaic maidens, sorcerers, quests and other such stereotypes; at least, it does for me, although many of the books I love would probably fall into the 'fantasy' bracket (e.g. see the above-mentioned authors on this post). I suppose I just prefer to think of them as slightly surreal books that play with the line of the real and the imaginary.

“Corvus” is just not only bleak. It also isn't all chocolate box and happy at the end as you are left with the distinct impression that the future isn't rosy. It's also overflowing with outstanding descriptive writing unlike 99% of the Fantasy fodder out there. Although “Corvus” is based on real events (or maybe because of it), my mind kept thinking about Ronald Welch's novel 'Tank Commander' which is also a terrific introduction to the Great War. It's the last in a series of novels in which a young man from another generation of the same family serves in pretty much every major conflict from the High Middle Ages onwards, beginning with 'Bowman of Crecy' (as far as I remember: haven't read that one for forty years). In this one, the hero starts out as a cocky junior officer dressed in red, drinking champagne in the Officers' Mess to celebrate the declaration of war and sharpening his sword, and gets tattier and muddier, more highly decorated and ever more cynical as he rises rapidly up the ranks due to the constant attrition of commanding officers and comrades-in-arms (sample line: "Your Platoon has had a bad time." "This isn't my Platoon, sir - this is the Regiment...") until he is transferred to the first company of the experimental tanks. Kearney’s Rictus is a different protagonist though. Welch’s novel, like much war literature, even if it's very powerful, seems to happen at a remove. Kearney does not do “at a remove” even in a fantasy-based-on-real-events-setting…

NB: I need to plug this too: “The Monarchies of God” is a series of five short novels also by Paul Kearney. The fantastical elements of magic and unearthly creatures are very subtly weaved into an extraordinary tale of alternative world creation that plays on versions of great historical events in human history, i.e., the crusades, and the discovery of the New World. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2016/08/review-of-corvus-by-paul-kearney.html ( )

Was feeling in the mood for a military fantasy, and for me it was a good opportunity to return to the world of the Macht in this trilogy by Paul Kearney. I very much enjoyed the first book The Ten Thousand which was a fantasy retelling of the historical events from Xenophon's Anabasis. As far as I know, however, Corvus is an original story, though the charisma and the military genius of the eponymous young general in the book naturally brings to mind the life of Alexander the Great.

There's a gripping plot in this novel, one that both fascinated and disturbed me, but I have to lay it out there and let it be known that this is the kind of series that revolves around bloody battles. If that's not your thing, then this book isn't going to appeal to you much. But if you enjoy war in your fantasy and lots of it, or the kind of battle scenes made famous by tales like 300, then Paul Kearney's your guy. The final scene ending the siege of Machran was so well done I could practically see and hear in my head the crush of men, the screams of the injured and dying and the rivers of gore and smell of sweat and blood and terror in the midst of such a large scale battle.

One thing I noticed the author did better in this sequel than in the last was his character development. I appreciated the fact that the antagonist in this novel is someone you could respect and even like, and I would even hesitate to call him an antagonist or a villain as he's clearly an honorable man just caught on the wrong side of a war. It's easy to hate a bad guy when the author makes him a horrible immoral lowlife, but it's another thing when Paul Kearney makes Karnos out to be a man who genuinely cares for his city, and would give up his cushy life to fight with his people for it. He was probably my favorite, just because of the many layers he had to his character.

One other thing that intrigues me about this series are the black cuirasses that some of the Macht warriors wear, the mysterious armor pieces that the people say aren't of their world and that they call "The Curse of God." Ever since reading the first book I'd been interested in learning more about them, and was happy to see that this second installment dropped more than a few pieces of lore about them to pique my curiosity further.

This book can probably be read on its own, though reading the The Ten Thousand first would help give a bit more background information and history. I read the first book a while ago and was probably fuzzy about half the events of it, but was still able to follow the story with no problems. ( )