1. Joe Abercrombie Discussion

[Eagle]

I thought his characters were superb. Luthar, Bayaz and especially Glokta were the reasons I read First Law. However I did feel the plot to be quite weak with no true resolution at the end. It made me quite divided in my opinion on the trilogy. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. I do want to try his other works because his style is very enjoyable to read, but like others have said, they're not a reading priority for me right now.

 

[Steerpike]

I thought his characters were superb. Luthar, Bayaz and especially Glokta were the reasons I read First Law. However I did feel the plot to be quite weak with no true resolution at the end. It made me quite divided in my opinion on the trilogy. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. I do want to try his other works because his style is very enjoyable to read, but like others have said, they're not a reading priority for me right now.

I have liked all of his work. Best Served Cold and Red Country are now my favorites, but I didn't dislike any of them. I enjoyed the plot of the First Law trilogy, and thought the ending served the tone of the books.

 

[andy.peloquin]

I think his First Law Trilogy was his best. The Blade Itself kind of meandered, and The Heroes just didn't have the same epic feel as the others. Loved the character of Ninefingers, the perfect contrast to the fancy-pants Jezal dan Luthar. Glokta, however, has to be my favorite of all. Cynical, sarky, and gloomy - a beautiful creation.

 

[teacup]

I finished Best Served Cold and now I'm around 150 pages into The Heroes.

Favourite characters:
Book 1 - Jezal
Book 2 & 3 - Logan
BSC - At first Morveer, until Cosca came into it. And then Morveer became 3rd once Shenkt was introduced. (I want more Shenkt! I hope Abercrombie writes more with Shenkt in, but I'm not even sure if he's carrying on with the world or not?)
The Heroes - I'm not far in, but in just the first page of her first pov chapter Finree became my favourite. I'm looking forward to more of her.

Joe Abercrombie is my favourite writer right now. I love his world and characters, and the humour is just great

Spoiler: very minor spoiler

(The scene with the Dogman and Grim being under the witch's spell was hilarious to me.)

Best Served Cold is probably my favourite so far.

 

[Stephyn Blackwood]

I love Abercrombie. When I got my kindle for my birthday, My GF had downloaded a bunch of books onto it she thought I'd like, and The Blade Itself was one of them. And it was the last one I read. I felt so band once I'd read it thinking Why the hell have I not heard of/read any of his books before? I quickly downloaded the rest of the trilogy and devoured them in a matter of days. Before They're Hanged is by far my favorite of the three, simply for the multitude of quotes I have from it. Such as Black Dow's classic: Has she or has she not sucked it? (Got some strange looks as I laughed my head off on the bus at that...) I never picked up any of the other books such as The Heroes and Red Country, but then I saw the Half a King had come out rather recently. Because it is a YA book, I new I was not in for the same "grimdark" Abercrombie style. But I was pleasantly surprised, the book was far better than I'd hoped for and still contained a lot of Abercrombie's familiar style. I have recently bought The Heroes and intend to start that as soon as possible.

 

[teacup]

I have recently bought The Heroes and intend to start that as soon as possible.

Just a warning, The Heroes is set after Best Served Cold. It links to some events in Best Served Cold, mentions parts, and some characters carry over. You'll miss a big part of one character's story by reading The Heroes first.
They are standalones, yes, but they do have chronological places within the series and carry on from each other (at least those 2 do, not read Red Country yet.) Reading in order isn't essential - you won't be lost as to what is happening, as the stories themselves are self contained in the single novels - but it is advised to read in order, since you will be missing out on some things (this is all if you do intend to read all standalones, of course.)

 

[Nihal]

So, I finally finished The First Law. I'm aware his later books are considered better, but I wished to read him in chronological order. The first book was a Portuguese translation, the second and third were originals in English.

It was an interesting, entertaining reading. I wasn't disappointed, and I might have taken such a long time to read it simply because I wasn't reading anything in all these months, and only now I established a schedule that suits me.

His last book kept me on my toes. Suspicions being confirmed and plot twists were very fun. Everything fell in place, finally, and it was satisfying to read. His battle scenes are fantastic. I feared for the characters, and feared more than once, because he managed to establish the notion that no one is safe. I thought it was unlikely that certain characters were to die, but I couldn't be 100% sure and it didn't exclude other horrible fates that don't include death either. I liked the books, how he writes and his universe. But I hated it too. I like gray worlds and people, but he stepped a little too much down father the line, with barely any goodness to balance the scale. It's not like it's a super extreme dark reading where everything and everyone is degrading, but it is a heavy reading, bittersweet, with more bitterness than sweetness.

So, it's a love/hate relationship. The ending made me quite sad, and I look forward to learn of what happened to the characters, look for every tiny vestige and clue of them in the other books, even if these books aren't about them–I guess, at least; I don't read synopses. I will undoubtedly read other works by him, just not now. Now I need something lighter, more balanced.

 

[Feverfew]

I too loved this series. The characters were often so distinct and entertaining that pages of their internal musings made for a very interesting read.
Ninefingers is definitely my favorite, and I enjoy the double edged sword of his fame- it earns him fear and respect but will also define him against his will. The Bloody Nine scenes were great, whenever he showed up you always knew something crazy would happen. The latter half of The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged were my favorite parts probably. I did find that the story seemed to slow down a lot in the third book, and I wondered where it was going at times.
Very satisfied with how most of the third book wrapped things up though. Probably the best written fight scenes in my opinion. Aside from GRRM comparisons (different style of writing definitely, but still pretty grim realistic fantasy) , does anyone know of other authors in a similar vein?

