Joe Abercrombie fans: Best Served Cold Movie

[BWRhasnoAC]

My exposure to Sanderson begins and ends with his work with the Wheel of Time, and that wasn't really his world, so I don't think it's fair to use it as a comparison.

Abercrombie is pretty dark fantasy. Magic exists in the world, but you don't see it very often, and when you do, it's not Harry Potter style "the dishes wash themselves!" type spells. It's usually horrific and devastating.

His books set in the Circle of the World are all defined by their brutality, greed, exploitation, manipulation, and ambiguous morality. Characters nearly always have ulterior motives for their actions.

None of the settings in his stories seem like places you'd want to live.

Sounds like I would enjoy it.

 

[CloneIce]

I've never gotten into the standalone books.

I've read the First Law trilogy two times, and I never reread anything.

The Heroes is my favorite of them all. Simple story but the writing and characters are so good.

The second trilogy is good too.

 

[CloneIce]

Is this movie actually happening? I know it was optioned, but the author hasn’t sounded confident about it actually being made.

 

[Mr Janny]

The Heroes is my favorite of them all. Simple story but the writing and characters are so good.

The second trilogy is good too.

The Heroes is fantastic. Probably my favorite as well

 

[BryceC]

He's an author who has written some really entertaining stuff. I fully believe that his world could be every bit as popular as the Game of Thrones franchise. Very, very good at creating deep and interesting characters. No good guys. No bad guys. Everyone exists in shades of grey. Never met a happy ending that he couldn't set on fire and reduce to ashes.

I just banged out the Age of Madness trilogy. Finished A Little Hatred 1/10, The Trouble with Peace 1/13, and The Wisdom of Crowds yesterday 1/16. Needless to say, I'm deep in the bag for this world and I think it's the best realistic fantasy since GoT. I think it's better than the Thrones books, I think Joe is a better writer, and I cannot wait for the next trilogy to find out what happens with the characters from the Age of Madness.

I think it's no contest better than Sanderson but I'm not a huge fan of his. I have read his Wheel of Time stuff, the Arclight stuff, and Mistborn. As others have said it's just different. Sanderson is high high high fantasy. If you want to read a thrilling aerial battle where people have glowing swords and they are creating all kinds of chaos and they have supernatural abilities it's probably as good as it gets. You probably have to read 600 pages to get to that stuff which is my problem with it.

Ultimately I love his characters, and without giving any plot points away my brain will be thinking about Ninefingers and his duel in the circle, the Dogman, Orso, Rikke, Glokta, and all of them probably until I die hopefully many years from now.

 

[NorthCyd]

So if I want to get into this world is the Age of Madness trilogy the place I should start?

 

[Mr Janny]

So if I want to get into this world is the Age of Madness trilogy the place I should start?

Start with the Blade Itself. That's the first book in the First Law Trilogy and sets up the world and politics, and also introduces some characters that will feature in the rest of the books

 

[Mr Janny]

Start with the Blade Itself. That's the first book in the First Law Trilogy and sets up the world and politics, and also introduces some characters that will feature in the rest of the books

After that series, the chronological order is Best Served Cold, The Heroes, Red Country, followed by the Age of Madness trilogy.

 

[Mr Janny]

I just banged out the Age of Madness trilogy. Finished A Little Hatred 1/10, The Trouble with Peace 1/13, and The Wisdom of Crowds yesterday 1/16. Needless to say, I'm deep in the bag for this world and I think it's the best realistic fantasy since GoT. I think it's better than the Thrones books, I think Joe is a better writer, and I cannot wait for the next trilogy to find out what happens with the characters from the Age of Madness.

I think it's no contest better than Sanderson but I'm not a huge fan of his. I have read his Wheel of Time stuff, the Arclight stuff, and Mistborn. As others have said it's just different. Sanderson is high high high fantasy. If you want to read a thrilling aerial battle where people have glowing swords and they are creating all kinds of chaos and they have supernatural abilities it's probably as good as it gets. You probably have to read 600 pages to get to that stuff which is my problem with it.

Ultimately I love his characters, and without giving any plot points away my brain will be thinking about Ninefingers and his duel in the circle, the Dogman, Orso, Rikke, Glokta, and all of them probably until I die hopefully many years from now.

Well said, regarding his characters. Abercrombie does such a good job of imbuing them with such a sense of "weariness" for lack of a better word. So many of them just possess a sense of resignation to their path in life, even if that path takes them to terrible places and has them committing terrible acts. GRRM certainly has some of that in A Song of Ice and Fire, but Abercrombie just lives in that mentality.

 

[Lexclone]

I love this site for threads like this and the geography thread (along with all of the Cyclones stuff of course).

I’ve needed a book series, and think I will give these a try. One question, does the author “pay off” the set up, or are they like GRRM and just keep building without really finishing (don’t tell me the TV series end was the pay off ).

 

[BryceC]

I love this site for threads like this and the geography thread (along with all of the Cyclones stuff of course).

I’ve needed a book series, and think I will give these a try. One question, does the author “pay off” the set up, or are they like GRRM and just keep building without really finishing (don’t tell me the TV series end was the pay off ).

Yes, yes, and yes.

I finished the second trilogy yesterday, and man there was a lot of closure, some of it emotionally devastating, some of it funny. It does feel like an ending. However I cannot wait for the next entry in the series.

I saw Abercrombie has a book coming out this year... not in the First Law world. And I'm a little bummed.