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I agree about Shenkt being a little 'overpowered'. It really seemed to disrupt the flow of the story to me when he would split people's heads open with a finger. I get that he had to be an eater for that little exchange with Yoru Sulfur at the end, but it kind of took me out of the story because every other character seemed so fragile and weak from their own point of view (except Shivers post-eye and Cosca, cause Cosca loving rules). I think that the theme of human frailty, the flaws, the way they were never sure if what they were doing was the 'right' thing for them really strengthened the story and when superhero Shenkt shows up some of that effect is lost. In other news, Cosca is the greatest and I was so glad to see him take up drinking again at the end. Sober is no way to live for a man like that!.
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Dec 15, 2010 07:50
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Hughmoris posted:I'm getting the vibe that he is a fan favorite around here but I'm not a big fan of Shenkt. I haven't read it in a while but he just struck me as a "super powered, totally awesome killer who never fucks up and has no flaws" type of character, which seems to go against every other character that Abercrombie creates. The book did show how much of a price (on several levels) he was forced to pay to be what he was, and how the fact that he was good gave him a massive weakness to exploit.
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Dec 16, 2010 00:42
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First Law and BSC spoilers Shenkt is rather boring as a stand alone character in BSC but the wrench in both the Prophets and Bayaz's power struggle is a really cool event in the meta story that's kinda going on behind the scenes. Also I doubt shenkt is really that much of a threat when up against anything else but lone eaters from either of the big players. Having him be a jaded former follower of Bayaz was a nice reveal since it kinda mimics the readers feelings after the end of LAOK's.
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Dec 16, 2010 03:27
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I read Cold before the trilogy, and Cosca doesn't even seem remotely like the same character.
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Dec 16, 2010 04:51
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Koryk posted:I read Cold before the trilogy, and Cosca doesn't even seem remotely like the same character. We only saw so much of him in the trilogy, so we didn't get too close of a look at how much of a wash-up he'd become until BSC (and I mean that in the nicest way possible, no disrespect to Cosca).
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Dec 16, 2010 05:15
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Well I just finished off The Blade Itself. I enjoyed it, but coming to the end (though I assumed this would happen about half way through), it's very FOTR in that there wasn't really any payoff. I had not planned on going through the whole trilogy in one go so that was a little disappointing, but it was a fast read so I'm not too bothered that I now have to. Still not really sure what blade the title was referring to though.
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Dec 19, 2010 04:47
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IRQ posted:Still not really sure what blade the title was referring to though. "The blade itself incites to violence." It's developed more in the later books as well that these characters violent lifestyles just lead to more violence.
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Dec 19, 2010 05:06
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IRQ posted:Well I just finished off The Blade Itself. It refers to the Homer quotation that opens the book.
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Dec 19, 2010 10:01
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John Charity Spring posted:That map pre-dates Best Served Cold, which actually gave us an accurate map of Styria. Post-BSC, this map was made by someone calling themselves Scubamarco: I always pictured it as being Europe. I mean Aangland = England obviously. The Northmen, well it literally translates to Normans and they were vikings so... Midderland was the mainland with sort of a mix of Spain and France going on culturally. The Old Empire was Rome, Ghurkhul was northern Africa. Styria feels like it was meant to be Portugal. I could be completely wrong though. And now onto Best Served Cold before the next book comes out in a couple weeks.
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Dec 27, 2010 20:36
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Styria serves best in my mind as a renaissance Italy analogue. Full of money, bickering city rulers, and the potential to be a big player if only the city-states combined as a united front instead of endlessly feuding with one another.
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Dec 28, 2010 01:34
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Yeah that works, that works even better if the old empire is Jerusalem or something.
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Dec 28, 2010 01:36
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Styria as 15th/16th century Italy is incredibly obvious once you read Best Served Cold. Abercrombie specifically used Italian wars and mercenary bands as inspiration for it.
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Dec 28, 2010 02:00
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I still need to start that one.
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Dec 28, 2010 02:33
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IRQ posted:
loving do it, guy. It's a little rough in spots and tends to repeat itself thematically, but it's still quite an enjoyable book.
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Dec 28, 2010 02:51
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I (probably because I'm English) always pictured the Northmen as the Scots. Though I suppose axes (especially one of the ones on the front of The Heroes) were a more traditionally nordic weapon.
