Reviews with content warning for Violence - Last Argument of Kings

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

37 reviews

josiah17's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"A curse we all have to bear. Round and round in circles we go, clutching at successes that we never grasp, endlessly tripping over the same old failures. Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments."

Phenomenal conclusion to this trilogy, delivered in absolutely epic fashion. About halfway through it was already my favorite of the three books, and it simply went on to enhance those previous installments with more revelations and seamless converging of plot points.

The character work is also tremendous. This series is character focused at the core, and it pays huge dividends in this book when the plot emerges and events begin to unfold.

Abercrombie's humor really hit home for me as well. I knew before starting this series that people considered these books to be constantly hilarious, and I honestly wasn't sure why after the first two books. Sure, they were funny at times, but nothing extraordinarily funny. But this book had me laughing left and right. It was great.

Overall, this book is certainly a new all-time favorite, as well as this series thanks to the payoff this installment provided for the trilogy as a whole. I can't wait to continue reading the next books in the First Law world!

Content Warnings

camam4's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

jferguson1138's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Odd to enjoy a book where they main protagonists are a torturer, a half demon, a Jekyll & Hyde man, and a coward.

The twist in this book is some solid payoff for a prior book that felt more wandering and it is on a similar level of a red wedding.

I’ll tell you, if we can’t have a Song of Ice and Fire ending, The First Law series is a pretty solid substitute.

Content Warnings

gus717's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

amir_hamza's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Say one thing about this book, say it's a bloody masterpiece.

I'll be honest, going into this book with everything I had heard, I strongly suspected this book to be a 6/10 from me. I let myself hope it would be a 7/10. But man oh man was I absolutely not prepared for this, in more than one way. I confess I'm still hesitant to give this a 10/10 given I find the pessimistic and borderline nihilistic view on human nature a touch far too unsuitable with me, but I'll still give this the next best thing I can give on my scale, a 9.5/10.

This book, to me felt very much like its contemporary concluding volume of an epic fantasy trilogy, The Hero of Ages. Both are like masterful and tightly plotted final acts of a story with nonstop calamitous and world-shaking revelation. And when I say "final arcs" and "nonstop" I do mean them in the most literal way possible. This (and Hero of Ages) WERE the endings as a whole, a complete volume detailing a story's final arc. The entire book was simply an avalanche of an ending, just picking up more pieces as it went, till I guess just a bit of cooldown at the end. Just a bit. Why this comparison? Well, The Hero of Ages is doubtless my favourite conclusion to any series ever (I haven't read a whole lot yet, but it's still...something). So to be placed next to that even for examination, at least by my standards, is very high honour indeed. As high as it gets, really.

Overall, I'm blown away. I am in shock. I am in awe. And I bow down to this wretched majesty. I was not sure if I would pick up the sequel trilogy when I read the last two books, given I found them decent with hints of greatness at best and just cumbersome at worst, but this ends all doubts. I simply can't wait to see more of this story.

Edit: Nope, 10/10. Let's go.

Content Warnings

esknight89's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny fast-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

4.75

Content Warnings

surdiablo's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

Hands down the best book in the series so far. While I loved the previous books, finding them hilarious and entertaining on a vast scale, I still had an inkling of doubt about the series as a whole, wondering if it's a tad overrated due to the praise I saw it received everywhere referring to it as mind-blowing, which I didn't feel at first, regardless of my consistent enjoyment. After reading this book however, I realized that the first two books were mainly a setup for the final clash but they still masterfully connected every piece of the puzzle, some of them had been dangling in front of my nose the whole time. I wasn't prepared for the final showdown at all, and it went above and beyond my expectations. It's one of the most depressing novels that I have ever read, leaving you alone with the faintest glimmer of hope at the end, and I still loved it..

The characters of course grow further, or at least some of them thinks to themselves that they do. It leaves you with such conflicted feelings wondering who to root for, as even the nicest one among them was a

physically abusive asshole with anger issues

, yet they remain to be captivating all the same. Some of them strives to be better and fails miserably as they make the wrong choices still, while the rest of them do change, but still remain the same at their core. It was honestly a struggle to witness it, all of their lives intertwined together

and at the control of one person who was never what he initially appeared to be, who ultimately wins at the end.

It reminds you of the fact that people don't always get what they deserve, whether it's good or bad, also the fact that some people ultimately reverts back to their base instincts, when under extreme duress.

All the doubts or questions I had throughout the series were answered and it was so satisfying to see everything unraveled, although it obviously didn't always lead to pleasure :') The whole part II was such a wild ride for me that each chapter left me breathless. It had some of the best action scenes I have ever read

holy shit, that duel was fricking amazing!!!

along with horror, distress, mystery, heartbreak and of course the humor, which this time was overshadowed by bleakness. It had moments that had me cheering at first, which soon turned into horrified gasps. As for the ending itself, pretty much

all the main characters lived which I didn't expect, and yet they are in no better position than when they started, in fact some of them are at their worst.

I can see people hating it, I definitely feel depressed about it, but it was the right ending. All in all, it was very close to a masterpiece if you ask me, almost tied with my favorite book of all time so far. I feel like I need a cigarette after finishing it and I don't even smoke.. Gonna need a palette cleanser before starting the remaining standalone novels.

Content Warnings

mikarala's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

The final reveal is almost good enough to make me up my rating...but not quite.

