The First Law by Joe Abercrombie Vx (spoilers through LAOK for now)

[Pilusmagnus]

The accents in English are awesome. In France, we only have northern accent, parisian accent, regular accent, southern accent, Québéc accent and créole accent (from the former african colonies). Well we actually have more, but people in France tend to try and hide their accent and all go for regular accent. This is so wrong. The diversity you have in English is much more cultural.

[Night's_King]

The accents in English are awesome. In France, we only have northern accent, parisian accent, regular accent, southern accent, Québéc accent and créole accent (from the former african colonies). Well we actually have more, but people in France tend to try and hide their accent and all go for regular accent. This is so wrong. The diversity you have in English is much more cultural.

In Germany, we have tons of different accents. Some are awesome, while others are really annoying. And I think it's the same with British accents. There are some I like and some that I just hate.

[Pilusmagnus]

The fact is in France, having an accent is considered shameful, as an heritage of the Renaissance when the Parisian French was considered "true French". In France, it would seem utterly ridiculous to make a fantasy world where southerners would have Marseillais accent while northerners would have chti accent.

That's what I envy of english-speakers.

[Night's_King]

The fact is in France, having an accent is considered shameful, as an heritage of the Renaissance when the Parisian French was considered "true French". In France, it would seem utterly ridiculous to make a fantasy world where southerners would have Marseillais accent while northerners would have chti accent.

That's what I envy of english-speakers.

This was never a problem in Germany. We have so many accents because, well, Germany isn't a real country that long and is composed of many small countries, and almost every country had it's own accent. Some even had more than a few. At the turn of the 18th century we looked like this.

After we kicked your asses in 1871 (please don't take this too seriously :D ) we looked like this. But the accents remained.

[Pilusmagnus]

After we kicked your asses in 1871

You want to talk bout Bir Hakeim? :box:

[Night's_King]

You want to talk bout Bir Hakeim? :box:

That was really great. And impressive. The odds remind me a bit of the Battle of Wizna.

But I still think that Hitlers invasion of France was one of the most impressive campaigns in military history. I mean, you had one of the strongest armies in the whole world and the German forces beat you in five weeks.

But I think we're derailing the topic a little :D

[Wise Fool]

Yeah, they do. West is described as knowing the northern tongue several times and has to translate for others in Book 2.

Then there is Kantic.

Not sure about Styria though. I think they just have accents.

I'm re-reading Best Served Cold, and there's a point where Shivers's thought-bubbles reference too many big "Styrian words" (paraphrase mine. Apologies) so I'm guessing there's an actual Styrian language. Though, how different it is from the common tongue of the Union or not is anyone's guess - after all, to a Northman, Styrian and Union might be equally incomprehensible, even if they're the same language but with different accents or two related languages that are nevertheless equally difficult for a non-native speaker..

Also, and this is just an aside, I find Monza's experience with opium to be remarkably similar to my own experience with synthesized pain medications. At first you take them just for the pain, because some mysterious medical authority suggests you do so, but they feel so damn good that eventually you find you want them all the time or even, your body feels "pain" frequently enough that you reach for your "medication" anyway. It's also remarkably similar to Cosca's experience with alcoholism - both his own descriptions of his obsession, and that of mean-spirited critics like Morveer, prove eerily true. The theme of addiction is strong enough in BSC that it makes me wonder, because most readers and reviewers are keen enough to point out themes of violence, revenge, betrayal and the like in the book while these other themes are not so much, even though they're entirely present and - in my estimation - more powerful goads and drives for all characters (not simply the ones with substance abuse issues). What it makes me wonder about is whether Joe Abercrombie himself has any personal experience with the subject or, if, like any good writer, is simply capable enough to research and/or empathize/extrapolate enough to write about it in a way that is meaningful to those of us with such issues.

If the latter, you see, it provides hope that as a writer, I don't actually have to HAVE any personal experience with subjects I like to write about (i.e., cannibalism) to be writin' about 'em. Otherwise, though, I have knives.

[Pilusmagnus]

Does your message contain spoilers for books 3, 4, 5 and 6? Can I read it?

[Andrew Gilfellon]

Post mentions theme, character names. Not what happens plotwise

[jaimereborn]

I just couldn't get into this, despite really wanting to. Found the characters too cold and unlikeable to be really engaging, and found the prose a bit too 'young adult' rather than 'adult' in places. The atmosphere of the book maybe just wasn't what I was looking for - it just didn't have the subtlety or melancholy of fantasies like ASOIAF. It also seemed to enjoy gore too much for the sake of it and not for any seeming relevance or literary power, which ended up cheapening a lot of the violence for me and revealing too much the presence of an author striving for a 'gritty' style, and less so a believable world that I could throw myself into.

[aceluby]

I just couldn't get into this, despite really wanting to. Found the characters too cold and unlikeable to be really engaging, and found the prose a bit too 'young adult' rather than 'adult' in places. The atmosphere of the book maybe just wasn't what I was looking for - it just didn't have the subtlety or melancholy of fantasies like ASOIAF. It also seemed to enjoy gore too much for the sake of it and not for any seeming relevance or literary power, which ended up cheapening a lot of the violence for me and revealing too much the presence of an author striving for a 'gritty' style, and less so a believable world that I could throw myself into.

