Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie...

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silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

Stayed up til whenever last night to finish Last Argument of Kings. Enjoyed the trilogy overall, going to check out the standalone novels for sure.

Spoilery stuff:
Like others, the total lack of happy endings was a bit of a bummer. And Logen got the Tony Soprano treatment so who knows what happened to him. Given the start of the first novel, I'm inclined to believe he survived though.

As for Bayaz, he is definitely the bad guy. He killed Juvens, Tolomei, and Kanedias and kicked the whole thing off. Khalul's evil poo poo is a response to him. All of Bayaz's meddling just made me think of predestination. It's interesting how Khalul's side features organized religion, while in Bayaz's union he essentially just plays god.

I just started reading the Swords and Dark Magic anthology instead of plunging ahead with Best Served Cold. Have read a good number of the authors in it already, hoping to be turned on to new ones to read too.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2010 14:30

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:58

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

I just finished Best Served Cold and I have to say I found it somewhat disappointing. It shares a lot of the same strengths with the trilogy, but it's main flaw is that it's just way too drat long. The themes and the character development get stretched really, really thin because the narrative structure is so huge. I found myself just skipping through fight scenes I got so bored of them.

I'm hoping The Warriors is an improvement as a standalone. His short story about Northerners in that recent anthology was pretty good, so it gives me hope.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2010 16:11

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

I'm not far in but I'm already seeing how Abercrombie copy/pasted Gettysburg into his world for The Heroes. Not necessarily a bad thing but boy is it transparent.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2011 23:07

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

I finished The Heroes the other night. Very good on the whole, would put it over Best Served Cold and near the trilogy. There were a few loose plot threads here and there but those may have been intentional.

One thing that did bug me (fairly big ending spoiler) The whole bit with Calder and ha! ha! Bayaz runs everything (AGAIN) bit was a bit lame. Bayaz' influence is getting a bit ridiculous if half the warriors on the Northern side answer to him. It also makes the point of the war a lot less clear. Also it doesn't really address Ishri and the whole larger conflict

But it didn't ruin the book really. Bremer van Gorst is still a badass motherfucker.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2011 19:06

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

Daveski posted:

As others have speculated, everything in these books seems to be building up to a major war between Bayaz and Kanedias. Maybe now that Bayaz has control over Calder, the Union and the North will be forced to become allies against the South in the next book or in the upcoming trilogy.

I get that everything is building toward a climactic showdown. But hell Bayaz could have just done this same trick on Black Dow. Or hell had Bethod killed and replaced. Bringing in the whole deus ex machina again kind of weakens the overall plot structure if you ask me.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2011 19:48

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

I don't know if there will be guns. Like Jekub said I expect it to be about Ferro Maljinn in the South and at least involve her. It will probably just use a lot of Western tropes and such which would be interesting since he's always made the South out to be an Islamic caliphate-like.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2011 21:06

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

Hughmoris posted:

Logen Ninefingers. William Munny. Boom.

All right, I'm coming out. Any man I see out there, I'm gonna...stab him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his drat house down.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2011 03:41

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

Bummey posted:

Extremely minor Heroes spoilers. Really not a spoiler at all buttttttt spoiler tags anyway.

Bayaz was experimenting with cannons during the fight. Even if they did violently disassemble themselves (and their operators), it was a clear example of technological progression. I don't see it as too crazy to see some sort of primitive muzzle loader coming in the near future. Dude had a table full of cowboy/gunslinger books, after all. There have to be guns coming.

Well yeah I read Heroes and recall that sequence. And I do agree there has to be some larger reason for him including it since it bore really no relevance on the immediate plot of the book. But going from early cannons to what they were using in the West is 700 years of history. Not that that means it can't be done, but it's a rather stark leap.

I have thought a lot about fantasy in a gunpowder universe though. I think it would be interesting but it strains a lot of the genre's conventions the further you get away from the more medieval settings.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2011 16:17

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:58

silly: Jul 15, 2004; "I saw it get by the mound, and I saw Superman at second base."

I'm nearing the end of Red Country, will probably finish it tonight. If I had to give my rankings now I would say: Heroes>First Law>Red Country>BSC. Red Country is a good enough read so far, I can't really put my finger on what bugs me about it.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 21:37

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