Best Served Cold, by Joe Abercrombie

Today I'm looking at another book in the universe of Joe Abercrombie, set sometime after the events of the first three books, ending with Last Argument of Kings. This book is set in Styria, an island located to the east of the Union which has been plagued for nearly twenty years by relentless war. Grand Duke Orso, allied by the marriage of his daughter with King Giselle of the Union, has been attempting to crown himself king of all Styria. He has been opposed by the League of Eight, but decades of campaigning have left Orso poised on the brink of achieving his goal. And this is largely because of the mercenary band known as the Thousand Sons led by Monza Murcatto.

Personally, Murcatto is hoping that this year will be the last fighting for Orso and she and her brother can finally retire. This all goes out the window very literally when Orso and six other men betray Murcatto and her brother and throw them from Orso's mountaintop castle out a window. Miraculously Murcatto survives, despite her body being desperately broken, and as you can imagine from the title she swears revenge on her attempted assassins. But killing seven of the most influential men in Styria will be no easy task, and Murcatto will have to put a team together including the northman Caul Shivers, former Inquisition practical Shylo Vitari, a numerical savant known only as Friendly, and a handful of other cutthroats, scoundrels, and criminal scum to accomplish the task.

This book feels a lot like the other books in Abercrombie's series, although in this case I was less invested in the characters than I was in the earlier books. With this being a revenge/assassination plot I was hoping that there would be a little more variation, figuring out how to get at people who are probably in highly secured locations. And there's some element of that with the effort to get to a banker which includes a break-in into a bank to put poison exactly where the banker will encounter it. But most of the rest of the time the characters are just going in and killing people in the messiest way possible. As a result it doesn't feel like a variation on the previous books, instead it feels like more of the same and it starts to get old after a while.

As you can probably see on the cover, there's a quote from George R.R. Martin ''This is his best book yet.'' and I feel like it's because Abercrombie and Martin have similar approaches to their writing. Martin and Abercrombie seem to favor gratuitous sex and violence in their books. On the one hand I can understand upping the amount of sex and violence in fantasy. There's always been violence in fantasy from Lewis and Tolkien to going as far back as Beowulf and beyond, but not quite on the brutal levels that Martin and Abercrombie take it to. Sex hasn't really been as much a part of mainstream fantasy and I can understand the desire to incorporate it into more modern fantasy works.

Now I'm not saying that sex and violence shouldn't be in fantasy works, there's every reason to have fantasy as a genre handle complex topics. But what I'm concerned with is that Martin and Abercrombie don't really do it in a reasonable way. I feel like they're putting the sex and violence into their works for the shock value rather than to really contribute to the story. Obviously there's a way to include sex in fantasy in a way that's meaningful, but including it solely for shock value probably isn't the best way to go about this.

Overall this book is okay at best. I feel like people seem to be excited over it because of the sex and violence factor rather than the plot and characters which seem underdeveloped in comparison. I'm probably going to avoid Abercrombie's stuff in the future just because there doesn't seem to be that appeals to me personally.

- Kalpar

Last Argument of Kings, by Joe Abercrombie

Today I'm finally finishing the First Law Trilogy with the last book, Last Argument of Kings and I hate to say it, but this series has been a pretty big disappointment. The series basically ends with quite a few questions that are simply unanswered and I feel like the last book could have been condensed and merged with this book and maybe bring the book to a better resolution. I was left wondering if there were more books in the series to wrap up the series, but I checked and this is definitely the last in this plotline, if not the last book Abercrombie has written in this universe.

To adequately talk about what's wrong with this book, I'm going to have to talk about some spoiler materials and while I'd feel badly about spoiling the end of this book I feel like they're just not worth the effort. The most important part of this is the character Bayaz, the first of the Magi and a powerful wizard. As I mentioned in my review of the last book I got the impression that Bayaz is behind the events that leave no heirs to the throne of the Union and with Jezal dan Luthar in a perfect position to be elected king, however I didn't see quite how it was possible for Bayaz to orchestrate the events because one of the princes dies in an entirely accidental fashion. However, it turns out I was in fact correct about Bayaz orchestrating the situation for Luthar to become king, and Bayaz is the puppet master behind numerous other plans as well.

