The Joe Abercrombie Thread

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Dr.Retarded said:
Really, how so? Was there a particular book?

I never necessarily felt I needed a break after reading them, but sometimes they didn't end the way I expected them to. I always felt at least I got some sort of closure though by the end of the different novels. Although, I guess I feel kind of ripped off getting nothing with Faro being resolved other than hearsay.
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It's strongly hinted that Ferro went to Gurkhal and killed the prophet and the emperor. It's hinted that Bolstrood is coming back in the future, we'll probably find out more about Ferro at that time is my guess.
 
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Dr.Retarded

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wormie said:
I read the first three books then the three stand alone books. There is plenty of closure, its just emotionally heavy shit that is never light and easy to digest afterwards. I said all the endings were shitty and I meant from character perspectives. In none of the books did anyone end up "OK" with a "happy" looking future. Everyone is shitty and gets what they deserve but I was lamenting the fact that these sort of endings feel bad and I always wish for a character to have a prospect of being decent with an ok life but it never happens. Beck (from Heroes) is the only exception to this as he learns a lesson, learns what he is and what he is not, finds where he belongs and goes back.
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I see your point. I guess the happiest ending out of all of the first six books to me is probably Red Country. Temple and Shy and the kids end up at least making a family, and being somewhat happy in comparison to all of the other characters from the other books.

I do agree with Beck having a bittersweet outcome.
 
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Dr.Retarded said:
I see your point. I guess the happiest ending out of all of the first six books to me is probably Red Country. Temple and Shy and the kids end up at least making a family, and being somewhat happy in comparison to all of the other characters from the other books.

I do agree with Beck having a bittersweet outcome.
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Actually what prompted me to write my initial post is Red Country. Shy and the kids and temple are fine and all but Lamb's ending made me mad. Considering how much time we spent with him across the books, a life around people he cares about would have been a nice ending. I did appreciate the bit of Shivers we got to see there at the end, his character arc in Best Served Cold was not a happy journey and him finding some closure for himself was good to see.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Dr.Retarded said:
I see your point. I guess the happiest ending out of all of the first six books to me is probably Red Country. Temple and Shy and the kids end up at least making a family, and being somewhat happy in comparison to all of the other characters from the other books.

I do agree with Beck having a bittersweet outcome.
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I'd say Bayaz was happy at the end of the first trilogy. :p

Glokta was doing ok too, and continues to.
 
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Campbell1oo4

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wormie said:
Actually what prompted me to write my initial post is Red Country. Shy and the kids and temple are fine and all but Lamb's ending made me mad. Considering how much time we spent with him across the books, a life around people he cares about would have been a nice ending. I did appreciate the bit of Shivers we got to see there at the end, his character arc in Best Served Cold was not a happy journey and him finding some closure for himself was good to see.
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I think it was an amazing ending. Well balanced and satisfying.

Lamb is a bad man. He has done terrible things and they are haunting him and he just doesn't get to live out his life in peace. Many times this is true in real life as well. People go to the grave with ghosts trailing right behind.

But there is some redemption for him. He uses his horrible skills to ensure some people get to live a better life. In effect, he sacrifices his own soul.

Shivers was easily my favorite 'side' character. I read the trilogy and then Heroes and I was so confused about how Shivers ended up the way he did. I felt like I was meeting someone I hadn't seen in ten years and he'd been through some stuff. Really cool effect for me as the reader because my mind started spinning all these stories about what happened to him.

Then I read Best Served Cold and it was okay. Sometimes it's better to live with the mystery.
 
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Oblio

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Mudcrush Durtfeet said:
I'd say Bayaz was happy at the end of the first trilogy. :p

Glokta was doing ok too, and continues to.
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I agree, I was gonna say Bayaz always comes out on top.
Campbell1oo4 said:
I think it was an amazing ending. Well balanced and satisfying.

Lamb is a bad man. He has done terrible things and they are haunting him and he just doesn't get to live out his life in peace. Many times this is true in real life as well. People go to the grave with ghosts trailing right behind.

But there is some redemption for him. He uses his horrible skills to ensure some people get to live a better life. In effect, he sacrifices his own soul.

Shivers was easily my favorite 'side' character. I read the trilogy and then Heroes and I was so confused about how Shivers ended up the way he did. I felt like I was meeting someone I hadn't seen in ten years and he'd been through some stuff. Really cool effect for me as the reader because my mind started spinning all these stories about what happened to him.

Then I read Best Served Cold and it was okay. Sometimes it's better to live with the mystery.
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Lamb/Logen is by far my favorite character in the series. The Bloody Nine!!!!!
 
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Hateyou

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Started these up again, I never read the most recent three. I started over as it’s been a long time. I started reading the first one on a plane ride a few weeks ago, the dude next to me was reading the final book. We were both kind of blown away when I showed him I was reading the same series.

Just starting The Heroes, glad to be back to a bunch of northern bastards. Excited to get into the last three for the first time.

The Heroes: I forgot how Gorst’s thoughts were completely rude and angry and hilarious. Good shit.
 
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Hateyou

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Finished the latest trilogy a few weeks ago and forgot to post about it. Hadn’t read it before and it’s been a decade since I last read the first six so I did a full reread.

I really didn’t like the last three. Almost all of the new characters were annoying. Most of them had no character growth at all throughout the three books.

