Hub 133 by Various

Author:Various
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction, Horror, Fantasy
Publisher: Right Hand Publishing

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REVIEWS

Corvus

by Paul Kearney

Solaris

rrp £7.99

reviewed by keith harvey

Paul Kearney’s The Ten Thousand (Solaris 2008) was the first entry on my published list of the best fifteen fantasy and historical fictions that feature warfare as their predominant theme. At the time I composed the list, I compared Kearney to Steven Pressfield, David Drake and David Gemmell. His new novel, Corvus (Solaris 2010), however, although bloody and militant like The Ten Thousand, moves his Macht narrative into a deeper, darker poetic, comparable to the novels of George R. R. Martin and Steven Erickson. With Corvus, Kearney plants himself firmly in that lineage that emerged at the fork in the genre, that moment when tough-minded, solid, somewhat psychological writing split off from Tolkien’s many imitators (mostly Americans) to follow a grittier course. This new way produced a rougher, more complex, psychological fantasy that employs brooding, sanguine narratives with complex, adult characters. Oddly, this fantasy, unlike the imitators, may be truer to the original spirit of heroic or epic fantasy. Consequently, Corvus, which relies on Greek history (Philip II of Macedonia), like The Ten Thousand (Anabasis), feels familiar and real, rather than manufactured; more like history unfolding, rather than a fantasy world emerging.

On its most basic level, Corvus is an exciting read. Very rarely do I lose myself completely in a novel but I did in this one. I read it in two sittings in the evening in front of my fire and each night I read until my eyes ached. After reading for over fifty years, I very seldom have such a satisfying reading experience. So, on that basis alone, I highly recommend the novel.

But there is more to Corvus than just a rousing story. The story begins with our re-introduction to Rictus, the leader of the mercenaries in The Ten Thousand, twenty plus years after the war in the east. At the beginning of the novel, he and his men are stretched along a road, returning home from some petty internal dispute of the Macht. This initial description is cinematic and seminal and catches the reader’s attention with its archetypal imagery: “Behind him, on the northern slope of the ridge, a long line of men sat by the side of the track. Every one of them was burdened with packed cuirass and strapped shield.

Every one had a spear in his fist. They looked up as he turned to them, and their eyes were pale glitters as the sunset shattered across the mountains behind them.” ( Corvus, 14). What becomes immediately obvious is that this is good writing, almost poetic in its use of alliteration and striking imagery. Note the men are “burdened” and their eyes are “pale glitters.” This language lifts the novel from mere adventure to myth. It also introduces a theme: the mercenaries are tired and worn from internal disputes among the Macht; Rictus wants to return home to his homestead and stay, allowing the mercenaries to disband and be absorbed back into society. Of course, we know that retirement is never an option for men like Rictus and that trouble looms on the horizon.

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