Best Served Cold by Joe Ambercrombie - Feb 2012

[[deleted user]]

I'll admit it. I got sidetracked. Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept books were released as ebooks on the 14th and they preempted my entire TBR list. So, I haven't started the theme book for this month yet. But, I'm looking forward to it as I liked the other book we read by him...

... but how about everyone else? who's reading already and what do you think about it?

[[deleted user]]

I finished it the first week of February. While I liked it, overall, I thought it didn't hold up to the First Law Trilogy. If it had been a stand alone novel from a first time author, I might have rated it higher, but, as is, I know the author has better work under his belt. I also listened to the trilogy as unabridged audio books and really liked the narrator, but read this one as an ebook.

I do want to talk about a character once a few people have read the book.

[Suzanne]

I just barely started the book - read the prologue. I have a couple other books a bit higher on my TBR list, but honestly, after reading that first part this book is calling to me rather loudly.

[Donna]

After we read The Blade Itself, I quickly read the rest of The First Law trilogy and thought they were great. In reading the reviews of Best Served Cold though, I noticed a number of people who didn't think it compared well with the first trilogy. I have had The Heroes on my Kindle for awhile, it follows some of the same characters that are in the trilogy, so I've decided to read that one instead and started it today.

[Elizabeth]

I enjoyed Best Served Cold but agree that it's not as good as The First Law Trilogy. I think my main problem is that the charactes are so difficult to like. Apart from Costa, they just don't have many redeeming features. Abercrombie walks a very fine line with all the nastiness and violence but I think he just about pulls it off.

[Donna]

Elizabeth wrote: "Abercrombie walks a very fine line with all the nastiness and violence but I think he just about pulls it off."

That's a perfect description of what I thought of The Heroes. The unrelieved bleakness and gory violence wore me down but he is such a great writer and I got so interested in the characters that I was glad to have visited his dark world again.

[Suzanne]

I listened to an interview from Joe Abercrombie on Sword and Laser, and he mentioned how he wrote The Heroesto be a "war story" theme and Best Served Coldto be like a western. I haven't read Heroes, so I can't comment on that, but I can certainly see the western theme in Best Served Cold. Not cowboys and horses certainly, but (edited) Monza could be an awesome female Clint Eastwood.

[Elizabeth]

Suzanne wrote: I can certainly see the western theme in Best Served Cold. Not cowboys and horses certainly, but Costa could be an awesome female Clint Eastwood.


Lol! Never thought of it that way, but now you mention it, I suppose it is bit like that. Hmmm, interesting.

[[deleted user]]

Suzanne wrote: "Costa could be an awesome female Clint Eastwood."

You mean Monza, I presume, as she was female, and Costa male.


Anyway, the whole vengeance at any cost wore a little thin, more like female Charles Bronson à la Death Wish. And who else guessed at: (view spoiler)[Monza and her brother (hide spoiler)] right at the start.

I was sort of disappointed with the character that comes in at the end. I felt like I should recognize him from the First Law Trilogy.

[Suzanne]

Oops - you are correct - I meant Monza - I guess since I mix up my kid's names all the time it is not suprising I get book characters names mixed up as well - sorry about that! The Death Wish analogy is a good one. The movie I kept picturing was Hang 'em High with Clint.

[Donna]

Thanks for mentioning that interview, Suzanne. I listened to it on my lunch break, it was very interesting.

I thought it was funny, at the beginning they asked him "Why all the blood? Why all the violence?" and he basically said he didn't think his books were any more violent than other books, he just treats it more realistically. I'm not buying that, the books are much more violent than any other fantsy/scifi I've read. I think he should just own it--he writes violent stuff and he's good at it.

[Suzanne]

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the last half. (view spoiler)[ I really liked Shivers, for example, at the beginning of the book and his quest to become a better man. When he gave that up and became bitter, I felt a loss - although I was glad that Monza also missed his 'goodness'. (hide spoiler)]

[Greg]

Looks like we'll be reading this in this group or another group this month. Perhaps I can get around to it now.