Saturday, May 12, 2012

Well, now I've done it

I've finished Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, the final book being Last Argument of Kings.  And now I have to go back and read Best Served Cold and The Heroes, in the proper order, now that I know more of the characters.  You don't have to have read the trilogy first but having done so will provide a richer understanding of this world Abercrombie has created.  And since I love this world so much, I want to go back and get everything I can out of it.

I think what Abercrombie does so well - aside from the dark humor and the incredibly written fight/battle scenes - is circle around to minor characters, plot points and loose ends, and tie everything together or call-back to it.  I would love to know whether these five books were painstakingly diagrammed out before he wrote them or if he's just very skilled at remembering everything that's happened.  A friend of mine who is also a huge Abercrombie fan told me that there's a new book coming out this fall, Red Country.  Here's the description:
Shy South comes home to her farm to find a blackened shell, her brother and sister stolen, and knows she'll have to go back to bad old ways if she's ever to see them again. She sets off in pursuit with only her cowardly old step-father Lamb for company. But it turns out he's hiding a bloody past of his own. None bloodier.
Their journey will take them across the lawless plains, to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feuds, duels, and massacres, high into unmapped mountains to a reckoning with ancient enemies, and force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, a man no one should ever have to trust . . .
Read that bit again about her "cowardly old step-father" - that could be Logen Ninefingers, couldn't it?  Seeing how the last we heard of him was SPOILER him diving out the window and running away from being King of the North END SPOILER.  That would be fine by me - I like the ol' Bloody-nine.

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