How far did you even get? I ask because I would never use any of the descriptors you used.

[jaimereborn]

How far did you even get? I ask because I would never use any of the descriptors you used.

around halfway in before i gave up :/

[Pilusmagnus]

The books feature pricky but sympathetic characters, are filled with dark humor and are written like a 9gag comment. That is EXACTLY what is great about them. You've been disappointed by what you were supposed to expect.

New casting members came to mind :

Ryan Gosling as Harding Grim (who else?)

Peter Mensah as the Gurkhish ambassador

Finn Jones or Freddie Highmore as Crown Prince Ladisla

Sebastian Stan as Practical Severard

Natalia Tena as Practical Vitari

Joseph Gatt as Practical Frost

Guillaume Briat as the King of the Union (just google his name or watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCAM1kR2xQM&index=1&list=PLKiS5UCHfv_A4cuqnSlYEuBNfAFIr2EIB or that : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0pLFDpRNTw)

[Night's_King]

I agree that there are very few characters I sympathized with at first. I think I only rooted for West and The Bloody Nine at the beginning. It really took me a while to read threw the first book.

The character developement is great in the second book. I loved it. The characters really grew into more likable persons.

And then, everything changed with the third book. I really wanted to burn Abercrombies house at the end. :D

[Nicomo Cosca]

The books feature pricky but sympathetic characters, are filled with dark humor and are written like a 9gag comment. That is EXACTLY what is great about them. You've been disappointed by what you were supposed to expect.

New casting members came to mind :

Ryan Gosling as Harding Grim (who else?)

Peter Mensah as the Gurkhish ambassador

Finn Jones or Freddie Highmore as Crown Prince Ladisla

Sebastian Stan as Practical Severard

Natalia Tena as Practical Vitari

Joseph Gatt as Practical Frost

Guillaume Briat as the King of the Union (just google his name)

Rose Leslie as Practical Vitari

Eva Green as Carlot dan Eider

Natalie Dormer as Princess Terez

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Prince Ladisla

Richard Griffiths (RIP) as the King of the Union

Thomas Brodie Sangster as Malaqus Quai

Gary Oldman as Yoru Sulfur

Ciaran Hinds as Zacharus (in his Aberforth costume)

Ian Whyte as Bremer dan Gorst

Viggo Mortenssen as The Dogman

Clive Standen as Black Dow

Alfie Allen as Calder

Karl Urban as Scale

Aiden Turner as Harding Grim

Clive Mantle as Tul Duru Thunderhead

Thats about it! Btw we have the same guy as the ambassador! Just googled him and its the same actor! Didn't knew his name though

[Jo498]

Logan is sympathetic as long as he is not entering the berserk "Bloody Nine" stage...

After reading "Heroes" I still think everybody is trying way to hard to be witty, including the author. Still, it is overall much better written than your average stuff and entertaining.

[Pilusmagnus]

Eva Green as Carlot dan Eider

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Prince Ladisla

Gary Oldman as Yoru Sulfur

Ian Whyte as Bremer dan Gorst

Viggo Mortenssen as The Dogman

Karl Urban as Scale

Clive Mantle as Tul Duru Thunderhead

Thats about it!

These ones are pretty good. Though Clive Mantle would do a better Threetrees. And Ralph Ineson is the perfect Black Dow though I envisaged him first as Logen. In which case, Clive Standen is a good Logen.

But Guillaume Briat is the King of the Union. This one and Ewan McGregor as West are not debatable.

Also, Clementine from TWD as Cathil. Just extract her from the game and make her play that girl.

[aceluby]

I agree that there are very few characters I sympathized with at first. I think I only rooted for West and The Bloody Nine at the beginning. It really took me a while to read threw the first book.

The character developement is great in the second book. I loved it. The characters really grew into more likable persons.

And then, everything changed with the third book. I really wanted to burn Abercrombies house at the end. :D

I was mostly drawn in by Sand dan Glokta in the early parts of the book. Not sure if I 'sympathized' with him, but I did like the character the most.

[Nicomo Cosca]

These are pretty good. Though Clive Mantle would do a better Threetrees. And Ralph Ineson is the perfect Black Dow though I envisaged him first as Logen. In which case, Clive Standen is a good Logen.

But Guillaume Briat is the King of the Union. This one and Ewan McGregor as West are not debatable.

Also, Clementine from TWD as Cathil. Just extract her from the game and make her play that girl.

I googled your King of the Union and it was a pretty good one aswell! You can make the news guy from the tv show Rome as the King too.

I don't have a solid picture of Threetrees on my mind but he sounds like Ciaran Hinds but has a totally diferent look.

Your West is pretty solid aswell, now I'll have Ewan McGregor on my mind whenever I re read the books! Oh and Cathil is Maisie Williams

[Pilusmagnus]

Maisie would have been the perfect Cathil but she's too old now.

I understand how you feel about West. Since I thought Morgan Freeman could be Yulwei, I hear his voice when he speaks.

And I agree, if you were not interested in the characters in book one, (I was, but you may not) it gets better later. Particularly when

Logen calls Jezal a brother for the first time.