A review by elderlingfool
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

dark 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

4.0

This was a weird one for me because I only started to get invested in these characters near the second half of the book. I didn’t have any problem getting invested with any of the other First Law books, even “The Heroes”. That said, I really really liked the second half. 

“Red Country” starts with Shy South, along with her stepfather Lamb, going in pursuit of the people that kidnapped her brother and sister. They end up joining a fellowship that goes in the same direction for their own purposes, some want to get rich and others just want a new start. 

As the synopsis says, “The past never stays buried...” and eventually everyone will need to face it in order to decide what to do from there. Besides this theme there is also the confrontation of religious beliefs and a bit about grief. Actually, after rereading “The Hobbit” before this one it’s funny how both have the theme of greed and include a quest, a treasure and
a dragon.


My main problem with the first half is that I wasn’t given enough information about most characters to be interested in them. Characters that were there from the beginning only started to have more lines and moments dedicated to them in the second half, like Hedges or Crying Rock. That was a weird choice and I would have liked that some of the information about their past had been shown earlier because I need to find the characters interesting in order to get invested in their journey.

Even though it didn’t bother me much, there were some predictable moments,
like the scene with the actor near the end and the real identity of Conthus and Lamb
. I still thought it was fun, but at the same time I wish it would have been a surprise. 

This book probably has the happiest ending that any book in the First Law series will ever have. I think it had a similar idea to the first trilogy when it comes to so many things changing and yet people ending up in the same place. However, here more characters did change in a way that impacted their own story (and others died or left), the most obvious being the comparison between Jezal and Temple at the end of their plot lines since they both had to deal with their cowardice. This one is a bit more hopeful and honestly I like that message more. I like to think people can change little by little and that will slowly have an impact on the world around them.
 
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