Basically sums up my feelings about this series. There are a lot of really interesting, bold elements to this story, and when it all comes together, it feels pretty brilliant, but overall I'm not a fan of how the story builds towards this climax. I feel as though a lot of narrative time and space is taken up by sideplots and secondary storylines, while the main conflict feels sort of undercooked. I really appreciate the genre subversions with the villain and the bleak examinations of power and human nature, but there are enough aspects of this story that frustrated me that I can't really rate it higher.

Spoilers ahead for my specific issues:

Frankly, I had a hard time getting invested in the whole Khalul and his Eaters coming with his Gurkish hordes to attack Adua. I appreciate that the point is that Khalul doesn't actually matter and Bayaz is the real enemy here, as a megalomaniac puppetmaster who likes to play the wise old wizard friend, but to me the lack of development of the opposition kind of weakens that eventual twist. Like, the idea that Bayaz and Khalul are just using the Union and Gurkhul as proxies in their war against each other is great, but I do think that reveal would have been more meaningful if Khalul had been built up more as a villain. Also, on a meta level, I don't appreciate that the Gurkish army are basically this underdeveloped horde of evil brown/Asian peoples. The way they're depicted as less skilled than their white Union/Northmen opponents, but having the strength of numbers, really plays into racist tropes like the Yellow Peril. The fact that it's not challenged or deconstructed at all leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Somewhat related to the previous point, while I find the actual lore fascinating, the way we learn about the lore throughout the story kind of feels belated. It's almost like we're learning about some of the more mystical world-building elements literally as they're having an impact on the story. For that reason, I kind of found it hard to follow or even care about it at times. We spent so much story time developing the conflict in the North, which is basically only relevant to Logen's character arc in the end and a distraction from the main plot, while the big magical conflict at the core of the entire trilogy's climax felt underdeveloped to me. Honestly, I found it disappointing that Bethod & his witch had very little importance in the end; it seemed like a waste to me, and I thought they were going to be connected to the main plot in some meaningful way.

Of course, there were plenty of things I liked about this story anyways. I thought the way the character arcs ended was quite satisfying, albeit pretty depressing too. This book stripped back a lot of the pretense with our main characters, really hammering home the point that they aren't heroes. In the epic fantasy genre, you expect the journey to have a meaningful impact on characters and change their circumstances. But this is a grimdark story, so...

even though the characters become more self-aware of their flaws, they don't fundamentally change. The change in circumstances is not matched by a significant change in beliefs, attitudes, or habits. Even the characters that want to change things find they don't really have the power to do anything different from before,

and while that's a bleak message to send, I also found it kind of satisfying, in a twisted way. I guess because it fits in with what was already established. This is a crapsack world without happy endings, so it would feel cheap if that's what our characters got. Actually, the story kind of deconstructs a couple of seemingly happy endings, which I really enjoyed.

I also found the book quite funny at times, moreso than the first two books, even. While the wry and understated tone can sometimes do a disservice to more dramatic moments that I think would be well-served by a little more emphasis, it does have the benefit of allowing for some quite funny black humour. Like, there's a moment where Glokta basically rhetorically queries

why everyone backstabs him, and Ardee sarcastically replies that maybe it's because he's a villainous backstabber who tortures people for a living

. The lampshade hanging made me laugh out loud.

So it is what it is, I guess. Overall I can't help but feel that this series was full of a lot of wasted potential and intriguing elements that could have been handled better, however, I still quite enjoyed the ride. All of my positive feelings are kind of tempered by disappointment in what could have been improved, but this series is still a fascinating examination and deconstruction of many character archetypes and fantasy tropes that I can definitely recommend.

Content Warnings

saemiligr's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

harley_merlin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.75

Ich habe diese Reihe vor einem halben Jahr angefangen. Demnach habe ich ganz schön lange gebraucht, was aber nicht an dem Buch lag, sondern eher daran, dass ich mich nicht so lange auf die Geschichte konzentrieren konnte. Eigentlich war sie bis jetzt sehr gut, voller Humor und angenehm brutal, mir waren die einzelnen Bücher aber ein wenig zu lang. Die Charaktere des Buches waren sehr angenehm. Es gab keine Superhelden und auch keine wirklichen Schurken. Dadurch konnte man sich selbst ein Bild von den Charakteren bilden und sich in viele von ihnen hineinversetzen. Die ganze Geschichte war ein wenig blutig, es wurde aber so dargestellt, dass man es eher lustig als brutal fand. Mir hat außerdem gefallen, dass die einzelnen Persönlichkeiten menschliche Probleme und Gefühle hatten und dass ich dadurch mit jedem mitfühlen konnte. Auch die, die am Anfang unnahbar und gefühlskalt wirkten, lernte ich mit der Zeit fast schon zu lieben. Ich denke sie alle hätten mal eine feste Umarmung nötig, auch wenn nicht alle sie verdient hätten. Ich muss sagen, dass ich die ganze Reihe bis hier hin geliebt habe und mich schon riesig auf den nächsten Teil freue. Leider gab es einen blöden Cliffhanger und ich habe das nächste Buch noch nicht zuhause. Ich empfehle das Buch jedem, der blutige Geschichten mit vielen Intrigen mag, auch wenn man es nur entweder hassen oder lieben kann.

Content Warnings

More...