Reviews with content warning for War - The Heroes

This book has me conflicted. JA gets you so connected to the characters and so entrenched in the battle that when the plot seems to kind of sputter to an end you feel left wanting more. Maybe it's just the futility of war, but the story of this one was my least favourite of his so far. Still a 4 mostly for JA's typically wonderful character work. You do have to be realistic about this sort of thing.

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da3m0nic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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janbabs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I don't know quite what to make of this one. It's a First Law novel, so of course it was highly enjoyable and often very funny. However, with it only taking place over 3 days, and following the course of one battle, it lacked the usual plot-heavy momentum of the previous books. It was like a slice-of-life/vignette of a larger story and felt like a place-holder for what's to come. The characters were brilliant as always. Shivers' descent into cold-hearted existentialism develops further, and I particularly enjoyed Bremer dan Gorst's arc. This has left me wanting more, which I suspect was exactly the point!

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jombo65's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ripxreads's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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surdiablo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Engrossing, exhilarating, and absolutely tragic. Abercrombie excels as usual at characterization, taking many side characters from the original trilogy, giving them distinct, compelling voices, and also adding new people to the cast who are just as interesting ( maybe not up to the level of BSC though ) within limited pages. I enjoyed

Gorst and Craw

POVs the most, the former being someone who I loathed and rooted for at the same time since he's just so well-written as this

delusional self-pitying, incel who also happens to be a courageous, invincible bulwark of the Union.

This book encapsulates everything about war, the best and worst of it, even the boredom aspect while managing to remain dark, reflective, and humorous. It hooked me from the very beginning regardless of the slow build-up, and most of the character POVs were intriguing enough. Even those I was not too fond of were fun to follow, and the POV switches were seamless. I don't have any serious complaints at all so if I had to nitpick, I would say we could have used more of

Dogman

maybe. The chapter called

Casualities

was a fantastic highlight, perhaps one of the best fantasy chapters I have ever read. The action sequences were gripping with palpable tension

( Day 3 duel had me on edge..)

, all the character arcs had fitting conclusions, and Joe's traditional anticlimactic moments weren't a bother for me at all. It can feel slow at times since the book consists of either talking or fighting in its entirety, so you may not like it as much as I did if you aren't a fan of either of those. I'm just glad to be back in this world again after a long hiatus, great to start 2024 with a 5-star read.

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mylkyjo's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

As with all Abercrombie books, they're a mixed experience while reading.

At times, the darkness of Abercrombie's characters can be hard to get on board with. However, in The Heroes, we have the pleasure of reading some of the best and most memorable characters so far. Gorst, for example, may be one of the most unexpectedly wild POV characters I've ever experienced.

The Heroes is a poignant examination of war and soldiering and if you've enjoyed Abercrombie's writing before, you are in for a treat.

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