The novel has originality and depth, but I couldn’t keep up with the epicness of the story and its drawn out plot lines. It’s more epic fantasy than I typically prefer as a reader. I appreciate the chance to review!

So, it's been a while since we've had a book like this from Abercrombie. Real quick US publication timeline for those of you that aren't immediately aware: 3 years since Sharp Ends (last short stories), 4 years since Half a War (last YA), 7 years since Red Country (last stand-alone), and 11 years since The Last Argument of Kings (last series book). Thus, I'd be painting the canvas pretty thin indeed if I were to say, for instance, that I was stupid-excited to finally read this thing. I won a contest over at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist back in the day and inherited all three books of the original First Law trilogy, published by Pyr. Was the beginning of my first love affair with the works of Abercrombie. Guy just knows how to do story right, and I was hoping that he'd continue that trend. His response was a little bit "Yes"... and a little bit "No".

A LITTLE HATRED is the first book in the planned Age of Madness trilogy from Orbit. To all reports, all three books have been completely written (hopefully not akin in any way to Rothfuss's definition of "completely"), and we're going to be getting the sequels at one-year intervals. Upon inspection, this book looks very similar in length to its forerunner, THE BLADE ITSELF. Why might that information be important? Because this story is told from the perspective of not three, and not five, but seven POV characters, as compared to three in BLADE. I'll qualify my emphasis of that point in a bit. For now, the characters.

Rikke (rhymes with prikker) is the Daughter of The Dogman -- one of the infamous secondary characters of the original trilogy. She's out wandering in the wilderness with Isern-i-phail trying to plumb Rikke's connection to the Long Eye (seeing the future) when her home is sacked by raiders from The North. The son of Black Calder, Stour Nightfall, has come south, looking for blood and glory, and she happens to be a bloody point of interest for the man.

Leo dan Brock, son of Finree dan Brock -- another secondary character from the original trilogy -- has come north with his mother to fight against the armies of The North. His head is full of stories of the glory of old, and he's looking to make something of himself on the battlefield. It is frequently difficult, however, to do so while standing beneath the shadow of his successful, stubborn, and overly protective mother.

Savine dan Glokta, daughter of the infamous Sand dan Glokta, has used the power and influence of her father along with her own cunning and intelligence, to make a very successful businesswoman of herself. When it comes to making the deal she is vicious and underhanded and will always get her way. When she decides to take a short trip to a nearby city where she owns several business assets, nothing goes anywhere near to plan.

Victarine "Vick" dan Teufel is easily the character most removed from those we know. She grew up in the prison-mines of Angland, but she is now a member of the inquisition, serving underneath the purview of the Arch Lector of the King's Inquisition, Sand dan Glokta. The very man that sent her father to the mines.

Crown Prince Orso is the son of King Jezal dan Luthar. He is, in all respects, a feckless layabout, druggie, and drunken blowhard that does little of consequence and desires even less, unless it is to feed his childish humor, his empty belly, or his voracious lusts.

Clover is a Northman that we've met a time or two in previous outings with the author. Clover has been asked by Black Calder to keep his headstrong son, Stour Nightfall, from becoming too overly reckless in his drive to make his uncle Scale, King of the Northmen, proud of him, while solidifying his position as the heir to the throne of The North.

Gunnar "Bull" Broad is an ex-soldier that has just come home from the war in Styria. He has a history of violence and a difficulty keeping his temper in check, but still he wants nothing more than to be left alone to his farm, his wife, and his daughter, and to live out the rest of his days in peace. Of course, things don't work out that way, as the world has already started down its path toward massive change.

From the first page of this book to the last, I kept wanting to love the story I was reading. I just found that I wasn't, and it didn't take me very long to figure out what the problem was. There was this little voice in the back of my head that kept saying, "Some of these characters need to be killed off. Like, the sooner the better." I don't want you to think that there was anything necessarily wrong with characters. Far from it. They're all well-formed and portrayed in the story, just like I've come to expect from Abercrombie.

I think the issue is that I like to think I have a very solid understanding as to the type of world portrayed in these stories. It's ruthless and wicked and hateful. It makes a fool of the honest, a slave of the ignorant, and a bloody mash of the weak. There is nothing redeeming about the world, and it is only within a relatively few of the characters that we find something to cheer for. Whether that be because those characters have a large amount of strength, or power, or tenacity, it doesn't matter. It is "they" that make the story shine.