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Dec 29, 2010 02:06
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Evfedu posted:I (probably because I'm English) always pictured the Northmen as the Scots. Though I suppose axes (especially one of the ones on the front of The Heroes) were a more traditionally nordic weapon. The guys who join up with the Dogman and take them to that fort were pretty clearly highlanders. I think the Northmen were just Normans. e: oh and someone just go ahead and spoiler me, I'm 25% through BSC and seriously, were Monza and her brother getting it on or what? I swear GRRM ruins everything. IRQ fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Dec 29, 2010 |
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Dec 29, 2010 02:14
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IRQ posted:e: oh and someone just go ahead and spoiler me, I'm 25% through BSC and seriously, were Monza and her brother getting it on or what? I swear GRRM ruins everything. Now ask yourself, would Joe Abercrombie put something that depraved in his books? yes
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Dec 29, 2010 04:34
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IRQ posted:The Northmen, well it literally translates to Normans and they were vikings so... The Northmen are meant to be Anglo-Saxons. If anyone is meant to be the Normans it's the Union. Learn your history.
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Dec 29, 2010 15:46
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Flatscan posted:The Northmen are meant to be Anglo-Saxons. If anyone is meant to be the Normans it's the Union. Learn your history. No! keiran_helcyan posted:Now ask yourself, would Joe Abercrombie put something that depraved in his books? yes Ok good, at least I wasn't catching that vibe out of nowhere.
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Dec 29, 2010 16:02
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I'm still looking for books similar to the Ambercrombie novels, someone called them Scoundrel Fiction in a interview. The latest one I've read is the Adamantium Throne. It was not very good at all.
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Dec 30, 2010 02:43
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Hollis posted:I'm still looking for books similar to the Ambercrombie novels, someone called them Scoundrel Fiction in a interview. The latest one I've read is the Adamantium Throne. It was not very good at all. Have you read any of the Black Company books by Glenn Cook? If not, read the first omnibus.
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Dec 30, 2010 02:48
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Ornamented Death posted:Have you read any of the Black Company books by Glenn Cook? If not, read the first omnibus. Yeah, I've read all of the Black Company novels, the latest Author I am fixing to try is Stephen Lynch as he was recommended by Joe Abercrombie apparently. That and Lies of Loc Morra is a very familiar title to me. I read way to much especially at home or on my computer to the point of me going out seeing a book starting to read it then realize about 40 pages in that I've read it before.
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Dec 30, 2010 03:05
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Brandon Sanderson's first Mistborn book is basically Fantasy Ocean's 11 if that counts. He does write in the traditional fantasy style though rather than "UH URR UH poo poo." The rest of the series is normal fantasy though. Not that I'm knocking Abercrombie. I am a little. Uh.
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Dec 30, 2010 03:11
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You might like The Iron Elves series by Chris Evans (motherfucker needs to finish up the final installment though). The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman is also pretty good. If you can find them, any of the Kane stuff by Karl Wagner is worth reading.
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Dec 30, 2010 03:17
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Ornamented Death posted:Have you read any of the Black Company books by Glenn Cook? If not, read the first omnibus. Im digging these so far. I'm on "The Silver Spike," and a lot of people say to stop reading after Omnibus 1, but I can't figure out why. Aside from Croaker's POV changing and Lady narrating, then Chase narrating, the writing is still really tight and fun to read. I love the world he's created, and I'm digging the books. The only thing that irritates me is that no one ever dies...like ever. I mean, Black Company guys die, but that seems to be it. I understand that the Taken are insanely powerful, but come ON...Let SOMEONE stay dead, man. People give Erikson poo poo for this with the Malazan books, but Cook is worse.
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Dec 30, 2010 06:17
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The Books of the South both fix and are worse at that problem. Also despite definitely being a hick Case holds a certain soft spot in my heart. He's actually a largely functional human being who's just out to help his buddy and maybe pick up chicks.
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Dec 30, 2010 06:55
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A Nice Boy posted:Im digging these so far. I'm on "The Silver Spike," and a lot of people say to stop reading after Omnibus 1, but I can't figure out why. Aside from Croaker's POV changing and Lady narrating, then Chase narrating, the writing is still really tight and fun to read. I love the world he's created, and I'm digging the books. You should stop after the first omnibus because as ridiculous as characters coming back to life for no reason at all in the first one are, they aren't completely obnoxious. In the second omnibus they are COMPLETELY OBNOXIOUS. Seriously, just stop after the first set and consider that the end of it. It doesn't go anywhere good after that. And I am saying this as someone who has read the entire Sword of Truth series: the second set of the Black Company books I simply could not get through.
