Joe Abercrombie: The Collected Works 3 (Includes A Little Hatred Spoiler discussion)

[Consigliere]

3 hours ago, Macklunkey said:

I've been listening to Joe's books on audiobook. I received a free subscription with a phone upgrade. I would thoroughly recommend the experience! The voiceover guy does an amazing job. Especially when you consider how many characters there are.

The Heroes in particular is excellent!

Steven Pacey's narration is class. 

[HexMachina]

6 hours ago, Macklunkey said:

I've been listening to Joe's books on audiobook. I received a free subscription with a phone upgrade. I would thoroughly recommend the experience! The voiceover guy does an amazing job. Especially when you consider how many characters there are.

The Heroes in particular is excellent!

I say this everyone someone brings up to audiobooks. I love the range of voices Pacey does. I like Best Served Cold more than the Heroes although that may also be my preference for the story itself

[Macklunkey]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I say this everyone someone brings up to audiobooks. I love the range of voices Pacey does. I like Best Served Cold more than the Heroes although that may also be my preference for the story itself

He really is excellent. My audiobook knowledge is pretty limited as I've only listened to; The Damned United, Game of Thrones, The Killer Angels and now The Heroes.

But he really is the best so far. 

[A True Kaniggit]

The Trouble with Peace is releasing on Sept. 15, does it not? Unless the internet is lying to me.

77 more days. Yay!

[Rhom]

5 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

The Trouble with Peace is releasing on Sept. 15, does it not? Unless the internet is lying to me.

77 more days. Yay!

I mean... if you can’t trust the internet, who can you trust?!!?

[A True Kaniggit]

7 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I mean... if you can’t trust the internet, who can you trust?!!?

Nobody. That’s who.

Which is why I’m about to light 3 candles to Skynet. 

 

Edit: Okay, it wasn't exactly 3 candles. It was one big candle with 3 wicks.

Lilac scented.

[BigFatCoward]

12 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

The Trouble with Peace is releasing on Sept. 15, does it not? Unless the internet is lying to me.

77 more days. Yay!

if that happens, and if my holiday on the 12th of September goes ahead, then I will be a happy man indeed.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

The Aspect-Emperor.  

Oh.  Well yeah.  Him certainly.

To the coffers boys!!!

[Rhom]

1 minute ago, Triskele said:

There is only one Truth in the new Kellhian Empire.  

Even the Imperial mathmaticians say so!  

No mathematicians on the slog!  It’s a real chopper!

[Fez]

Finished my re-read of Red Country. I stand by my original assessment that the Old West setting doesn't entirely work. I also felt that the sudden surge of industrialization kinda came out of nowhere. There were little things in previous book, like Bayaz testing the cannons in The Heroes, but this felt like a jump of a few hundred years rather than 10 years. And there were some narrative choices I didn't love, like Caul Shivers' involvement. I'm fine with his choice at the end, and I'd be fine with him barely being in the book, but what was he doing for the months and months the story was covering? Just hanging out in the Near Country? Still a fun read, but I think it's the weakest of the six books.

Next up, A Little Hatred, which I just bought.

[HexMachina]

5 hours ago, Fez said:

Finished my re-read of Red Country. I stand by my original assessment that the Old West setting doesn't entirely work. I also felt that the sudden surge of industrialization kinda came out of nowhere. There were little things in previous book, like Bayaz testing the cannons in The Heroes, but this felt like a jump of a few hundred years rather than 10 years. And there were some narrative choices I didn't love, like Caul Shivers' involvement. I'm fine with his choice at the end, and I'd be fine with him barely being in the book, but what was he doing for the months and months the story was covering? Just hanging out in the Near Country? Still a fun read, but I think it's the weakest of the six books.

Next up, A Little Hatred, which I just bought.

Have you read Sharp Ends? Its not essential reading and you won’t miss anything if you don’t (at least i don’t recall anything that has an impact on the new trilogy so far?) but the stories and characters are all good, i don’t think there were any that fell flat from what i recall. I certainly recommend it for anyone who is an Abercrombie fan

[Gaston de Foix]

On 6/30/2020 at 9:18 AM, Nicomo Cosca said:

I feel (and hope) that this refers to Bayaz's statue that was mentioned at the start of The Blade Itself. Super excited for book 2 either way. 

I suspect it is all the statutes on the Agriont. Bayaz is a legendary or obscure figure to virtually everyone in Adua. But a revolt against the monarchy as an institution, and poor Jezel, well that's a nice visible target.  