Within the new batch of characters that fill this book, we have the following:

Rikke -- largely clueless, but quickly learning to hate the world and those within it
Leo -- a big talker when around his buddy sycophants, but a quivering weakling when dealing with his mother, who frequently makes a fool out of him
Savine -- savvy and intelligent, when she finds herself in the right setting; liked her second best
Vick -- an infiltrator and turncoat that does what she's told and accomplishes little without having a solid reason for either
Orso -- think I elaborated on his many virtues earlier; really didn't care for any of his POV time
Clover -- another weakling that is placed near powerful set-pieces, but actually does very little of note
Broad -- easily the closest thing to a typical First Law character; my favorite of the bunch by a good bit

Only very seldom did it feel like any of these characters should be characters of note in a story within the world of The First Law. Besides Broad and Savine, it felt like all of them should have been the ones that were being beaten and stabbed to a bloody pulp within the wicked machine of the first several chapters. Instead, they find themselves wandering around, having lots of sex with each other, and making me wonder what exactly I'm supposed to be getting out of all of this.

Combine this lack of characters that seem to fit the world with the fact that they're all showing up on top of each other all the time (both figuratively and literally), and the difficulty starts to become clear. Why do we need two and three POV characters present within each event that happens in the book? Remember my reference about the relative sizes of this book and BLADE? With a little math it's not too difficult to tell that we get to spend less than half the amount of time with each character in HATRED than we did in its brilliant predecessor, BLADE. So, overall weaker characters and compoundingly less time to develop them. How could that not be a recipe for relative disaster?

And I can't help but mention the fact that Logen Ninefingers was arguably the best character of the original trilogy, and there's nothing that even remotely approaches that same level of success here. (Though I am curious as to whether or not he might make an appearance later in the series after one of Rikke's Long Eye events mentions she saw that a "Lamb ate the Lion".)

Let me be clear though. It's not this list of technical "thou shalt nots" I've mentioned here that made me not enjoy reading this book. I just didn't enjoy reading it very much. Period. The explanation I'm giving here is my way of trying to disentangle my complicated and varied experience and figure out just what caused it to be so poor. I'm trying to figure this out for myself, because as a general rule I absolutely LOVE HIS STORIES.

Was this a bad read? Absolutely not. It's still a great example of Abercrombie showing off his ability to portray character, and continuing to develop the very interesting and detailed world that he's been writing in for nearly the last two decades. I can still see loads of potential with what this book delivered to us. Just feels like the goodness is going to come later in the story, as these characters are finally able to turn into something that more resembles the individuals that will rise to the top of this struggling mass of selfish humanity instead of being crushed beneath its considerable bulk.

At this point, I'm still willing to keep riding this train, because of how much awesome history I have with the author's previous books. Still, there's a part of me that's got my fingers crossed and held behind my back.

I remember referencing a quote somewhere here on EBR that I *thought* came from Abercrombie (which I can't find anymore) that says something to effect that if you're doing character right, you can have a bunch of characters just sitting around a campfire talking and generally doing nothing, and it'll still be riveting. If I'm attributing that quote correctly, then it seems to me that Abercrombie has drunk a little bit too much of his own kool-aid before putting this book together. There's just too little that is happening as a result of any of the choices that these POV characters are making for me to enjoy their stories. Perhaps, as I intimated above, that means he tried to start his story too early in the history of Angland and Styria for me to enjoy it as much as I have his previous books. Perhaps not. Perhaps he has something hidden up his sleeve that's going to completely justify everything he's done here and make me completely forgive him. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

My very first Joe Abercrombie novel was Best Served Cold, a tale of revenge that introduced me to the concept of grimdark as well as a story that had a profound impact on my imagination. Since then I meant to read his widely acclaimed First Law trilogy, but so far I kept being distracted by other titles, although all three books have been sitting on my e-reader for a long time, gathering virtual dust.

