[VampireGoat]

read the first 2 books, enjoyed them but wasn't wowed

I have last argument of kings but after a brief skim through (i know shouldn't have done that but what the hell) and getting the general idea of what was going to happen I was impressed it was a nice spin and well.. dark spin

but I couldnt help but get the feeling it really didn't need 3 books to achieve that. It seemed to me everything in the first two books was designed to achieve book 3's twists

Dont read this spoiler if you haven't read the book

Spoiler

3 books to achieve what basiclly seemed to me to be an EVIL GANDALF!!!! MUAHAHAHAHA seemed like far to much

[Red_orbiT]

It was all kinds of awesome. But then, I loved the first two books as well.

Sure, the story might be cliche, the characters might look cliche(but they're really not), but there's always a twist, and the characters are good enough for me that I feel(and accept) that the rest of the book(story, worldbuilding) are just there to give the characters something to work with. There are few books where I find myself hating and loving all the main characters at the same time(with the exception of the Dogman, who's almost nice).

[Riot]

Found the book quite average. Nothing there that was vastly different from some of the other fantasy's out there. None of the battles felt that epic, only the fight between Nine Fingers and the big tattoo guy grabbed my attention

[zeeny]

I just finished this. Now, don't get me wrong, the book wasn't bad, but I have this bitter feeling in my mouth of reading a 200 pages of ending without actually having one.
Quiet probably intentional, but it was pretty poor compared to the build up.

[Obdigore]

I am somewhat confused by the 'no ending' part... There was an ending, and it was, imo, a good one. Just because everyone isn't a happy, shiney, or dead person at the end does not mean there was no ending.

What was there no ending of? It was all about the gurkish and northmen against the union, and more fall out from the whole juvens vs kanedis thing...

It is a series about a section of some exceptional people's lives, which wraps up when they all go their own way again. Did you want to follow:

Spoiler

Bayaz as he tries to hide the seed? Glokta as he runs the country and works on finding coin to rebuild the city? Perhaps you want to follow Ardee as she takes care of Glokta for as long as he survives? Or maybe you want to know more about the puppet king of the union, and his efforts in rebuilding and making things better for the common man?

The interesting parts of that section of the world are over for a while. There is two possible loose ends:

Spoiler

bayaz and bloody-nine. I would imagine Bayaz is going to hide the Seed, then go try to stop his nemesis. Bloody-Nine may or may not be dead, and I would imagine if he isn't, he is going to go find a farm and a woman, if he can

So please, tell me how there was no ending. Tell me where you thought the ending was let down? Tell me where you think there are stupid loose ends that should have been tied up?

PS - You know he is going to write more in this 'universe/world', just not more in the same geographical area, right?

[zeeny]

Obdigore;311305 said:

So please, tell me how there was no ending.

There was a semi coherent conclusion on some character development and just a big huge fucking cycle on almost all characters history. It's the ending the author likes. It's not an "ending" to a trilogy as far as I'm concerned.

Quote

Tell me where you thought the ending was let down?

I didn't as there wasn't one. I thought that the build up that never happened was a let down. And that the book was stretched 100 pages longer while trying fast to make up two story lines to tie of at least 2 of the characters.

Quote

Tell me where you think there are stupid loose ends that should have been tied up?

Tell me what exactly was tied up again? Letting your characters open is absolutely fine. You're free to enjoy it, I didn't appreciate it. The only author with worse "finality" for his characters I've ever read is Hamilton, but you almost know what to expect with him.

Edit:

Quote

Spoiler

bayaz and bloody-nine. I would imagine Bayaz is going to hide the Seed, then go try to stop his nemesis. Bloody-Nine may or may not be dead, and I would imagine if he isn't, he is going to go find a farm and a woman, if he can

I actually find Logan's story the most complete. And indeed, I do wish

Spoiler

...to follow Glokta as it was semi implied that he isn't done. It was said more than once in the book that magic is leaving the world and I would like to meet Bayaz again. Even the puppet king & the child. Could this have been done in this book? Probably not.
I most certainly would like to know Ferro's destiny and Shivers' and and.....

As far as I'm concerned, for a character driven epic, I felt it fell flat at the end.

