Jaye (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jayes_musings) wrote2018-10-27 04:55 pm
jayes_musings) wrote2018-10-27 04:55 pm
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Book Review: The World of the First Law by Joe Abercrombie
Over the past two or three years, Joe Abercrombie has become one of my favourite authors and one I will run out and buy whenever he has a new book out, as well as the Kindle version and Audiobook. He write dirty, dark, brutal fantasy, but for all the violence and messiness, his characters are so very real, none perfect, all very flawed.
His books are:
The First Law Trilogy:
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings
Standalone but set in the same world:
Best Served Cold
The Heroes
Red Country
Sharp Ends (a collection of short stories set in the same world),
Midderland is the primary country and home to Adua the capital to the Union, a confederation of several countries and city states with a strong military, but whose commanders are a mixed bag of competence. The North is an old enemy and viewed as a bunch of barbarians and a rabble. A more recent enemy is the Gurkish Empire to the south.
The trilogy is based around the exploits of three protagonists. Sand dan Glokta is a former war hero, from a noble family, and a former prisoner of war tortured for several years during the war with the Gurkish. He is now crippled, mostly toothless, and twisted. Now he is an Inquisitor, putting his hard learned expertise in torture to interrogate the enemies of the king. Jezal dan Luthar is a dashing, and handsome, Captain in the King's Own of minor nobility but he is ambitious...not that he really wants to put in the work needed. Logen Ninefingers is an aging Northman, he is scarred and brutish and very accomplished in combat, and that's before he flies into a berserker rage where he earned his other name of The Bloody Nine; he's looking for a better way to live his life. There is another major character who should also be mention and that is Bayaz, First of the Magi, an ancient wizard of sorts who most believe is just a legend until he comes out of retirement to affect the lives of the main protagonists and others.
The story is so rich, layered and complex that it is impossible to do justice to it in just a summary. But there are political shenanigans both in the Union and the North, treachery, and epic battles. I don't even mind the battles, which I usually find quite dry and sometimes difficult to keep track of who's stabbing/beating/killing whom, but Abercrombie not only makes it easy to follow such things, but he does it in a really brutal and entertaining matter as he really gets inside the heads of his characters, so it is all very easy to picture. There is humour, often dry and sometimes dark but it makes his character realistic, given who they are. Glokta is a perfect example as we see his thoughts very clearly and they are mostly extremely sarcastic and self-deprecating to say the least given his numerous physical disabilities.
The only area where Abercrombie shows some weakness in his writing is with the women, although Ferro Maljinn is the best portrayed with the most development, she is rather stereotype ass-kicking woman. The others are often either air-headed and clueless or manipulative bitches and little else. His later books, especially "Best Served Cold" is markedly better in this respect as the main protagonist, Monza Murcatto, is a fully rounded female character, even if she is still a bitch, but in her defense she is a leader of a band of mercenaries and has very good reasons for her motives.
Speaking of the standalone books, each are quite different and feature some of the characters from the trilogy to a greater or lesser extent. Best Served Cold takes place first, shortly after the end of Last Argument of Kings and centers around Murcatto's mission of revenge on the man who betrayed her. This takes place in the city states that are part of the Union, but it's nice to see a different setting. Jezal makes a brief appearance as does a Northman, Caul Shivers who perhaps has the greatest character journey of all the books, and not necessarily for the better, and also one of the best minor characters, the famed mercenary Nicomo Cosca who lives mainly off his reputation. "The Heroes" is my favourite book and features or mentions many of the characters from the trilogy as well as introducing more. It centers around a battle at a hill of standing stones called the Heroes and fought between the ruler of the North and his army against the Union and Northmen allied with them. The North have the better commanders but fewer, less organized fighters, whereas the Union have (mostly) disciplined troops, the numbers, but their command is plagued with inept officers who care more about their egos. Taking place over three days it is a great character study of all these different men but without a shortage of action scenes too. "Red Country" takes place the furthest in time from the trilogy in a distant land with pioneers travelling out to try and settle and make a life. This is the 'western' and while it's not terrible by any measure, it is my least favourite, even if Cosca, Shivers, and Ninefingers all make an appearance. There is nothing wrong with it, and I know many people like it immensely, but I just didn't make the same connection with it as with the others.