When A Little Hatred was announced, I was both intrigued and worried, because I wondered how much my lack of knowledge of previous events would curtail my enjoyment of this new novel: well, I need not have been concerned - granted, I’m aware I’ve certainly missed the subtler narrative nuances that readers of The First Law will no doubt perceive, but when an author is as good as Joe Abercrombie you can pick up a sequel series and find yourself right at home. It’s what happened to me with Brian McClellan’s second flintlock series, with John Gwynne now-running new trilogy, and now with The Age of Madness, and that’s the mark of an outstanding writer. This does not mean of course that I have abandoned the idea of filling that gap, on the contrary I now feel more motivated than ever…

The realm of Angland, never the most peaceful of territories, is once again in turmoil: wars of conquest are ongoing between various portions of the domain, with all the expected trappings of brutal skirmishes, looting and torched villages. But there is something else as well, something that’s unusual in a fantasy novel and which adds an intriguing angle to the story: the industrial revolution has come to Angland and while farmlands are being repossessed and smallholders turned away from their homes, the cities become the fulcrum of activity, with factories cropping up everywhere.

If a country enmeshed in war is a dismal sight, one where the… fires of industry burn day and night, polluting the air and absorbing an endless stream of laborers, is a far gloomier one, indeed. There is an almost Dickensian quality in the descriptions of these grim factories where people toil day and night in appalling conditions, only to go home to dirty hovels with no other prospect than more of the same the next day, and all for meager wages. Such a situation is bound to foment rebellion, carried out mainly by two factions called Breakers and Burners, whose names clearly point out to the intentions of their members, so that between the distant wars and the festering discontent there is an ominous atmosphere running throughout this story, even though it’s cleverly balanced with that sort of gallows humor I have come to expect from this author.

"""[…] an enterprising fellow had devised a system whereby prisoners could be dropped through the scaffold floor at a touch upon a lever. There was an invention to make everything more efficient these days, after all. Why would killing people be an exception?"""

Where the background is an intriguing one, the characters are the true element shining through so much darkness: I’ve come to understand that they represent the “next generation” from the First Law trilogy and here is where I most perceived my lack of knowledge of previous events, because knowing about their roots would certainly have helped me to appreciate them more, but still they are the best part of the story and I ended up loving them all, flaws included – especially the flaws, I dare say… The men, with a few exceptions, seem to be either old geezers past their prime and their former glories or ignorant savages bent on killing for the pure pleasure of it, while the two main characters look both like children still waiting to reconcile themselves with the fact they have grown up.

Both Prince Orso, the heir to the crown, and Leo dan Brock, son of a powerful chieftain, seem to struggle under the pressures of their domineering mothers, the former because he refuses to give up his unending drinking and womanizing in favor of settling down with a wife and start producing children for the continuation of the dynasty; the latter because he wants to cover himself in glory on the battlefield, but was prevented from gaining direct combat experience and is more in love with the idea of fame than anything else. Both of them will get the opportunity to come into their own and prove their worth but the encounter with reality will prove bitterly disappointing and painful – in one case physically painful, indeed – and they will have to reconcile themselves with the notion that the legends of old, which have fueled their ambitions, never talked of the less savory aspects of the road to fame.

The women fare much better, and I loved both the two main female characters – so different and yet with so much in common, as an entertaining conversation between them reveals in the second half of the book, providing one of the best narrative highlights of the story. Savine dan Glokta is the daughter of most feared man in the realm (I remember when his name was mentioned with profound dread in Best Served Cold) and having inherited his ruthlessness has turned it into a drive for cut-throat business: there is no activity, no enterprise she has not a share in, and she looks like the kind of predator no prey can escape. And yet Savine’s privileged, wealthy life left her unprepared to face the awful events she finds herself enmeshed in, teaching her that powerlessness is the worst state to be in.

Rikke, daughter of a northern chieftain, turned out to be my absolute favorite character here: brash, uncouth, foul-mouthed, she is a wonderful contrast to courtly daintiness or city refinement, and her ongoing journey from coddled mascot for a bunch of grizzled warriors to a hard, fearless warrior herself is a joy to behold, enhanced by the peculiar gift of prophecy she must learn to harness and control. Awareness of her failings and the outspoken way she talks about them are among her better qualities, and there is a core of plain common sense in Rikke that’s both refreshing and amusing:

"""Why folk insisted on singing about great warriors all the time, Rikke couldn’t have said. Why not sing about really good fishermen, or bakers, or roofers, or some other folk who actually left the world a better place, rather than heaping up corpses and setting fire to things? Was that behavior to encourage?"""

As for the story, all I can safely say without spoiling your enjoyment of it is that it moves at a very brisk pace, shifting between the different points of view as the brutal, merciless plot proceeds like an unstoppable avalanche that also offers two breath-stopping, very cinematic moments, during a bloody uprising and a single combat, that will keep you glued to the pages in horrified anticipation.

