Shattered Sea Trilogy (aka 'So much for Abercrombie's sabbatical')

[Rhom]

He didn't mention whether the third PoV in Half a War was Yarvi reinserted, did he? One of the Half the World PoVs seems obvious, bt I'm not sure who the other is.

Just to be sure we're on the same page:

I'm guessing you mean the obvious one is Isriun?

[thistlepong]

Just to be sure we're on the same page:

I'm guessing you mean the obvious one is Isriun?

So, as long as we both acknowledge my use of "seems," then yes. Sister Owd seems sort of ideally placed, too.

He released the first line, though, and it's from a male PoV. I'm only coming up with females in the age range, so maybe they're new in every sense. Probably pointless to speculate. It's only months away.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Interesting you should think the first line is from a male PoV. It's not.

Oh, and proofs of Half the World will probably be circulating within a month, so you may find out a lot sooner than that...

[Yersinia]

So what is this first line of the PoV in question?

[Gaston de Foix]

So what is this first line of the PoV in question?

raise your expectations - ask for the first paragraph :cool4:.

If it was read at a convention there might be a youtube video?

[Yersinia]

raise your expectations - ask for the first paragraph :cool4:.

If it was read at a convention there might be a youtube video?

If I were ambitious I'd ask for the whole thing. I was just hoping for a link, because others seem to have found it somewhere.

[thistlepong]

Oh sweet FSM. Hello, Mr. Abercrombie. Thank you.

Link to first line

Text of first line:

He hesitated just an instant, but long enough for Thorn to club him in the balls with the rim of her shield.

Yah, absolutely my bad on that one. I assumed the PoV was masculine -

- because the sentence began with "He." At least we

know it's feminine now.

Now I'm terribly excited about the proof. So much for lackadaisy.

[Rhom]

Oh sweet FSM. Hello, Mr. Abercrombie. Thank you.

Link to first line

Text of first line:

He hesitated just an instant, but long enough for Thorn to club him in the balls with the rim of her shield.

Yah, absolutely my bad on that one. I assumed the PoV was masculine -

- because the sentence began with "He." At least we

know it's feminine now.

Now I'm terribly excited about the proof. So much for lackadaisy.

Interesting.

So the POV's name is Thorn? Wonder if that might be the name Isriun is taking? Would be weird for her to think to herself in her own POV of an alternate name. Maybe she's not the POV that I assumed...

I would assume that this is the POV mentioned in contrast to Yarvi taking a woman's role and this being a woman taking a man's role (shield bashing and whatnot).

ETA: Also, I can totally see how that could be construed as a male POV.

"He

(could be assumed to be the POV) hesitated just an instant, but long enough for Thorn (assumed to be opponent) to club him in the balls with the rim of her (assumed to be Thorn) shield."

Instead, its read as:

"He (opponent of the POV character) hesitated just an instant, but long enough for Thorn (POV character) to club him in the balls with the rim of her (gender reveal of POV) shield."

So without the author clarification of Lord Grimdark, I think I would have read it the first way as well. Half a Year is still a long time to wait for Half the World. :lol:

[Yersinia]

Thanks, thistlepong. That's the last place I would've looked for it, for some reason. I agree that it's ambiguous which is the PoV character in this case.

[Zorral]

I was, shall we say, less than impressed, for all kinds of reasons, starting with the opening sentence and paragraph. And -- what in heck is a shattered sea? Gee! Shattered mountains, shattered cities, shattered skulls, but shattered water?

What it shares with the author's previous books is its interminable talkyness, whether out of the characters themselves or the narrator. And it's never near as clever as the author seems to think it is.

I will give the author points though for not ending this book the same way as Addison ended her Goblin Emperor, though it starts exactly the same way. It's just one is an elfish-goblin half breed and the other is -- well, what he is.

[jurble]

so, finally decided to buy it and finish it, enjoyable I suppose

[polishgenius]

It's good, though compared to his 'adult' books it does dash through events rather quickly.

Oddly, I appear to be the only one who

failed to realise that Nothing was the long-lost king, but did predict- and not because of the crows thing- that Mother Gundring was a traitor. She was just

too wise and kindly.

[Maltaran]

I only realised about

Nothing when he had a shave and was wearing a helmet for the attack on the palace. Significant Haircut.

[Mexal]

I only realised about

Nothing when he had a shave and was wearing a helmet for the attack on the palace. Significant Haircut.

I realized fairly early.

Too much talk about how great Uthil was in the sparring ring and then the orders to make sure that Nothing didn't come near a blade. Seemed pretty obvious at that point to me.

[Arbor Gold]

I am now the proud owner of a signed copy of Half a King, courtesy of Lord Grimdark himself from last night's reading/signing in SF! I never buy/read non-kindle formats these days but I am super excited to finish up my current read and dive into this world.

[Jon AS]

Read this yesterday. Good fun, overall, though I do echo the sentiments regarding predictability. I did pick up on every major twist before it happened, though the last one revealed took me the longest. Still, as that didn't seem to significantly diminish my enjoyment of the book I'm obviously looking forward to the next one.

[john]

Read it recently. I was sort of disappointed because I'd imagined it would be about Yarvi struggling to be king, rather than Adventures with Slavers. Still a good dose of Abercrombie fun though.

I also guessed all the twists but it didn't really diminish the enjoyment.

What it shares with the author's previous books is its interminable talkyness, whether out of the characters themselves or the narrator. And it's never near as clever as the author seems to think it is.

I dunno how clever Joe thinks it is but it is quite clever anyway. I can't think of anybody who does it better in the fantasy genre. I just read his short story in Rogues the other day and the whole thing is just full of that stuff.

[Joe Abercrombie]

I dunno how clever Joe thinks it is

Oh, I think it's fucking genius. That goes without saying.

[Nicomo Cosca]

Well I just finished it and I thought it was great! Very different than TFL and thats a good thing! Absolutly loved Yarvi and his group. I must say that I didn't see any of the plot twist coming hahaha only one at the beggining but I figured it out paragraphs before it happened, so when it happened it still struck me! The ending was amazing and I'm looking forward to the next one! I liked this one better than The Blade Itself and Red Country (both books I LOVED) but it still doesn't come that close to Best Served Cold or The Heroes.

Well, at least there's only Half a Year to go until Half the World comes out, but that's still only Half the Wait I must do until Half a War comes out. In the mean time, I'll finish Half the books I left Half Read

[Gaston de Foix]

I was, shall we say, less than impressed, for all kinds of reasons, starting with the opening sentence and paragraph. And -- what in heck is a shattered sea? Gee! Shattered mountains, shattered cities, shattered skulls, but shattered water?

What it shares with the author's previous books is its interminable talkyness, whether out of the characters themselves or the narrator. And it's never near as clever as the author seems to think it is.

I will give the author points though for not ending this book the same way as Addison ended her Goblin Emperor, though it starts exactly the same way. It's just one is an elfish-goblin half breed and the other is -- well, what he is.

A sea is a continuous body of salt water and a shattered sea is presumably something that was formerly a continuous body of salt water that has now been broken up, either by land (understood literally) or by travel (understood metaphorically).

It's a homage to Tolkien, I assume - he had "the Sundering Sea" in the Silmarillion.

Your criticism doesn't miss the mark completely, those who are familiar with Abercrombie's other books will find familiar tropes - the person who keeps talking about his invincibility in battle "Mother War breathed on my cradle" reminds me of Whirrun of Bligh, but it's still a polished and intelligent work, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.