I Read Books: Kings Of Morning
A handful more years have gone by since Corvus, and Corvus, now King of the Macht, goes full Alexander The Great, invading the Empire of Asuria with Rictus by his side. The Emperor, no longer the young and vigorous man who personally killed his rebelling brother in The Ten Thousand, has three adult children, a son of his scheming senior wife (the heir apparent), and a son and a daughter from the dead love of his life. They’re jockeying for the inevitable moment when one of them will be Emperor. As the Emperor knows, at that moment, all his other children will die.
Anyway, the book splits between the palace intrigue of the Empire and the difficulties and doubts of the Macht army. Corvus wants to be Emperor, not mere conqueror; and he wants to be Emperor to stop wars and death and sacking of cities, which is a paradox he can’t solve. His attempts to bring the Kufr (non-Macht) into his army and rule annoy his Macht followers, his alliance with the Juthan seems dubious.
A mighty empire will fall, but perhaps two will, and Corvus may destroy everything he seeks to preserve. Unless fate takes a hand, in the swirling plots of the Imperial court, and perhaps the slaves that serve it.
Read This: For a superior fantasy Alexander/Persian Empire story, and a fine conclusion to the trilogy
Don’t Read This: If phalanxes pushing, fighting, cutting, making last stands and desperate sacrifices sounds depressing
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