Where readers of the First Law trilogy will find themselves happily at home with this new saga, new readers will be intrigued by this cruel, unforgiving world and feel the need to learn more as they wait for the next book in this series.

Reviewing A Little Hatred, the first book of a new trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, from the perspective of “should you read it?” is a waste of everyone’s time. If you have read The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings you absolutely know this will probably be the best book that comes out this year, so you should obviously read it. If you haven’t read these books, or don’t know who Joe Abercrombie is, then you should get out of here and go read them. Seriously, please do not keep reading for your own good. As with everything involving Abercrombie, it is best to go in as blind as possible and you will thank me later. So instead, I am going to do something a little different with this review. Without spoiling anything, I will be talking about the emotional gauntlet it put me through. But first, some general bookkeeping about the novel.

If you want to know about the plot, all you need to know is that it takes place a good number of years after the first trilogy and is focused mostly on the children of our characters from the previous series. The characters and action are best in class for the genre, possibly for books as a whole. The worldbuilding is good but might be the weakest part of the book; however, there is a nice focus on the current political climate that will likely resonate and stir up a lot of emotions in readers.

Jumping back to feelings, I would describe the emotional experience of A Little Hatred as ‘harrowing’. Imagine you are trapped in a beautiful room, with lots of nice furnishings and cool gadgets to play with. It creates some nice nostalgia in your brain and you feel warm and happy in the room – like you could live there forever. Then imagine that you are told there is a bomb in the room somewhere with an unknown timer, and after a bit of panicking, you try the door only to find yourself locked in. That is the emotional experience of reading A Little Hatred. At this point in my experience with Joe Abercrombie, I am familiar with the drill. Joe writes something that seems pleasant from one angle but is horrific from another. What I have enjoyed about his books is that even if you know the shoe is going to drop, it’s still incredibly hard to see the foot wearing it.

A Little Hatred knows all of this and leans into it. There is a really clever dichotomy between the older generation who know how the world works, the new cast who are filled with naivete. Abercrombie cleverly writes it so that the reader sitting perfectly between the two generations, is pushed and pulled between them. The novel is a prescription for anxiety that I didn’t want but couldn’t help but be addicted to. One of the things about Abercrombie that is so frustrating, in an intentional way, is his commentary on “progress”. Abercrombie turns his dark meditations towards the ineffable march of human technological progress and the stagnation of human emotion or intellect. It is a depressing paradox that he is unfortunately good at illustrating. One of the things that I want from these new books is for the world to finally see some progress – for humanity to finally improve and grow and get better. A Little Hatred does an amazing job of showing a possible light at the end of that tunnel. But, as only the first of a three-part story, we have no idea if that light will turn out to be a new dawn or a meteor coming to cause an extinction-level event to my trust and love.

A Little Hatred is confusing and emotional and my review will likely change two books from now when Abercrombie shows that I was wrong about everything – including things like who my parents are. The book is a gift of anxiety, lost sleep, depression, excitement, and betrayal. I don’t know why I keep reading his books, all they do is upset me for a month afterward because I can’t stop thinking about them. Everyone would probably live a happier and more carefree life if they never picked up a piece of Abercrombie’s haunting fiction. I highly recommend it, probably the best book I have read this year.

Rating: A Little Hatred – 10/10
-Andrew

A Little Hatred is figuratively tearing me apart. On the one hand I do enjoy grand fantasy novels by the likes of Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, but on the other hand I’ve had little to no clue what was happening for the most part of the book.

The story is set in a conflicted fictional world which you experience through multiple perspectives. From the top of my head I can distinctly remender at least five different characters which you’ll be experiencing from a first person perspective. On top of that you also have numerous political factions, historic events or even different geographic locations. Even after reading half of the book, I struggled to comprehend and align the different story lines in my head. Listing the portrayed point of view for each chapter would have already made things a lot easier for me.

In retrospective, the world has become clearer and I am fairly certain that I have a good grasp on the different plotlines. Suffice to say, Joe Abercrombie managed to create a story which is set up for a grand tale of political intrigues, romantic relationships, and heroic battles.

Keep pushing through the first couple of pages and you’ll be rewarded with the foundations for an epic trilogy which has all the qualities to rival current bestsellers.