The big reveal towards the end of the book is that Bayaz has been pulling strings and moving pieces the entire time to counter his enemy Khalul. While Khalul takes the direct approach of religious control over the Gurkish Empire to the south, Bayaz has taken indirect control through the financial and political institutions of the Union. So ultimately the wars of conquest between the Gurkish in the Union have been moves in a proxy war between Bayaz and Khalul.

Now, considering that Khalul has a religion that eats people you'd think that Bayaz would be the good option. Or at least the less bad option. However in Before They are Hanged I started getting this weird impression that Bayaz wasn't telling the whole truth, especially when the superweapon he wanted to use against Khalul had been hidden in a different place. This is the superweapon, by the way, which almost destroyed the entire world with demons the last time it was used and definitely destroyed the capital of an older and even greater empire than the Union. It makes me wonder if maybe Juvens, Bayaz's master, had lied about where he had stored the superweapon because he didn't trust Bayaz.

This distrust of Bayaz continues as he starts making disparaging comments about the common people to Luthar, saying literally that it's not important to actually care about the poor people so much as seem like he cares about the poor people. This and other offhand comments start to build a suspicion that Bayaz really isn't that great of a guy and it ends with the reveal that Bayaz probably was responsible for the death of Juvens, as well as Kanedias, and probably through his lover Tolomei from the House of the Maker as well. Bayaz declares himself beyond the laws of magic, greater than Juvens, and ultimately uncaring about the amount of death and destruction caused by winning this part of his ongoing feud with Khalul.

Personally I feel like this reveal should have come in the second book rather than towards the end of the third book. I say this partly because the second book felt like it meandered and went into plot cul-de-sacs. If we had the reveal of Bayaz's true intentions in the second book, or even in the beginning of the third book, then we could have had the characters reacting to the situation and maybe brought it to a better resolution. Instead we have a war with the Gurkish not quite resolved, Luthar and Glokta are left with questionable control of the Union, and Ferro Maljinn literally just walks out of the story and is never seen again. So many threads were left dangling that I wasn't entirely certain this was the end. Again, it seems there are other books set within the universe, but whether they continue this plotline or not I cannot tell. Personally I would have felt better if the third book was used to tie up the ends a little more neatly rather than leaving things unresolved.

Ultimately, I'm not sure if this series is really worth your time. I will say that some of the characters such as Logen Ninefingers, Luthar, and Glokta can be compelling and they go through varying degrees of character development, although I feel like Logen goes through the least. But with the second book meandering pointlessly and stuff in the third act that I, personally, thought should be in the second act I feel like it's not worth the time and effort.

- Kalpar

Before They Are Hanged, by Joe Abercrombie

Today I'm looking at the second book in the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, Before They Are Hanged. I do hate to say that this book seems to suffer a lot from the issues that second installments in trilogies have. It kind of meanders and while we have some development, we're left with a lot of things unresolved because the third act needs things to accomplish. Obviously this isn't true of every second act in trilogies, but it feels particularly apt in this case.

The last book, The Blade Itself, established the setting, the characters, and the initial conflict, although what I found most interesting was the characters that Abercrombie created. There are a couple of characters who aren't terribly good people. For example, Inquisitor Glokta is an angry, ruthless, and bitter man influenced by his torture at the hands of the Gurkish and Captain Luthar is a vain, spoiled pretty boy who almost gives up the minute he starts running into a challenge. Despite their shortcomings I found the characters rather compelling, especially Inquisitor Glokta. I think the best thing that Abercrombie does in this book is work on the development of his characters, Glokta in particular. I got the impression from the first book that Glokta didn't have much of an ideology as an Inquisitor, he just tortured people as a sort of revenge against the universe. However I got the impression that in this book Glokta has become aware of the larger political struggle and is becoming more than an unthinking subordinate.

Luthar's development is a lot less subtle, to the point where Luther gets literally beaten in the face with his character development. Seriously, he gets his face bashed in with a mace that makes him try to be a better person. Granted, he's not great at being a better person, but he tries. I definitely get the impression based on how Bayaz keeps giving Luthar lessons on leadership that Bayaz is planning on making Luthar king of the Union in the third book. I say this because both princes of the Union die within this book, but it also kind of strains credulity because Bayaz in no way influenced the deaths of either princes, unless Bayaz is part of a long two man (or three man) con, which seems unlikely.

