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.