As an avid reader/devourer of novels, sometimes it feels like I'm ripping my soul into a new horcrux every time I add another book to my "all-time favorites" shelf. In fact, I'm not at all certain the human brain was meant to read, in such short order, so many novels gleaming out in jeweled brilliance, and still be able to summon words to talk about them!

It feels like a thread of my heart had snagged in A Little Hatred and is still trying to reel me back in. I barely felt time passing, and when I finished reading, I had the same experience of looking up from the pages, feeling dreamy and obscure, and finding the world disconcertingly fuzzy and wholly alien, as if it were not really home. Like waking up just as the last vestiges of some interesting nocturnal adventure are lost to the tide. This is a novel, an experience, not to be missed!

Of course, being an obsessive Joe Abercrombie fangirl helps a lot..

The scope of A Little Hatred is majestic—brimming with detail and ideas and teeming with characters, languages, and perspectives. And although this is a single novel to a new trilogy set in the first law universe, it really feels like a singular story. In lesser hands, it would be a bewildering welter. Luckily, Abercrombie has the chops and eloquence to make it all harmonize wonderfully. Therein lies the book's greatest strength: despite so many moving parts, what shines through is the author’s concern with language, the supple twisting of the narrative spine, the minute turnings of characters and their choices, the web of moving relationships and how all those ripples affect players continents away.

I really enjoyed this book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough! And believe me, despite maybe having to read 7 other books before this one, you will be sad to walk away from its incredibly immersive setting.

Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis
The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.
On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.
Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.
The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another…
Review
Big thanks to Orbit and Hachette Audio for my advance review copy of the A Little Hatred audiobook.
Simply put, A Little Hatred is Joe Abercrombie at his best.
Cunning characters. Witty banter. Sickening twists. Bloody… well, blood. The hallmarks of Abercrombie books, and all are presented in new and fascinating ways in A Little Hatred.
Leo dan Brock is the son of Finree dan Brock, the well-respected and much-loved general of the Union forces in the North. Raised listening to stories of named men like The Bloody Nine, Leo is bold and reckless and longs for glory. Finree would see her son stay back from the front lines, play a strategic war against the Northerners, and minimize bloodshed. Leo would rather charge in with sword held high than sit back and strategize. With Stour Nightfall and his army of Northmen at his back, Leo struggles to maintain his composure with such a great chance for glory at his fingertips.
“Leonalt dan Brock,” Glokta sneered, showing his empty gums again. “The Young Lion.”
“Who comes up with these ridiculous names?”
“Writers, I daresay.”
Rikke has the gift (she’ll say it’s a curse) of The Long Eye. Trained in the ways of the moon by the notorious hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to channel the power of her gift. As such, she tends to have bouts of fits where she must bite down on a wooden dowel else risk losing her tongue. It’s because of these fits, and because of her gift, that her father The Dogman sent her to live with Isern. Now, Rikke has seen more than she cares to see – chaos and bloodshed in the future, particularly for her childhood friend Leo dan Brock.
Her eyes went wide, and one burned hot. Hot as a glowing coal in her skull. She heard the flapping click of the bowstring. She saw the arrow. But she saw it with The Long Eye. And for an instant, like the dawn sun blazing into her room as the shutters were blown wide, the absolute knowing of that arrow burst upon her. She saw where it was, all it was, where it had been and would be. She saw its making: smith with teeth clenched, fletcher with tongue wedged in his cheek as he trimmed the flights. She saw its ending, shaft rotted and head flaked away to rust among the brambles. She saw it in the quiver slung over the foot of the archer’s bed as he kissed his wife Riam goodbye and hoped that her broken toe mended. She knew with utter certainty where that arrow would be, always. So she flicked her hand out, and when it came to meet her as she knew it must, it was the easiest thing to push it, just to nudge it with her finger so it missed Isern and spun off harmless into the trees, bouncing once and coming to rest in the undergrowth in its right place, in the only place it could be, where she’d seen it rot away among the brambles. She stared at the archer, his brow knitted up in shock as he stared back, his jaw dropping lower and lower.
A great joyous wonderful giggle bubbled up at the impossible thing she’d done, and Rikke stuck her fist up and screamed “Give my regards to Riam! Hope her toe mends!”
Finally Savine dan Glokta is as brilliant and ruthless as they come. A savvy businesswoman with mounds upon mounds of money, not to mention the most powerful and feared man in the Union as her father, Savine is as brutal at a formal dinner as The Bloody Nine was in the circle. Angland has entered an age of innovation and ideas, and Savine stands to gain at every turn. Funding the next age of man is profitable work, but Savine soon realizes that her life of manipulation has left her nearly friendless.
“Don’t marry an idiot! Marry a rich man who likes men. At least you’ll have that in common.” [Ardee] peered thoughtfully up at the ceiling. “Or at least marry a pretty idiot, that way you have something nice to look at while you regret it.”
“That was your plan, was it?” asked Savine, sipping her own drink.
“Actually yes, but when I got to the counter, all they had left was crippled mastermind.”
Savine laughed so suddenly she blew wine out of her nose, had to jerk from her chair so that she didn’t spatter it on her dress, and ended up flicking it on the carpet in a most unladylike manner. Her mother chuckled at her discomfort, then sighed. “And do you know,” she gave the monstrous diamond on her wedding band a lopsided grin, “I haven’t regretted a day of it.”
With wars in the North (I do love my wars in the North) and an upwelling of rebellion, A Little Hatred begins The Age of Madness with a bang. The old world of magic and myth is suffused into this new world of steam and motors and manpower. The result is a sublime mix of everything you love about Abercrombie told in new, exciting, compelling ways.
For those worrying you won’t get to see some old favorite characters, worry no more. Abercrombie treads the line perfectly between nostalgia for the old world and the development of the new. Familiar faces abound: Jezal dan Luthar, Black Calder, Bremer dan Gorst, Finree dan Brock, Wonderful, the insufferably pompous Bayaz, and a particular wrinkly, toothless old man in a wheelchair, among others.
Abercrombie builds upon the world he has already created in his other First Law books, using the events of A Little Hatred to catalyze the destruction and the growth of the characters we are introduced to and the ones we already love. I personally loved having secondary, non POV characters that I had read before. It’s almost as if I could tell what was going through their heads when something happened with one of the main characters.
One big question mark for me is Clover. I want to know his past. There’s going to be more to come with this mysterious fellow. That bit at the end with Stour. Wow.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. I’ve got to give it some time to settle but it’s already in my favorites. You can still enjoy this book even if you haven’t read any other Abercrombie, but longtime readers will find a hundred little nods to previous works. So either way, go give it a shot!

