New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie delivers the stunning conclusion to the epic fantasy trilogy that began with Half a King, praised by George R. R. Martin as "a fast-paced tale of betrayal and revenge that grabbed me from page 1 and refused to let go." Words are weapons. Princess Skara has seen all she loved made blood and ashes. She is left with only words. But the right words can be as deadly as any blade. If she is to reclaim her birthright, she must conquer her fears and sharpen her wits to a lethal edge. Only half a war is fought with swords. The deeply cunning Father Yarvi has walked a long road from crippled slave to king's minister. He has made allies of old foes and stitched together an uneasy peace. But now the ruthless Grandmother Wexen has raised the greatest army since the elves made …
New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie delivers the stunning conclusion to the epic fantasy trilogy that began with Half a King, praised by George R. R. Martin as "a fast-paced tale of betrayal and revenge that grabbed me from page 1 and refused to let go." Words are weapons. Princess Skara has seen all she loved made blood and ashes. She is left with only words. But the right words can be as deadly as any blade. If she is to reclaim her birthright, she must conquer her fears and sharpen her wits to a lethal edge. Only half a war is fought with swords. The deeply cunning Father Yarvi has walked a long road from crippled slave to king's minister. He has made allies of old foes and stitched together an uneasy peace. But now the ruthless Grandmother Wexen has raised the greatest army since the elves made war on God, and put Bright Yilling at its head--a man who worships only Death. Sometimes one must fight evil with evil. Some--like Thorn Bathu and the sword-bearer Raith--are born to fight, perhaps to die. Others--like Brand the smith and Koll the wood-carver--would rather stand in the light. But when Mother War spreads her irons wings, she may cast the whole Shattered Sea into darkness
Joe Abercrombie knocks it out of the park again, which is no surprise. He is an A class writer.
I think his strongest attribute in all of his works is that he makes you care about characters you should have absolutely no emotions for. As the final book in this series, he also sticks to his tradition of always giving those fully fleshed out humans a satisfying conclusion, even if it may not be the one you want for them.
The Shattered Sea series continually improved upon the previous book and I found the finale continued that trend. It wasn't until the final quarter of the book where I really got in to it and felt that the rating went from "liked it" to "really liked it".
A hundred decisions made, and every time the greater good, the lesser evil.
I enjoyed the new POV's in each book but it took me longer than previous books to get in to Skara or Raith's perspective (as compared to Thorn or Brand who were enjoyable from the start). This may have delayed my enjoyment of the book until the stories tied together but it does, and it's excellent.
All I know is there's no changing yesterday. You can only look to do better tomorrow.
Unlike the sneak peak of magic we had in Half a King we …
Every hero is someone's villain.
The Shattered Sea series continually improved upon the previous book and I found the finale continued that trend. It wasn't until the final quarter of the book where I really got in to it and felt that the rating went from "liked it" to "really liked it".
A hundred decisions made, and every time the greater good, the lesser evil.
I enjoyed the new POV's in each book but it took me longer than previous books to get in to Skara or Raith's perspective (as compared to Thorn or Brand who were enjoyable from the start). This may have delayed my enjoyment of the book until the stories tied together but it does, and it's excellent.
All I know is there's no changing yesterday. You can only look to do better tomorrow.
Unlike the sneak peak of magic we had in Half a King we got a full scale show and tell. I was hoping the consequences of leveraging Elf magic would have been more visible (references to Breaking made me anticipate a repeat).
'Seems the world hasn't changed as much as we thought.' ... 'In the ashes of every war the seeds of the next take root.'
I'm glad to have stuck with the series and happy to see Abercrombie deliver another great read. When comparing Shattered Sea to First Law this series is closer to PG-13 whereas First Law would be leaning towards R. This isn't a repeat of stories we saw with Ninefingers or Glokta and that's perfectly acceptable.
This book spins its wheels for awhile, bogged down in politicking. Once it eventually gets moving, it's interesting; but in the end it lands on a somewhat disappointing ending similar to The Hunger Games (and to a lesser extent, The Dark Tower).
Book 1 to book 2 was a couple of years; book 3 seems to be pretty close on the heels of Book 2. I'm not sure if we got a perfect chronology allusion in this one but war is coming. Grandmother is pissed.
We bring in a new heroin, the princess, a queen to be, trauma abounds. Border Kings must come together and a fight must be launched, but how to do it all without.. elven weaponry... Oooh.
My mind always wants to know details. In this world, we have what is thought to be multiple-thousands of years since the 'breaking of god', which can possibly be assumed to be a nuclear fallout. We don't know the date in our future this happens but the technology of bangles that glow a wearer's emotion and has a battery half-life of a couple thousands of years has to put us a nice …
Book 1 to book 2 was a couple of years; book 3 seems to be pretty close on the heels of Book 2. I'm not sure if we got a perfect chronology allusion in this one but war is coming. Grandmother is pissed.
We bring in a new heroin, the princess, a queen to be, trauma abounds. Border Kings must come together and a fight must be launched, but how to do it all without.. elven weaponry... Oooh.
My mind always wants to know details. In this world, we have what is thought to be multiple-thousands of years since the 'breaking of god', which can possibly be assumed to be a nuclear fallout. We don't know the date in our future this happens but the technology of bangles that glow a wearer's emotion and has a battery half-life of a couple thousands of years has to put us a nice leap ahead of us.
However, when these crazy dark aged souls venture into the 'elven' city and what I see is pretty clearly some form of modern city with mannequins and lettered signs, I can't pin it. Maybe it's just an alterverse that was more advanced on some facets.
The other thing is if it was thousands of years after an apocalypse and we've got reading and writing, I don't see much math in development--eg engineering. Advanced smelting is just starting.. Then with the amount of archeology that was banned by the ministry per say, you would think that the reading of the old languages would have seeped into the culture sooner than its still latent thoughts. Couple these together makes a debilitated future dark age and rests everything on but I feel reading historical information (books?) and engineering would have made some progress through found documents or reverse engineering tools.
It's the engineer in me I guess that picks at some of this.. what can I do? hehe.
Regardless this book had more twists, turns, and setups--and again while you can see them coming they are an enjoyable romp into a softer side of the grim. I hazard to spoil, but the story does come to a pretty solid conclusion.
