Red Country (First Law World, #6) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Aug 13, 2017 Scott Hitchcock rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: abercrombie, grimdark

The best of the First Law Singles. Cosca stole the show and his hysterical swashbuckling humor had me cracking up time and again. The presence of "lamb" also helped a lot. I didn't mind that we knew who he was almost immediately. It was when others realized who he was that made it fun.

This was also the most consistent story of the three singles. Best Served Cold had a great first half and awful second while Heroes was the opposite. I liked this from start to finish. ...more

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Feb 15, 2015 Francesco Manno rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: grimdark-fantasy, fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, western

http://panopticonitalia.blogspot.it/2...

Red Country is a fantasy novel by Joe Abercrombie, published on the British market in 2012, while in Italy came out in 2015 thanks to the Gargoyle. This book is a stand-alone, even if it takes place in the same setting as those of The First Law.
Red Country can be called a grimdark fantasy with deep contamination westerns, since Jack offers classic elements that characterized his previous volumes in a context similar to that of the American West. The result http://panopticonitalia.blogspot.it/2...

Red Country is a fantasy novel by Joe Abercrombie, published on the British market in 2012, while in Italy came out in 2015 thanks to the Gargoyle. This book is a stand-alone, even if it takes place in the same setting as those of The First Law.
Red Country can be called a grimdark fantasy with deep contamination westerns, since Jack offers classic elements that characterized his previous volumes in a context similar to that of the American West. The result can only be an explosive mixture, since the characters sketched by the Author English seem tailor-made to move in this type of setting.
Abercrombie propels us masterfully in a dirty world, truculent and infamous in which the barbarity and the law of the strongest (but especially the more cunning) are the masters. His characters (as in every book) are outlined in detail and show the worst human baseness, being hateful and credible. We have no hero to take part in the affair, but common men with defects that far outweigh the pros, accustomed to abandon their loved ones and their friends when the situation becomes too dangerous, or where self-interest is threatened.
The story tells of Shy, a girl to whom a gang of thugs
Pit kidnaps and Ro (his brothers) and ignites his farm, decided to chase these bandits, aided by Lamb, his stepfather. In the course of the adventures that will lead the two to face a series of unspeakable dangers, in a world of sedition, treason, the girl will be able to see that Lamb is not the coward who has always thought and reveals a bleak past, made of blood and death.
The author focuses much of the history on this point, emphasizing the relationship between father and daughter, taking care to highlight the way in which it is to change while the story and related issues. However, there is a veritable army of people who took part in the story and not infrequently Jack chooses to present the story from his point of view, leading the reader to identify with the situation that is going through that particular individual. The resulting one side but also appreciable dispersive, since sometimes the stories of some of these they are not fundamental to the story.
The action in this book is a constant and the plot is not linear at all, reserving surprises; which is good because there is the danger of getting bored. We have many fights with cold, bare hands and battles (or better skirmishes) in which the characters are often changing the faction that fight, siding against those who until recently had been their friends.
The only drawback of the book relates to the fact that Jack refuses to enter the magic or the supernatural. This time there is not even any mention of it, not even a single scene. It seems that the English author who has married that peculiar literary orientation that seeks to eliminate the magical element in the works of the fantasy genre.
As I have said elsewhere, I can not be opposed to this approach and I honestly do not understand the reason for this choice.
At any rate, I must point out that Red Country is a well-written book, slide and fun, ideal for those who love the grimdark, but also for all those who love the fantasy. ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Wilson Geiger rated it liked it · review of another edition

Probably my least favorite of Joe's books. Still enjoyed it, but there were parts where I almost thought he lost the story. And Cosca? In the final quarter of the book, he seemed totally out of character. ...more

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