A war torn empire fighting on several fronts, but the most dangerous may be the threats from within. Abercrombie takes us to all sides of the conflicts and all rungs of the social ladder. I absolutely loved this novel and I’ve decided to do another list post just because there are so many things that I can rave about.

The characters are full of energy and life. Committed to their causes and brutally torn by the world around them. Each one seems to go through some sort of shift in the pages of this epic. Spurred on by the direction of one side or another… some morally tied to a higher power and many have their compasses spinning for the duration. The veteran turned rebel. The two princes in waiting acting as perfect foils to each other. The sly businesswoman who works her magic with capital. The outlier young woman who has a gift to see visions of the future… These characters kept the pages turning for me.
The writing is focused on these amazingly drawn people. Some authors open each chapter with descriptions of landscapes and weather patterns… Not Abercrombie! Thrown into the fray, be it the war-room, the prison cell, or the rebel hideout… we are a part of every decision. And I am loathe to compare authors or series, but I see so much of the things that I love about fantasy and escapism in this book. I was out of the genre for many years in my 20s and 30s and this book makes me so happy to be back.
Now for the confession: This is my first Abercrombie book. I was hesitant to begin this book because of that. Intimidated by the world he has already built and all the history that has been placed in Angland. But I am here to say that this is a perfect place of entry for the uninitiated. Abercrombie did not hold my hand, but gave a bit a trust in me as a reader that I would figure things out and begin to care about the characters.
The worldbuilding. Two major conflicts prompt every action in the book. First is the distrust and rebellion against the central government brought on by gross taxation and an oppressive royalty. The second is the new age of metal and machination. With the advent of fully automated factories, the common folk are put out on their asses. No work, no money, no food. It is especially the veterans of these ongoing conflicts that take it the hardest and now fight back.
The added joy of excellent dialogue and fight scenes. This is where the grim comes out to play. The dark wit and the bloody swords. The pages turn with amazing swiftness as no character is can hide from Abercrombie’s pen.
Old fans and new ones (me) will be ready for Book 2 to come out!

5 out of 5 stars for this one.

Thank you to Orbit Books and the author for an advanced copy for review.