It is twenty-three years since a Macht army fought its way home from the heart of the Asurian Empire. The man who came to lead that army, Rictus, is now a hard-bitten mercenary captain, middle-aged and tired. He wants nothing more than to lay down his spear and become the farmer that his father was. But fate has different ideas. A young warleader has risen to challenge the order of things in the very heartlands of the Macht. A soldier of genius, he takes city after city, and reigns over them as king. What is more, he had heard of the legendary leader of the Ten Thousand. His name is Corvus, and the rumours say that he is not even fully human. He means to make himself absolute ruler of all the Macht. And he wants Rictus to help him.
Eerily similar to Chris McGrath‘s covers for The First Law trilogy [1, 2, 3] by Joe Abercrombie, particularly Before They Are Hanged. It makes sense that Solaris would position Kearney towards that same market, but it might have been nice if they had at least asked McGrath to switch up his colour pallet.
My experiences with Kearney’s The Ten Thousand, to which Corvus is a sequel, are well documented (HERE, HERE and HERE), but I’m looking forward to giving him another shot. It also helps that the early synopsis posted above sounds damn good!
Corvus is due for publication in November.
Hah, I thought ‘First Law’ as soon as the picture loaded. Maybe McGrath will be the next hooded figure… Still, I like his art work. Having read the blurb, and funnily enough, your review of his previous work, I think I’ll check out this and The Ten Thousand.
Woohoo! If this is still a Solaris book, I need to find a contact there to get my hands on an early copy later this fall. Can’t wait to read this one.
I believe McGrath did the cover for “The Ten Thousand” so it makes sense to that he would do it for “Corvus”.
Good news, but possibly also worth mentioning that Kearney’s MONARCHIES OF GOD series is finally getting a reissue in omnibus format, Volume 1 out in August and Volume 2 in September. CORVUS’ release date appears to be the last week of October.
This is great news for Kearney fans! Hopefully this book (and the re-release of Monarchies of God) are well received. If they are, we may finally be able to hope for a conclusion to the Sea Beggars series!
Keeping my fingers crossed.