A review by surdiablo
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I never thought I would say this, but I feel disappointed after finishing an Abercrombie book for the first time. It wasn't awful per se, but it did have high expectations to fulfill after the banger which was The Trouble with Peace, and somehow unfortunately, it turned out to be rather boring and predictable for me. I have several thoughts this time and I'm afraid I can't share them without mentioning huge spoilers for the series so it's best to stop reading here if you haven't read the trilogy.

I will start with what I liked the most. I did like the conclusion of almost all the arcs. The book ends with
hinting at another series and I am happy with the character progression of Orso, Leo, Savine, and Vick. Orso and Gorst's fate had me feeling hollow, and the way Abercrombie made me root for Leo in the first book, feeling pity and annoyance at him in the 2nd book, and finally making me flat-out hate him in this one was well done. The hints, cameos, and foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the series were also great and Abercrombie captured the essence of revolution, chaos, and struggles of the masses very well. Dialogue, action, and character development remain as fantastic as ever.


Now the things I disliked, I'mma start with the simple ones.
Rikke's plan to beat Calder and how he fell for it. Yes, Calder isn't privy to Rikke's POV thoughts like we are but c'mon, that was too easy. I know Calder isn't as smart as he's made out to be considering everything that happens in The Heroes, and he's sentimental, tired of fighting and all that, but still, the whole buildup to it, and how it was executed felt rather disappointing. Glokta had too many variables to consider that were beyond his control, so him doing everything for family and Savine coming out on top felt a bit too neat/convenient. Leo's rise as a sudden smart politician seemed a bit rushed, and he seemed dumbed down toward the ending as well, although I can overlook that considering Savine is smarter. While I agree that Orso had to die for the story, it seemed there were too many Anglanders around the end considering all manpower from Angland was used up for the rebellion early. The tower lift idea was silly too and overall, it felt like a rehash of the old story with roles switched. That's likely intentional since there's a quote saying History Repeats Itself, First as a Tragedy, Second as a Farce, but I wasn't satisfied this time. 

I know this may sound like tooting my own horn here, but somehow I saw almost all the twists coming which didn't help either, Whether it be Glokta being the leader, Tallow betraying Vick ( didn't expect him to be a plant though ), Rikke betraying Orso, Zuri being Ishri, etc. Maybe I got too used to Abercrombie's style or whatever, but I never actively try to predict where the story is going while reading fiction. So if I still end up seeing most of them coming, then I'm afraid that's a bit too predictable for me. I know many of these points can be canceled out with suspension of disbelief, and the 'plot convenience' exists plenty in the first trilogy as well, but we didn't know what we were getting into back then, so things felt more plausible. We know the influence and importance of certain people in the world now, so Bayaz getting overthrown seemed a bit too easy without much resistance. Then again, Bayaz sees everything as tools and is a long-term planner so that's also fine. As I always say, predictable isn't necessarily bad, it's mostly that while I liked the conclusions themselves, I did not enjoy the ride to get there, and them being predictable made it less impactful. 

I think the main problem, that soured my opinion most and subjected this book to such nitpicky scrutiny, was that the Great Change had finally come, and it was.. boring. I did not enjoy the first half at all, and I cared the least when it came to the Judge and Broad combo. The first half dragged on plenty with Orso having no agency for almost all of the book, and when interesting things finally started happening, it was as expected, so by the time I finished, the whole thing felt rather underwhelming. While I love Orso and Rikke, and Leo and Savine are great characters, I can't say they are as memorable as the OG cast, where the only person I didn't care for back then was Ferro. I felt like Abercrombie also overused the POV switch a lot in this trilogy so it lost its charm.
But I know I'm in the minority overall, so who knows, don't let me stop you, chances are you will enjoy it. Regardless of my long rant, I do love the entire First Law series. Plus c'mon, I read 11 books from this universe! One of them was bound to be a miss. It's more like a 3.5 ⭐ but sadly, I didn't enjoy it enough to round up to a 4. Despite this one being a bummer, I eagerly look forward to the next book of Abercrombie, and he remains one of my favorite fantasy authors.
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