A review by crimsoncor
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

4.0

Ending wraps up the series nicely (we'll talk about that epilogue in a second). Could have used more Rikke in this book (could always use more of her). But the entire unraveling revolution plotline worked really well (which, you know, lifting straight from history definitely gives it an aura of authenticity). One of the things I really liked about this series is that you always feel the weight of the world and the people in the world. A lot of fantasy novels feel like a cheap network drama, where the same 6 characters are somehow involved in every single important event in the world. Here, yes there our main characters and they are many of the people driving forward the story, but so much happens off-screen that thwarts and alters their plans, that it feels real. The last series that really captured that feel for me was The Wolf Queen Trilogy and I think even that had a slight devolution into main character syndrome at the end.

Lets talk about the two things I didn't love.

Spoiler

First was the ever present Magi influence. It took something away from the richness of the world to have everything be driving by a behind-the-scenes string puller. yes, we got some great scenes like Sulfer's attack in book 2 and the awesome end to Sulfer in book 3, but "the Magi did it" be the answer for so many of the world's problems felt off. And while I don't think the intent was there, having invisible puppet masters linked to the world's biggest banking institution started to creep towards the anti-Semitic line in a way that maybe is just best to avoid all together. Again, I don't think that is what the series was trying to say, but given the toxic nature of a lot of discourse these days, it was noticeable. The other thing was the ending, where we got the Rocky training montage of the Magi prepping his comeback to world affairs. Again, this felt like it was cheapening the entire rest of the books, which thrived so much on the very human choices that were made. Having the Marvel movie "new villain coming soon" ending really was just meh.

. Neither of those things actually ruined the series to me. Just, kept it from being exceptional.