 

[Stephyn Blackwood]

Just a warning, The Heroes is set after Best Served Cold.

Thanks for the heads up, thankfully I put off reading The Heroes, to finish another series of books.

 

[Stephyn Blackwood]

does anyone know of other authors in a similar vein?

You might want to try Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy. I have read the first two and they are really good.

 

[teacup]

I just finished The Heroes and have Red Country beside me, ready to start.

The Heroes was a great read, absolutely loved it. All the pov characters were great, but still my favourite to read was Finree's. I think Calder would have to be my second. The linking back to BSC was very fun, too, especially finally finding out exactly what happened in Sipani. I liked how much Kroy has changed since TFL without being a pov, too.

Spoiler: which are happy endings and which are not

I've noticed the standalones so far have had much happier endings than the First Law Trilogy. I liked the end of TFL in a bitter more than sweet kind of way, it fit well, and made me want the standalones to get more of the world and characters. These so far, though still a little bittersweet, have been more sweet than bitter. I wonder how Red Country will end.

I heard that Red Country has both Shivers and Nicomo Cosca (my last post wasn't too clear, but he is definitely my favourite pov. I doubt he'll be pov in this one though, which is a shame. I'd like to be in his head more.)


I've been trying to decide which of the 2 are my favourite, BSC or Heroes, but I loved them both. I think BSC might just win it for me because though I enjoyed The Heroes' povs a whole lot, I still prefer Morveer, Shenkt and Cosca. Nice to see Shivers having a role in The Heroes, though.

Onto Red Country!

 

[teacup]

Finished Red Country. I liked it a lot, mostly for Lamb of course, but it ranks much lower than the others in this series, for me. I'm not sure exactly where I'd place it - probably just above The Blade Itself, which was my least favourite.

Spoiler: Red Country and LAOK spoilers

It was good to see Logen, Shivers, Friendly, and Cosca again (as well as all the other more minor ones.) I absolutely loved Cosca in BSC but I don't know, he didn't do it so much for me in this one. He was still funny, and I did like him despite him being even worse now. I loved his death scene, though, when he reveals that all he wants is to go back and do it all again without making so many mistakes. I think it would be hilarious if he shows up in the next trilogy and says "rumours of my death are often exaggerated. Wishful thinking, on the part of my many enemies." But I think this was quite clearly the end for him.

It seemed strange for Shivers to go so out of his way to get revenge after he already pretty much let it go, so I think he was probably sent by Calder to kill Logen. I like that Shivers seems to be changing for the better - not killing Temple, sharing his food with him, going back to kill the ghosts attacking Temple when he could have just rode away, and letting Logen live. I hope that Logen and Shivers will have fairly big parts in the next trilogy. With Shivers being in so many of the books now, it looks like Abercrombie is building him up to something.
(Also what's with the oxen's names? Scale and Calder - I don't see why Logen would choose to name his oxen that. Something from the north, sure, but these two? I don't see why he did that. He could have chosen from his old friends.)

There was a fan theory going around that the Bloody Nine was some kind of supernatural thing, maybe something from Bedesh or even the spirit of Bedesh himself, since Bedesh's gift was the ability to speak to spirits and Logen could do that. In LAOK there's a line which goes something like "knock something loose inside his skull" and this theory is that this was the Bloody Nine being expelled from Logen, since the Bloody Nine doesn't come out after that. But, there Logen is in Red Country, being the Bloody Nine. I thought the theory was pretty cool, but maybe it's still right, only Logen never lost the Bloody Nine. Maybe the Bloody Nine is Bedesh and this will be revealed in the next trilogy?

Favourite character? Lamb, definitely.
I didn't dislike Shy or Temple but they just didn't strike me as well as the characters from the other books did. I've loved every main pov character by Abercrombie so far (not including the one who only have 1 or 2 pov sections like in The Heroes or Red Country) but not these two. I liked them well enough, but it didn't go beyond that much.

There's a line I loved from this, too. "I don't feel evil. But the things I done. What else can you call 'em?"

It's up there with The Heroes'
"What kind of a ****ing wizard are you?"
"The kind you obey."

And Best Served Cold's "My name is Nicomo Cosca, famed solider of fortune, and I am here for dinner."


I heard there have been short stories in this world. Does anyone know if they're published together/will be?

 

[Trick]

Spoiler: Red Country and LAOK spoilers

(Also what's with the oxen's names? Scale and Calder - I don't see why Logen would choose to name his oxen that. Something from the north, sure, but these two? I don't see why he did that. He could have chosen from his old friends.)

Just a response to something you said in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Red Country and LAOK spoilers

They are beasts of burden, not pets. It's a private joke to name dumb animals who do his bidding after former enemies.

 

[teacup]

They are beasts of burden, not pets. It's a private joke to name dumb animals who do his bidding after former enemies.

Ahh, yes, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Another Abercrombie fan here, and I recently interviewed him:
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/560382/

What I love most about his writing is his characterisation - Glotka in the First Law trilogy has to be one of the most interesting characters I've read in fiction. But I also very much like that he writes about adult themes - by that I don't mean sex and violence, as much as the lack of moral absolutes. His characters are motivated by personal interests, rather than any external need for "good vs bad".

I've very much enjoyed his first two Shattered Sea novels, too - again, characterisation, humour, and sharp storytelling, are all in there. I know the last in that trilogy has now been released - Half A War - but I'm waiting for the ebook to come down a little in price first, before buying it.