Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good book that introduces a new generation in Abercrombie’s world. While some parts feel a little forced, the characters and their flaws carry the story, and the mix of politics, war, and revolution keeps it engaging.
adventurous
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Joe Abercrombie tiene unos de los mejores estilos de escritura que conozco:
- Describe lo minimo para ponerte en situacion. Ni metaforas y rollos raros, al grano.
- Cada frase de cada dialogo es valiosa. Al grano.
- Las escenas de accion estan perfectamente explicadas
- Los personajes estan magnificamente definidos
La trama en si es interesante e entrelazada. He disfrutado cada pagina, sin duda acabare esta trilogia.
- Describe lo minimo para ponerte en situacion. Ni metaforas y rollos raros, al grano.
- Cada frase de cada dialogo es valiosa. Al grano.
- Las escenas de accion estan perfectamente explicadas
- Los personajes estan magnificamente definidos
La trama en si es interesante e entrelazada. He disfrutado cada pagina, sin duda acabare esta trilogia.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
To be honest, I went in to this with a little low expectations. I know that Joe wrote a different series in a different world, and thought "Well, that didn't work out, so now he's back to milk his cash cow". (And I'm sorry now, that is not the case!). I preferred the original First Law trilogy, always having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new characters in the second "trilogy" - which I also consider a mistake on my behalf.
After reading this, I'm suddenly in awe of what Joe Abercrombie has created and the way he writes funny yet grim, intelligent yet digestable and dark yet hopeful. No one writes POV's so convincingly, I think. The way you understand everyones viewpoints and can empathise with all the very different characters is just amazing. He has a way of making the plot turn and twist at just the right time, and when there's a twist it seems so natural and realistic, even though you didn't see it coming at all. (Much like reality...)
I really want to go back and read all the previous books to really understand all the different characters and references I most certainly missed in this - and to appreciate it the way it's supposed to. Perfect.
After reading this, I'm suddenly in awe of what Joe Abercrombie has created and the way he writes funny yet grim, intelligent yet digestable and dark yet hopeful. No one writes POV's so convincingly, I think. The way you understand everyones viewpoints and can empathise with all the very different characters is just amazing. He has a way of making the plot turn and twist at just the right time, and when there's a twist it seems so natural and realistic, even though you didn't see it coming at all. (Much like reality...)
I really want to go back and read all the previous books to really understand all the different characters and references I most certainly missed in this - and to appreciate it the way it's supposed to. Perfect.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Abercrombie transforms the low fantasy world introduced in The Blade Itself into a world of industry, and all the horrors thereof. With the established world, and Abercrombie's skill at the craft, built up with six prior novels, Abercrombie starts of the next trilogy in the First Law world with perhaps his greatest writing thus far.
“You look more like a banker than a wizard.”
“One must trim one’s style to the times."
Much like The Blade Itself, A Little Hatred primarily functions by establishing the characters and world of the series. In A Little Hatred, Abercrombie's characters are substantially more complicated compared to those in The Blade Itself. Although there is less room for world building with the pre-established Circle of the World, Abercrombie, as usual, develops his world in a satisfying manner that feels realistic and, most importantly, relevant to the characters.
Where The Blade Itself played off the sword and sorcery genre, featuring archetypal characters such as the hot-blooded barbarian, the wise wizard, or the incompetent nobleman, A Little Hatred introduces substantially more nuanced characters who feel less mythical and thus perhaps less likeable, but more realistic. Where The Blade Itself features a world of some magic, A Little Hatred takes that same world and adds industry.
In A Little Hatred, the prose was more vivid and wittier, although perhaps less catchy. Where The Blade Itself was slow with little rollercoasters here and there, A Little Hatred was substantially more exciting, if one enjoys politics and even romance.
The moment the plot seems to hit a lull, Abercrombie makes things explode, literally or metaphorically. Just when you begin to think characters might get redeemed, the plot arrives, and Abercrombie swoops in to bring them back down to the gutter.
“Do you have to drag everything into the gutter?”
“I don’t have to.” ... “But it is warm down here.”
With this novel, Abercrombie has truly hit his rhythm. The plot is more exciting, the twists more nauseatingly vile yet still page-turning, the world darker.
In terms of the main characters, Orso is definitely my favorite. Although I didn't care for Leo's character much, the plot that surrounded him was exciting when it wasn't bogged down in the military mud. Savine's scheming was enjoyable, and might have been my favorite, had Abercrombie not already outdone a similar character type in Sand dan Glokta in The First Law. Rikke was great and proves my suspicion that more magic = more fun. The Long Eye was a fantastic plot device to keep things moving — prophecies are always fun. Stour Nightfall was terrible and fantastic. As others have noted, Broad's character was perhaps the weakest of the cast, his character vastly outdone already in the character of Lamb from Red Country — he felt like a second perspective to the plot that was altogether unnecessary; the same could be said of Vick, who seemed to slow the book down every time she was a focus.
Over all, A Little Hatred is exactly what you'd expect from the author of The Blade Itself after six more novels and fifteen years more experience. It's a worthy successor to The First Law trilogy so far, and I will be starting the sequel, The Trouble with Peace, the moment I finish this review. That means now!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation
What trigger warning do these books not have?
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fun story, but could have done without the unintentional incest
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
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