[Pig Iron]

Think it was great. The ending was very far from cliche,

Spoiler

quite brutal I think. I mean, many authors pretend to show the futility of politics and war and ambition but somehow in the end give you some kind of happy endning anyway. Abercrombie's was really nasty.

[maynard]

I also thought it was a kind of fitting ending to the trilogy. All in all it left me satisfied.

Spoiler

The only character I cheered for at the end of the series was Jezal, whom I did not like at all in the first and second book. In losing his ignorance he turned out to be the best of the bunch. Logen was far less sympathic here, killing children and what not, so I felt that his (presumed) death at the end was fitting. Bayaz turned out to be a right arse too.

[Abyss]

Just finished, absolutely enjoyed. Worth the pre-order tpb price.

I'm going SPOILERS here so consider yourself warned

SPOILERS SPOILERS LAST

ARGUMENT OF SPOILERS KINGS SPOILERS
WILL SPOIL YOU RUIN YOU WRONG YOU SPOILERS
TORTURE SPOILERS DEATHS SPOILERS MORE TORTURE
YOUR LIFE IS SPOILERS OVER

IF YOU READ THESE

SPOILERS BEFORE YOU SPOILERS READ THE SPOILERS BOOK
SPOILERS FUCKING SPOILERS


Let me get my token negative comment out of the way first - THE FIRST LAW reads WAY better as a series of three than any individual part does. Read together, there is a logical procession of events and characters that totally works. Read in pieces (ie: w gaps of time between them), the books read like TBI: An intro with an action piece ending that doesn't really wow, BTAH: a good character/world development piece that seems to be building to something but doesn't pay off huge, and LAOK: a massive big finish that pulls together a lot of threads the reader probably missed if they hadn't just reread the first two. In a nutshell, the whole is greater than the parts.

That said, this book was a trip. Logen's plotline reached a frustrating (in a good way) point - he's trying so hard to be better but accepting the Bloody Nine as part of himself at the same time. The fight against The Feared was staggering, although i admit after the trouble Feared gave the Northerners last book, he seemed less here, and i'm not clear whether Dogman and co taking out the witch accounted for that. After Tul, i really, REALLY thought he was going to take out Dogman - i skipped ahead whole chapters to see how that turned out.

Jezal, well, it was interesting that he remained an idiot, but became a nicer idiot before all was done. And never a coward - that was the interesting part. For all his bull, he stepped up when he had to, until ultimately Bayaz broke him.

Bayaz, ah Bayaz. It's not like 'seemingly benevolent immortal wizard and outright behind the scenes bastard' hasn't been done before, but this was nicely done. The first 2 books hinted strongly this was not a nice person, but the scope of it was great. He maintains entire nations for his own protection. He's perfectly okay with doing what he charges his enemies with. He really, REALLY doesn't give a shit about the little people, and actually prefers to keep them down. I liked how all his redeeming qualities are basically stripped by the end, yet you can't count him as a complete villain - more that he's become bad to survive worse.

West ended up where i think most readers expected/wanted him to. The turn he took after that was just sad, and really brought home to cost of Bayaz' deeds.

Ferro. sadly, Ferro didn't go anywhere much in this book, except mostly insane. She ended where she started, only moreso. That said, the fact she was last seen heading after Khalul by herself was just a crazy twist. Sad her thing with Logen got so utterly shoved aside tho'.

Glokta. I can't say enuf good about Glokta's storyline. It just worked so very, very well. He's a cripple and a complete bastard and self-pitying and i have never so enjoyed reading about such a character until him. It ran maybe two pages but his confrontation with his betrayer(s) was just brilliant. The fact that he ends the book where he does is a perfect ending to his storyline. And the way things end with Ardee made sense, in a twisted but workable sort of way.

Dogman was more interesting earlier in the story before Logen showed up. Him trying to be leader was great. Him doing the tortured friend thing was less interesting.

There wer a lot of nice twists with purely supporting characters too. Tul (dammit), Shivers (as expected but nice touch), Pike (didn't see that coming), Dow (saw that coming and was happy about it), Severant (the birds were a nice touch), Kroy (predictable but it worked), and others have their moments.

All in all, i enjoyed this, and on the strength of it i'll pick up whatever Abercrombie writes next.


- Abyss, always happy to have a new writer on the buy-list.