Reviews with content warning for Death - The Heroes

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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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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10stormlight's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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josiah17's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Unfortunately, this is my least favorite First Law book so far. While I can appreciate what Abercrombie attempted to do with the plot and structure of the book covering all 3 days of a brutal battle, I was not a fan of the limited scope and it felt stale and repetitive at times. The characters were also not quite clicking for me early on. And as the book progressed, too many pov's were introduced and I thought some side characters were meshing with others and it felt somewhat messy.

What I did like though was of course Abercrombie's humor. He made the dull moments tolerable with some laughs. The last 35% or so has some pretty good stuff. The character arcs for the book wrap up well and I look forward to hopefully encountering some of these characters again in future books.

Overall, it's a decent read. But I did struggle in the beginning. Still very excited to continue with First Law.

Edit 1/20/24: I think after sitting on this for a while, I'm bumping up to 3.5 stars.

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adammtucker's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Absolutely gripped multi-day battle novel that you can't help but keep reading and hoping things turn out okay. Highly recommend for any Abercrombie or grimdark fans, as well as for people who enjoy historical accounts of battles or military history. You can't put it down.

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bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Still great. Enjoyed it even more on a reread via audiobook. Rereading all of these back to back continues to be a rewarding and worthwhile exercise!

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onthesamepage's review

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

The author sets out to do something very specific here: write an entire book about one multi-day battle. This is something that is either going to work for you or it won't, but regardless you are guaranteed some fantastic writing and characters as usual.

I think the pacing was a bit too slow for me, and the book could've been 200 pages shorter and still achieve the same thing. I do really love several of the characters we are (re-)introduced to. We get a new, really interesting female character in the form of Finree, the daughter of Marshal Kroy, who is ambitious enough for her and her husband. Then there are a few familiar names: Black Dow, Shiver and Calder all make an appearance, and Calder's character arc was my favourite.

The descriptions of war and battle are top-notch, but I'd expect nothing less from Abercrombie at this point. There were a couple of chapters where he alternated points of view between characters in a way that seamlessly connected all of them together, and I kept being impressed by how clever the writing is. And throughout all the grim and dark events, we get moments filled with humor. I also appreciate the commentary on war, and how it only serves to make powerful men even more powerful.

Speaking of powerful men, Bayaz is really being built up in my head as a massive villain. I hate him more with every book, and I am waiting for the moment of his fall.

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xphilphil's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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