Best Served Cold SPOILER THREAD

[Isis]

I thought that the eating was uncontrollable? That chick in the first law said something like: "we can't stop eating". I figured that once you ate you had to get a fresh supply every few hours otherwise you'd start, I dunno, chewing your own face or something.

Is it like when you feed your pet snake live food and after that you can't go back to giving it dead food any more? :P

[UndergroundMan]

I really liked all the hints and cameos from characters in the First Law Trilogy. Ferro even got a subtle mention. The only people that we really didn't hear much about were the Dogman and Logen.

I really enjoyed the book and I would agree that the ending is brighter and more hopeful than that of LAOK. However, my biggest questions are bout Shenkt? Who is he exactly? He seems to be an Eater who used to serve Bayaz and now he refuses to kneel to anyone. He can obviously manipulate time and has immense physical strength. But what exactly is his connection to Vitari. He seems to be the father of her children. Has this now become a three-way war between Bayaz, Khalul, and Shenkt? Or does Shenkt just want to maintain independence and neutrality in the struggle between Bayaz and Khalul?

I love Cosca in this book. He was hilarious. Morveer was pretty pitiful but his final poisoning was quite epic. I also enjoyed all of the revelations about the character's pasts. Morveer poisoning his mother, Monza's brother being a douche, Cosca loving Monza, Shiver's brother also being a douche. And I finally understand why Cosca had the goat around him the whole time and Morveer's flask. And Day was definitely the oddest character. Friendly was strange, but hilarious. And one of my favorite scenes was the sex scene where Joe fools us into thinking that Monza is with Shivers when she is really with Rogont and Shivers is with Carlot.

[Poobah]

Manipulate time - where?

[ogbebaba]

Manipulate time - where?

I guess drum is referring to when Shenk takes a slow deep breathe and everything slows down. He is either slowing time in his vicinity or speeding him self up (both having the same effect on his relationship with his surroundings so... He is definitely trying to undo or destroy any plans that bayaz has but I don't really know if he feels the same way towards Khalul. He has some plans of his own and the main part of them seems to be revenge against bayaz.

P.S. Joe your books keep getting better and better keep up the amazing work I love your writing

[Sheep the Evicted]

I actually feel sorry for Shenkt. It seems to me that getting in between the age old Bayaz-Khalul war is just asking to get your shit pushed in. I imagine there have been a lot of Shenkt's throughout the millennia, each one of them thinking they could make a difference.

[delete this account pls]

Maybe, but Sulfur seemed pretty scared of Shenkt when he realized who/what he was. Also, Bayaz and Khalul seem pretty focused on each other and Styria was never anything more than a sideshow to either of them.

[ErikConrad]

... and Styria was never anything more than a sideshow to either of them.

I'm guessing that's exactly why Shenkt is in Styria; to get away from the whole thing. I wonder how/when he met Vitari, though. She already had her kids in TFL, right? Well, they don't have to be Shenkt's... I don't really get their relationship.

[Poobah]

I guess drum is referring to when Shenk takes a slow deep breathe and everything slows down. He is either slowing time in his vicinity or speeding him self up (both having the same effect on his relationship with his surroundings so... He is definitely trying to undo or destroy any plans that bayaz has but I don't really know if he feels the same way towards Khalul. He has some plans of his own and the main part of them seems to be revenge against bayaz.

P.S. Joe your books keep getting better and better keep up the amazing work I love your writing

I figure that's just a perception thing, adrenaline but more pronounced, given that he's an eater and all. I mean we've been shown that eaters can possess both supernatural strength and speed so I don't necessarily see any reason to go beyond that and give him additional, unknown powers.

Maybe, but Sulfur seemed pretty scared of Shenkt when he realized who/what he was. Also, Bayaz and Khalul seem pretty focused on each other and Styria was never anything more than a sideshow to either of them.

Yea I also got the impression that Sulfur was intimidated by Shenkt. I think we can assume that Shenkt has been at it a while - in The Blade Itself we see Yulwei (spelling?) destroy two eaters pretty convincingly, though he describes them as like.. I don't recall exactly but "young" or "new" or something to imply that he could toast them because they hadn't been in the eating game long; from that I think it's possible to infer that the longer they're at it the more powerful they get. I do wonder which of the two was the first to be Bayaz apprentice or pet eater or whatever, but either way Shenkt is clearly not to be fucked with lightly.

If Sulfur thought he could, I don't see why he wouldn't just throw down with Shenkt there and then - get rid of a problem and intimidate Monza onto Team Bayaz - so I figure he didn't fancy his chances.

-Poobs

[gentleman_bastard]

Finished this about 20 mins ago. Joe wasn't lying in is blog when he said he thought that with this book his writing had got tighter. The whole thing was wound up more than a snare drum.

I really enjoyed this but Joe is fucking depressing. The big thing for me was when Shivers was recovering from having his eye burnt out and he said to Monza "It should have been you". That made me sit up, because I had got into the whole empathy thing with Shivers and after that you knew it was all going to go bad for him.

