Where to begin . . . I have such a wide range of feelings for this book.
First off, we’ll start with the world. I thought it was very well done, had a nice rounded out feel to it, and seemed very solid. There were races and countries at war, prejudices and an array of cultural differences, old heroes and long forgotten lore. It gave me enough without boring me to tears. Always a bonus. When I was learning, it was through the eyes of a character, so it made it much more enjoyable. No info dumping! Loved that I didn’t have to read pages of history.
The pacing was rather slow at times. Normally that would bother me, but it didn’t with this book. Personally, I view this as more of a character read. Sure, there were some amazing action scenes, but overall—to me—it moved a bit slow. I would have been bored if some of the characters weren’t so damn amazing! So while the story might have lazily plodded along, I was content because I had some interesting people to plod alongside with. Now, that being said, I had no problem putting the book down and coming back to it later. This was one of those few times where I read other books while enjoying this one. This book felt like a first book. A lot of setup. Character examination. World building. Again, nothing wrong with it. There was a point to this buildup that I understood by the end. I don’t think it was a waste and it was needed. Now that I’ve grown rather close to some of the characters, I’m anticipating book two will raise the stakes and I’ll become obsessed. I nearly was with this book towards the end, which was incredibly fun.
As for those characters, that’s where this book shines.
First off, I really didn’t like Jezal. I don’t think we’re meant to, honestly. For me, I cared the least about him, I didn’t find his story that engaging, and I ended up skimming some of his sections. Abercrombie nailed Jezal’s character: haughty nobel with no idea how insufferable he is. I hope he grows. I hope in the next book his story is a bit more interesting. He’s the only character I didn’t like and sighed each time I came to one of his chapters.
Logen. Now, he was a favorite of mine pretty quickly. I not only loved his character, but he had a fun story: traveling, fighting, action. His journey held my interests the most of all the characters. That’s not to say he was my all time favorite, just that his story was. I tend to like traveling with characters and seeing the world.
Glokta, my favorite character of the whole book. I can’t say enough amazing things about him, but I don’t want to ruin how well Abercrombie rolls out his entrance in the book. I’ll just say that I loved him. I wanted to be in his PoV just to hear his internal thoughts. However, his storyline wasn’t as interesting to me as Logen’s. It’s just a matter of personal tastes on that one. As I said, I like traveling and exploring. I tend to grow bored with political intrigue, which is where Glokta’s story unfolds. Shame. Not to say the intrigue wasn’t good, it was, it’s just not something that can get me flipping through pages in excitement. Regardless, I never shied away from his PoV like I did Jezal.
The other characters were done well. I think in the next book West will play a bigger role which I’m actually excited about. I liked him from the start and as the book grew, he became one of the PoV’s I was excited to read, especially as his role in the unfolding story becomes more important. We see sides to him I would never had guessed. Brilliantly done.
Abercrombie’s writing took me a few chapters to adjust to. Most of the longer reads of late have been very poetic almost, the prose reading smoothly and, at times, flowery. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a way to describe Abercrombie’s writing and the closest I can get is delightfully choppy. Harsh maybe, compared to the others. It kinda reminds me of Logen, honestly. It’s how I would imagine him writing a book. Though it took me a bit to adjust, once I did I was completely enraptured by it. I hit my stride and found that I thoroughly enjoyed his style. There was something alluring to it, something that made me feel entrenched in the story when reading.
So overall, a bit of a yo-yo effect for me, but it ended on a high. I’m very excited to pick up the next book. Matter of fact, I’m aching to, but I’ve got two I need to read before I can carry on with the series. But as soon as I can, I’m buying the second book. This is one of those reads that would be enjoyed by a wide range of readers.
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Reviews with images
Arrived damaged
Good book but the copy I received had a torn back cover and some of the end pages were also torn.
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