Leo was really fucking stupid and annoyingly so the entire time. Savine was a backstabbing power hungry bitch the entire time. Even after she got scared shitless in the riots and again after she had a kid. Stour was an overly annoying character. Rikke felt like a Mary Sue character, everything going her way and everyone liking her. A lot of main characters were so one dimensional. Judge, some crazy lady people listened to for some unknown reason just killing people for no reason in her court over and over and over. Broad also never changed and was very one trick pony, same with Jonas. Orso and Vick were the only two that really grew much as characters, and I liked reading their stuff, even though it ended shittily for one of them. Isern and Shivers were enjoyable too.

The overarching story I just didn’t care for. I don’t like the modernizing portion of it. Reading about kids in factories and maximizing profits and new inventions, bleh. Give me northmen. I also hated how he was bringing modern politics so blatantly into the story. Leo being hyper racist against brown people and super homophobic because he’s secretly gay. Lord Isher (I think it was him) yelling ‘Make the Union Great Again’ was stupid

Bayaz being completely absent while his Union he has held together for so long spirals out of control was pretty out of character. Allowing it to collapse under debt he was creating also didn’t make sense. Rikke’s trickery later in the story was way too obvious, as was the identity of the Weaver.

Finally, I didn’t like how it ended on such a massive cliffhanger. I would have rather he just ended the story and the next arc just happened but whatever. I didn’t care for this trilogy enough that I may not read the next, which is a shame because his first six books I really love. I’ll probably just give them a chance with low expectations and hope I’m surprised. I still like how he writes, I just didn’t like this story arc or most of the new characters.
 
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wormie

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Man the last book in the Age of Madness is such a fucking slog. Halfway done with it and there is a decent chance I will not finish. There is such a thing as "belaboring the point".
 
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wormie said:
Man the last book in the Age of Madness is such a fucking slog. Halfway done with it and there is a decent chance I will not finish. There is such a thing as "belaboring the point".
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Yeah man the court carried on way too long. I was so tired of it. Coming up with new ways to kill people didn’t freshen it up.
 
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I enjoyed the last trilogy. I like how everything went to shit because no one had a plan beyond flipping the table over. Makes me think of current day politics and the lack of thinking ahead.
 
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Kovaks

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Looks like they are making Best Served Cold into a movie. Rebecca Ferguson in the running to play Monza, wonder who they get for shivers.
 
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wormie

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I really liked almost everything about Best Serve Cold (the deus ex machina was lame but when is it not?) but no way is a movie based on that book going to be anything but woke trash. Especially with Joe going more and more woke himself. I think it was in the afterword of Best Served Cold where he lamented the lack of representation of women in his writing and his attempts to become better. If a lesser writer gets a hold of his work, like say a Hollywood script writer, his stories will become atrocious fag virus.
 
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Bloodrocuted

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Was Best Served Cold the one where the protagonist's only fault was not realizing that she was beautiful inside and out, along with being better than all men at swordplay? Yeah no thanks!
 
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wormie

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Bloodrocuted said:
Was Best Served Cold the one where the protagonist's only fault was not realizing that she was beautiful inside and out, along with being better than all men at swordplay? Yeah no thanks!
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Lol. Yeah, more or less that. Now Abercombie is good enough to make sure such a character still has flaws and struggles and isnt a turbo marie sue and is, therefore, relatable in some fashion and isnt a total bore to read. But a hollywood writer? Hell no, this will be Ray Palpetine on steroids. And you know they will make Shivers into pure soy. No fucking thanks.
 
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Yeah no thanks. It was pretty obvious in this latest trilogy he has the mind virus. All the strongest, smartest, winningest characters were women. Going hard into homosexuality, homophobia, racism, anti-maga. Any movie that comes out of him and some half assed Hollywood writer will be complete shit.
 
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Hatorade Hatorade convinced me to read his newest one, The Devils and fuckin a was it great. His last trilogy had me worried I’d be sticking to his first six books forever but this one was his best book yet imo, right up there with Red Country and The Heroes. Was interesting moving into a different world since everything before was all connected Love how it was a standalone, story arc wrapped up in one book, kicked off quick and was brutal and blasphemous and hilarious all the way through. Perfectly shitty antiheroes.

10/10
 
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Intrinsic

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Hateyou said:
Hatorade Hatorade convinced me to read his newest one, The Devils and fuckin a was it great. His last trilogy had me worried I’d be sticking to his first six books forever but this one was his best book yet imo, right up there with Red Country and The Heroes. Was interesting moving into a different world since everything before was all connected Love how it was a standalone, story arc wrapped up in one book, kicked off quick and was brutal and blasphemous and hilarious all the way through. Perfectly shitty antiheroes.

10/10
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Devils was the first Abercrombie I've read and loved it. Really want to go back and do all the 1st Law and some others after finishing up some Hobb.
 
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Intrinsic said:
Devils was the first Abercrombie I've read and loved it. Really want to go back and do all the 1st Law and some others after finishing up some Hobb.
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First Law is great but the three standalones that follow it are even better. They’re more similar to The Devils in structure but they’re in the first law world/timeline and share characters, so read those six in order. The trilogy after those I didn’t care for but others did. I was bummed at the end of Devils cause I wanted it to keep going, I may just have to go through his first six again. I may check out his young adult Viking trilogy too, I’ve never read that.
 
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Intrinsic

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Hateyou said:
First Law is great but the three standalones that follow it are even better. They’re more similar to The Devils in structure but they’re in the first law world/timeline and share characters, so read those six in order. The trilogy after those I didn’t care for but others did. I was bummed at the end of Devils cause I wanted it to keep going, I may just have to go through his first six again. I may check out his young adult Viking trilogy too, I’ve never read that.
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After I posted in the What’d You Just Read about The Devils and my Broken Binding copy, someone mentioned he may have more planned in that universe.
 
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