Another thing I noticed was Shivers ended up quoting the Bloody Nine more and more. I think someone touched on it earlier in the thread but it makes me think "Is this how Logon started?".

I think even Logan would hve been depressed to see the change in Shivers though.

[henderson]

I finished reading BEST SERVED COLD, and it was a solid read. I really enjoyed some of the secondary characters like Cosca, Shivers, and Moraveer. I think the most interesting character was Benna. I found him to more intriguing and interesting than the main character, Monza. Monza appears to be the weakest of all the characters in this book. I think that Day and Vitari are more established than Monza.

The basic premise of Joe's new book and Monza remind me of another book that came out in 2007 called MALEDICTE written by Lane Robins. The notion of revenge is prevalent throughout both books, but Lane Robins does a much better job in MALEDICTE than Joe did in BEST SERVED COLD. All of the characters in Maledicte are well rounded, especially the main character.

Joe did have some twists in this book: Shivers turning against Monza (although that was somewhat telegraphed; Cosca being alive; and Cosca and Friendly working together (hope to see more adventures with those two). However, these twists did not have the same emotional impact as the twists and turns in his FIRST LAW TRILOGY.

If I was to recommend a book that features revenge, I would recommend MALEDICTE by Lane Robbins over BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie. I prefer reading FIRST LAW TRILOGY over BEST SERVED COLD.

[Chirios]

Is it like when you feed your pet snake live food and after that you can't go back to giving it dead food any more? :P

'... the gifts are different for all of us, but the curse is the same.' She stared at Glokta, head cocked to one side.

Let me guess, 'you can't stop eating.'

'Not ever.'

[polishgenius]

I'm mildly irritated because Shenkt and his relationship to Bayaz is very similar to a character I came up with maybe three months ago... That keeps happening to me. >_>

Anyways, yeah, good book. I thought it got slightly repetitive at parts but it was nothing like a major flaw.

I'm with those who think this wasn't as bleak as might have been expected from the trilogy - sure there were downsides but, apart from Shivers, the characters I liked didn't get too brutalised physically or emotionally, unlike tFL where everyone got beasted.

Also, Cosca is epic. Like Jack Sparrow but even more mad. He even got the really big hat...

[Mexal]

I'm guessing that's exactly why Shenkt is in Styria; to get away from the whole thing. I wonder how/when he met Vitari, though. She already had her kids in TFL, right? Well, they don't have to be Shenkt's... I don't really get their relationship.

I don't think he's in Styria to get away from it all. He clearly said he was after vengeance in his scene with Vitari. There is something more there.

I just finished the book. Excellent. However, just like his First Law books, I'm left wanting more. There is too much mystery around Shenkt and the war between Bayaz/Khalul.

Question though since it's been awhile since I've read the First Law and I've read a shitload of books in between. Who is Sulfur? I feel like I should recognize him but I don't.

[Maltaran]

Yoru Sulfur is one of Bayaz's followers - IIRC, he's also an Eater.

[polishgenius]

Was Yoru Sulfur not the one who went and got... the mad bitch (I'm so poor with remembering names) from the desert in the trilogy?

[Sheep the Evicted]

Im surprised Logen still hasn't gotten his vengeance in the last three?four? years. Maybe, he did the impossible and settled down with a nice northern girl in some no name viillage somewhere.

Was Yoru Sulfur not the one who went and got... the mad bitch (I'm so poor with remembering names) from the desert in the trilogy?

Nah - thats Yulwei. One of the magi.

[Ouroboros]

Or alternately Logen is dead, that would explain his lack of vengeance.

[delete this account pls]

Sulfur was the one operating as the leader of the peasant rebellion that Jezal 'heroically' defeated, and later impersonating the High Justice. Yeah, he seems to be an Eater.

[Caligula_K]

I thought it was pretty brilliant, personally. I might have liked Friendly and Shenkt to have a larger role- I assume Shenkt is going to appear in later novels, but his role was still smaller than I would have expected after the build up. And Friendly was just a very cool character who I wish had more page time.

But yep, nothing really to complain about here. Shivers' character arc was depressing as hell, of course, but I did appreciate it and liked how it was balanced out by Monza's more uplifting development. I also just thought it was cool to see Shivers become more and more like Ninefingers. All the First Law allusions were nice too, though it's been a while, and I'm sure I missed some (have we seen Shenkt before?). As usual with Abercrombie books, the humour prevents the books from getting too bleak, which is a very good thing- we all need bastard drunks like Cosca in our stories to cheer us up. And the revenge themes may be old, but they're handled entertainingly and are well done, so no complaints from me.

Not sure I liked it better than The First Law, simply because no character ever matched Logen or Glokta for me, but still an excellent standalone.

[Mexal]

Sulfur was the one operating as the leader of the peasant rebellion that Jezal 'heroically' defeated, and later impersonating the High Justice. Yeah, he seems to be an Eater.

Ahh, I remember now. Thanks!