Darth Richard II Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 I need to do a re read of BSC. It's one of those weird books were I wasn't to keen on it when I read it but the more I thought about it after, the more I liked it. Usually its the opposite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 4 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said: I need to do a re read of BSC. It's one of those weird books were I wasn't to keen on it when I read it but the more I thought about it after, the more I liked it. Usually its the opposite. I don't think I would want to do a reread. I just would not want to go through the downfall to dehumanization of Shivers again. Too depressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 3 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said: I need to do a re read of BSC. It's one of those weird books were I wasn't to keen on it when I read it but the more I thought about it after, the more I liked it. Usually its the opposite. BSC was a huge change of pace from the First Law Trilogy and took a bit of getting used to. Thought all the characters were great. I know it's a bit contrary to what I see from most, but BSC is my favorite of the standalones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 2 minutes ago, wolverine said: I don't think I would want to do a reread. I just would not want to go through the downfall to dehumanization of Shivers again. Too depressing. That was brutal. The torture scene was downright visceral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 Sometimes I feel like the biggest thing in common with Martin and Abercrombie is: the "good" guys get fucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howdyphillip Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 10 hours ago, wolverine said: Sometimes I feel like the biggest thing in common with Martin and Abercrombie is: the "good" guys get fucked. Abercrombie has "good guys" in his books? I'm doing a reread of First Law right now, and I can't find one. That is part of the reason that the books are so delightful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 On 20/04/2016 at 10:27 PM, red snow said: So "sharp ends" is out pretty soon, right? Probably start surfacing in some naughty shops anytime now. Forbidden Planet had copies today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 16 hours ago, Rhom said: BSC was a huge change of pace from the First Law Trilogy and took a bit of getting used to. Thought all the characters were great. I know it's a bit contrary to what I see from most, but BSC is my favorite of the standalones. There was a poll on here a few years ago ranking Abercrombie's books. BSC was comfortably first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 33 minutes ago, Slick Mongoose said: There was a poll on here a few years ago ranking Abercrombie's books. BSC was comfortably first. But where and how and in what sequence should it be read? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 3 minutes ago, Rorshach said: But where and how and in what sequence should it be read? From back to front, and after having read the first book in the Shattered Sea trilogy, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Anecdotally, I feel like I see far more people rank The Heroes as best and BSC and Red Country somewhat lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 I've always been under the impression BSC is the least favorite of the three as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 10 hours ago, Slick Mongoose said: There was a poll on here a few years ago ranking Abercrombie's books. BSC was comfortably first. Nope. It was actually third (both in the mid thread calculations and mine tonight). Bored tonight I dug up that thread, and ran the numbers on the 42 people that voted for all 6 books. Incomplete lists were not included and if there was a tie, they were scored in the order listed, some - 1 or 2 - were ignored because there was a 3+ way tie with no context, others provided enough context to break the ties "the trilogy got better with each book." Their mean rankings are as follows: The Heroes - 2.452 Last Argument of Kings - 2.476 Best Served Cold - 2.881 Before They are Hanged - 3.571 Red Country - 4.119 The Blade Itself - 5.476 Best Served Cold was definitely the most divisive book, in fact the stand alone books are all pretty variable in how they are ranked. Here their variances ranked in order of highest to lowest: BSC - 2.693 RC - 2.156 tH - 2.059 LAoK - 1.621 BTaH - 1.519 tBI - 0.841 The Blade Itself was firmly in last place with a 6th place finish in 29 of the 42 votes. The Heroes and Best Served Cold tied for 14 first place votes, Last Argument of Kings had 11, Before They are Hanged had 2, Red Country 1, and The Blade Itself 0. The biggest takeaway for me was that's it's been three and a half years since I read an Abercrombie book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 22 hours ago, Howdyphillip said: Abercrombie has "good guys" in his books? I'm doing a reread of First Law right now, and I can't find one. That is part of the reason that the books are so delightful. Hence the quotations around good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 In another fantasy forum I regularly post, Best Served Cold got voted as the best standalone book in fantasy genre. It is easily my favorite Abercrombie book, and always thought that this is quite an unanimous thinking. The Heroes and The Last Argument of Kings are brilliant, but Best Served Cold is even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howdyphillip Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 3 minutes ago, TheRevanchist said: In another fantasy forum I regularly post, Best Served Cold got voted as the best standalone book in fantasy genre. It is easily my favorite Abercrombie book, and always thought that this is quite an unanimous thinking. The Heroes and The Last Argument of Kings are brilliant, but Best Served Cold is even better. Heroes was my favorite book by Ambercrombie as well. I liked Best Served Cold a considerable amount, but Heroes read like a cinematic experience. It may be the best novel about a battle I have ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 42 minutes ago, TheRevanchist said: In another fantasy forum I regularly post, Best Served Cold got voted as the best standalone book in fantasy genre.It is easily my favorite Abercrombie book, and always thought that this is quite an unanimous thinking. The Heroes and The Last Argument of Kings are brilliant, but Best Served Cold is even better. It's my least favorite of the six Abercrombie books I've read. It's way too repetitive and was a slog to get through for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt b Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 2 hours ago, TheRevanchist said: It is easily my favorite Abercrombie book, and always thought that this is quite an unanimous thinking. I don't think there's anything approaching a consensus re: favorite Abercrombie book. I've seen things pretty even split among the trilogy and the 3 standalones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Without a re-read (which I don't plan anytime soon) I would not be able to rate the books of the first trilogy separately. Red country is clearly the weakest, I think, and Heroes probably my favorite (despite some lengths and repetitivity) I was not too fond of BSC but I think I understand its popularity (it's basically a revenge action movie with swords, and some of the stunts are almost indistinguishable from such movies, e.g. the mission impossible style break in over the roof). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 3 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said: It's my least favorite of the six Abercrombie books I've read. It's way too repetitive and was a slog to get through for me. Seconded. I don't very much like the quasi italian setting, but even without it BSC would be the least liked Abercrombie book for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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