The Last Review of a Trilogy

Hey,

So I just finished up Last Argument of Kings (The First Law: Book Three) by Joe Abercrombie. As you might guess from the title, it's the concluding book of a trilogy. I've been reading right along and you can read my review of Book One and Book Two to bring yourself up to speed.

At the end of book two, there was a fair amount of stuff going on. The Kingdom was under assault from without and within, the band of heroes struggled to the edge of the world, but didn't find their salvation and things looked grim. Since this is the conclusion of the trilogy you can rest assured that your protagonists will prevail, not without some cost, but things will be put right.

Sort of.

The series has always tried to peel back the adamantium shine of traditional fantasy tropes and inject a lot more moral uncertainty into them. Less Heroric Destiny and more Grim Fate or Expedient Compromise to what the heroes do. This time the greyscale moves from 50% to 75% -- very dark indeed. At the end of the book I wasn't entirely sure I approved of the outcome. I did approve of the writing, however, which remains strong. The characters tend to have strong, distinct voices, the action sequences are solid, and the plot keeps up a good pace the whole way through.

If you've already read the first two books, you're pretty much signed on for this one and it certainly won't let you down. If you're interested in the series as a whole, I will say that the first book is a bit slow. It's all set-up until near the very end where some cosmology and backstory cast the whole book in a new light and the quest gets kicked off. After that, the story picks up and really starts to dig in.

later
Tom

The Last Review of a Trilogy

Hey,

So I just finished up Last Argument of Kings (The First Law: Book Three) by Joe Abercrombie. As you might guess from the title, it's the concluding book of a trilogy. I've been reading right along and you can read my review of Book One and Book Two to bring yourself up to speed.

At the end of book two, there was a fair amount of stuff going on. The Kingdom was under assault from without and within, the band of heroes struggled to the edge of the world, but didn't find their salvation and things looked grim. Since this is the conclusion of the trilogy you can rest assured that your protagonists will prevail, not without some cost, but things will be put right.

Sort of.

The series has always tried to peel back the adamantium shine of traditional fantasy tropes and inject a lot more moral uncertainty into them. Less Heroric Destiny and more Grim Fate or Expedient Compromise to what the heroes do. This time the greyscale moves from 50% to 75% -- very dark indeed. At the end of the book I wasn't entirely sure I approved of the outcome. I did approve of the writing, however, which remains strong. The characters tend to have strong, distinct voices, the action sequences are solid, and the plot keeps up a good pace the whole way through.

If you've already read the first two books, you're pretty much signed on for this one and it certainly won't let you down. If you're interested in the series as a whole, I will say that the first book is a bit slow. It's all set-up until near the very end where some cosmology and backstory cast the whole book in a new light and the quest gets kicked off. After that, the story picks up and really starts to dig in.

later
Tom