All in all, if you like your fantasy dirty and bloody, enjoy certain tropes being turned on their head, with engaging, flawed characters, and can overlook the author's weakness (though improving) in writing women, it's definitely worth a read...and one of the few series (next review will be the other) that I will recommend to anyone who shows the slightest interest in fantasy or swords.
I give it a 9.5/10
(* Quote from Ninefingers throughout the series)
His books are:
The First Law Trilogy:
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings
Standalone but set in the same world:
Best Served Cold
The Heroes
Red Country
Sharp Ends (a collection of short stories set in the same world),
Midderland is the primary country and home to Adua the capital to the Union, a confederation of several countries and city states with a strong military, but whose commanders are a mixed bag of competence. The North is an old enemy and viewed as a bunch of barbarians and a rabble. A more recent enemy is the Gurkish Empire to the south.
The trilogy is based around the exploits of three protagonists. Sand dan Glokta is a former war hero, from a noble family, and a former prisoner of war tortured for several years during the war with the Gurkish. He is now crippled, mostly toothless, and twisted. Now he is an Inquisitor, putting his hard learned expertise in torture to interrogate the enemies of the king. Jezal dan Luthar is a dashing, and handsome, Captain in the King's Own of minor nobility but he is ambitious...not that he really wants to put in the work needed. Logen Ninefingers is an aging Northman, he is scarred and brutish and very accomplished in combat, and that's before he flies into a berserker rage where he earned his other name of The Bloody Nine; he's looking for a better way to live his life. There is another major character who should also be mention and that is Bayaz, First of the Magi, an ancient wizard of sorts who most believe is just a legend until he comes out of retirement to affect the lives of the main protagonists and others.
The story is so rich, layered and complex that it is impossible to do justice to it in just a summary. But there are political shenanigans both in the Union and the North, treachery, and epic battles. I don't even mind the battles, which I usually find quite dry and sometimes difficult to keep track of who's stabbing/beating/killing whom, but Abercrombie not only makes it easy to follow such things, but he does it in a really brutal and entertaining matter as he really gets inside the heads of his characters, so it is all very easy to picture. There is humour, often dry and sometimes dark but it makes his character realistic, given who they are. Glokta is a perfect example as we see his thoughts very clearly and they are mostly extremely sarcastic and self-deprecating to say the least given his numerous physical disabilities.
The only area where Abercrombie shows some weakness in his writing is with the women, although Ferro Maljinn is the best portrayed with the most development, she is rather stereotype ass-kicking woman. The others are often either air-headed and clueless or manipulative bitches and little else. His later books, especially "Best Served Cold" is markedly better in this respect as the main protagonist, Monza Murcatto, is a fully rounded female character, even if she is still a bitch, but in her defense she is a leader of a band of mercenaries and has very good reasons for her motives.
Speaking of the standalone books, each are quite different and feature some of the characters from the trilogy to a greater or lesser extent. Best Served Cold takes place first, shortly after the end of Last Argument of Kings and centers around Murcatto's mission of revenge on the man who betrayed her. This takes place in the city states that are part of the Union, but it's nice to see a different setting. Jezal makes a brief appearance as does a Northman, Caul Shivers who perhaps has the greatest character journey of all the books, and not necessarily for the better, and also one of the best minor characters, the famed mercenary Nicomo Cosca who lives mainly off his reputation. "The Heroes" is my favourite book and features or mentions many of the characters from the trilogy as well as introducing more. It centers around a battle at a hill of standing stones called the Heroes and fought between the ruler of the North and his army against the Union and Northmen allied with them. The North have the better commanders but fewer, less organized fighters, whereas the Union have (mostly) disciplined troops, the numbers, but their command is plagued with inept officers who care more about their egos. Taking place over three days it is a great character study of all these different men but without a shortage of action scenes too. "Red Country" takes place the furthest in time from the trilogy in a distant land with pioneers travelling out to try and settle and make a life. This is the 'western' and while it's not terrible by any measure, it is my least favourite, even if Cosca, Shivers, and Ninefingers all make an appearance. There is nothing wrong with it, and I know many people like it immensely, but I just didn't make the same connection with it as with the others.
All in all, if you like your fantasy dirty and bloody, enjoy certain tropes being turned on their head, with engaging, flawed characters, and can overlook the author's weakness (though improving) in writing women, it's definitely worth a read...and one of the few series (next review will be the other) that I will recommend to anyone who shows the slightest interest in fantasy or swords.
I give it a 9.5/10
(* Quote from Ninefingers throughout the series)