Best Served Cold in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 23, 2012 Tony rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I gather this is a stand-alone book set in the same world as the well received First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, The Last Argument Of Kings), but I hadn't read any of those, or anything else by Abercrombie, prior to picking this up. I was drawn to the book by a review that emphasized how it was a dark and gritty alternative to standard fantasy epics. My taste in fantasy always ran toward the darkly humorous stuff like Fritz Leiber's Newhon stories, rather than the epic I gather this is a stand-alone book set in the same world as the well received First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, The Last Argument Of Kings), but I hadn't read any of those, or anything else by Abercrombie, prior to picking this up. I was drawn to the book by a review that emphasized how it was a dark and gritty alternative to standard fantasy epics. My taste in fantasy always ran toward the darkly humorous stuff like Fritz Leiber's Newhon stories, rather than the epic Game of Thrones-type sagas, so this sounded like it might appeal. I didn't realize that although the story starts down in the gutters (almost literally), the plot is heavily geared toward the stuff of nations and regime change.

It revolves around the notoriously bloodthirsty mercenary Captian Murcatto, who is lured into a trap by her employer and tossed off a cliff. She miraculously survives, and spends the next 600 pages exacting her revenge on those who conspired to kill her and her beloved (in ways that are rumored to be incestuous) brother. The initial part of this is kind of fun, as she must escape the person who nurses her to health, and assemble a band of hirelings to join her quest. It's the usual odd mix of types one might find in any quest-based adventure game or book: a fearsome Northern warrior down on his luck, an OCD-type ex-con who's handier with a blade than he appears, a master poisoner and apprentice, and one or two other former associates and allies. I gather from reviews that at least some of these appear in the First Law trilogy, which might explain why they sometimes feel a little thinly drawn here.

After about two-hundred pages of slogging toward revenge, the book starts to feel a bit tedious. Yes, the setup to each assassination is fairly different and fairly interesting, but like far too much fantasy and sci-fi, it just takes too long. Yes, the action scenes are quite vivid and well-described (and graphic!), but there are just too many of them. As the names start to get crossed off the list, both Murcatto and others start to wonder what the point of all the bloodshed is, and it's hard for the reader not to agree. It seems like the book is intended as a kind of meditation on the inefficiency and uselessness of revenge (one might even read it as a kind of commentary on the "War on Terror"), but that never really goes anywhere truly interesting.

Meanwhile, the story also pushes deep into the politics of the setting (Styria), and the jockeying for power by various grandees and pretenders. I suspect readers of the First Law trilogy would have gotten a whole lot more of this than me, since the book is said to be set about 4-5 years after the trilogy, and they would already be heavily invested in the setting. I found it very difficult to care about any of it after a while. ...more

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