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kylieqrada's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
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
Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he's one of my new favorite authors!!!! I really was living for the character arcs in this installment. I am still such a Logan Ninefingers stan, though. I love Glokta as much as the next person, but Logan just does it for me, idk. Also THE REVEALS?! C'mon. Nothing less than perfection. And it really couldn't have ended any other way. Stunninggggggg!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, and Rape
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, and Slavery
keepawayrobot's review against another edition
dark
funny
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Torture
Moderate: Sexual content
avscarlett's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Gore, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Murder
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Alcohol
onthesamepage's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was an excellent end to a fantastic trilogy.
Picking up where Before They Are Hanged left off, we continue to follow Glokta, Logen, Jezal, the Dogman and West. After failing to find the seed, Bayaz's little group splits up. Logen is determined to head back north so he can help with the fighting against Bethod. Jezal, a changed man after his adventures, wants nothing more to do with the army. Instead, he'd like to marry Ardee and settle down if she'll still have him. Ferro finds herself sticking with Bayaz, who is still promising her vengeance. Glokta is dealing with his own struggles. Stuck between two masters who want opposite things, he must find a way to balance their demands and keep his head attached to the rest of him.
I always enjoy trying to think about where the author is going with a story, but Abercrombie makes that almost impossible. And yet, every direction the book takes makes perfect sense for the world he's created. It's a harsh and difficult world, where the heroes are just men who make really bad mistakes sometimes, and where fair is something you only see in fairytales. Above all, these characters are flawed humans, and it's their flaws that make them shine and interesting to follow.
This is also not a series with a neat ending. For every plotline that seems resolved, there's another left wide open, sometimes opening the door to even more questions than you start out with. I have no idea what's in store in the standalone books and the second trilogy, but I am happy to find out and let the author take me on another fantastic journey.
Picking up where Before They Are Hanged left off, we continue to follow Glokta, Logen, Jezal, the Dogman and West. After failing to find the seed, Bayaz's little group splits up. Logen is determined to head back north so he can help with the fighting against Bethod. Jezal, a changed man after his adventures, wants nothing more to do with the army. Instead, he'd like to marry Ardee and settle down if she'll still have him. Ferro finds herself sticking with Bayaz, who is still promising her vengeance. Glokta is dealing with his own struggles. Stuck between two masters who want opposite things, he must find a way to balance their demands and keep his head attached to the rest of him.
I always enjoy trying to think about where the author is going with a story, but Abercrombie makes that almost impossible. And yet, every direction the book takes makes perfect sense for the world he's created. It's a harsh and difficult world, where the heroes are just men who make really bad mistakes sometimes, and where fair is something you only see in fairytales. Above all, these characters are flawed humans, and it's their flaws that make them shine and interesting to follow.
This is also not a series with a neat ending. For every plotline that seems resolved, there's another left wide open, sometimes opening the door to even more questions than you start out with. I have no idea what's in store in the standalone books and the second trilogy, but I am happy to find out and let the author take me on another fantastic journey.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Torture
cosmologicaldefect's review
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The conclusion to the trilogy. Most mysteries are revealed. Grand action takes place. Overall I was disappointed how depressing the ending wound up being. Instead of a diverse array of character and plot outcomes, it felt like everything was smashed with a shoe to fit a "grimdark" ending. Abercrombie has a gift was inventing distinct characters, but each character in the main cast (with the exception of a certain wastrel) changes remarkably little over the series. They're more like D&D characters than people which is a shame because they're otherwise expertly crafted. There's a lot of buildup and promise of character development especially in the second book that kind of hits a brick wall in the final entry and retroactively makes the whole trilogy lesser. The series was still very enjoyable to read, but it definitely is missing some things that could have made it truly great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Violence
Moderate: Cursing and Gore
Minor: Slavery
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have such complicated feelings about this book and ahve been sitting on rating it for hours because I just don't know how to sum up what I think. Abercrombie continues to struggle with giving his women agency in this book. There were some absolutely horrific moments that elicited the emotions they were surely meant to elicit but I struggle with whether they were necessary or not. But my lord, there is some absolutely FANTASTIC character work in this. But also sometimes I was incredibly bored by the plot.
And since this is the final book in the trilogy, I need to mention that the ending was... well complicated. It had some amazing moments, but it sometimes dragged on and some of it felt very unneeded.
Characters: 9
Plot: 7
Setting: 7
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 8
Originality: 9
Ending: 6
And since this is the final book in the trilogy, I need to mention that the ending was... well complicated. It had some amazing moments, but it sometimes dragged on and some of it felt very unneeded.
Characters: 9
Plot: 7
Setting: 7
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 8
Originality: 9
Ending: 6
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
ellitheelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Cursing
Moderate: Child death, Terminal illness, and Rape
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