There are plenty of things that I liked in this book, though. As I said, the development of Glokta was compelling to me, personally and I thought it was the most interesting part of the book. I also really liked Colonel West's story. Granted, Colonel West's story is a pretty normal war story and I was able to predict how at least part of the war was going to go, but that didn't keep me from enjoying it nonetheless.

We also get a lot more exposition in this book explaining the history and the larger conflict which is driving the plot of the book. Now, I have much higher tolerances for exposition than most people so I didn't find it as excessive in this book as I've found it in others, but that's probably a matter of opinion. There is also some debate about how exactly events happened in the past of the book depending on who's telling the story. Personally I liked this because it makes the history of the book feel more realistic because there's always two sides (or more) to any story.

Overall I think this book had some issues because it's the middle installment. I do find myself enjoying the characters and interested in the plot, especially because I understand the stakes for the book, so I'm looking forward to the final installment. Hopefully everything gets resolved in a satisfactory manner because I am a little worried Abercrombie will try to cram too much into the last book. We'll just have to see what happens.

- Kalpar

The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie

Today I'm looking at the first book in a trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself. I went to the library to hunt down something by Abercrombie specifically because I had encountered a story of his in a short story anthology and I thought he was an author worth investigating. After poking around I settled on this one because it's the first book in the trilogy and it looks like his other stories are set within the same universe. The result is a book that does a lot of establishment work for the universe while leaving some things still unsettled. In retrospect I'm not sure if we really got any indications as to what the main plot is, but the characters are interesting enough that I find I don't mind as much.

The book focuses on a number of characters who gradually get brought together by the first of the Magi, Bayaz. Logen Ninefingers is a barbarian from the northlands who's made a few too many enemies and is almost running out of luck. Jezal dan Luthar is a Union nobleman and cavalry captain who has higher ambitions for his career, but doing so means he'll have to succeed in the annual fencing competition and his skills right now are less than adequate. And there's Inquisitor Glokta, a man who survived the hands of imperial torturers for two years but just barely and has become understandably cynical and bitter. There are also some additional characters but I have no idea how to spell their names aside from Dogman. By the end of the book Bayaz has brought several characters together and is planning an expedition to the edge of the world, but why remains vague.

One of the things Abercrombie does is make his universe seem really complex by including references to a large number of people and events, not all of which are explained in the first book. On the one hand this was a little frustrating for me because I felt like maybe there were books I should have read first, especially since the characters come fully-formed with backstories that I didn't know. On the other hand, this is something that makes Abercrombie's universe deep and realistic which is always a good thing. As always, it comes to me having a much higher tolerance and desire for exposition than other people, but I think Abercrombie still manages to do a good job.

What made me think Abercrombie did a really good job writing this book was when I got to the end of this book and I realized that I still wasn't exactly sure about what the main plot was. I know that Bayaz's teacher was betrayed by his brother who went by the title the Maker. Bayaz and the rest of the Magi defeated the MAker, but the Maker had followers who survived. Apparently the Maker's followers are cannibals who get some sort of magical power from eating people. All I know is that they have some sort of plan, the Union's about to get sucked into a two-front war, and Bayaz is off to save the world. But beyond these generalities I'm a little vague on the specifics. And yet I find myself interested in finding what happens next.

I think the biggest strength is that Abercrombie manages to make the characters compelling. Glokta is bitter, cynical, and like most inquisitors willing to use whatever means necessary to get the truth he wants, but there are complex elements to his personality which makes him more than just another zealot. Luthar has elements of a spoiled dandy but he's also ambitious and willing to work to achieve those ambitions so it makes a more balanced character. So I think if anything, it's the characters which make the book more interesting.

Overall, despite the issues which I had with the book I'd find myself recommending it to people who like extensive worldbuilding and good plotlines. I think Abercrombie's writing more than makes up for any defects and makes the book really enjoyable.

- Kalpar