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A review by topdragon
Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
4.0
Often it seems the middle book of a trilogy is the least enjoyable. Usually, it serves as the “bridge” book between the setup and the conclusion and many times they can resort to filler material. Authors, of course, are conscious of this but can still find difficulty in producing a good middle book.
Joe Abercrombie has found a good way to deal with this phenomenon. He advances the time a bit and introduces two new main characters and it is through their eyes that we follow the plot. Thorn is a girl trained for battle but accused of murder. Brand is also a warrior but hates to kill. Their perspective brings a certain freshness to the entire story so that it doesn’t seem like you are reading a trilogy at all. The protagonist from book one, Yarvi, is back but he is now known as Father Yarvi, and it is his cunning that pushes the other characters into place and towards their destinies.
This is a “journey” book, following Thorn and Brand as they seek to gather allies in the coming war. Journey books aren’t my favorite and it may be this that knocked my rating down a notch. Certainly the characters, particularly Thorn, are compelling and absolutely not cut from any cookie-cutter mold. Some excellent one-on-one fighting scenes are included and it was fun to see the growth of the characters as they made their journey.
I have an ARC of the third novel so will get to that pronto to see how or if it concludes.
Joe Abercrombie has found a good way to deal with this phenomenon. He advances the time a bit and introduces two new main characters and it is through their eyes that we follow the plot. Thorn is a girl trained for battle but accused of murder. Brand is also a warrior but hates to kill. Their perspective brings a certain freshness to the entire story so that it doesn’t seem like you are reading a trilogy at all. The protagonist from book one, Yarvi, is back but he is now known as Father Yarvi, and it is his cunning that pushes the other characters into place and towards their destinies.
This is a “journey” book, following Thorn and Brand as they seek to gather allies in the coming war. Journey books aren’t my favorite and it may be this that knocked my rating down a notch. Certainly the characters, particularly Thorn, are compelling and absolutely not cut from any cookie-cutter mold. Some excellent one-on-one fighting scenes are included and it was fun to see the growth of the characters as they made their journey.
I have an ARC of the third novel so will get to that pronto to see how or if it concludes.