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Dec 30, 2010 07:51
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IRQ posted:And I am saying this as someone who has read the entire Sword of Truth series: the second set of the Black Company books I simply could not get through. This is impossible as the Sword of Truth is the single most offensively bad "book" ever written. It's atrociously written, all the characters fight and forgive each other in awkwardly formal language every single chapter, the villains are respectively a cannibal and a pedophile, the female hero gets "almost raped" every 100 pages or so, there's a 100 page S&M masturbatory torture sequence that resolves with the hero falling in love with his dominatrix, our hero causes a 10 year old child to bite their own tongue off, and there's a regurgitated Randian philosophy underlying all conflict.
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Dec 30, 2010 12:11
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That is just how very unreadable the second set of Black Company books are.
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Dec 30, 2010 18:45
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The second batch of Black Company books aren't as good as the first, but they are still miles ahead of anything Terry Goodkind shits out.
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Dec 30, 2010 18:50
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My brain has shut down and I can't remember, but was it ever explained what Fenris the Feared was? Not an Eater?
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Dec 30, 2010 21:03
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anathenema posted:My brain has shut down and I can't remember, but was it ever explained what Fenris the Feared was? Not an Eater? An old demigod thing created by Glustrod. Not an Eater.
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Dec 30, 2010 21:32
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Hollis posted:the latest Author I am fixing to try is Stephen Lynch as he was recommended by Joe Abercrombie apparently. That and Lies of Loc Morra is a very familiar title to me. It might be familiar to you due to Lynch pulling a GRRM and being well overdue with the next book. Apparently he has a nasty habit of completely dropping off the grid to such an extent that his publishers can't contact him. Oh, and it's Scott Lynch, not Stephen.
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Dec 31, 2010 18:44
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Flatscan posted:It might be familiar to you due to Lynch pulling a GRRM and being well overdue with the next book. Apparently he has a nasty habit of completely dropping off the grid to such an extent that his publishers can't contact him. Oh, and it's Scott Lynch, not Stephen. He at least appears to have some sort of crippling depression issues, as opposed to just, you know, not writing. The net result is the same to the reader, but I find it easier to be sympathetic towards someone who's got actual problems as opposed to vague writer's block.
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Dec 31, 2010 23:49
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neongrey posted:He at least appears to have some sort of crippling depression issues, as opposed to just, you know, not writing. The net result is the same to the reader, but I find it easier to be sympathetic towards someone who's got actual problems as opposed to vague writer's block. And I think that the next book has actually been delivered and is on schedule to be released this spring.
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Dec 31, 2010 23:55
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IRQ posted:An old demigod thing created by Glustrod. Not an Eater. I'm grasping at straws here, because I havent read the books in a good while, and I don't have access to them atm, but: Wasn't the witch involved with the feared somehow? I don't remember if any of this was resolved... If I had no life, I'd loving love to make a first law++ wiki. Also, is there any better name for this setting/set of books?
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Jan 1, 2011 04:40
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Slanderer posted:I'm grasping at straws here, because I havent read the books in a good while, and I don't have access to them atm, but: I think his "can't be wounded on the graffiti tagged side" thing was all Glustrod, but his super strength was partially the witch as he got weaker after Black Dow killed the witch. Logen in Bloody Nine mode was apparently slightly stronger than Feared's regular state (which was still obviously superhuman), but we don't really know what exactly was going on there either, other than that it's hinted at that Logen draws from the spirits or something when in Bloody Nine mode. It wasn't explained terribly well, which is a complaint I do have about Abercrombie (see also: describing the shanka).
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Jan 1, 2011 04:47
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IRQ posted:It wasn't explained terribly well, which is a complaint I do have about Abercrombie (see also: describing the shanka). I actually kinda liked that, surprisingly. As much as my physicist nature wants explanation, I think the ambiguity makes things slightly more interesting. Like with the house of the maker, for instance--we saw a couple of things that were awesome (the shanka pit, the divider), and we are left with no idea about what other crazy things might be sealed away there forever. Also, am I imagining things, or was it hinted at that the interior of the house of the maker didn't exactly obey Euclidean geometry?
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Jan 1, 2011 04:52
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There was something funky going on with the house of the maker. Bayaz flat out said the first time that they went in there that following him closely was important because one passage might not lead to the same place at a different time. We also know there were temporal irregularities from what Bayaz said. My interpretation was that it was some sort of (at that time) detached capsule separate but influenced by the rotation of the planet/universe by means of the Seed running that mechanical model of the universe thing in the main room (I know there's an actual name for that thing but I can't bring it up right now).
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Jan 1, 2011 05:08
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I loved all of the scenes involving the House of The Maker. I hope we get more future books.
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Jan 1, 2011 06:16
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