[Fez]

7 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Have you read Sharp Ends? Its not essential reading and you won’t miss anything if you don’t (at least i don’t recall anything that has an impact on the new trilogy so far?) but the stories and characters are all good, i don’t think there were any that fell flat from what i recall. I certainly recommend it for anyone who is an Abercrombie fan

I haven't yet. I'm not usually much of a short story fan; though I did ask about it earlier in this thread and it seems like most people do recommend it. I may get it after I finish A Little Hatred.

[Maithanet]

23 hours ago, Fez said:

Finished my re-read of Red Country. I stand by my original assessment that the Old West setting doesn't entirely work. I also felt that the sudden surge of industrialization kinda came out of nowhere. There were little things in previous book, like Bayaz testing the cannons in The Heroes, but this felt like a jump of a few hundred years rather than 10 years. And there were some narrative choices I didn't love, like Caul Shivers' involvement. I'm fine with his choice at the end, and I'd be fine with him barely being in the book, but what was he doing for the months and months the story was covering? Just hanging out in the Near Country?

I kinda went back and forth on this when reading RC.  It is clearly evoking the Western genre, and Westerns are always set in a certain time (typically 1865-1895 or so).  With it comes the trappings of the 19th century, like rifles and railroads.  But those things aren't actually essential to writing a Western, and Abercrombie was clearly trying to write one with the technology of maybe 2-3 centuries earlier.  Some of the capitalism seen in town seems a little strange in the Abercrombie setting, but for the most part I was able to continue suspending disbelief.

I think that the "how did we get here so fast?" questions are more of a problem with A Little Hatred, where there is a full on industrial revolution going on, which involves a lot of technologies that weren't mentioned in the first trilogy.  

[Gaston de Foix]

13 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I think that the "how did we get here so fast?" questions are more of a problem with A Little Hatred, where there is a full on industrial revolution going on, which involves a lot of technologies that weren't mentioned in the first trilogy.  

But in some ways isn't that what makes it weird? After all you had in Kanedias this legendary inventor and craftsman.  He founded the university where you have some study of chemistry, metallurgy etc that has been continuing all this while.  It's not that you didn't have technology or technomagic: Bayaz famously boasts that he has united the arts of Juvens, Kanedias and Glustrode.

It's that the industrial revolution seems to be happening while entirely ignoring all these individuals and institutions and their prior actions.  

[Caligula_K3]

I agree that if the worldbuilding of the last couple books has any flaws, it's going from essentially the 16th century in technology and social structures to the late 18th century/ early 19th century in about a generation. I'd say it's probably worth it; the industrial setting means that the new trilogy isn't just a retread of The First Law, and it means we get continuations of the original trilogy's character stories. But yeah, there's some awkwardness there.

I do like Red Country a lot, even though it definitely has flaws. Mostly everything involving the central quartet of Shy, Temple, Cosca, and Lamb is great; it's some of the other stuff (Shivers, the Dragon people) that doesn't work so well.

[Andrew Gilfellon]

So....has anyone made connections between the breakers and Shenkt?  You know, the guy who breaks what they make from BSC? 

Or am i just hoping too much for continuity outside of characters from the series reappearing. 

[Gaston de Foix]

26 minutes ago, Andrew Gilfellon said:

So....has anyone made connections between the breakers and Shenkt?  You know, the guy who breaks what they make from BSC? 

Or am i just hoping too much for continuity outside of characters from the series reappearing. 

I hadn't and it's an interesting point.  I very much hope we see more of Shenkt in the series. 

[Lord of Rhinos]

"Were you able to help your brothers?"

"Thanks to you.  They came back with me." Zuri beckoned two men forward. Both dark-skinned like her, but otherwise they could hardly have been more different.

 

Just another observation about how Zuri's "brothers" are not blood relatives but eaters, and in the same scene we also get this line "He [Rabik} gave a quick little bow, lots of teeth in an easy smile".  Hmmm, what does he do with those many teeth?

[Nicomo Cosca]

http://novelnotions.net/2020/08/10/book-review-the-trouble-with-peace-the-age-of-madness-2-by-joe-abercrombie/

Book 2 review!

It sucks that I can't preorder a copy of book 2 from Amazon UK right now, they say they can't send it to my region (South America) right now  weird, because I have been buying things from the US and I haven't had so many problems with them (only way more delays than usual). It's probably because of Covid, but I really wanted my copy of book 2 to match my copy of A Little Hatred. Oh well, things could be worse. I may end up buying the Kindle version though.