Do I need to read Best Served Cold before The Heroes?

[Duncan Egg]

So I am just finishing up The First Law Trilogy (Awesome read!!! I have just under 100 pages to go in LAoK.) and I accidentally bought The Heroes thinking it was the next book Abercrombie released. I know that BSC, The Heroes, and Red Country are not part of a series, but are they still meant to be read in order?

Basically, can I read The Heroes before I read Best Served Cold? While you're at it, how are the 3 stand alones compared to The First Law Trilogy? Thanks!

[Samalander]

You can, but I would advise against it. There is mention of events from Best Served Cold in The Heroes.

There is also a chronological progression from one book to the next.

I thought the stand alones showed a marked improvement in Abercrombie's writing skills. They are also tighter, in that each book has its own self-contained plot.

[SkynJay]

I dream of the day when every single thread on the board is either asking about Abercrombie's reading order or questioning if Wheel of Time is worth reading. We must be getting close!

[End of Disc One]

What is it with all these Abercrombie reading order topics lately. Read the damn books in order.

[sologdin]

probably need joe to start a thread that disposes of the issue, and then wert can pin it to the top of the forum.

[MisterOJ]

It's because the three books that follow the original trilogy were marketed as "stand alones." Generally, when a book is stand alone, it doesn't really matter if you read it before, during or after other books by the same author.

But, you see threads on here saying that isn't the case with the Abercrombie books.

So, confusion.

[Rhom]

You might get a little spoiled by reading The Heroes first, but I don't think its a deal breaker. Trying to read any of them before TFL is a big no no in my book, but I generally think you could shuffle BSC and Heroes okay. I wouldn't do Red Country before either however.

[MisterOJ]

The only thing you are going to miss by reading The Heroes first is the development of one character. And he's pretty much a secondary character in The Heroes, but a primary one in BSC.

[Joyful Union]

I'm starting to think that all these threads are Joe trolling the board...

[The Lord's Kiss]

You really, really should. There's some very specific character development that happens concerning a person who appears in not only these two books, but two of the First Law books as well. Really, just get Best Served Cold first, it's a great read.

[flinn]

I wasn't crazy about BSC. I just didn't like ANY of the characters and couldn't sympathize with them except for "Friendly".

Even still I would definitely recommend reading BSC first. One of the main characters in BSC was also in TFL trilogy and in the next two books after BSC, The Heroes and Red Country.

The Heroes is my favorite Abercrombie book, I may can even say by far.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

You already messed up by reading the trilogy first. The correct reading order is:

1. The Heroes

2. BTAH

3. BSC

4. TBI

5. Red Country

6. LAOK

If you read LAOK before the standalones you will totally spoil a lot of characters' backstory.

[flinn]

^ I completely disagree with that order. It makes no sense to me at all.

[Myshkin]

Can we get one of these threads stickied? We can call it the "Joe Abercrombie Will Beat Your Face In with a Bannister if You Read His Books Out of Order" thread.

[Topher]

Definitely read BSC first.

[red snow]

I dream of the day when every single thread on the board is either asking about Abercrombie's reading order or questioning if Wheel of Time is worth reading. We must be getting close!

I don't know - it may take a while to push out the "Should I read the Malazan books"

You might get a little spoiled by reading The Heroes first, but I don't think its a deal breaker. Trying to read any of them before TFL is a big no no in my book, but I generally think you could shuffle BSC and Heroes okay. I wouldn't do Red Country before either however.

Oddly enough I thought "Red Country" was the most stand-alone of the three but I'd still have read them in the order they were released anyhow.

The reading order of Narnia and the Redwall series is something where I could see confusion but none of Joe's books are set in different eras.

[Bearbert Dondarrion]

Yes

[Spaßvogel]

The Heroes is the low point of the series. I actually stopped reading it because it went nowhere for a 100 pages or so. Then I read Red Country and was gobsmacked at how great it was, so I went back and read the Heroes, hehe. Certain plots/characters carry through so it's necessary to read them in order IMO.

[Areo SpeedDragon]

I'm going to come out and say I really liked 'The Heroes' first - before 1st Law, BSC, and Red Country.

It's such a drop into the world, you see a lot of threads bouncing together at an instant but nothing is really spoilered. It in fact creates more mysteries as I was reading 1st Law and BSC, because I was trying to figure out how events were going to connect.

My reading order would be: Heroes, 1st Law, BSC, RC.

[Rhom]

Wait? What? Seriously?

Or is this just a fun thread necro?